Rolling Thunder

John Varley continues to channel Robert Heinlein, explore the implications of the bubble technology introduced in Red Thunder, and follow the adventures of succeeding generations of the Garcia-Strickland clan. Channel Heinlein: the heroine is named Podkayne, at one point she travels on the spaceship Rodger Young, and theres enough sex and nudity to kick this off any kids reading list. Podkayne read Podkayne, and vows not to read any more books by the author. Cute. Big government is diabolical. And the ending is another classic Heinlein event. Bubble technology: theres a bit of revisionism about the devices invention and some suggestions that the technology is at least partly created by a mental effort. New uses and weaknesses are found. And the third generation of the Garcia-Strickland family is in the thick of it all. Along with the Broussards. Especially Podkayne, who is a singer, a member of the Martian space navys entertainment troupe. But on a trip to Europa, a Galilean moon of Jupiter, everything changes. Alien life is a long-standing trope in science fiction. Will we recognize that lien life if we meet it? If that alien life lives in geologic time, and not human time, will we even be able to communicate? What will happen if we cant? Theres a flavor, a hint, of Varleys Gaia Trilogy here. Some of Varleys premises are a bit of a reach. And poor old planet earth, ravaged by the tsunami in Red Lightning and by global warming, gets whumped again. But its a fun novel, if a bit slow in spots, and there is room for a couple more sequels, likely involving twin girls. I hope those hypothetical sequels can recapture the charm of the first book. Recommended for science fiction fans.

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.

Book 3 of the series was the weakest. Red Thunder was good, and Red Lightening the 2nd in the series was the best, in my opinion.

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

As so often with a Varley novel-starts slowly and builds gradually. Have put this one aside for now and will finish sometime in the future. THNX! Wc

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

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...

Takes a while but you fall in love with Podkayne (thanks RAH!). Varley has done it again! Looking forward to his next.

I read this one first not knowing it was the 3rd in the series. Loved the book cant wait to read the first two books and cant wait for the fourth book to come out.

The Good: The writing style is terrific. It feels human, it adds to characters, and is brilliant in its direction of the point of view. The Bad: Lazy story craft and characterization. Its a major turn off in a science fiction series to be presented with characters in the future that continually refer to present day themes and seem to identify with an age far before when the story takes place. Its a character driven novel, and Varley handles characters very well; I just found the continual references to anything and everything 20th century to be distracting to the point of pulling me out of the story. Takes a bit too much pleasure in its references to 20th century popular culture and other works of that time period to be a serious piece of science fiction, and suffers mightily for it.