Podkayne of Mars eBook Robert A Heinlein
Download As PDF : Podkayne of Mars eBook Robert A Heinlein 
“A delight.”—New York Herald Tribune
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 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.
Podkayne of Mars eBook Robert A Heinlein
Before referring to the bibliography of Robert A. Heinlein's works, I had thought that Podkayne of Mars was probably an early novel of his, but in fact it was written in 1963, shortly after he wrote Stranger in a Strange Land and at a time when he was, I think, quite solidly established as one of the preeminent Sci-Fi authors of that era (and of any era). His first novel, Rocket Ship Galileo, had been published in 1947, and it was followed by 18 other novels, among them Red Planet, The Puppet Masters, Tunnel in the Sky, Time for the Stars, Citizen of the Galaxy, The Door into Summer, Methuselah's Children, and Starship Troopers, before he wrote Stranger and then Podkayne.This is therefore one of his 'middle' novels, with his writing style well established and polished. Reading it brings back many good memories of my reading Heinlein's novels as a youth, and in this case I am sure that I read one of the very early paperback editions of the book within just a couple of years of it's first publication.
This is a fine story, told in first person by Podkayne Fries, a teenage girl who, having grown up on the now-colonized Mars, is now traveling with her uncle on a trip to Venus and eventually Earth. Her younger brother, Clark, is with them. It was trip that had been planned for their entire family, but the father and mother find themselves unable to go and their uncle agrees to chaperone them. Clark is a genius and kind of budding Dr. Evil (but in a less malicious way), and the story is full of little insights into the cultures of what I presume would be 21st century Earth, Mars and Venus (the time of the novel is not ever stated as far as I know).
This is not a juvenile novel, as one of the earlier reviewers also points out. It's a light and enjoyable read, even as it approaches the climax which I have to admit I was surprised by. After all these years, I did not remember how the story ended, and it was a very bittersweet surprise to me when I reached that point.
The Kindle version of this novel also includes a significant afterword - an excerpt from Heinlein's letter to his agent, dated March 10, 1962, discussing the story and the ending. It's a very illuminating insight into Heinlein's thinking relative to this story, but don't read it until you've read the novel itself. And I also recommend avoiding the wiki article if you're considering reading the story, because it will contain far too many spoilers for someone not already familiar with the book.
It's best to discover this story without any preconceptions, other than the expectation that, like almost any Heinlein novel, it has compelling characters, a thought provoking setting, and a story that will entertain and surprise.
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Podkayne of Mars eBook Robert A Heinlein Reviews
And Poddy is NO ordinary Girl. Future Starship Captain and Master-Of-Men Podkayne Fries is quite clearly the author of her own destiny, she thinks. And THAT is the point of this "Romp" through the Inner Solar system. The Worlds have been developing, each along it's own course, and naturally there are going to be "growing pains." Just a Poddy faces changes in her own thinking after having her nose rubbed in some rather un-pleasant realities, Diapers, changed plans, people who are NOT what they seem. Ah, if onlly life were as simple as it was SUPPOSED to be.
Strictly speaking this is NOT part of the Jueveniles that were written for Scribners after WWII for the Boy's Market. But Heinlein learned to deal with the adolescent mind so well that trying on the "Voice" of a Girl was clearly too much of a challenge to resist. Both Poddy and her poisionous little Brother "ring true" and I've actually met them in the hear-and-now world.
It was fun to delve into a bit of vintage science fiction with this Heinlein novel. This piece is an adventure story for a youth or young adult audience. It's relatively entertaining and moves along at a satisfactory pace after the first few chapters. The science fiction aspects of the story hold up reasonably well after almost six decades, but part of the fun of reading vintage science fiction is seeing how well the author anticipates future historical, scientific and technological developments. Heinlein is not far off the mark with respect to future telecommunications and space transportation technology; however, he misses the advent of e-commerce and digital documents, photography and data storage. (One amusing incident in the book involves the little brother ingeniously extracting the chemical colors from celluloid photographic film to play a prank.) Based on recent scientific investigation of planetary conditions on Mars and Venus, neither place would be as suitable for mass human colonization as the book assumes. Non-human life forms in the book are depicted rather cartoonishly by contemporary standards but not out of step with the era in which the book was written. A current Earth population of 7 billion people makes a future Earth population of 8 billion seem far less dystopian than the novel suggests. In an era when the planet had only 2 billion people, I'm sure it was hard for Heinlein and his contemporaries to conceive of a world that could have and sustain a population almost four times that size within a century.
The letter between Heinlein and his agent appended at the end of the book suggests that Heinlein had loftier ambitions for this work as a commentary on the psychological consequences of ambitious, career-minded mothers neglecting their children. (What about ambitious, career-minded fathers who neglect their children?) If that is a major theme it is well concealed from the casual reader. The same letter also makes much of Heinlein's objection to changing the ending of the story before initial publication to make it less tragic and more acceptable to the "happy ending" sensibilities of audiences of the early 1960's. (This version of the book incorporates his original ending). But I think the notion that the "happy ending" he wrote compromised the story is overblown. The ultimate fate of "Poddy" changes the final story arc very little. I suspect the real issue was artistic control. No author likes to be pressured to change their work to make it more commercial.
Before referring to the bibliography of Robert A. Heinlein's works, I had thought that Podkayne of Mars was probably an early novel of his, but in fact it was written in 1963, shortly after he wrote Stranger in a Strange Land and at a time when he was, I think, quite solidly established as one of the preeminent Sci-Fi authors of that era (and of any era). His first novel, Rocket Ship Galileo, had been published in 1947, and it was followed by 18 other novels, among them Red Planet, The Puppet Masters, Tunnel in the Sky, Time for the Stars, Citizen of the Galaxy, The Door into Summer, Methuselah's Children, and Starship Troopers, before he wrote Stranger and then Podkayne.
This is therefore one of his 'middle' novels, with his writing style well established and polished. Reading it brings back many good memories of my reading Heinlein's novels as a youth, and in this case I am sure that I read one of the very early paperback editions of the book within just a couple of years of it's first publication.
This is a fine story, told in first person by Podkayne Fries, a teenage girl who, having grown up on the now-colonized Mars, is now traveling with her uncle on a trip to Venus and eventually Earth. Her younger brother, Clark, is with them. It was trip that had been planned for their entire family, but the father and mother find themselves unable to go and their uncle agrees to chaperone them. Clark is a genius and kind of budding Dr. Evil (but in a less malicious way), and the story is full of little insights into the cultures of what I presume would be 21st century Earth, Mars and Venus (the time of the novel is not ever stated as far as I know).
This is not a juvenile novel, as one of the earlier reviewers also points out. It's a light and enjoyable read, even as it approaches the climax which I have to admit I was surprised by. After all these years, I did not remember how the story ended, and it was a very bittersweet surprise to me when I reached that point.
The version of this novel also includes a significant afterword - an excerpt from Heinlein's letter to his agent, dated March 10, 1962, discussing the story and the ending. It's a very illuminating insight into Heinlein's thinking relative to this story, but don't read it until you've read the novel itself. And I also recommend avoiding the wiki article if you're considering reading the story, because it will contain far too many spoilers for someone not already familiar with the book.
It's best to discover this story without any preconceptions, other than the expectation that, like almost any Heinlein novel, it has compelling characters, a thought provoking setting, and a story that will entertain and surprise.
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