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ineffablebob's review
adventurous
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Red Thunder is a near-term science fiction adventure, reminiscent of golden age classics (though with modern sensibilities around race, gender, etc). A small group of friends uses a breakthrough propulsion technology to fly their own mission to Mars. Much of the story is taken up with building their spaceship, since you still have to stay alive while riding a magical bubble engine. It's a fun ride through the trials of getting things up and running, as long as you can suspend your disbelief about a group of recent high school graduates figuring out spaceship design and construction in just a few months. The author tries to give the characters some depth and mostly succeeds, though they all felt just a little too perfect, always overcoming whatever flaws are introduced with ease. That doesn't keep the narrative from being interesting, though, and I thought it wrapped up nicely by the end, albiet with no real surprises.
markyon's review against another edition
4.0
One of the things I’ve been doing over the last year or so is re-reading old Robert A. Heinlein. It’s been an interesting experience, some of it not always good, others being wonderful.
It’s partly because of that that I’ve had this copy of Red Thunder around Hobbit Towers for a while and actually not got to reading it. As you might expect from a five-time Nebula and Hugo Award winner, John Varley is a wonderful prose writer, one of those, like Heinlein, whose deceptively smooth style just keeps those pages turning. His reverence of Heinlein is well known (and mentioned in The John Varley Reader, also recommended) and from the outset of his published career, his admirers have mentioned the two authors together. Like Allen Steele, like Joe Haldeman, like Spider Robinson* and now John Scalzi, there’s a page-turnability to many of John’s books that are in the style and tone of RAH.
It’s something that is very difficult to do. Sometimes such a skill can be a writer’s undoing. A good writer can become labelled and the label can make a writers own talents become submerged or lost in the homage.
And that’s where I’ve been with John. Though I loved his short stories (and recently digging through my old copies of Analog and F&SF I’ve found some of them again) and Steel Beach, I’ve found it difficult to persuade myself to get to a more recent read.
Seven years after publication, really, now I’m kicking myself for not doing so. For Red Thunder, the first in a trilogy of Heinlein-esque novels, is a glorious treat, a wonderfully uncomplicated read.
The signs are apparent in the plot, which is clearly an upgrade on Heinlein’s Rocketship Galileo. Manny Garcia is a teen in a near future where space exploration is continuing, yet China now seems to be the power in charge. Meeting a disgraced US astronaut, Travis Broussard, Manny, his friend Dak, his girlfriend Kelly and Travis’ autistic cousin Jubal, are inspired enough to build their own spaceship to travel to Mars. Using a propulsive invention of Jubal’s called ‘the Squeezer’, their homemade spaceship is built in order to travel faster than both the Chinese and the US missions already on the way to Mars. In true Heinleinesque style, Manny’s efforts are with the intention not only to reclaim the race into space for America, but also for the future of the human race, as well as restoring their friend Travis’ reputation.
After their launch and arrival on Mars they find out from the Chinese that the American spaceship (as predicted by Jubal) has blown up in transit. They rescue the stranded explorers and return to Earth as heroes.
So: the plot isn’t particularly new, the characterisation of smart heroes (and heroines!) is a common enough theme and the plot may be a tad unrealistic in places (getting $1 million to fund your experiment is not that easy, these days) but somehow it works. There’s an enthusiasm, a can-do, a hopefulness that we can make things right that runs through this book. There’s a comfort that, in the end, it all turns out OK.
For the Heinlein fans there’s a wealth of little homages. For example, Manny and Jubal are two well known names for Heinlein characters (see The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Stranger in a Strange Land for starters.) They’re not overt and don’t spoil the tale, but they are fun to spot.
But John is cleverer than that. In his modernisation there’s a lot of clever touches that make the book not as positive a commendation of Heinlein’s values as you might at first think. All of the key characters are not really heroes in the truest Heinlein sense of the word. Rather than sticking to the 1950’s home-values, in Red Thunder they come from homes divided by divorce, racism and alcoholism – Travis is a washed-up space pilot, Alicia’s dad’s in jail for shooting and killing her mother, Jubal’s dad is in protective care after beating Jubal into an autistic condition, Kelly’s family are not keen on her going out with a non-white boy.
Sometimes this wanting to be different comes across as a little too forced. We have a mixed race group of travellers – a rich white kid, a Cajun autistic, a ‘spic’ (to quote a description of Manny) the typical stereotype of a black minority…. and a white alcoholic adult on the wagon. It works, but only when you don’t pause to think about the implausibility of what’s going on.
However I must say that I wouldn’t think of this particularly as a YA book: there’s a few sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll elements that may be uncomfortable for some, but bring this more up to date than Rocketship Galileo. It’s like Heinlein’s juveniles, yet it’s not. In a good way.
In terms of the gung-ho, can-we-do-it mode often used by Heinlein, well, there’s plenty of that. Perhaps like the 1969 real Moon event, the pressure to get to Mars is not for any scientific endeavour, but more to beat the Chinese to it. And there’s a few points in there about how nasty Communism is, which may sit a little uneasily with some readers. Here the Chinese are the new Russians (though when they meet they’re found to be not that bad after all.)
Similarly, one of the greatest annoyances for me as a reader was Jubal’s Cajun accent which made for some torturous reading at times. It can really irritate the reader.
However if we look at the book’s strengths, as well as the characterisation and the smooth prose (on the whole) that echoes Heinlein so well, it is that nostalgia kick, back to the SF of my youth that resonates so strongly. It reminds me of a time when there was an optimism, a positive-looking upward and outward, when things seemed simpler and more straight-forward, that made me as a reader feel that anything was possible. Red Thunder does that for me.
On finishing the book, I now realise that it is of a style that I need to go back to now and then, even in these depressingly mundane times, perhaps more so in these difficult times. It’s not a particularly challenging book, but it is fun. If ever there was a need to justify the entertainment value of SF, this book delivers. For those who dislike Heinlein’s writing, (not to mention his personal views, his lecturing-as-plot or his political beliefs), I’m not sure this is going to persuade them any differently of his skill. It should, if nothing else, impress them with John’s ability to write as an alternate-Heinlein. For many, like me, it’s a great read. And I’ll confidently pick up the next.
It’s partly because of that that I’ve had this copy of Red Thunder around Hobbit Towers for a while and actually not got to reading it. As you might expect from a five-time Nebula and Hugo Award winner, John Varley is a wonderful prose writer, one of those, like Heinlein, whose deceptively smooth style just keeps those pages turning. His reverence of Heinlein is well known (and mentioned in The John Varley Reader, also recommended) and from the outset of his published career, his admirers have mentioned the two authors together. Like Allen Steele, like Joe Haldeman, like Spider Robinson* and now John Scalzi, there’s a page-turnability to many of John’s books that are in the style and tone of RAH.
It’s something that is very difficult to do. Sometimes such a skill can be a writer’s undoing. A good writer can become labelled and the label can make a writers own talents become submerged or lost in the homage.
And that’s where I’ve been with John. Though I loved his short stories (and recently digging through my old copies of Analog and F&SF I’ve found some of them again) and Steel Beach, I’ve found it difficult to persuade myself to get to a more recent read.
Seven years after publication, really, now I’m kicking myself for not doing so. For Red Thunder, the first in a trilogy of Heinlein-esque novels, is a glorious treat, a wonderfully uncomplicated read.
The signs are apparent in the plot, which is clearly an upgrade on Heinlein’s Rocketship Galileo. Manny Garcia is a teen in a near future where space exploration is continuing, yet China now seems to be the power in charge. Meeting a disgraced US astronaut, Travis Broussard, Manny, his friend Dak, his girlfriend Kelly and Travis’ autistic cousin Jubal, are inspired enough to build their own spaceship to travel to Mars. Using a propulsive invention of Jubal’s called ‘the Squeezer’, their homemade spaceship is built in order to travel faster than both the Chinese and the US missions already on the way to Mars. In true Heinleinesque style, Manny’s efforts are with the intention not only to reclaim the race into space for America, but also for the future of the human race, as well as restoring their friend Travis’ reputation.
After their launch and arrival on Mars they find out from the Chinese that the American spaceship (as predicted by Jubal) has blown up in transit. They rescue the stranded explorers and return to Earth as heroes.
So: the plot isn’t particularly new, the characterisation of smart heroes (and heroines!) is a common enough theme and the plot may be a tad unrealistic in places (getting $1 million to fund your experiment is not that easy, these days) but somehow it works. There’s an enthusiasm, a can-do, a hopefulness that we can make things right that runs through this book. There’s a comfort that, in the end, it all turns out OK.
For the Heinlein fans there’s a wealth of little homages. For example, Manny and Jubal are two well known names for Heinlein characters (see The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Stranger in a Strange Land for starters.) They’re not overt and don’t spoil the tale, but they are fun to spot.
But John is cleverer than that. In his modernisation there’s a lot of clever touches that make the book not as positive a commendation of Heinlein’s values as you might at first think. All of the key characters are not really heroes in the truest Heinlein sense of the word. Rather than sticking to the 1950’s home-values, in Red Thunder they come from homes divided by divorce, racism and alcoholism – Travis is a washed-up space pilot, Alicia’s dad’s in jail for shooting and killing her mother, Jubal’s dad is in protective care after beating Jubal into an autistic condition, Kelly’s family are not keen on her going out with a non-white boy.
Sometimes this wanting to be different comes across as a little too forced. We have a mixed race group of travellers – a rich white kid, a Cajun autistic, a ‘spic’ (to quote a description of Manny) the typical stereotype of a black minority…. and a white alcoholic adult on the wagon. It works, but only when you don’t pause to think about the implausibility of what’s going on.
However I must say that I wouldn’t think of this particularly as a YA book: there’s a few sex, drugs and rock ‘n roll elements that may be uncomfortable for some, but bring this more up to date than Rocketship Galileo. It’s like Heinlein’s juveniles, yet it’s not. In a good way.
In terms of the gung-ho, can-we-do-it mode often used by Heinlein, well, there’s plenty of that. Perhaps like the 1969 real Moon event, the pressure to get to Mars is not for any scientific endeavour, but more to beat the Chinese to it. And there’s a few points in there about how nasty Communism is, which may sit a little uneasily with some readers. Here the Chinese are the new Russians (though when they meet they’re found to be not that bad after all.)
Similarly, one of the greatest annoyances for me as a reader was Jubal’s Cajun accent which made for some torturous reading at times. It can really irritate the reader.
However if we look at the book’s strengths, as well as the characterisation and the smooth prose (on the whole) that echoes Heinlein so well, it is that nostalgia kick, back to the SF of my youth that resonates so strongly. It reminds me of a time when there was an optimism, a positive-looking upward and outward, when things seemed simpler and more straight-forward, that made me as a reader feel that anything was possible. Red Thunder does that for me.
On finishing the book, I now realise that it is of a style that I need to go back to now and then, even in these depressingly mundane times, perhaps more so in these difficult times. It’s not a particularly challenging book, but it is fun. If ever there was a need to justify the entertainment value of SF, this book delivers. For those who dislike Heinlein’s writing, (not to mention his personal views, his lecturing-as-plot or his political beliefs), I’m not sure this is going to persuade them any differently of his skill. It should, if nothing else, impress them with John’s ability to write as an alternate-Heinlein. For many, like me, it’s a great read. And I’ll confidently pick up the next.
neilfein's review against another edition
4.0
Not his best, but far from his worst. Many other reviews point out that Varley is in Heinlein mode in this novel, and there's some truth in this. Nonetheless, I was reminded of Spider Robinson more than Heinlein (Robinson was heavily influenced by Heinlein, make your own inferences).
I imagine this was a conscious choice on Varley's part, as he has such a strong, individual narrative voice of his own. ("The Golden Globe", his last book, was more than a little derivitave of the novel before it, even for a story set in the same fictional world.)
The plot is nothing particularly original, but as in almost all of Varley's work, it's the characters, the route they take, that will keep you turning the pages. I enjoyed the book quite a lot, and I'm looking forward to the next novel.
I imagine this was a conscious choice on Varley's part, as he has such a strong, individual narrative voice of his own. ("The Golden Globe", his last book, was more than a little derivitave of the novel before it, even for a story set in the same fictional world.)
The plot is nothing particularly original, but as in almost all of Varley's work, it's the characters, the route they take, that will keep you turning the pages. I enjoyed the book quite a lot, and I'm looking forward to the next novel.
merrinish's review against another edition
3.0
Really fascinating story of the race to the new frontier, namely the first manned mission to Mars. A group of young adults and an aging ex-astronaut joinforces to build a new type of ship with new type of drive to beat the Chinese to the surface of the Red Planet.
Funny in parts, chilling in parts, heart-breaking in parts, and pretty much always incredibly interesting. I highly enjoyed it. And don't expect that this will be the last book I ever read by him.
Funny in parts, chilling in parts, heart-breaking in parts, and pretty much always incredibly interesting. I highly enjoyed it. And don't expect that this will be the last book I ever read by him.
kevinhendricks's review against another edition
4.0
A ragtag effort to build a spaceship always makes for a good story. Some out of order storytelling makes it a little awkward in a few places, but otherwise it was a fun and thrilling read.
alyssapants's review
4.0
The setup was way to long. It got to the point where you wished that the characters would stop developing so you could just get on with the story.
Other than that point, this book was a fun read (especially for someone who's not a science fiction fan). I appreciate Varley's view of the world and observations about culture.
Other than that point, this book was a fun read (especially for someone who's not a science fiction fan). I appreciate Varley's view of the world and observations about culture.
smcleish's review
4.0
This review first appeared on my blog here.
[a:Heinlein|205|Robert A. Heinlein|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1192826560p2/205.jpg]'s science fiction novels were the introduction which many fans had to the genre for a long time, and his stories for young teens in particular have been hugely influential, whether loved or hated. When writing for younger readers, many science fiction authors have struggled to throw off the need to copy his self-reliant, competent, science-obsessed teenage boys who succeed where adult professionals could not. They are clearly very appealing to the sort of bright, but not socially successful teens who are stereotypically genre fans.
In Red Thunder, John Varley seems to me to have been unable to make the final decision whether he wanted to produce a homage or a parody. Often funny, it warps Heinlein's stock plot elements with a great deal of affection.
The main characters are a group of Florida teens - high school leavers failed by the local education system, but who are obsessed with space travel - and a disgraced former astronaut they almost kill when driving along the beach at night while he is lying on it in a drunken stupor. When it becomes clear that the United States will be beaten to land humans on Mars by China, they put together a space ship of their own, pretty much out of junk, and set of to arrive before the Chinese.
This pretty ludicrous plot is clearly a parody of Heinlein, and by bringing in girls and making his characters flawed, Varley makes pretty obvious points about the some of the more obvious limitations of the earlier man's work. The unlikelihood that teens and a broken man can succeed in an enterprise which stretches the richest nations on Earth is made even more obvious because it is founded on an impossibility, the discovery of a new kind of propulsion, described as "free energy" - a perpetual motion machine.
And yet, the reader is drawn in, and much about Red Thunder is charming and enjoyable in much the same way as Heinlein can be. The parody is partly to tell us that Varley is aware of Heinlein's faults; everything else about his novel really seems to tell us that Varley likes his books anyway.
Three of my favourite science fiction books have very heavy debts owing to Heinlein: [b:Ender's Game|375802|Ender's Game (Ender's Saga, #1)|Orson Scott Card|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1364033163s/375802.jpg|2422333]; [b:Orbital Resonance|1494940|Orbital Resonance (Century Next Door, #1)|John Barnes|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1312047753s/1494940.jpg|2042382]; [b:Saturn's Children|2278387|Saturn's Children|Charles Stross|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1348429796s/2278387.jpg|2284499]. Red Thunder is not quite as good as any of these, but is less serious in tone, so it is a lighter read (not that any of the others are particularly heavy). I enjoyed it a lot, which is not something I always feel about Varley's fiction; it could well be the most fun of any of his novels.
[a:Heinlein|205|Robert A. Heinlein|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1192826560p2/205.jpg]'s science fiction novels were the introduction which many fans had to the genre for a long time, and his stories for young teens in particular have been hugely influential, whether loved or hated. When writing for younger readers, many science fiction authors have struggled to throw off the need to copy his self-reliant, competent, science-obsessed teenage boys who succeed where adult professionals could not. They are clearly very appealing to the sort of bright, but not socially successful teens who are stereotypically genre fans.
In Red Thunder, John Varley seems to me to have been unable to make the final decision whether he wanted to produce a homage or a parody. Often funny, it warps Heinlein's stock plot elements with a great deal of affection.
The main characters are a group of Florida teens - high school leavers failed by the local education system, but who are obsessed with space travel - and a disgraced former astronaut they almost kill when driving along the beach at night while he is lying on it in a drunken stupor. When it becomes clear that the United States will be beaten to land humans on Mars by China, they put together a space ship of their own, pretty much out of junk, and set of to arrive before the Chinese.
This pretty ludicrous plot is clearly a parody of Heinlein, and by bringing in girls and making his characters flawed, Varley makes pretty obvious points about the some of the more obvious limitations of the earlier man's work. The unlikelihood that teens and a broken man can succeed in an enterprise which stretches the richest nations on Earth is made even more obvious because it is founded on an impossibility, the discovery of a new kind of propulsion, described as "free energy" - a perpetual motion machine.
And yet, the reader is drawn in, and much about Red Thunder is charming and enjoyable in much the same way as Heinlein can be. The parody is partly to tell us that Varley is aware of Heinlein's faults; everything else about his novel really seems to tell us that Varley likes his books anyway.
Three of my favourite science fiction books have very heavy debts owing to Heinlein: [b:Ender's Game|375802|Ender's Game (Ender's Saga, #1)|Orson Scott Card|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1364033163s/375802.jpg|2422333]; [b:Orbital Resonance|1494940|Orbital Resonance (Century Next Door, #1)|John Barnes|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1312047753s/1494940.jpg|2042382]; [b:Saturn's Children|2278387|Saturn's Children|Charles Stross|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1348429796s/2278387.jpg|2284499]. Red Thunder is not quite as good as any of these, but is less serious in tone, so it is a lighter read (not that any of the others are particularly heavy). I enjoyed it a lot, which is not something I always feel about Varley's fiction; it could well be the most fun of any of his novels.
nakedsteve's review
5.0
I really, really enjoyed this book. In much the same style as Heinlein did in the mid 20th century, Varley has generated a tale of young people doing amazing things. It's a celebration of American-style innovation and risk-taking, of youth, and of underdogs, with a slight anti-government thread woven through. I loved the characters, I loved the plot, and I loved the feeling I was left with when the book was done.
You could complain that these kids had everything go right. They tried things that would probably kill or injure 99 of 100 people who attempted them, yet time and again, things went well. But there's good in that. This isn't the study of mistakes, this is a study of the power of optimism and a bit of foresight. The characters can easily become role-models for kids who read the novel, rather than tragic figures whose behavior should not be replicated.
I'd heartily recommend this to young teens as well. The celebration of youth is enough to keep them interested, but there's lots more.
A hearty 5 of 5 stars.
You could complain that these kids had everything go right. They tried things that would probably kill or injure 99 of 100 people who attempted them, yet time and again, things went well. But there's good in that. This isn't the study of mistakes, this is a study of the power of optimism and a bit of foresight. The characters can easily become role-models for kids who read the novel, rather than tragic figures whose behavior should not be replicated.
I'd heartily recommend this to young teens as well. The celebration of youth is enough to keep them interested, but there's lots more.
A hearty 5 of 5 stars.
kentquirk's review
4.0
John Varley's written some of the most entertaining SF of the last couple of decades. This novel and its first sequel Red Lightning are aimed pretty squarely at younger readers (the heroes in both are in their late teens/early 20s). They fit into the Heinlein mode: pick one new technology and put it in the hands of a super smart young adult, add a dash of not-quite-innocent sexuality, and mix well.
Lots of fun, well-considered, interesting characters, and he includes a nice dash of Florida and Louisiana cajun culture for interest. I'd recommend them to teens and those of us who still remember being teens.
Lots of fun, well-considered, interesting characters, and he includes a nice dash of Florida and Louisiana cajun culture for interest. I'd recommend them to teens and those of us who still remember being teens.