Rolling Thunder

Not finished reading it, but am looking forward to returning to it.

Lieutenant Patricia Kelly Elizabeth Podkayne Strickland-Garcia-Redmond (otherwise known as Podkayne) is a Martian, a human born on Mars. While serving out her military term on a toasty Earth things suddenly change. A higher-up gets her an audition with the Martian Navy and she passes! You see, the Martian Navy has its own entertainment division--musicians and the like. Life is hard enough when youre trying to be the next big thing, but Podkayne quickly learns that being a singer in the Martian Navy, even with a little bit of fame under your belt, doesnt mean you can get a free ticket to safety-planet. She might just find herself in a bit of trouble! The one thing I have to say about Varleys Rolling Thunder is that it isnt like other science fiction novels I have read. What I mean is this: rather than dealing entirely with major events and characters reacting to them from a personal standpoint, Rolling Thunder is about the lives of characters doing what people would be doing in the world presented. There isnt really a whole lot of war here, though some does take place. Were presented with Podkayne, and thats where we stay. We follow her through her life doing what we might all assume to be regular everyday things in a future human time when weve (humankind) moved off and colonized the majority of the solar system. Most of the nitty gritty stuff were familiar with in SF takes place in the background (thats not to say I dont like the nitty gritty stuff, just that this novel really does move away from all of that). Varleys style is different than Im used to. Rolling Thunder is written in first person, but some of it feels very much like stream of consciousness. In the beginning it bugged me, but it sort of grew on me as the novel progressed. I think a lot of my initial reactions to the beginning were influenced by my assumption that this would be more in the vein of techy/war-based SF, when this novel clearly isnt that. The beginning does move a little slow though, but once you get into it and get used to the style it really is an enjoyable read. Podkaynes comments are rather humorous (or Varleys comments, if you want to take the fun out of pretending Podkayne is a real person) and descriptions of things (technological and otherwise) are more often than not unobtrusive in the sense that they actually add to the story rather than pull you out of it (these would be sections that would otherwise be labeled as telling, but seem to work well enough in almost all cases). The black bubbles are probably the coolest thing invented in an SF novel in a long time. Black bubbles sounds funny because it should and because they are, gasp, black bubbles. In Varleys future, people use them as a way of putting themselves in a form of stasis. The bubbles actually freeze time for the person. You can put anything into them. You want to save a piece of that really good chocolate cake youre eating for when youre 90? Okay, put a black bubble around it and open it up later! That cake will be just as fresh as when you put it in the bubble. Are you sick and dying? Put yourself in a bubble and when they have a cure or a way to fix you the doctors can pull you out and do so. And, guess what, they work almost instantly! Now thats cool technology! I would consider this a novel for those that arent necessarily SF nuts and also a new SFnal look for those of us who are well versed. If you want something that has some of the flashiness of SF, but without all the war, the governments going haywire, dystopian scary bits, and the like, then you should seriously take a look. Yes, there are dystopian elements in the novel, and there is some darkness, but the way in which it is portrayed is different from other novels. We learn everything through Podkayne and a vast majority of it doesnt directly affect her. Mostly she remarks on the happenings as they occur elsewhere, if that makes sense, which is somewhat refreshing. There is a good bit of optimism here and while pessimism is fine in SF it is always nice to get a taste of something else. Thats sort of how I would describe this: a taste of something else. I mean that in a good way, of course. So, if youre looking for something a little different from what youre used to in SF, then this might be what youre looking for. If you dont usually read SF, then maybe this would be a good starter novel for you. Its accessible to a wide range of audiences, or at least I think so, and who knows, maybe this could be the novel that gets those of you whove never really liked SF to change your mind!

This finished Varleys Heinlein homage to the teen books. My only issue was how he forced all the titles of those books into the last 2 chapters.

Quite fun. An old favorite.

As a longtime fan of Johns work I grabbed this book and consumed it voraciously. Having read the other books in his Mars trilogy (Red Thunder, Red Lightning) I had thought them as a separate thought or arc from his Nine planets stories but no, these books are defiantly at the heart of those earlier works. Now if he could find a way to tie in his Gaia trilogy.......

Varley continues to channel Heinlein, and may well be the best alive in this genre of space adventure. Highly reccomended.