Red Thunder
“Titan,” this ain’t.
John Varley’s done some novels, most notably “Millennium” and the Gaia trilogy, that are full of Big Ideas and sprawling imagination. In contrast, “Red Thunder
Literally a novel about four friends who help assemble a homemade spaceship in an attempt to be the first people on Mars — with the help of a disgraced ex-astronaut and his idiot savant cousin — “Red Thunder” is a love letter to the Robert Heinlein “juvenile” novels about people pulling themselves up by the bootstraps of their moon boots and heading out into space for adventure.
And “Red Thunder” succeeds at that, handily, in fact. His physics, once you get over the giant deus ex machina at the heart of the revolutionary space drive, are pretty good. His realpolitik is excellent, and a bit more canny than Heinlein. And, for once, Varley doesn’t emulate Heinlein at the end of his life, meaning this is his first novel in decades without strong (and often somewhat strange) sexual content.
This is a fun-for-all-ages, no deep thinking necessary adventure novel. Judged on its own merits, it’s a definite success. Judged as part of the Varley canon, it feels like something he just knocked out for fun between bigger projects. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing his next big project, whatever it might be.
Strongly recommended for space adventure fans of all ages, especially readers of earlier Robert Heinlein novels.
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