Debuting in 1974, John Varley became the decade's freshest, most exciting, and most important new science fiction author. He dominated the Seventies with numerous stories and two novels, set mostly in his Eight Worlds future history. By 1984 he had won three Hugo Awards and two Nebula Awards. Yet his output dwindled through the 1980s, and in the 1990s he released only two novels, Steel Beach and The Golden Globe, a pair of Eight Worlds books that received tepid responses.

Fans who feared Varley was devolving into another Robert A. Heinlein imitator may have mixed reactions to Red Thunder, Varley's first novel of the new millennium. Part of SF's turn-of-the-century trend of "Mars novels," but not part of Varley's Eight Worlds series, Red Thunder reads a lot like a Heinlein juvenile novel, if Heinlein were alive and writing juveniles in 2003. Varley's paying tribute to the Master's juveniles, especially Rocket Ship Galileo and Red Planet (and also, more subtly, to the ending of Alfred Bester's novel The Stars My Destination). Though Varley is working with decades-old tropes and is not in his full wildly-imaginative 1970s mode, Red Thunder is an enjoyable SF novel that should win back many disgruntled fans and gain him a new generation of admirers. --Cynthia Ward

From Publishers Weekly
And the heart-pounding space race is on! When a Chinese spacecraft, Heavenly Harmony, threatens to land on Mars a few days before the U.S. shuttle vehicle Ares Seven, washed-up ex-astronaut Travis Broussard, his brilliant but unconventional cousin, Jubal, and four kids from Florida decide to build their own private spaceship, Red Thunder, and get there first in this riveting SF thriller from Hugo and Nebula award winner Varley. Jubal has invented an amazing new power source, the Squeezer, which provides enough thrust to get them to Mars in a mere three days. While the Chinese and other Americans head to Mars the long way, the team works feverishly to build a spaceworthy craft, because although they all want Americans to land on Mars first, a more pressing reason for their visit to the red planet arises. Jubal has discovered a potentially disastrous design flaw in Ares Seven, which has Travis's ex-wife aboard. With a plausible cover story, a lot of help and a raided trust fund, Red Thunder gets built. Will its creators evade the feds who keep nosing around? Will they launch? Will they beat the Chinese to Mars? Can they save Ares Seven? Do you have to ask? In the end, they put their lives on the line, proving that Everyman can be a hero, too. With hilarious, well-drawn characters, extraordinary situations presented plausibly, plus exciting action and adventure, this book should do thunderously well.Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
The opening scene of this space-advocacy novel shows an ethnically diverse, mixed-gender cast of youngsters contemplating converting a railroad tank car into a spaceship. That is a clue as to what lies ahead: a "garage spaceship" story a la Heinlein's YA classic, Rocketship Galileo (1947). The young in question have rescued an alcoholic ex-astronaut whose reclusive, brain-damaged cousin has discovered a new power source capable of getting a spaceship to Mars. Since the Chinese are about to beat the American Mars expedition, everybody works with a will to build the proper ship. In due course, our heroes beat the Chinese, rescue the Americans, and enjoy a happy, affluent ending. Full of little gems of wit and intelligence if not of plausibility, this will be the first space-advocacy novel to appear after the Columbia tragedy, and no amount of revivified condescension toward the space program will probably keep space lovers from swarming for it. Libraries, be prepared. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Book Description
Seven suburban misfits are constructing a spaceship out of old tanker cars. The plan is to beat the Chinese to Mars--in under four days at three million miles an hour. It would be history in the making if it didn't sound so insane.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
John Varley, the Hugo and Nebula Award–winning author of classics like The Ophiuchi Hotline and the Gaean trilogy (Titan, Wizard, and Demon) has released his first novel in more than five years. Red Thunder is Varley at his very best, mixing complex hard science fiction themes with masterful characterization of risk-taking outsiders so common in Varley stories.

It is the near future, and a manned Chinese spaceship is on its way to Mars. An American ship is also headed to the red planet, but the Chinese have a big head start and in all likelihood will be the first humans to walk on the planet's surface. When four young misfits almost kill a washed-out ex-astronaut lying on a Florida beach in the middle of the night while four-wheeling in their tricked-out truck, a strange friendship blossoms. After the young adults meet the ex-astronaut's semiautistic/genius cousin Jubal (who has discovered a revolutionary new power source), a crazy plan is hatched to build a spaceship out of old tanker cars, fly it to Mars, and beat the Chinese! They call the ship "Red Thunder," and with Jubal's new power source ("Squeeze Drive") and a lot of American gumption, this ill-matched group of dreamers just might be able to do it￯﾿ﾽ

Fast-paced, cerebral, sensual, and filled with Varley's unique wit, Red Thunder is reminiscent of Robert Heinlein's The Number of the Beast -- wicked and wondrous science fiction from a master of the genre. Paul Goat Allen

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"The U.S. space program is effectively over. The loss of the Ares Seven ship was the final blow. Everyone has accepted that the manned Chinese ship, Heavenly Harmony, being prepped for a mission to Mars, will be the first vessel from Earth to land on the Red Planet." "Almost everyone." "In a deserted warehouse near Daytona, a band of seven suburban misfits - including a Cajun boy genius and a disgraced captain drummed out of NASA - is constructing a spaceship, built out of old tanker cars and held together with determination, guts, and all-American ambition. They call her Red Thunder, and they plan not only to beat the Chinese to Mars, but to rescue everyone aboard the marooned Ares Seven as well. What's more, they've geared their beautiful beast to make the trip in just under four days - that's over three million miles an hour. It would sound like history in the making if it didn't sound so insane. Is it possible?" Anything's possible.

FROM THE CRITICS

The Washington Post

Varley's great strength is in his characterizations, but in Red Thunder he also shows a strong sense of place. He's clearly in love with Florida and the many quirky and eccentric people who live there. As a result, Red Thunder is a realistic -- and funny -- novel that happens to be set in the future. The novel is also in a sense an elegy: Sf readers have long hoped to travel in outer space, and Varley implies that this will be possible only if we discover something radically different from anything now known to physicists. But if you are willing to simply fantasize about fleeing your office cubicle and becoming a heroic space explorer, this novel will amiably fulfill your wishes. — Martin Morse Wooster

Publishers Weekly