Podkayne of Mars (Digest Size) (Ace Science Fiction)

Author - Robert A. Heinlein ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Paperback Book item from Ace was reviewed on 14-Oct-2008.

Search ISBN:0441012981 offer from Abebooks or used books from Alibris. Podkayne of Mars (Digest Size) (Ace Science Fiction) Reference Book. Classifications : Science Fiction, Fantasy, & Magic Science Fiction, Fantasy, Mystery & Horror Literature Children's Books 4-for-3 Books Store Custom Stores Specialty Stores Books General Science Fiction Science Fictio . Click the following link to view the cover of Podkayne of Mars (Digest Size) (Ace Science Fiction).

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1) Paperback Book Podkayne of Mars (Digest Size) (Ace Science Fiction) by Ace. "Podkayne of Mars" is one of Heinlein´s best ´Juvenile´ science fiction stories. If you could use a gift for a teenage girl, this would be great! I read it when it first came out and have re-read it many times.

The science fiction is so good that folks planning the eventual manned Mars trip go to this story and other Heinlein science fiction for ideas on what to include in their ship!

"Podkayne" is one of the stories that hooked many of us Heinlein fans into reading every word Heinlein ever wrote. That is how good this story is.

Warning! The ending will get teenagers to crying, which may actually be a good thing. Also, American culture has changed since this was written and the main character may seem naive to today´s teenagers.

Buy it! Read it! Give it away as gifts!¤

2) Paperback Book Podkayne of Mars (Digest Size) (Ace Science Fiction) by Ace. This story is a really great book. It gives you detail and all the good stuff you look for in a book. The only reason I gave this a 4 star was because the ending was horrible.I mean I wanted a sequel to this but you can´t because the main character,Podkayne, dies. But otherwise this is a really good book!¤

3) Paperback Book Podkayne of Mars (Digest Size) (Ace Science Fiction) by Ace. Of all the Heinlein books I read when I was young, this was not one of them. But now with a 12 year old girl who is exposed to all the junk around us now, I figured it would be a good bet.

Heinlein came through. Erin loves it, and it gives us a lot to talk about, especially since it´s about a strong young girl without all the PC nonsense we find everywhere else.

Now she´s on to Starship Troopers!¤

4) Paperback Book Podkayne of Mars (Digest Size) (Ace Science Fiction) by Ace. This seems to be one of Heinlein´s most underappreciated novels. Yes,it is about a teenage girl and her younger brother but that does not necessarily make it a juvenile novel. I pity the person so dead inside that there is no inner child to find delight in such pleasures. I have read it several times over the years and enjoyed it each time. I always found it very sad that there was no sequel. In today´s market, such characters would have spawned whole series of novels. And Clark was/is one of the best supporting characters in all of literature.¤

5) Paperback Book Podkayne of Mars (Digest Size) (Ace Science Fiction) by Ace. Before I actually review this novel, I must clear up a commonly-held misconception: _Podkayne of Mars_ is not a juvenile novel! When I was at the Heinlein Centennial last summer, Dr. Robert James (a leading Heinlein scholar) read the backcover blurb from the first paperback edition, which made this very obvious: juvenile novels are not marketed with phrases such as "the Minx from Mars." Dr. James is evidently irritated with people continually referring to this as a juvenile...

The last unambiguously juvenile novel was _Have Spacesuit, Will Travel_. _Starship Troopers_ is supposedly a juvenile, but I really have my doubts. _Podkayne_ is a novel that comes early in the period in which Heinlein was finally writing more or less what he wanted, rather than writing for specific markets.

The entire book is composed of Podkayne´s diary, with a couple of secret entries made by her younger brother Clark, in invisible ink. The reason for this is obvious once you have read the book: no spoilers here!

The story is about Podkayne and her younger brother Clark accompanying their Uncle Tom on a trip to Venus and then to Earth (the trip never gets past Venus). There´s a lot more here than meets the eye, because Tom is actually on a secret diplomatic mission to the upcoming Three Planets conference, and Poddy and Clark are along just to provide cover.

At first everything seems to be perfectly innocent, but then a stranger gets Clark to smuggle a package on board the spaceliner. Clark is a lot smarter than the stranger gives him credit for; the kid figures out that he´s been given an atomic bomb that´s been set to go off shortly after they leave Mars. Clark, being a boy genius, finds a way to defuse it. The plot gets thicker from there -- for the most part the story seems like an innocent travelogue of the future, but here and there the reader gets intimations of skulduggery afoot. By the end of the book, the plot has thickened to a perfect and satisfying consistency.

There has been some controversy regarding this book, regarding the ending. The edition I have on my desk in front of me right now is the Baen Books paperback printing of July 1995 (the hardcover was August 1993), which has both Heinlein´s original ending as well as the changed ending which appeared in all editions from 1963 until 1993. It´s a pretty good story with either ending, but I like Heinlein´s original ending better.

Before I end this, I´m going to make a short quote from a letter from Heinlein to Lurton Blassingame, his agent, dated Mar. 10, 1962:
"Is _Poddy_ a juvenile? I didn´t think of it as such and I suggest that it violates numerous taboos for the juvenile market."

Having said that, I have to say that I highly recommend this book, as I do almost everything that Heinlein wrote. I´m still not sure, after all these years, what it is that Heinlein put into his stories to make them so engaging, readable, and downright fun, but there it is: Heinlein was the greatest of all the science fiction writers so far, and he never wrote a dull tale.

¤

6) Paperback Book Podkayne of Mars (Digest Size) (Ace Science Fiction) by Ace. From the author of Rocket Ship Galileo comes this classic tale featuring the Grand Master of Science Fiction´s most remarkable heroine.¤

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 11-Nov-2008, 04410129819780441012985, 330-7X0-810-041-121-201-HEB-8

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