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Red Thunder [Mass Market Paperback]

John Varley (Author)
1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
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Product details

  • Mass Market Paperback: 411 pages
  • Publisher: Ace Books; Reprint edition (April 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0441011624
  • ISBN-13: 978-0441011629
  • Product Dimensions: 17.4 x 10.8 x 2.9 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 1.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 709,861 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Amazon.co.uk

Fans who feared John Varley was evolving into another Robert A. Heinlein imitator may have mixed reactions to Red Thunder. Debuting in 1974, Varley became the freshest, most exciting and most important new science-fiction author of the 1970s. He dominated the decade with numerous stories and two novels, set mostly in his Eight Worlds future history. By 1984 he had won three Hugo Awards and two Nebula Awards. Yet his output dwindled through the 1980s and in the 1990s he released only two novels, Steel Beach and The Golden Globe, a pair of Eight Worlds books that received tepid responses.

Part of SF's turn-of-the-century trend towards "Mars novels," but not part of Varley's Eight Worlds series, Red Thunder reads a lot like a Heinlein juvenile novel--if Heinlein were alive and writing juveniles in 2003. Varley's paying tribute to the master's juveniles, especially Rocket Ship Galileo and Red Planet (and also, more subtly, to the ending of Alfred Bester's novel The Stars My Destination). Though Varley is working with decades-old tropes and is not in his full wildly-imaginative 1970s mode, Red Thunder is an enjoyable SF novel that should win back many disgruntled fans and gain him a new generation of admirers. --Cynthia Ward, Amazon.com --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Customer Reviews

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
This is one of the worst books that I have ever read! Avoid it at all costs! As a fan of John Varley's older work, I was appalled at how poor this book was. Can this truly be the same person who wrote the Ophiuchi Hotline and Millenium? I cannot imagine that this book would ever have been published had the manuscript been presented under a name other than John Varley. 132 pages were all that I was willing to inflict upon myself. The main characters are idiotic adolescents that I would gladly wave off on a one-way journey to Mars! The "witty" dialogue was grating from the start, the first person narrative pointless and the science non existent! A perfect gift for your enemies or an expensive firelighter! (Please note I do not condone book burning but I did feel bad leaving this into my local charity shop. At 50c it has yet to sell three weeks later!)
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Amazon.com:  35 reviews
8 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Nice Departure. 18 Nov 2005
By J. R Weaver - Published on Amazon.com
In this stirring tribute to Heinlein, the space program, US ingenuity, the power of family, and everything in between, John Varley has won back a reader.

I read and enjoyed the 'Titan' series years and years ago, but... what happened since then - autopilot? But here he is again, the master in top form. Red Thunder is everything a novel should be - funny, moving, tense, and ultimately, fufilling.

The science is not 'hard science', but that merely improves an already outstanding story, in my opinion. Long-winded and scientifically rigorous science would have only slowed down this fast-paced story. Brilliant characterization - it's been a good long while since a cast of characters has come alive so well for me.

The ending is stirring and cynical all at the same time, and I closed the book with a satisfied grin on my face - the best compliment I can pay to any author, I think.

Here's hoping Varley decides to write a sequel - long live the crew of the Red Thunder!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
"We were the first!" 26 Jan 2007
By Michael K. Smith - Published on Amazon.com
Think, as the characters themselves say, "The Little Rascals Go to Mars," and you'll be close to the flavor of this engaging book. There's also a fair amount of Heinlein juvenile (especially _Rocket Ship Galileo_), which is understandable since Varley is a deep fan of Heinlein. The setting is Daytona, Florida, where Manny Garcia, twenty-year-old heir to a crumbling motel, and his best friend, Dak, and his girl, Kelly, and Dak's girl, Alicia, nearly run over a drunken ex-astronaut on the beach one night. (Lots of Heinleinian names, there, too.) The astronaut is Travis Broussard, one of a large clan of Cajuns from the Florida panhandle, and cousin of Jubal, a mildly autistic Einstein-class genius, who has invented (he's not quite sure how) a "squeezer" -- a device whose nature is never really explained, but which is the potential source of nearly unlimited energy. But Manny and Dak are both space nuts and to them and the girls, the Squeezer means a way of getting to Mars, where American and Chinese spaceships are now headed. With the power source taken care of it, would it really be possible to build -- in the course of one summer and with a budget of only one million dollars -- a privately-owned vehicle capable of getting them to the Red Planet and back? Varley shows you how it might, maybe, possibly, be done. With NASA having done most of the research and testing over the years, and with computers so small and cheap, and with many of the necessary parts (like a food freezer from Sears) purchased off-the-shelf, and with vital specialized hardware like space suits available for a little dickering from Russia, and with Travis's extensive experience as a space pilot, . . . well, why not? I'm sure there are plenty of implausibilities, but who cares? It's all great fun, in any case.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
What a waste! 5 May 2004
By William Edison - Published on Amazon.com
Amazon Verified Purchase
Absolute unmitigated crap. A near-total waste of time. Complete drivel. John Varley owes me $7.99, plus tax.

Pardon the rant but I am SO disappointed in this book. For years I've considered Varley my favorite sci-fi author. Hell, I consider him one of my favorite authors of ANY genre. "Millenium" is my favorite time travel novel. The "Gaia" trilogy rocks. His "Eight Worlds" short stories are fantastic. I even liked "Steel Beach" and "The Golden Globe". I eagerly await his books and buy them the moment they're available (in paperback, that is.) Fact is, I'm a one-man John Varley fan club. So I was completely unprepared for the travesty that is "Red Thunder." I forced myself to read it to the end solely out of respect for Varley. If I wasn't violently opposed to book burning, I'd have put a match to it after the first 50 pages.

Other reviewers have mentioned that the book is a homage to some of Heinlein's teenage oriented books. Perhaps my lack of appreciation of "Red Thunder" stems from my never having read any Heinlein other than "Stranger In a Strange Land" but I don't think that's the reason. I don't like it simply because the plot is inane, the characters two-dimensional and the resolution simplistic. Other than the base technology that powers the ship (the Squeeze drive), there's none of the characteristic Varley inventiveness. The book is just basic sci-fi pulp that could have been squeezed out by any hack. Maybe I hold Varley to too high a standard but I expected MUCH more from the mind that created Louise Baltimore, Cirocco Jones and Sparky Valentine.

Please do yourself a favor and pass on "Red Thunder." If you're a Varley fan you'll hate it. If you're new to Varley, read his older better stuff.

Of course, your mileage may differ.

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