Podkayne of Mars

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.

This book was written just before the feminist movement's 2nd-half-of-20th-century phase got underway. Heinlein had not yet broken free of traditional gender roles (as he certainly did shortly thereafter), although it is perfectly obvious that he not only values, but always enjoys, intelligence as a personality trait in women. So you have to forgive him for certain things in order to enjoy this book. I love the playful style of language in which this book is written -- it is unique among Heinlein's many books. When the seemingly amiable and undistinguished old Mrs. Grew turns out to be in reality a mercenary terrorist, the protagonist's brilliant but anti-social younger brother Clark is unsurprised, because once, when she hadn't known he was watching, he had seen her cheating at solitaire!! How do you like that! (A similar insight occurs elsewhere in Heinlein's fiction, in the short story _Gulf_, when Kettle-Belly Baldwin says "Evil is essentially stupid.")

Podkayne had always wanted to go to Earth, but I don't think this is how she planned her trip. Podkayne of Mars starts off with Podkayne, her younger brother Clark, and their Uncle Tom taking a trip from Mars to Earth. Podkayne had never left Mars before and was extremely excited to be aboard the Tricorn, a luxury space ship. Podkayne has a dream of becoming a famous space pilot. So she entertained herself by getting to know the crew and learning about the controls and how the ship works. She even helped out when the ship was hit with a radiation storm. But things take a bad turn when Podkayne finds out that Clark was paid to smuggle a bomb onto the ship. Someone wanted to stop the Tricorn from reaching Venus, the one stop they had to make on their way to earth. Clark gladly took the money, but then Clark disassembled the bomb and they got to Venus safely. Podkayne and Clark were excited that the ship would have a long stop on Venus and that there was plenty of time to explore. After a while on Venus, Clark went missing. While people continued to look for him into the next day, Podkayne found a note left by Clark. It said that he had gone to rescue their friend Girdie, a lady that they had met on the Tricorn. Clark had left instructions for Podkayne as to what to do if she found the note. She was to go to a certain news stand and ask for everlites. She was told to ask for two and say that it was dark where she was going. She later found out that this was all a trap, and the next thing she knew, she was waking up in a strange place. She figured that she had been kidnapped. She looked around and saw Mrs. Grew, another one of their friends from the Tricorn. At first she was excited to see her but then Mrs. grew put Podkayne in a chair and did something to the back of her neck so Podkayne couldn't move from the neck down. Podkayne could look around, though, and she saw her Uncle Tom and Clark sitting there too. Uncle Tom was a senator and was gong to represent Mars at the Three Planet Conference. He was the one that people didn't want to get to the Venus. Mrs. Grew was trying to persuade him to represent her ideas at the conference by threatening Podkayne and Clark. Uncle Tom was released to go to the conference but to make sure that Uncle Tom cooperated; Podkayne and Clark were held captive in a room guarded by a carnivorous fairy and her baby. Clark knew that they would be killed once Uncle Tom did what he was supposed to do so he developed a plan to get them out. That night Clark had to kill the fairy and they were able to escape. Clark had kept the bomb that he had smuggled and set it to blow the house up after they left. Their plan was to get out and find Uncle Tom. Once out of the house they split up and Clark got lost. Clark was in the middle of the swamp when he felt the bomb go off. Clark was rescued and then he found out that Podkayne had gone back to the house to save the baby fairy from getting blown up. She got lost and

After a decade of writing novels for young people (known as juveniles back then -- today we'd call them young adult novels), Robert Heinlein came back to the form for one last shot. "Podkayne of Mars" is a charming story of a young girl's ambition to become the first female starship captain, and her travels to Venus with her uncle and her sociopathic genius of a younger brother. This edition puts together Heinlein's original ending, the rewritten published ending, and a spate of letters from fans arguing over their relative merits. I read the story first as a teenager with the gentler ending; I reread it recently with both endings. Personally, I think either ending works, although I generally think Heinlein knew what he was doing in the first place before editors started demanding cuts. A novel that promotes the idea of the equality of women, as well as a diatribe against racism, "Podkayne" was ahead of its time for 1963 (although the subjects were in the air the previous decade, they weren't in literature for young people at all). The argument at the end of the novel, blaming the mother and father for neglecting their children, has rubbed some people the wrong way; but the idea that one of the parents ought to be home raising the child isn't all that dangerous, is it? After all, a dominant majority of our prison population was raised without a father in the home, while the mother struggled. Good parenting creates good children; bad parenting, Heinlein is arguing, creates bad children. I, for one, don't object to Heinlein's literature carrying philosophical or moral arguments; they help me to think about my own positions, even when I disagree with Heinlein. In my opinion, Heinlein's tendency to have his characters voice strong opinions (which many label preaching), is precisely the reason we're still talking about him. There are many writers of his era who told great stories; there are few we're still bothering to read. "Podkayne of Mars" is a great story, but it's also a great argument: enjoy it on both counts, and feel free to disagree. I think Heinlein wanted it that way.

I remember reading this book when I was 13 for the first time, and it was one of the books I took with me to college. What an absolute delight of a book, though I would recommend it more for young readers, it still holds my interest as an adult.