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Thunder and Lightning #3
Rolling Thunder
Lieutenant Patricia Kelly Elizabeth Strickland-otherwise known as Podkayne-is a third-generation Martian. Her grandfather, Manny, was one of the first men to set foot on Mars. So Poddy has some planet-sized shoes to fill. That's why she's joined the Music, Arts, and Drama Division of the Martian Navy. Though some may say her voice is a weapon in itself, Poddy passed the audition. And now she's going to Europa, one of Jupiter's many moons, to be an entertainer. But she's about to learn that there's plenty of danger to go around in the Martian Navy, even if you've just signed on to sing.
352 pages, ebook
First published March 4, 2008
111 people are currently reading
471 people want to read
About the author
John Varley
233 books603 followersFull name: John Herbert Varley.
John Varley was born in Austin, Texas. He grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, moved to Port Arthur in 1957, and graduated from Nederland High School. He went to Michigan State University.
He has written several novels and numerous short stories.He has received both the Hugo and Nebula awards.
John Varley was born in Austin, Texas. He grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, moved to Port Arthur in 1957, and graduated from Nederland High School. He went to Michigan State University.
He has written several novels and numerous short stories.He has received both the Hugo and Nebula awards.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 91 reviews
July 2, 2021
First off, the book is a great and delicious tribute to Heinlein -- but updated. That's true for all the books in this series. He outright admits it and names his character Podkayne (as in Heinlein's Podkayne of Mars. But don't get this mistaken for some fan fiction. Varley is a fantastic writer.
He tributes mostly to Heinlein's Juveniles (YA) but there are some great digressions that give the heave-ho to some of Heinlein's later social commentaries, be it nudity taboos or dealing with unexpected windfalls or even music appreciation. Light stuff. Fun stuff.
But since this is also a cool light-hearted and light-touched adventure, we get to head all over the solar system and get into trouble and play music and eventually find ourselves in a VERY different kind of book from her grandfather's little adventure or her father's role in the martian revolution. Podkayne is her own woman. 6'4" and intimidating, enjoying life and love, and generally not giving a damn.
The whole thing gets kinda wild in scope and I loved it.
But here's a problem I ran into. Just like the first book had come out in '03 and this one came out in '08, I kept reading them, going, HEY! I know this stuff. Even the same names. Some of the same situations. Even the same tech described in the same way.
I was thinking, a lot, about the James S.A. Corey writing duo. The ship efficiency side-story. The politics on Earth, the conflict between Earth and Mars (not precisely unique, of course, but these very close details keep cropping up) all the way to how Podkayne's personal spacecraft was called the Rocinante. And there's a lot more, too. But here's the problem: when there are SO many things that overlap like this, even down to the name of the ship, I have to point out that this book came out three years before Leviathan Wakes.
The tone between both is very different, of course, but it's like looking at the difference between Moorcock's Elric series and The Witcher. Once you see just HOW MUCH is the same between them, it's hard to un-see.
Varley's a great writer that ought to be a LOT better known. He's entirely honest, too, and a great read. I just find it really hard to understand why he's not uber-popular. He's up there with some of the best SF and he really knows his stuff. Lovingly, even.
Peace!
He tributes mostly to Heinlein's Juveniles (YA) but there are some great digressions that give the heave-ho to some of Heinlein's later social commentaries, be it nudity taboos or dealing with unexpected windfalls or even music appreciation. Light stuff. Fun stuff.
But since this is also a cool light-hearted and light-touched adventure, we get to head all over the solar system and get into trouble and play music and eventually find ourselves in a VERY different kind of book from her grandfather's little adventure or her father's role in the martian revolution. Podkayne is her own woman. 6'4" and intimidating, enjoying life and love, and generally not giving a damn.
The whole thing gets kinda wild in scope and I loved it.
But here's a problem I ran into. Just like the first book had come out in '03 and this one came out in '08, I kept reading them, going, HEY! I know this stuff. Even the same names. Some of the same situations. Even the same tech described in the same way.
I was thinking, a lot, about the James S.A. Corey writing duo. The ship efficiency side-story. The politics on Earth, the conflict between Earth and Mars (not precisely unique, of course, but these very close details keep cropping up) all the way to how Podkayne's personal spacecraft was called the Rocinante. And there's a lot more, too. But here's the problem: when there are SO many things that overlap like this, even down to the name of the ship, I have to point out that this book came out three years before Leviathan Wakes.
The tone between both is very different, of course, but it's like looking at the difference between Moorcock's Elric series and The Witcher. Once you see just HOW MUCH is the same between them, it's hard to un-see.
Varley's a great writer that ought to be a LOT better known. He's entirely honest, too, and a great read. I just find it really hard to understand why he's not uber-popular. He's up there with some of the best SF and he really knows his stuff. Lovingly, even.
Peace!
January 6, 2010
This is the first John Varley book I've read in a very long time -- and it's made me remember how very, very much I liked his work. His novella, "The Persistence of Vision" is one of my all time-top ten favorites. This is the work that won both the Hugo and the Nebula awards.
But I love John Varley, in particular, because the man has a sense of humour. The protagonist in this book is a 6'4" (or 5") 19 year old, Martian born girl named Podkayne. (At least that's the shortened version of her name!)
Now, Varley's "serious" stuff (as in "Persistence," mentioned above) has a deep, resonating emotion about it. Because "Rolling Thunder" is NOT too serious, it does lack that. Yet it does have an incredible "readability" about it. (I'm not sure that's a word, to be honest!) But to any reader unfamiliar with his work -- if you read nothing else, please try "Persistence" I first read that novella at least twenty years ago, yet I can still remember the tears prickling at my eyes when I read the last of the story. Anything else I mention about it would be in the nature of a spoiler, but I would recommend just about any of John Varley to readers.
But I love John Varley, in particular, because the man has a sense of humour. The protagonist in this book is a 6'4" (or 5") 19 year old, Martian born girl named Podkayne. (At least that's the shortened version of her name!)
Now, Varley's "serious" stuff (as in "Persistence," mentioned above) has a deep, resonating emotion about it. Because "Rolling Thunder" is NOT too serious, it does lack that. Yet it does have an incredible "readability" about it. (I'm not sure that's a word, to be honest!) But to any reader unfamiliar with his work -- if you read nothing else, please try "Persistence" I first read that novella at least twenty years ago, yet I can still remember the tears prickling at my eyes when I read the last of the story. Anything else I mention about it would be in the nature of a spoiler, but I would recommend just about any of John Varley to readers.
June 6, 2008
If you couldn't get enough Heinlein back in your teens, and especially if you were female and aggravated at the lack of strong female characters, well, Podkayne is back, and more liberated than ever! Varley has created an excellent Heinlein homage for we baby boomers, with references to many of "the Dean's" works that are so subtly inserted into the narrative that you might even miss them if you're not looking. I had a blast reading this book! Varley must've been channeling Heinlein. Climb on board just for the fun of it!
January 12, 2011
The fact that he named the main character Podkayne is pretty much the only reason I haven't given this book less than 1 star. Mostly, Podkayne was a Mary-Sue . . . written by a man (so she was more obsessed with her breast size than she was by her exotic eye-color; she did, however, manage to be strong, tall, blonde, and an amazing musician, so we'll forgive the lack of purple eyes). Also, there was really no plot. This was deeply disappointing on many levels, not least of them being the sad lack-of-taste exhibited by book-jacket quote-guy Cory Doctorow, famous scriptwriter for old-school British sci-fi TV.
June 9, 2023
Yuck, the ending was very pervy. And I'm not a fan of Heinlein. Varley writing as a woman here is disastrous, and gross. He might've pulled it off w/Cirocco Jones in the Titan trilogy but not with this book. Varley writing about breasts, bras & panties just, should not be done. This whole series makes sense only for young readers. Things are too simple (like the miraculous bubble tech), time means nothing (cause you can suspend time in a bubble), space travel suddenly allows everyone to go everywhere, all our planets & planetary bodies are colonized overnight (in like, what, 30 years?), and only one person in the whole galaxy can make the magical, miraculous tech (Jubal). There are worlds of immense pain & suffering but they exist only on the periphery of things, so all of that real misery & human tragedy is just skipped or glossed over (does this make it YA?). After a while, all the characters feel wooden, especially after having lived for so long (and across three books). Travis, the most realistically fascinating person, is never really around, and Jubal, the most interesting & peculiar person, is reduced to a Santa Claus like existence, just living, literally, in a bubble, and only coming out for...for what again? So dumb that he doesn't age, and, SPOILER: that the main character, Podkayne, loves him & marries him. Dumb dumb dumb. And gross gross gross.
Some other points: Disappointed that Varley never mentions the HORIZON of Mars (or any other planets). For such a technical, logistical writer, I'd have figured that the smaller horizon would be the most immediate observation for his characters, like, a feeling that you're gonna walk right over an edge if you walk too far ahead. And another thing--he never remarks on the fine RED dust & sand everywhere. SO SHOCKED! How do you write about Mars and not mention in a hundredfold ways the descriptions of the redness of everything? It was like, the whole space shtick was useless & unimaginative because their surroundings were almost always no different from 21st century environments, down to the music (Varley explains himself within the book that people in the future just rehash music from the past). You're in outer space, space travel's now possible, planets are being populated, but the music is still the (present-day) music that you'd find while surfing your local radio stations. Boring. And Varley does this thing to fill out some paragraphs, like, if he wants to say that Poddy knows the guitar, he won't just write guitar but will spell out a list of every guitar-like instrument that he researched, just for the sake of fleshing out a page. He won't comment on the samisen but he'll include it in that list, causing you to have to read one more pointless, valueless word in a sentence. He did that with singers, with countries that were affected by the disasters, etc., just casually name-dropping and adding nothing to the substance of the page or plot. "Europe was drowning in rain," was part of his describing the extinction level events that occurred...and that was all he had to say for that whole continent. And other stuff, like little digs to associate Islam & Muslims with terrorism, like really man? You take the the most shallow view of a whole religion. And on religion, well you could kinda hear Varley getting 'preachy' with his views, and it's the usual Americana view (again), of seeing all the bad things of religion & of God, of snake-worshipping backwoods pastors, of sword-wielding, bomb-making jihadists...it was all just, like, for an audience of himself kinda. How he thought governments would behave in such circumstances of extinction level events, and how he thought a homemade spaceship might work., I dunno, this series smells too much like the author, the man himself, right down to the scene where a tall, talented, attractive blonde Poddy gets naked and throws herself onto ol' Jubal. Ick.
Some other points: Disappointed that Varley never mentions the HORIZON of Mars (or any other planets). For such a technical, logistical writer, I'd have figured that the smaller horizon would be the most immediate observation for his characters, like, a feeling that you're gonna walk right over an edge if you walk too far ahead. And another thing--he never remarks on the fine RED dust & sand everywhere. SO SHOCKED! How do you write about Mars and not mention in a hundredfold ways the descriptions of the redness of everything? It was like, the whole space shtick was useless & unimaginative because their surroundings were almost always no different from 21st century environments, down to the music (Varley explains himself within the book that people in the future just rehash music from the past). You're in outer space, space travel's now possible, planets are being populated, but the music is still the (present-day) music that you'd find while surfing your local radio stations. Boring. And Varley does this thing to fill out some paragraphs, like, if he wants to say that Poddy knows the guitar, he won't just write guitar but will spell out a list of every guitar-like instrument that he researched, just for the sake of fleshing out a page. He won't comment on the samisen but he'll include it in that list, causing you to have to read one more pointless, valueless word in a sentence. He did that with singers, with countries that were affected by the disasters, etc., just casually name-dropping and adding nothing to the substance of the page or plot. "Europe was drowning in rain," was part of his describing the extinction level events that occurred...and that was all he had to say for that whole continent. And other stuff, like little digs to associate Islam & Muslims with terrorism, like really man? You take the the most shallow view of a whole religion. And on religion, well you could kinda hear Varley getting 'preachy' with his views, and it's the usual Americana view (again), of seeing all the bad things of religion & of God, of snake-worshipping backwoods pastors, of sword-wielding, bomb-making jihadists...it was all just, like, for an audience of himself kinda. How he thought governments would behave in such circumstances of extinction level events, and how he thought a homemade spaceship might work., I dunno, this series smells too much like the author, the man himself, right down to the scene where a tall, talented, attractive blonde Poddy gets naked and throws herself onto ol' Jubal. Ick.
September 2, 2015
Back when I was in junior high school the school library had a shelf with all the Heinlein juveniles on it. I read every one of them, but my memory of each varies. The school itself no longer exists, but if I could somehow be transported back in time I could still go directly to that shelf and even be familiar with the order in which they were shelved. One of those books was Podkayne of Mars. That is one that, after more than forty years, I have no memory of the plot. I only remember that it had something to do with the adventures of a young girl who was born on Mars and was named Podkayne. This book, Rolling Thunder, is apparently a tribute to
Robert Heinlein and, most especially, to Podkayne of Mars. The main character is named Podkayne and she is Martian born, but this is not a sequel. It is clearly stated that Podkayne is just named for the character in the old Heinlein novel. The book is full of Heinlein references and they come fast and furious in the final chapter. I suspect that if I could remember anything about the original Podkayne of Mars I would pick up on a lot of other references. Even though it has been many years since I read those Heinlein juveniles it was something of a nostalgia trip to read this John Varley novel. It is certainly Heinleinesque and intended to be. I am tempted to reread Podkayne of Mars to refresh my memory and to see just how parallel this is.
Robert Heinlein and, most especially, to Podkayne of Mars. The main character is named Podkayne and she is Martian born, but this is not a sequel. It is clearly stated that Podkayne is just named for the character in the old Heinlein novel. The book is full of Heinlein references and they come fast and furious in the final chapter. I suspect that if I could remember anything about the original Podkayne of Mars I would pick up on a lot of other references. Even though it has been many years since I read those Heinlein juveniles it was something of a nostalgia trip to read this John Varley novel. It is certainly Heinleinesque and intended to be. I am tempted to reread Podkayne of Mars to refresh my memory and to see just how parallel this is.
October 25, 2015
A rare book off my to-read pile rather than from the library hold list. Book 3 of 3 of which I hadn't read one and two (though I've got one on hold now). An out and out Heinlein homage done fairly well - which includes in the last sentence of the book "the Red Planet", "between planets" and "time for the stars". And characters named Jubal and Podkayne. But the homage was much more than skin deep. It did peter out a little before the end which was a bit disappointing...
July 27, 2019
Again we drop through the generations, and this is another solid, interesting yarn. Obviously, there's only so much variation on a theme you can get, so the introduction of the Europan critters is an interesting twist to keep things alive. And nice to see so many Heinlein references squozed into that last chapter. Beautiful.
February 13, 2021
Possibly the worst Varley novel I've ever read. Varley's female narration was awkward, at best. It took way too long to get to the science fiction. Very few loose ends were resolved .
I've moved the remainder of unread Varley novels to the bottom of the list.
I've moved the remainder of unread Varley novels to the bottom of the list.
March 15, 2021
John Varley is a very good author and I have enjoyed the other books in this series. However, this one seems like just a long bit of filler and appears to be nothing more than an extended introduction to whatever happens in #4, and I'm not sure if it's worth it to buy that one now.
December 28, 2022
Delightful, engaging, enjoyable.
March 9, 2024
This edition of the series feels like Varley ran out of ideas and wanted to wrap up quick about midway through. Fine to finish off the storyline I guess, but not up to the caliber of the other plots.
August 13, 2020
Every book in this trilogy has been better than the last. Certainly not without its faults, and the style is not for everyone (especially fans of his earlier work) but still fantastic SF.
August 2, 2011
Third in the Red Thunder young adult science fiction series set in an alternate Earth where Mars and its people have the upper hand and disaster has created havoc in America splitting it into several independent countries.
The Story
Lieutenant Patricia Kelly Elizabeth Podkayne Strickland-Garcia-Redmond is fulfilling her required military duty acting as Martian Consul on Earth when she's recalled home. Granny Betty is dying and she wants to say good-bye to everyone. The trip is a blessing as Poddy hates being on Earth so when Uncle Admiral Bill Redmond pulls some strings and arranges for Podkayne to finish up her military duty as an entertainer for military bases on Europa, a moon in orbit around Jupiter, Poddy is ecstatic. Her passion is music. Singing. Playing. Now she just has to get a group pulled together so she has a better chance of finishing her tour as a military entertainer.
And so it begins as Varley extremely slowly creates the primary drama for Rolling Thunder which eventually leads to Podkayne's fame, her falling in love, and the diaspora from Mars.
The Characters
Patricia Kelly Elizabeth Podkayne Strickland-Garcia-Redmond is the daughter of Ray Strickland-Garcia and Evangeline Redmond and the granddaughter of Manny and Kelly Strickland-Garcia. Her brother, Mike, and she have a very teasing relationship.
Jubal and Travis are still in the picture with Jubal still hibernating in the blackhole and Travis popping out every few years to see how things are going. Grandma Kelly was the first president of Mars.
My Take
I do like Podkayne's remark about a "rolling stone"…so appropriate as they all go rolling along in Rolling Thunder.
It takes forever for Varley to get this story started. I enjoyed it and I am really hoping there will be a fourth in this series but don't expect the same breathstealing drama in Rolling Thunder as there was in the previous two stories. Even the major disasters that strike Earth don’t provide that much fuss. As much as I enjoyed the depth to which Varley included music, its composition, construction, the dramas of its artists, its history, the tribulations of road trips, Varley did not do a great job of tying it together with Europa's mountains invading and the need to abandon some hopes.
Don't get me wrong. It's still an interesting story. It does advance the history of the Garcia-Strickland-Remonds and Travis and Jubal Broussard—you go, Jubal!!—with the promise of new adventures to come. The in-depth look into the behind-the-scenes action of creating music will also very much appeal to those of you interested in music.
The Cover
The cover is different from the previous two—all these buildings pointing inward into a Martian Naval Corps badge with Europa as the background. The title is very appropriate as you'll discover toward the end!
The Story
Lieutenant Patricia Kelly Elizabeth Podkayne Strickland-Garcia-Redmond is fulfilling her required military duty acting as Martian Consul on Earth when she's recalled home. Granny Betty is dying and she wants to say good-bye to everyone. The trip is a blessing as Poddy hates being on Earth so when Uncle Admiral Bill Redmond pulls some strings and arranges for Podkayne to finish up her military duty as an entertainer for military bases on Europa, a moon in orbit around Jupiter, Poddy is ecstatic. Her passion is music. Singing. Playing. Now she just has to get a group pulled together so she has a better chance of finishing her tour as a military entertainer.
And so it begins as Varley extremely slowly creates the primary drama for Rolling Thunder which eventually leads to Podkayne's fame, her falling in love, and the diaspora from Mars.
The Characters
Patricia Kelly Elizabeth Podkayne Strickland-Garcia-Redmond is the daughter of Ray Strickland-Garcia and Evangeline Redmond and the granddaughter of Manny and Kelly Strickland-Garcia. Her brother, Mike, and she have a very teasing relationship.
Jubal and Travis are still in the picture with Jubal still hibernating in the blackhole and Travis popping out every few years to see how things are going. Grandma Kelly was the first president of Mars.
My Take
I do like Podkayne's remark about a "rolling stone"…so appropriate as they all go rolling along in Rolling Thunder.
It takes forever for Varley to get this story started. I enjoyed it and I am really hoping there will be a fourth in this series but don't expect the same breathstealing drama in Rolling Thunder as there was in the previous two stories. Even the major disasters that strike Earth don’t provide that much fuss. As much as I enjoyed the depth to which Varley included music, its composition, construction, the dramas of its artists, its history, the tribulations of road trips, Varley did not do a great job of tying it together with Europa's mountains invading and the need to abandon some hopes.
Don't get me wrong. It's still an interesting story. It does advance the history of the Garcia-Strickland-Remonds and Travis and Jubal Broussard—you go, Jubal!!—with the promise of new adventures to come. The in-depth look into the behind-the-scenes action of creating music will also very much appeal to those of you interested in music.
The Cover
The cover is different from the previous two—all these buildings pointing inward into a Martian Naval Corps badge with Europa as the background. The title is very appropriate as you'll discover toward the end!
June 27, 2008
I really wanted to like this book. It's unabashedly Varley's take on Podkayne of Mars, starring 18-year-old Podkayne Strickland-Garcia, granddaughter of Manny and Kelly from Red Thunder. I'm starting to wonder if there's some kind of "Curse of the Podkaynes" that turns otherwise hopeful books into bad ones.
The nearest I can come to explaining What Went Wrong is that this book reads like the first halves of three different books one after the other, all of which could have been good, none of which have anything in common with each other except that Podkayne is in them. This is just weird.
If you're going to write a novel, you don't have to introduce all your characters and plot elements in the first fifty pages, but when you do, and build them up, and make them seem important, you can't just ditch them partway through for no reason as if the readers aren't going to wonder what happened. The first time the story dumped everything but Podkayne and started over, I gave it the benefit of the doubt, thinking, "Well, now I've gotten to the main plot." But then it happened again, and the "ending" has so little to do with the beginning (or even the middle) that you could just start two-thirds of the way through the book for all that the first two-thirds have to do with it.
Apart from the narrative structure, there are some funny parts and interesting ideas, although deeper down the story suffers from some creepy social engineering concepts: the idea that building a good society is a matter of deciding who to keep out is an unfortunate staple of some sci-fi, including Heinlein's. I wish that were not one of the ideas Varley had borrowed.
The nearest I can come to explaining What Went Wrong is that this book reads like the first halves of three different books one after the other, all of which could have been good, none of which have anything in common with each other except that Podkayne is in them. This is just weird.
If you're going to write a novel, you don't have to introduce all your characters and plot elements in the first fifty pages, but when you do, and build them up, and make them seem important, you can't just ditch them partway through for no reason as if the readers aren't going to wonder what happened. The first time the story dumped everything but Podkayne and started over, I gave it the benefit of the doubt, thinking, "Well, now I've gotten to the main plot." But then it happened again, and the "ending" has so little to do with the beginning (or even the middle) that you could just start two-thirds of the way through the book for all that the first two-thirds have to do with it.
Apart from the narrative structure, there are some funny parts and interesting ideas, although deeper down the story suffers from some creepy social engineering concepts: the idea that building a good society is a matter of deciding who to keep out is an unfortunate staple of some sci-fi, including Heinlein's. I wish that were not one of the ideas Varley had borrowed.
May 11, 2008
The last book in Varley's most recent trilogy -- much like Red Thunder had a different feel from the first book, this one, too, reads differently from the first two books. I wouldn't recommend reading this book without reading the first two, as you might be a bit lost, but that's just a better reason to read the whole trilogy!
To me, Varley sort of has two different writing styles... his "old" style and his "new", as I call them. The old style includes many of his Eight Worlds stories like Steel Beach and Golden Globe and his Gaian Trilogy... the new style has the first two books in this trilogy and Mammoth. The new style is still very good and very enjoyable, more accessible than the old style, but just different. This book, however, felt like a good balance between his old style and new style, and the end result, while still accessible like his more recent novels, really had an old school Varley feel to it. And that is not a bad thing... not in the least.
To me, Varley sort of has two different writing styles... his "old" style and his "new", as I call them. The old style includes many of his Eight Worlds stories like Steel Beach and Golden Globe and his Gaian Trilogy... the new style has the first two books in this trilogy and Mammoth. The new style is still very good and very enjoyable, more accessible than the old style, but just different. This book, however, felt like a good balance between his old style and new style, and the end result, while still accessible like his more recent novels, really had an old school Varley feel to it. And that is not a bad thing... not in the least.
August 11, 2011
I was looking forward to this as it had some good reviews. Alas it did not meet expectations. I enjoyed the first half of the book, then it went sour. I could accept the main character's silly teenage self- absorbed superficiality for a while, but after she'd been through all her physical emotional relational and economic super trials and tribulations she's still driveling on in the same whiny voice. No character development. Her marriage to the old mentally retarded savant was just plain stupid. The Big Dumb Object was just big and dumb, and the Alien attack was powered on a plot device of deus ex machinas. If this was meant to be an homage to Heinlein, he should be turning in his grave. Gets 2 stars for the first half which is a bit of a romp.
September 6, 2019
The biggest problem I had with John Varley's Rolling Thunder was the female lead-I spent entirely too much time fantasizing about putting her in a wood chipper. Happily Podkayne grows on you eventually. (The Thunder and Lightning series may be the longest homage to another author ever written-the Robert A Heinlein references fly fast and furious in this one. There is even a cat who walks through walls.) Due to the annoying heroine I can only give this book three stars. Looking forward to the fourth book something fierce though-this third novel has served as an excellent set-up for the climax to the series.
June 27, 2011
Martian girl, Podkayne, Joins the Martian navy as an entertainer, puts together a band and goes on tour to navy bases all over the solar system. That's the 1st 110 pages, yaaaawwwnnnnn.
Then we have an alien mystery that leads to a music mystery and a spectacular shuttle crash. Actually, a quite interesting 75 pages.
And then the rest of the book was just ok.
And because I know you would be disappointed if someone told you their life story and didn't tell you about every single time they had sex...
Then we have an alien mystery that leads to a music mystery and a spectacular shuttle crash. Actually, a quite interesting 75 pages.
And then the rest of the book was just ok.
And because I know you would be disappointed if someone told you their life story and didn't tell you about every single time they had sex...
November 21, 2022
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.
August 27, 2008
I loved Red Thunder. I enjoyed Red Lightning; it was fun to have a follow-up to a book I really loved, even though it wasn't as good as the first. Rolling Thunder...I wanted to like it, of course, but it wasn't that great. A lot of the first half of the book could probably have been eliminated, as the more exciting stuff happens later. I also found the ending anti-climactic.
August 11, 2011
The story had a few interesting concepts in it and the style of writing was interesting in a good way, but overall it failed to capture my interest. The ending of the story was fairly weak and did not leave me wanting more.
This book rates a skip.
This book rates a skip.
May 8, 2021
Bleah
An oligarch's post-apocalyptic fantasia (cue the "burdensome" unskilled immigrants) masquerading as Heinlein worship. Oh, yeah, PLUS big bosomed teen nymphet all into guys as old or older than her grandfather. Not much of a masquerade after all, I guess!
An oligarch's post-apocalyptic fantasia (cue the "burdensome" unskilled immigrants) masquerading as Heinlein worship. Oh, yeah, PLUS big bosomed teen nymphet all into guys as old or older than her grandfather. Not much of a masquerade after all, I guess!
August 30, 2021
There was SUCH a creepy ick factor that I couldn't finish the book.
December 18, 2023
John Varley's Rolling Thunder, published in 2008. I hate this book. I wish it was never published. I cannot stand that the Hack author takes a name from a Robert A. Heinlein book (Podkayne of mars 1963) which he has never read because the charter dies at the end, but that is the name of the protagonist. You know the Heinlein book has the words Mars in it so I guess the character should be a part of “Rolling Thunder”
This book added another Notch in the belt for John to never write type vharters. This book is a first person narrative of a female character that acts and thinks like a man. There is an even grosser subplot about her older man feddish and how she falls in love with the until now frozen in Carbonite bubble Bobby "Cajun" Thibodaux. It now turns out he is not smart but can pick up cosmic dreams from larger floating crystals that are roaming around the Solar system.
Podkayne "Poddy" Strickland, a teenage Martian born and bred, is our spirited protagonist. Her grandfather was one of the first humans on Mars, and her family played a pivotal role in colonizing the Red Planet. But Poddy feels restless, yearning for adventure beyond the confines of Martian society.
When a mysterious alien is discovered, Podkayne makes space music. Her Spaceship is called Rocinante. I had to Triple take as this is the same ship name from the book and TV series “The Expanse” which was written 3 years later.
DONT reads this book.
The end of the book is that Podkayne and her new lover Bobby "Cajun" Thibodaux fly out of the solar system and leave the mess they left behind to find new adventures. It is both outrageous and a sex crime at the same time.
Please read any good book listed below.
2011 The Expanse.: James S. A. Corey duo takes even more plot from from this book series
Alastair Reynolds: His novels like Pushing Ice and Revelation Space offer similarly vast and intricate sci-fi universes with complex plots and unforgettable characters.
Becky Chambers: Her Wayfarers series features heartwarming found-family adventures across the galaxy, with diverse and relatable characters.
Arkady Martine: Her debut novel, A Memory of Light, takes readers on a mind-bending journey through a solar system with a unique and fascinating history.
This book added another Notch in the belt for John to never write type vharters. This book is a first person narrative of a female character that acts and thinks like a man. There is an even grosser subplot about her older man feddish and how she falls in love with the until now frozen in Carbonite bubble Bobby "Cajun" Thibodaux. It now turns out he is not smart but can pick up cosmic dreams from larger floating crystals that are roaming around the Solar system.
Podkayne "Poddy" Strickland, a teenage Martian born and bred, is our spirited protagonist. Her grandfather was one of the first humans on Mars, and her family played a pivotal role in colonizing the Red Planet. But Poddy feels restless, yearning for adventure beyond the confines of Martian society.
When a mysterious alien is discovered, Podkayne makes space music. Her Spaceship is called Rocinante. I had to Triple take as this is the same ship name from the book and TV series “The Expanse” which was written 3 years later.
DONT reads this book.
The end of the book is that Podkayne and her new lover Bobby "Cajun" Thibodaux fly out of the solar system and leave the mess they left behind to find new adventures. It is both outrageous and a sex crime at the same time.
Please read any good book listed below.
2011 The Expanse.: James S. A. Corey duo takes even more plot from from this book series
Alastair Reynolds: His novels like Pushing Ice and Revelation Space offer similarly vast and intricate sci-fi universes with complex plots and unforgettable characters.
Becky Chambers: Her Wayfarers series features heartwarming found-family adventures across the galaxy, with diverse and relatable characters.
Arkady Martine: Her debut novel, A Memory of Light, takes readers on a mind-bending journey through a solar system with a unique and fascinating history.
October 22, 2020
As I finished the third Varley book in the Red Thunder, Red Lightening, Rolling Thunder Trilogy I was wishing there was a fourth. His writing is intelligent and his characters are complex and interesting. This one picks up with the daughter, Podkayne, of Ray from Red Lightening, and the granddaughter of Manny from Red Thunder. It follows her adventures in the Martian Navy Music Corps as she get caught up in new dangers unfolding on Europa. The comparison to Robert Heinlein is just as valid in this book as the previous. Like some of Heinlein’s works this book has large sections with very little story developments and instead just shares the thoughts and feelings of the main character while educating the reader about planets, gravity and space travel trivia. At times all the factoids can come across as the author showing off his knowledge (or research more likely) but overall it works well and when the story does pick up, it goes in a major way. Also like Heinlein, Varley can’t resist a few good jabs at organized religion, making fun of the rapurists who pop up every time there is a major disaster. I also got a good chuckle out of Podkayne’s take on intelligent design while explaining why she doesn’t want to have kids with an imaginary conversation with her vagina:
This book didn’t wrap up nice and neat, as the main character even admits many stories do, but is still satisfying in it’s conclusion. There is definitely lots and lots of open doors for a next book.
ME: Babies are so cute!
MS V: Honey, you need to get a tape measure. Measure me, then measure a baby’s head. Then … you do the math
ME: Oh.
Not a pretty picture. In Homeland America there is an accepted church dogma called “intelligent design”. […] And if you need another example, tell me why a human baby should be expected to emerge from an opening that can’t accommodate a lemon without discomfort. Design maybe, but not intelligent. If that was God’s intent, then God is a dunce.
This book didn’t wrap up nice and neat, as the main character even admits many stories do, but is still satisfying in it’s conclusion. There is definitely lots and lots of open doors for a next book.
July 16, 2025
‘Once upon a time there was a Martian named Patricia Kelly Elizabeth Podkayne Strickland-Garcia-Redmond.’ So begins John Varley’s update of Heinlein’s Podkayne Of Mars, where the feisty wunderkind Podkayne is a Martian Navy recruit with aspirations of singing stardom. Becoming quite famous locally in a band she formed (the Pod People) she ends up posted on Europa, where the mysterious crystal monoliths have been slowly growing for hundreds of years. The Earth is still devastated from a glancing hit by a starship travelling at close to c and a war between Mars and Earth which Mars won thanks to the inventions of Jubal Broussard, namely the squeezer (which compacts matter) and the newly-developed stopper (black bubbles which stop time within them). While examining the largest crystal on Europa, nicknamed Grumpy, it launches itself into space toward Earth crippling Poddy’s shuttle and putting them into black bubble stasis. She is revived ten years later when rescued and the full horror of what happened on Europa is slowly revealed to her. She also finds she has a weird psychic connection to the creatures. The Earth is now so terribly wounded that evacuation to Mars may be the only possible way for humanity to survive until Podkayne’s uncle Travis Broussard comes up with one other, more exotic solution. Relatively entertaining YA novel until the last bit where the author made some questionable (to me) plot complications. Third of four books it can be read alone. (See if you can spot the names of all the Heinlein juveniles the author snuck into the last few pages!)
September 11, 2025
This is the third and final book in this John Varley trilogy, and I'm glad. Each volume was worse than the volume before. In this volume, the narrator is Poddy, the annoying, vain, flighty granddaughter of one of the original heroes of the series. She pursues a singing career as an entertainer in the Martian Navy. Unfortunately, we learn way more than we need to about her hair, clothing, and sexual adventures than life on Mars. Then Poddy goes into suspended animation inside a small, rock-hard bubble for ten years to avoid dying under the rubble of a battle on the Jupiter moon, Europa. Eventually, Poddy is found and revived, and she goes through a rough period of adapting to the changes that occurred while she was encased in her bubble. Her transition is eased when she discovers she has become very wealthy from an experimental recording she made trying to capture the music of crystals from Jupiter just before the battle that almost killed her.
I disliked Poddy's shallow, glib character with a penchant for rattling off long lists of places, colors, and people. The only part of the book that I actually liked was its last chapter where Poddy, her relatives, and thousands of other bubbled people flee from Earth on a meteor-like spaceship built by Poddy's wealthy, eccentric "Uncle" Travis. The preparations for the trip, the anticipated problems of the 40-year flight, and the plans for post-flight life on a distant, Earth-like planet were the only parts of the book that felt like real sci-fi to me.
I disliked Poddy's shallow, glib character with a penchant for rattling off long lists of places, colors, and people. The only part of the book that I actually liked was its last chapter where Poddy, her relatives, and thousands of other bubbled people flee from Earth on a meteor-like spaceship built by Poddy's wealthy, eccentric "Uncle" Travis. The preparations for the trip, the anticipated problems of the 40-year flight, and the plans for post-flight life on a distant, Earth-like planet were the only parts of the book that felt like real sci-fi to me.
June 18, 2023
Following the 3rd Generation of Space Farers, Mars is now independent, Earth is in continued decline and Lt. Podkayne (Daughter of Ray and Elizabeth from Red Lightning, Granddaughter of Manny and Kelly from Red Thunder) is sent to entertain the troops on the Jovian Moons, particularly on Europa, where an ancient mystery is beginning to stir...
Moves at a good pace and Poddy is a likeable enough protagonist, and its nice to see what the series other characters have been up too. Varley certainly paints a convincing picture of a society that has found a near infinite source of energy (and who can now suspend time). That said Podkayne, more so than Ray from the second novel, seems to be just along for the ride. Or more precisely, the big mystery/threat at the center of the novel mostly happens off page (that of the Europan Crystals/Monoliths) and the solution is engineered by returning ex-Astronaut/Time Jumper Travis Broussard almost entirely off page save for a reveal in the last little bit.
Still it was a good quick summer read and I don't regret the time spent with it (or this series).
Moves at a good pace and Poddy is a likeable enough protagonist, and its nice to see what the series other characters have been up too. Varley certainly paints a convincing picture of a society that has found a near infinite source of energy (and who can now suspend time). That said Podkayne, more so than Ray from the second novel, seems to be just along for the ride. Or more precisely, the big mystery/threat at the center of the novel mostly happens off page (that of the Europan Crystals/Monoliths) and the solution is engineered by returning ex-Astronaut/Time Jumper Travis Broussard almost entirely off page save for a reveal in the last little bit.
Still it was a good quick summer read and I don't regret the time spent with it (or this series).
March 5, 2021
Entertaining old school Sci-fi
Varley is a accomplished writer who knows he's stuff, like in the previous 2 novels there are reminiscences to Heinlein, without being in any way a copycat.
What's really amazing is how Varley takes a simple frame around an amazing invention and a handful of characters and creates 3 totally different novels with different themes and structures.
In this third novel we are following the granddaughter of our original protagonist, in a grand odyssey covering several planets and beyond.
Male writers using young female main characters has it's own challenges as seen in Artemis with sexual overtones which probably will offend female readers and the gung-ho smart-ass dialogue style becomes a little tiring after a while.
But all in all a pleasant entertaining read and (at least for me, for now) a fitting finale in the series
Varley is a accomplished writer who knows he's stuff, like in the previous 2 novels there are reminiscences to Heinlein, without being in any way a copycat.
What's really amazing is how Varley takes a simple frame around an amazing invention and a handful of characters and creates 3 totally different novels with different themes and structures.
In this third novel we are following the granddaughter of our original protagonist, in a grand odyssey covering several planets and beyond.
Male writers using young female main characters has it's own challenges as seen in Artemis with sexual overtones which probably will offend female readers and the gung-ho smart-ass dialogue style becomes a little tiring after a while.
But all in all a pleasant entertaining read and (at least for me, for now) a fitting finale in the series
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