Finished Sa 10/3/20
This is one of my ancient paperbacks that I have apparently never read. I learned that this novel is the first in a series featuring Lazarus Long. The story was released as serialized fiction to an early 40's SciFi magazine and published as a book in the early fifties.
The Federation vs. The Foundation. The story is set in the future and The Federation is the government of Earth and The Foundation is a collection of families that have realized that people who live extraordinary long lives should only breed with others who have a genetic tendency for long life.
The government believes that The Foundation is keeping the secret of Long Life from the rest of the world. This is not true, but it is clear that The Foundation family cannot stay on Earth because the rest of the population would resent the fact that they could live for so long.
A crooked bargain is made where The Federation will allow The Foundation families to leave if they reveal the secret.
The Families head out on a stolen space vehicle and search for an Earth-like planet.
Jockaira- These are the 'people' that they meet on their first planet that they find. These creatures are 'man-like', although they are nearly eight feet tall and their faces are split vertically from the mouth. The humans are 'rushed' into becoming part of the Jockaira's religion.
It's not a real religion, but the Jockaira are actually kept as pets by beings of this religion. The humans leave.
They go to another planet where the creatures are all connected telepathically and look somewhat like upright rabbits. The climate is perfect and the creatures are able to 'grow' whatever kind of food that the humans might like to eat.
Lazarus Long and the leaders decide that they should go back to Earth and see if they can try to live again.
The mid section of the novel was kind of slow, but once they arrived at the first planet, things picked up.
Lazarus Long's page at Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lazarus_Long
An easy read, but 'STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND' it is not!
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