What CAN be said no is that in some respects RED PLANET aged quite well and in other respects, a modern reading is quite gruesome and almost painful. But when push comes to shove, that doesn’t really matter. The honest truth is that I’ve had this on my shelf for SO long that I have no recollection if this is a re-read or my first run through. RED PLANET was a Robert Heinlein juvenile sci-fi written in 1949. Sing ¿Quién es la Señorita? one more time, Willis! Other than that, it's a rockin' story!īut no matter what, I will always adore Willis the Martian with my entire heart and soul. There's a pretty heavy gun ownership rights theme running through this book that may irk some readers, the sexual roles are straight from the 1950s ( Red Planet was written in 1949, so understandable enough), people in authority tend to be corrupt and/or incompetent, and you have to be able to suspend disbelief in light of what we now know about life on Mars. Heinlein is especially imaginative here, with the unique Martian civilization and the realistic (at least for the time) details about humans trying to survive in the hostile environment of Mars. It’s up to these two boys to save their hometown and their Martian friend from the nefarious forces of evil. In between getting into trouble with the new, insanely strict headmaster, they find out about a plot that could endanger both humans and the native Martians.

Two teenage boys, part of the human colonies on Mars, are sent away to boarding school in the biggest city on Mars. Though this is one of his early juvie novels, so it's safer than, say, Time Enough for Love. I really need to read it again as an adult, but Heinlein. This was, hands down, my favorite Heinlein book as a teen.

Red planet robert heinlein