Rolling Thunder (A Thunder and Lightning Novel)

This book is the third book in a series that started with an unlikely group of people, including a Cajun ex-astronaut and his genius brother, who beat the Chinese in being the first humans on Mars, using a radical new technology even its inventor doesn't fully understand. Lieutenant Patricia Kelly Elizabeth Podkayne Strickland-Garcia-Redmond, a third-generation member of the Martian pioneer family, narrates the story. She goes by only one of her many names, Podkayne. She says she's never read Robert A. Heinlein's Podkayne of Mars because she doesn't care much for science fiction. She's 18 as the book begins, a third-generation Martian whose grandparents were among the first to reach Mars. She's in the Music, Arts and Drama Division of the Martian Navy, and as the book opens, she's enduring Earth gravity (Mars has a gravity that's 38% of Earth's) in Pismo Beach, California weeding out people who want to emigrate to Mars. But soon Podkayne's on her way back to Mars because her great-grandmother, close to dying, has elected to go into a time-suspending bubble. After her extended family sees off their matriarch, Podkayne heads off to Europa, one of Jupiter's moons to entertain Martian Navy personnel and scientists there and at other scientific outposts in the Jovian system. She's a singer/songwriter/composer, and teams up with other musicians in Podkayne and the Pod People. It seems a safe enough, and even creative, way to spend her mandatory time in the service. Safe, that is, until she's in the wrong place at the wrong time. John Varley uses the breezy, informal and often humorous style of Podkayne to tell of sweeping events that shape the history of Earth and Mars. It's a troubled history, and global warming on Earth turns out to be only part of the trouble. Podkayne is very articulate, but she's no rocket scientist, so things get explained pretty much in layman's terms. She's an entertainer, and events propel her to the heights of fame, something Varley appears to have learned a lot about during his years in Hollywood. Podkayne's journey through the part of her life told in the book takes several unexpected turns, eventually taking her further than she'd ever imagined.

John Varely is one of the greatest scifi writers alive today. His works are incredibly good, and his writing style is captivating. This book is the third installment in his "thunder" series. I was very thrown off by the first three or four chapters, confused by the next few, and yearning for more by the end of the book. If you have read the first two don't be disappointed by the character change in the beginning. It pays off by the end of the book if you are patient with the begining. This book is in typical Varley style as it jumps around a little, but it all comes to a fantastic conclusion. A conclusion that makes me want to strangle the writer for stopping so soon. Hopefully the publisher is just waiting a couple of months to put out the fourth book, because I have got to know how this fantastic curveball of a stroyline ends. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did :)

I'm addicted to Varley. His characters talk and act they way I would. It's refreshing. I hope we don't have to wait too long for the next one.

This story really deals with the impact of the technology introduced in the first book in the series and it's consequences as seen in the second book. As much as the crystal mountain things are an extinction level event, it also shows technology as having the same potential impact. All of this is being seen through the eyes of a young female naval officer/singer. I especially enjoyed the discussion of the implications of skipping through time. Almost a young adult flavor to the book if you erase the sex and nudity. I laughed aloud when she tried driving her car...

This third book in the series continues the saga of an intertwined martian family. The story moves quickly between Earth, Mars, and the moons of Jupiter. John Varley spins a tale that makes this book hard to set down. One can only hope that the story will continue rolling on.