- Publisher: Blackstone Audio
- Published Date: 6/11/2008
- Format: Audiobook
- Duration: 6 hours 1 minute
- ASIN: B001B14D3C
- Language: English
- Author: Robert A. Heinlein
- Read by: Emily Janice Card
Podkayne of Mars by Robert A. Heinlein was originally published in 1962/63 in Worlds of If magazine and then as a stand alone novel in 1963. If you are a regular reader of my reviews, then you are probably aware that Heinlein is one of my favorite authors. He writes intelligent stories with intelligent characters. He doesn’t dumb down even his juvenile novels. Podkayne is not technically one of his juvenile series on Scribner, but is sometimes considered his ‘female juvenile’ novel.
Podkayne (Poddy) is a very intelligent teenage girl with a brilliant eleven-year-old brother, Clark. She has dreams (plans) of becoming a star ship captain. She has a role model in her working mother who is a senior engineer on Mars. Podkayne and Clark are allowed to travel with their great uncle (Senator Tom Fries) on a trip to Earth where he will be a member of a delegation discussing the future of the three human-populated worlds (Earth, Venus and Mars) as well as the moon where the conference will be held. Poddy uses the trip on a luxurious star liner to investigate her future career, and to befriend various passengers. The ship’s course will take it from Mars first to Venus and then back to Earth. Once on Venus, Poddy meets the son of the leader of Venus who charms her, and Clark seems to find a way to beat the house at the casino. Uncle Tom is busy with planning for the conference and working with local Venusian leadership. Then, Clark disappears and they all get thrown into an interplanetary conspiracy to prevent Uncle Tom from representing Mars.
As I said before, Heinlein is one of my favorite authors. One of the things I like about him is the way he wrote strong female characters well before things like women’s liberation even existed. While still a product of his times, he generally went well beyond societal norms when it came to things like women’s abilities, civil rights, etc. I have to report that I was disappointed in Heinlein in Podkayne of Mars. Poddy really does almost nothing to advance the plot. She spends much of her time deciding: maybe being a star ship captain or even pilot would be too hard for a girl, that taking care of babies is really satisfying, that getting her makeup right is very important and worth hours of time, that the dreamy boy who is escorting her around needs to be managed with her wiles, etc.
The only time she takes action, she is immediately captured, and it is up to her brother to come up with an escape plan. Perhaps the most disappointing part of the story is when Uncle Tom, presumably taking on the role of wise counselor, tells Poddy’s parents that they have failed as parents, that her mother should have given up working to be a good mom. This is a story of two teen and pre-teen children who work together to foil an inter-planetray plot, but she’s failed as a mom? Really Bob, you can do better, and you have repeatedly.
I still recommend reading Podkayne of Mars. Heinlein is a great story teller. Perhaps the misogyny was to meet the needs of the time, but I would think by 1963, Heinlein would have known better.
Matt Truxaw is the author of the hard science fiction thriller “Plastiphobia: aka Plastivore” and his newest novel “Anthrophobia: A Teacher’s Tale” – released January 3, 2025.
They are both available on Amazon in Paperback, Kindle and are free to read with Kindle Unlimited.
When you read either, he would really appreciate a review/rating on Amazon or your favorite book seller/book reader site.
More about Matt:
He was born in Orange County California many years ago and he still lives there. He has been reading books for most of those years and writing up book reviews for the last few years. He gets most of his books out of the library so expect a lot of old science fiction classics book reviews and other science related reviews in addition to newer books he comes across.
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