John Varley Resident Scholar Profiles TOP SCHOLAR: pepper mcginnis SCHOLARS:
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Review Summaries
"
Ace, April 2003, 23.95, 416 pp.
ISBN 0441010156
In the not too distant future, NASA has invented space technology used by Ares Seven to travel to Mars, but it will land two weeks after the Chinese make the first red planet landing with people aboard. Manny and Dak, two college students, want to become astronauts more than anything else and they get to meet former astronaut Travis Bussard when they almost run over him in their jeep. Travis was drummed out of NASA because he was an alcoholic and he doesn't intend to change that condition until four young men and women give him a reason to remain sober.
Travis's cousin Jubal, an idiot savante, invents a new form of energy that when inserted onto a spaceship, can take the crew to Mars in under a week. Jubal wants America to be the first country to walk on Mars. Manny, his girlfriend Kelly, Dak and his girlfriend Alicia agree with him. Travis thinks they are all crazy but helps them build a ship that will take them to Mars when Jubal informs him that there is a fault in Ares Seven that destroy the ship before it lands. Travis doesn't want that to happen because his ex-wife, the custodial parent of his children, is on board the Ares Seven.
John Varley has written a first rate science fiction novel starring five unlikely heroes who end up doing the country proud. Jubal, the creator of the space drive, takes pleasure in simple things even though his patents are making him billions of dollars. RED THUNDER would make a great movie because it has plenty of action, romance and suspense. This work will appeal to fans of Robert Heinlein's more sophisticated works.
Harriet Klausner
"
Harriet Klausner, Resident John Varley Scholar
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Overall Review
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Plot
Composition of Book Descript. of chases or violence - 10% planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 20% Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 30% Descript. of society, phenomena (tech), places - 40%
Tone of book
- suspenseful (sophisticated fear)
FANTASY or SCIENCE FICTION?
- science fiction story
Explore/1st contact/ enviro story
Yes
Plotlets:
- primitive/present day space voyage
Tech./$$$/Info hunt
Yes
Stealing/recovering/destroying
- method of transportation
Is this an adult or child's book?
- Adult or Young Adult Book
Inventing-of-item story?
Yes
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Profession/status:
- fighter (air/space) pilot
Age:
- 40's-50's
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Strong but gentle sense of humor
Intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- very athletic
Main Adversary
Identity:
- none
Setting
Which planet?
- Mars
Earth setting:
- dinosaur times
Takes place on Earth?
Yes
Not Earth, in Solar System?
Yes
Style
Person?
- mostly 3rd
Accounts of torture and death?
- no torture/death
scientific jargon? (SF only)
- a moderate amount of scientific explanation
How much dialogue?
- significantly more dialog than descript
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