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Robert Heinlein

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Podkayne of Mars Kindle Edition

by Robert A. Heinlein (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.2 886 ratings

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“A delight.”—New York Herald Tribune

A tale beloved by many fans of Robert A. Heinlein, Podkayne of Mars tells the story of a young Marswoman and her inter-planetary adventures with her uncle and her genius brother.

Told largely through Podkayne’s diaries, the story details her travel to Earth with her two companions. Podkayne has very definite plans on what to do and how to do it, but not everything is as it seems. She is suddenly thrust into the middle of life and death situations when the liner they are travelling on makes a stop at Venus.

The original publisher of this book asked Heinlein to change the controversial ending, which Heinlein did extremely reluctantly. He felt the original ending much better suited the story line and was never satisfied with the modified ‘safer ‘ ending. This edition restores the book to how Heinlein originally wrote it. It also includes a letter to his agent, decrying the changes asked for by his original publisher.

Print length

176 pages
Language

English
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publication date

June 7, 2015
File size

979 KB
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Editorial Reviews

Review

A somersault into the future is a parody of modern times and travels with cheerful Poddy (Podkayne) Fries, her troublesome young brother, and her Uncle to Venus-on an amusing variation of a cruiseliner...An interplanetary plot and a moral append a high-spirited entertainment for all ages.

-- "Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"

Heinlein's skill...makes this story a delight.

-- "New York Herald Tribune" --This text refers to the audioCD edition.

About the Author

Robert Anson Heinlein (1907-1988) took a variety of jobs before beginning to write science fiction in 1939. He became the dominant science fiction writer of the modern era, a writer whose influence on the field was immense. He won science fiction's Hugo Award for best novel seven times, and several of his books were New York Times bestsellers. In 1975 he received the first Grand Master Award for lifetime achievement.

Soneela Nankani, an Earphones Award-winning narrator, is a classically trained actress, voice-over artist, and singer who has had roles in film and on television. She has worked with the award-winning Sojourn Theatre, Classical Theatre of Harlem, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and the Kansas City Repertory Theatre.

--This text refers to the audioCD edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00Z76QMMW
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Phoenix Pick (June 7, 2015)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ June 7, 2015
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 979 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 176 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #704,582 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,726 in Hard Science Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #3,047 in Space Marine Science Fiction eBooks
- #3,771 in Hard Science Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
4.2 886 ratings

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Robert Heinlein

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Robert Heinlein was an American novelist and the grand master of science fiction in the twentieth century. Often called 'the dean of science fiction writers', he is one of the most popular, influential and controversial authors of 'hard science fiction'.

Over the course of his long career he won numerous awards and wrote 32 novels, 59 short stories and 16 collections, many of which have cemented their place in history as science fiction classics, including STARSHIP TROOPERS, THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS and the beloved STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND.

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4.2 out of 5

886 global ratings

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R. Williams

The book with the controversial ending

Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2023

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Heinlein felt that his original ending for Podkayne of Mars, published in 1963, was dramatically necessary to the story. I believe his publisher (or readers) felt differently and the ending was changed. The copy I read had the original ending with notes in the back with Heinlein explaining his reasoning for his original ending. The notes helped me understand the book and Heinlein.
Heinlein was approximately 56 or 57 years old when he wrote this book where the protagonist is a 15/16 year old girl. I will leave it up to feminist readers and psychologists to analyze his success or failure in this regard.
Heinlein fans will want to read this story for glimpses into the early development of characters and concepts about planets and interplanetary travel that you will see more fully formed in later works. If you are not a big fan of Heinlein, you may want to skip this one. However, the controversial original ending may be worth the read.

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Phil in Magnolia

Like revisiting an old friend from my youth

Reviewed in the United States on August 30, 2015

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Before referring to the bibliography of Robert A. Heinlein's works, I had thought that Podkayne of Mars was probably an early novel of his, but in fact it was written in 1963, shortly after he wrote Stranger in a Strange Land and at a time when he was, I think, quite solidly established as one of the preeminent Sci-Fi authors of that era (and of any era). His first novel, Rocket Ship Galileo, had been published in 1947, and it was followed by 18 other novels, among them Red Planet, The Puppet Masters, Tunnel in the Sky, Time for the Stars, Citizen of the Galaxy, The Door into Summer, Methuselah's Children, and Starship Troopers, before he wrote Stranger and then Podkayne.

This is therefore one of his 'middle' novels, with his writing style well established and polished. Reading it brings back many good memories of my reading Heinlein's novels as a youth, and in this case I am sure that I read one of the very early paperback editions of the book within just a couple of years of it's first publication.

This is a fine story, told in first person by Podkayne Fries, a teenage girl who, having grown up on the now-colonized Mars, is now traveling with her uncle on a trip to Venus and eventually Earth. Her younger brother, Clark, is with them. It was trip that had been planned for their entire family, but the father and mother find themselves unable to go and their uncle agrees to chaperone them. Clark is a genius and kind of budding Dr. Evil (but in a less malicious way), and the story is full of little insights into the cultures of what I presume would be 21st century Earth, Mars and Venus (the time of the novel is not ever stated as far as I know).

This is not a juvenile novel, as one of the earlier reviewers also points out. It's a light and enjoyable read, even as it approaches the climax which I have to admit I was surprised by. After all these years, I did not remember how the story ended, and it was a very bittersweet surprise to me when I reached that point.

The Kindle version of this novel also includes a significant afterword - an excerpt from Heinlein's letter to his agent, dated March 10, 1962, discussing the story and the ending. It's a very illuminating insight into Heinlein's thinking relative to this story, but don't read it until you've read the novel itself. And I also recommend avoiding the wiki article if you're considering reading the story, because it will contain far too many spoilers for someone not already familiar with the book.

It's best to discover this story without any preconceptions, other than the expectation that, like almost any Heinlein novel, it has compelling characters, a thought provoking setting, and a story that will entertain and surprise.

35 people found this helpful

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Mike G

Relatively Entertaining Story

Reviewed in the United States on June 1, 2016

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It was fun to delve into a bit of vintage science fiction with this Heinlein novel. This piece is an adventure story for a youth or young adult audience. It's relatively entertaining and moves along at a satisfactory pace after the first few chapters. The science fiction aspects of the story hold up reasonably well after almost six decades, but part of the fun of reading vintage science fiction is seeing how well the author anticipates future historical, scientific and technological developments. Heinlein is not far off the mark with respect to future telecommunications and space transportation technology; however, he misses the advent of e-commerce and digital documents, photography and data storage. (One amusing incident in the book involves the little brother ingeniously extracting the chemical colors from celluloid photographic film to play a prank.) Based on recent scientific investigation of planetary conditions on Mars and Venus, neither place would be as suitable for mass human colonization as the book assumes. Non-human life forms in the book are depicted rather cartoonishly by contemporary standards but not out of step with the era in which the book was written. A current Earth population of 7 billion people makes a future Earth population of 8 billion seem far less dystopian than the novel suggests. In an era when the planet had only 2 billion people, I'm sure it was hard for Heinlein and his contemporaries to conceive of a world that could have and sustain a population almost four times that size within a century.

The letter between Heinlein and his agent appended at the end of the book suggests that Heinlein had loftier ambitions for this work as a commentary on the psychological consequences of ambitious, career-minded mothers neglecting their children. (What about ambitious, career-minded fathers who neglect their children?) If that is a major theme it is well concealed from the casual reader. The same letter also makes much of Heinlein's objection to changing the ending of the story before initial publication to make it less tragic and more acceptable to the "happy ending" sensibilities of audiences of the early 1960's. (This version of the book incorporates his original ending). But I think the notion that the "happy ending" he wrote compromised the story is overblown. The ultimate fate of "Poddy" changes the final story arc very little. I suspect the real issue was artistic control. No author likes to be pressured to change their work to make it more commercial.

13 people found this helpful

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Nina

Unreconstructed patriarchy and pre-feminist

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 25, 2013

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This is unreconstructed patriarchy and I would recommend this book to anyone who wishes to thank their lucky stars that they were born in time for 1970s feminism. For this, it is a truly educational read!

Okay, this book was written 50-odd years ago by a white man. Still. I would expect more imagination from someone who chooses to escape the present world into a different time (the future) and space (Mars and Venus). Also, the premise is so promising (and so rare in SF!): a teenage girl in space. It starts out well enough: Podkayne the narrator writes in a breezy, snappy style that's a joy to read; she's lively and curious; she's excited about being off on an adventure; she wants to be a space pilot. Then we have to endure some pages of exposition ('info dump' - I was surprised to see an accomplished author like Heinlein employ this device). And after about the half-way mark, things deteriorate sharply: Podkayne discovers she loves babies more than being a space pilot; she falls in love with a randomly introduced man whose characterisation is close to nil; she is dependent on her younger brother's cleverness and ends up being praised not for her resourcefulness, but for her maternal clinging to a baby alien. In fact, the novel does not even end with her own words. After sticking to a close first-person point-of-view, we suddenly switch to another male (!) narrator at the end.

The only redeeming feature that I can think of is that the writing is much more lively in the first half, as if the author (perhaps he is the father of daughters?) secretly loves the lively, resourceful teenage girl and regrets having to make her succumb to patriarchal and heteronormative ideologies of womanhood by the end.

Dave Coupland

OK for Heinlein fans, but not one of his best

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 7, 2015

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I read this many years ago, when I was at college, and bought this copy out of curiosity. It's OK as a way of passing a couple of hours. But it's quite dated.

Mr. K. MacNaughton

Exccellent!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 6, 2018

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I loved it when I read it in the mid sixties and I loved it all over again when I re-read it!

ian

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 3, 2017

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Good

David M Rose

Heinlein at his best

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 29, 2017

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I've read this book countless times over the years but not for quite some time. It still ranks as a favourite.

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Podkayne of Mars Kindle Edition

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