A tale beloved by many fans of Robert A. Heinlein, Podkayne of Mars tells the story of a young Marswoman and her inter-planetary adventures with her uncle and her genius brother.
Told largely through Podkayne’s diaries, the story details her travel to Earth with her two companions. Podkayne has very definite plans on what to do and how to do it, but not everything is as it seems. She is suddenly … seems. She is suddenly thrust into the middle of life and death situations when the liner they are travelling on makes a stop at Venus.
The original publisher of this book asked Heinlein to change the controversial ending, which Heinlein did extremely reluctantly. He felt the original ending much better suited the story line and was never satisfied with the modified “safer” ending. This edition restores the book to how Heinlein originally wrote it. It also includes a letter to his agent, decrying the changes asked for by his original publisher.
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I,ve been reading Heiein since 1972 and this was the first time that I can truly say that the ending took me completely by surprise.
There is little that Heinlein wrote that I did not enjoy reading and re-reading or listening to as an audiobook. I enjoyed this book. Was it an in depth character study? No. But is WAS fun read. The man could tell a story.
I am a fan of RH, but had never read this book. For me, it looked like and read like a Nancy Drew mystery for adolescents and I never understood it until I read Heinlein’s commentary letter about that particular book. Now that I understand his objective, I can appreciate the book more, but it is still not one of my favorites. I prefer the adult themed later novels but think this one would be good for young female teens.
Many people find Poddy unrealistic. I just find her genius-prone.
A classic!
For me it was a nostalgic trip into my early reading years…..During my sci-fi period Heinlein was a favorite author…..
The book was fairly predictable but the ending was a complete unhappy surprise.
This is a typical early Heinlein book. His female characters were seen as revolutionary back in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. Now, 50 years later, many of the books seem a bit misogynistic, but are still a good read, if you keep that in mind. This book in particular is a story of a young girl and her adventures with her brother on Mars. It’s fun, it’s simple and a fast read. The ending is not what you expect, and if you give this to a young reader, they should be prepared for a not-happy ending.
Read it!
I read it out of sheer nostalgia; it was one of the books I loved as a girl, possibly because it was about a girl. It was a gateway to SFF for me.
A great classic SciFi tale.
Just as entertaining 50 years after I first read it.