Rolling Thunder

Takes more than a third of the book to even get started. And then conflict-free "plot": teenage singer goes into stasis while aliens pop out of Europa and devastate Earth (why would cold planet creatures prefer hot earth over hotter Venus or cooler and closer planets like Jupiter? Our hero pops out of stasis and in her low twenties marries someone from her grandfather's generation. Wow. This raises the libertarian vibe to a creepy level.

If John Scalzi's Old Man's War is Heinlein's Starship Troopers rewritten for a more modern age, then Rolling Thunder is Heinlein's Mars books (Podkayne of Mars, Farmer in the Sky, The Rolling Stones). It even features another Podkayne of a much more politically powerful and technologically advanced Mars. But she is still a perky, outgoing, talkative teenager who finds adventure wherever she travels.

We first see Podkayne as a military/cultural attache on Earth ravished by global warming and terrorists attacks. She is serving in Pismo Beach to fulfill all Martian's Martian year (1.88 Earth years) tour of military duty until she is called back to Mars by her grandmother's illness. But this is not a world were all illness is quickly fixed. show more Instead her grandmother is about to be put in a black bubble, the equivalent of a stasis box where all time and motion stops. Then, taking advantage her grandfather's military pull, Podkayne gets her real dream job, singing for the troops in the moons of Jupiter, especially Europa. She works hard and becomes more accomplished until she visits the strange crystal mountains there. There is some sort of long scale musical conversations between mountains, which Podkayne uses as the basis for a jazz piece. Unfortunately she is too close to them when they erupt from Europa and head towards Earth. She grabs her black bubble to save herself and wakes up ten years later.

Like later Heinlein there is a far amount of sex and a fair amount of inappropriate conclusions about how all women love sex, babies, and shopping. Still this is a fast paced novel with several interesting ethical and scientific questions that has less to dislike than the actual ramblings of Heinlein himself. I would suggest that you read the first two books in the series, but if you don't, this one will still be quite comprehensible. show less

Didn't bother to finish the book. I greatly enjoyed the first of the series, and still remember the juvenile Heinlein fondly, but this book failed for me. It took forever to get started, and never really developed any narrative drive. The main character was uninteresting. The first contact story looked good, but I finally decided that it wasn't worth wading through more of Podkayne's encounter with the universe. Varley failed to create the sense of wonder that characterized the first book.

I loved arguing politics with Heinlein's works; the politics in this book just left me weary.

The plot picks us slowly in this third of the series, but I thought it was worth it for character development and world-building. The threat to Earth in this installment seemed more Niven than Heinlein. The conclusion, which acknowledges the unresolved arcs, points to a fourth novel, and indeed, Varley is apparently busy writing Dark Lightning. Varley's extra-story fun here is to weave in the titles of a number of Heinlein's juvenile and transitional novels, as well as something of the tone and character style. The character "Jubal" is joined by protagonist "Podkayne."

Varley's recent writing has the feel of a movie treatment, so it's not a surprise to read on his website that he is indeed working on a couple of novel-based screenplays.

“Rolling Thunder” is book 3 of a series, best read in order. “Red Thunder” first, “Red Lightning” next, and “Rolling Thunder” last. Varley writes truly fun books and Rolling Thunder is no exception. For me, the most touching aspect of his books is how his love for Robert Heinlein shines through. In this particular novel, we have a main character named Podkayne, from Heinlein's "Podkayne of Mars". Varley also drops Heinlein titles into the book, particularly the last chapter. I found "The Rolling Stones", "Red Planet", "Between Planets", "Time for the Stars" and "Citizen of the Galaxy". I'm sure there are more. Of course, another character's name is Jubal from "Stranger in a Strange Land" and the book itself starts with show more the line "Once upon a time there was a Martian named..."
If you're a Heinlein fan yourself, I think you'll enjoy reading any of Varley's novels.
As far as “Rolling Thunder's” merit as a novel in and of itself, it's just a darn good read. It has a somewhat slow start. Half way through the book, the pace really picks up and the story becomes very intriguing. I enjoyed the characters, but was left to wonder what those darn alien things were doing and never got an answer. The characters don't get any answers either, which is the point, I guess. Unfortunately, the ending of this book begs for a sequel. Unlike the first two, which I think would make nice-enough stand alone novels. Hopefully, Varley will write many more novels. show less

Decent enough continuation of the Squeezer series. The Heinlein-esque bits alternated overt (the main character, a girl from Mars, is named "Podkayne" explicitly after Heinlein's character) and apparently unnoticed by the characters (Manny, Mike and Jubal, for instance). By the last chapter, it was almost like being hit with a sledgehammer, the Heinlein titles were coming so fast. (The ending also shares a very distinct structural similarity with a Heinlein novel, but to say more would be a spoiler.)

It took me a bit to get into the story line. I found the diary portion boring, but then I'm not a diary kinda person. I think the book could have been a bit shorter and more enjoyable to read.