- Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
- Publisher: Ace; Reprint edition (April 26 2004)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0441011624
- ISBN-13: 978-0441011629
- Product Dimensions: 17.4 x 10.8 x 2.9 cm
- Shipping Weight: 181 g
- Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #406,186 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
Seven suburban misfits are constructing a spaceship out of old tanker cars. The plan is to beat the Chinese to Mars--in under four days at three million miles an hour. It would be history in the making if it didn't sound so insane.
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First Sentence
I ALWAYS THOUGHT the VentureStar looked like a tombstone. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
I ALWAYS THOUGHT the VentureStar looked like a tombstone. Read the first page
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Concordance
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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
1.0 out of 5 stars
Wasted my money,
By Jed Sutherland (Victoria, British Columbia Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Red Thunder (Mass Market Paperback)
Grabbing this book off the shelf, I was smacking my lips in anticipation of a great plot, interesting science and imaginative details. Instead, I got the worst of Heinlein's work. I appreciated H's books when I was 12 and still believed in the power of the individual to move mountains. Events of the last 40 years have proved this to be unrealistic and I've gotten very cynical in all that time. A lot of H's books were aimed at children. I've grown up and I resent being handed this watered down gruel by Varley, whose work I've always respected. I didn't even finish this book. I got tired of reading the cajun patois voiced by many of the characters. It sounded hokey and unreal. I didn't like the fact that everyone has baggage that they're struggling against; in this story, it doesn't make them very interesting people. Every creative person gets tired of doing the same old, same old. I understand that Varley might have wanted to branch out and do a very different style of story. But this book is a major flop. I'm appalled that neither he nor his publisher have so little respect for his fans.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Derivative,
By
This review is from: Red Thunder (Mass Market Paperback)
The Amazon.com reviewer, Cynthia Ward, is almost correct that this novel is patterned on Robert Heinlein juvenile novels. This is a considerable understatement. This book is essentially an updated version of Heinlein's Rocket Ship Galileo. Strip away the contemporary window dressing and the story is that of a group of talented, and somewhat alienated teens, developing a space craft and beating opponents of America to another component of our solar system. This is Rocket Ship Galileo. Varley has also used several of Heinlein's typical plot devices. Many years ago, an intelligent critic commented that almost of Heinlein's heros are "practical men," intelligent and capable individuals with useful skills but usually not scientists or intellectuals. Several of his novels, notably the juvenile novels, are bildungsromans featuring the maturation of a practical man under the guidance of an older mentor. He used this device in some of his adult novels, including his best book, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, in which the maturing practical man is a sentient computer system. This plot device this the central instrument of character development in Red Thunder. Varley even imitates some of Heinlein's characteristic stylistic methods, including first person narration and the somewhat smart alecky tone of the narration. Varley is a competent writer and his prior books show that he is capable of considerable imagination. He can certainly do better than knockoffs like this.
1.0 out of 5 stars
Not a Happy Camper,
By
This review is from: Red Thunder (Mass Market Paperback)
John Varley is one of my favorite authors. I like his work so much, I actually bought this book before reading the reviews here. That was a mistake. This is juvenile fiction that's not even fit for juvenile's to read (i.e., too much sex). Some of the reviews compare this work to Heinlein's early, juvenile fiction, days. It just doesn't compute. Heinlein's early works were 1) interesting, and 2) not just for juvenile's but also boy-scoutish (i.e., clean). Varley's "Red Thunder" is neither. I can understand Varley's sexual themes in "Steel Beach" and "The Golden Globe:" he's writing about advanced, bored societies at an adult level. But, here, he's just going on and on about, essentially, the live's of a small group of late adolescents. Heck, it takes him over half the book to get to a point where the characters actually start to get ready to do what they're going to do. Note that I said "start to get ready," not "start:" the half-way point is when they actually get a glimmer of what they're going to do. What a bore.I suppose Varley figured he needed a bit of juvenile fiction to round out his audience base. Unfortunately, he would have been better served by cutting out the first 150 pages of the book and deleting all the sex. If he wanted "character" (hah) development with these kids, he should have ignored their poor, downtrodded lives and developed their characters while they actually did something that furthered the plot. Stay away from this book.
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