Rolling Thunder

I wont attempt to summarize the book, as there are some excellent reviews that do that well. The book is part of the continuing homage to Heinlein. Red Thunder did up Rocketship Galileo (and some of the Rolling Stones and went it some better. Red Lightning had those elements of The moon is a harsh mistress, with the war against earth. Red Thunder is obviously Podkayne of Mars with an older, more capable girl. If you are paying homage to Heinlein, you are courting the readers who grew up on him, so some of the retro music, etc is not unreasonable. Besides, who can predict what musical taste will be 50 years from now? I thought it was amusing that, once again, in a Varley universe, aliens from Jupiter (or at least one of its moons) kicked humanity off of earth. But this time for reasons unknown. That doesnt bother me because hey, theyre really alien, not humanoids with all to similar habits and tastes. As someone pointed out, the black bubble technology is more developed in this book. Good stuff, especially for making an ark. But as wonderful as it is, useless against the aliens... scary thought that. But the personal survival units were a good concept. Im glad our favorite Cajun inventor got to make a comeback. In the first two books, he was interesting, but not really developed. Here he finally meets someone who actually listens to him and discovers there is more than everyone thought. Of course she had to practically die first... but they will have time enough for love. The trial of Podkayne was interesting. I think Heinlein would have approved. And the driving sequence was pretty funny...

Not a very exciting book to read. Dragged a lot and told a story with no end. Do not wish to follow this series.

Kinda slow through much of the book with character development - then non-stop action. Stick with it for a good read.

Okay, this is another generation of Manny Garcias tribe, and it beggars belief that there are this many influential members. Each with a different talent, yet sharing intelligence, grit and fast reactions. Must be in the DNA. Red Thunder used a mechanism named a squeezer to store energy, then power spacecraft. Fine, it worked for a prototype and performed flawlessly. But in any rational universe, scientists must duplicate the unit; begin to investigate the physics involved. But no, that is impossible. Only the original inventor can make them.... Then he makes himself scarce, to thwart potential kidnappers. Now Podkayne, a singer, gets a gig with a traveling entertainers group, sent to a ruggedly beautiful outpost- dangerously so. She is just earning fame when disaster strikes. The family mourns, but the planets do not stop turning. She lives on in her music. However, Varley has other plans.

Loved the book and the series. Wish there were more books in the series.

This is the third book in Varleys ongoing tribute to Robert Heinleins juveniles. Its not the best (thats the first) and not the worst (thats the second one) but its solid Varley - playful and joking, yet deadly serious.

Varley is perhaps not at his strongest here, given his virtuosity in the Titan series, but he nevertheless provides an entertaining space romp with some unusual and truly engaging characters. There are enough plot kinks to keep you interested in our heroines fate (with the unlikely name of Podkayne), and the end run heads us off to a feel-good launch ramp for the next novel (surely theres another in the writing as we speak....) After a long hiatus between this and his Titan series, Im delighted to see Mr. Varley is back in the saddle. I give it 4 stars for decent characterization, continued use of ingenious gadgetry developed in a prior novel, a reasonably complex plot, and for not taking itself too seriously. All in all, a worthy, happy read.

This finished Varleys Heinlein homage to the teen books. My only issue was how he forced all the titles of those books into the last 2 chapters.

Wonderful retro-invocation of Heinleins juvenile novels, with the protagonist even named for one (see

Not finished reading it, but am looking forward to returning to it.