Rolling Thunder

Great stuff here! Youll love it if you love old masters. Wonderful homage to Heinlein but with its own plot!

John Varley has written another endearing book. This is a worthy addition to the two previous books in the series. This time the book centers around Podkane, who is the next generation of the the heroes in the first two books. Pokane is nineteen and is serving her mandatory term in the Martian Armed Forces. After putting in about 6 months on Earth, the Mars-born Podkane is assigned to Europa. She is assigned to the Entertainment section of the Martian Armed Services. She forms a band and and tours the bases in Jovian system. All the main characters from the first two books are back and are living on a thriving Mars. The book is written in the first person and the writing is superb. The ending of the book is unexpected and paves the way for future sequels. Podkane is of course named by her parents after a heroine of a Heinlein juvenile. In the last chapter of the book Varley cleverly sneaks in the names of many Heinlein juvenile books.

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.

The Third Generation of the Red Thunder crew is thrown into a battle for Mars. Poor Jubal and the squeezer is still the target of multinational/governmental conglomerate takeover of Mars. Again, the youth of the Red Thunder clan are forced into a batle nobody wnats. But with the help of Uncle Travis, they are going to kick butts and take names again! And Jubal finds something he never expected to find in his lifetime...

I am a huge Varley fan, though i have to admit the Thunder/Lightning series hasnt been my favorite. However i found Rolling Thunder to be a great read, as if the series has been leading up to this point, and setting the stage for the next and final book in the series. If you liked the Gaea trilogy, Ophiuchi Hotline or Golden Globe i think youd really like this one.

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

This is book 3 of 4 in the series and introduces Jubals bride. While this is important, other events are left hanging. Podkaynes connection to Earths invaders is left unanswered here and in book 4. Perhaps book 5 is coming?

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

Listening to the audiobook version of the novel. Its very distracting to have a male narrator for a book that is mainly female characters. The narrator is the same person that preformed the first two books - which was fine since most of the characters were male in those novels. Im sorry, but he just does not sound anything like an 18 year old girl to me - just a guy pretending to be a girl. The story itself - its a bit different than the previous two books in the series. Too much of a travel-log IMO.

Read this at the Pismp Beach a long time ago but never seen to the other two books at the book store. Great story and characters; a must read for SCI-FI fans.