Starman Jones first published in America in 1953, is the story of a poor farm boy who longs to be an "astrogater", makes his way on to the space ship Asgard, duly gets his chance, and finishes the voyage as acting captain. The scope for wishful self-identification on the reader's part is obviously enormous. The tour de force of this novel is the hero's initiation into the mysteries of the ship's control room; so assured and absorbing are the author's descriptions that even the least technically minded reader receives the illusion of experiencing the perils of long-distance space navigation.