Podkayne of Mars

Podkayne of Mars / Robert Heinlein 191 pgs. about 7 hours listening

Podkayne is a young woman of almost 9 (Mars years) and is moving right along in her plans to become a space captain. She has a 6 year old (Mars years) genius brother and in an accidental "thawing", her parents have 3 frozen embryos that become triplets added to the family. The triplets ruin the family vacation plan of visiting earth and Podkayne and her brother Clark end up complaining to their Uncle Tom who agrees to take them on the trip. There is more to this family vacation than meets the eye because Uncle Tom is Senator Tom Fries, a respected elder statesman on Mars and he has a diplomatic mission up his sleeve to take place during this family vacation. Not surprisingly, trouble ensues and Podkayne, Clark and Tom are kidnapped, the kids are threatened to force Tom into changing his political position. Clark hatches an escape plan and, well, I won't spoil the ending.

I really enjoyed learning about life on Mars and Venus but there is a bit of the 60's mentality about Podkayne like when she meets and dates a man and considers ending her dream of becoming a captain because being a stewardess might be just as good and so much easier. Of course she doesn't make that decision and also fights with her beau about Tom's beliefs so she certainly demonstrates plenty of pluck. - Christa

check our catalog