Red Thunder [Paperback]

John Varley (Author)

Book Description

Series: Red Thunder | Publication Date: April 27, 2004

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.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Debuting in 1974, John Varley became the decade's freshest, most exciting, and most important new science fiction author. He dominated the Seventies 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.

Fans who feared Varley was devolving into another Robert A. Heinlein imitator may have mixed reactions to Red Thunder, Varley's first novel of the new millennium. Part of SF's turn-of-the-century trend of "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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

And the heart-pounding space race is on! When a Chinese spacecraft, Heavenly Harmony, threatens to land on Mars a few days before the U.S. shuttle vehicle Ares Seven, washed-up ex-astronaut Travis Broussard, his brilliant but unconventional cousin, Jubal, and four kids from Florida decide to build their own private spaceship, Red Thunder, and get there first in this riveting SF thriller from Hugo and Nebula award winner Varley. Jubal has invented an amazing new power source, the Squeezer, which provides enough thrust to get them to Mars in a mere three days. While the Chinese and other Americans head to Mars the long way, the team works feverishly to build a spaceworthy craft, because although they all want Americans to land on Mars first, a more pressing reason for their visit to the red planet arises. Jubal has discovered a potentially disastrous design flaw in Ares Seven, which has Travis's ex-wife aboard. With a plausible cover story, a lot of help and a raided trust fund, Red Thunder gets built. Will its creators evade the feds who keep nosing around? Will they launch? Will they beat the Chinese to Mars? Can they save Ares Seven? Do you have to ask? In the end, they put their lives on the line, proving that Everyman can be a hero, too. With hilarious, well-drawn characters, extraordinary situations presented plausibly, plus exciting action and adventure, this book should do thunderously well.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: Ace (April 27, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0441011624
• ISBN-13: 978-0441011629
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #194,075 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nice Departure., November 18, 2005

By 

J. R Weaver "A simple man." (SF, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Red Thunder (Paperback)

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:

4.0 out of 5 stars "We were the first!", January 25, 2007

By 

Michael K. Smith (South Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Red Thunder (Paperback)

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:

1.0 out of 5 stars What a waste!, May 4, 2004

By 

William Edison (Albany, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Red Thunder (Paperback)

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.