The two novels that make up this volume are united, firstly, by friendship - in “The Red Planet” it is the friendship of the young Martian colonist Jim Marlowe and Willis, a native of Mars; in the second novel, the “star beast” Lummox and the earthly teenager John Stewart are friends. Secondly, they are united by a theme that is generally characteristic of Heinlein’s “youth” novels: how to create a man from an insecure teenager who is not afraid of difficulties and responsibility. And of course, in both works the plot is based on the contrast between the pettiness and “down-to-earthness” of not the best representatives of such a species as “homo sapiens”, and the wisdom and patience of other, non-human races. Both novels are given in a new edition.