Rolling Thunder

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.

The characters are thin, but the real problem is with the plot. Its full of magical devices that nobody but the inventor can understand, and he can pull new ones out of his hat whenever theres a need. A disappointment.

Old friends and new are found in this volume. Traveling the stars, singing the hits of past present and future. Loving, living, defending, prepping, and continuing the race. Diaspora can be a good thing.

The entire series is a deliberate homage to Heinlein. The character names are taken from some of Heinleins best known works, and the voice is unlike anything Varleys ever written (or at least published) before. In Rolling Thunder, the homage becomes, if anything, even more obvious. For starters, the protagonist is Podkayne of Mars. By the last chapter, were finding a Heinlein book title sprinkled in every page or so. In the hands of a lesser writer, this would be nothing more than a gimmick. Fortunately, Varley has talent to spare, and pulls it off effortlessly. The characters are a little thin, true, but the action more than makes up for it. A very enjoyable read.

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.

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.

Quite fun. An old favorite.

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

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?

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.