Neil Fein's Blog
Home + Bicycle Touring Journals + Gig Calendar + Photosite + Blog
Music Downloads + Book Reviews + Contact + Bike Routes
Please sponsor me for the MS City to Shore ride
Monday, July 11, 2005
Blastoff!
by John Varley
The Chinese are about to land on Mars, beating the US spacecraft Ares to the punch! Ex-astronaut Travis Broussard, a man with issues of his own, agrees to fly a privately-financed rocket, the Red Thunder, to the red planet, crossing the finish line ahead of the Chinese and maybe saving the Ares in the bargain.
Varley's characters are fascinating, including viewpoint mouthpiece Manny, which is no surprise to Varley fans. And much of the technology is simply black-box engineering. While this book invites, nay, demands comparison with Heinlen juvenile novels, Red Thunder (the book) is its own entity. Varley has started out with a pastiche of the grandmaster, but ended up with a book that has a lot of (surprise!) social and political commentary, all of it fitting very well into the narrative.
Those expecting a retread of the opus Steel Beach will be very dissapointed. But for those who like a bit of a smaller stage, Red Thunder is very good, and a step forward for the author, who has needed to explore new literary worlds for some time now, as the middlin' Golden Globe showed. Reccomended.
books
Archives
March 1994 February 1999 May 1999 September 1999 December 1999 January 2002 February 2002 March 2002 April 2002 May 2002 June 2002 July 2002 August 2002 September 2002 October 2002 November 2002 December 2002 January 2003 February 2003 March 2003 May 2003 June 2003 July 2003 August 2003 September 2003 October 2003 November 2003 December 2003 January 2004 February 2004 March 2004 April 2004 May 2004 June 2004 July 2004 August 2004 September 2004 October 2004 November 2004 December 2004 January 2005 February 2005 March 2005 April 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]