Ring Train - 1

Title page from the 1953 Scribner's edition. Even though the story is set in a far future where the human race has faster-than-light travel and has established colonies on many other worlds, it starts in a back-woods area of the Ozarks. One of the few indications early in the story of advanced technology is the supersonic, passenger carrying projectiles that are guided across the landscape by huge rings mounted on towers or the sides of mountains (as entrances to tunnels). Heinlein provides a bare minimum of description of the appearance and function of these "ring trains" but uses them to great effect to create a sense of separation between the main character and the rest of his universe. Although the ring train played a relatively small part in the story, it was a visually striking piece of technical invention and is featured twice in the book's illustrations.