And my project of reading (or rereading, in some cases) all of Heinlein's juveniles comes to an end with this book. It's been 14 books, including the 12 classical juveniles published by Scribner between 1947 and 1958, another that was submitted to Scribner's as a juvenile but was rejected and instead published by Putnam (Starship Troopers), and this one (Podkayne of Mars). Podkayne was published 4 years after Starship Troopers and many reviewers list it with the juveniles, although apparently Heinlein did not consider it as one. Regardless of what Heinlein thought, after reading it there is no doubt in my mind that this one belongs with the juveniles, because of the writing style, the youthful main characters and the many similarities with the other Heinlein juveniles (like the presence of an older Heinlein-typical mentor character, the fact that the author sometimes uses the story to present some of his pet ideas about how society should work, the similarities in settings and type of coming of age/adventure story...)

As a Heinlein juvenile, it is interesting because it is the only one where the main character is a girl. That does not mean that feminists will love it, though. In fact this is probably worst offender among the juveniles in terms of sexism, when looked from a modern perspective. The Heinlein who wrote these books was a man of the 50s/early 60s. In some ways he transcended the way of thinking of his time (like the presence of extremely intelligent and capable professional woman in these novels), but in many others these novels are the 50s in space. Heinlein had no problem with the concept of women being as competent as the most brilliant men, but he could not dream of a society where the distinction between men and women does not matter. Considering when these books were written and in what society Heinlein grew up and lived, taking that final leap was not easy at all, but in these novels Heinlein never takes it.

I said that the main character in Podkayne is a girl, but some people dispute that. While Poddy is obviously point-of-view character, telling the story in first person through his diary, it can be argued that the hero of the story, the one who gets things done, is his little brother Clark. Poddy is meant to be a brilliant and endearing but very naive girl, while Clark in an asocial genius who sometimes borders the psychopathic.

Heinlein obviously intended Poddy to be endearing, but is she? For the most part, yes, but when Heinlein created brilliant young characters he tended to make them a bit unlikable. I'm thinking of the twins from The Rolling Stones, for example, who were bright entrepreneurs to an exaggerated extent. Here Poddy is supposed to be very bright, but she often doesn't show it. Much of that is because of her naivete and the need to contrast her kindness with Clark's ruthlessness, but she doesn't really do anything to make us think that she is also very intelligent in her own right. Her thoughts are very conventional in a "50s" sort of mentality, easily accepting for example that “it is a mistake for a girl to beat out a male at any test of physical strength” or that "it does not do to let any man of any age know that one (a female) has brains, not on first acquaintance; intelligence in a woman is likely to make a man suspicious and uneasy”. She wants to become a spaceship captain, but she is aware that to get that job she will have to prove herself much more than any male would need to, and that thought does not seem to strike her as completely unfair. Also, Heinlein seemed to have a bit of a "baby" obsession in this book, and Poddy does not miss any chance to turn into a baby-changing-and-comforting machine (at one point she wonders whether it would be better for her to aim to be a "creche engineer" in a starship, instead of a captain).To be fair, it is easy to judge Heinlein from a modern point of view for not overcoming the social sexism of his time. However, he does overcome some of it, and I have read comments from older female readers saying that they were inspired by the highly talented professional women in his books, like Poddy's mother for example. It's also fair to mention that Heinlein was really good at overcoming the racist prejudices of his time (I say racist prejudices, not necessarily cultural prejudices), which to us seems natural but only because we do not live in Heinlein's time.

The main problem with this book when compared to other juveniles is that a much larger part of it is devoted to out of date social commentary. In fact, the adventure part of the plot comes almost as an afterthought, near the ending of the novel. It also feels less satisfying because there is no character growth for Poddy. In many other juveniles the boy protagonist starts as a naive but willing kid and in the course of the story matures and becomes a young man. Here Poddy does not get the chance to grow up as a person and earn respect through her effort. The whole story happens in a short span of time, and we do not get to see Poddy grow up.

Another curious thing about this novel is that there are two endings (differing only in the last page). There is the one that Heinlein originally wrote and the one that was finally published, since the publisher forced Heinlein to modify it against the writer's bitter complaints. The version I read had the one that was published, but in the Baen edition apparently both endings are included, along with some fan-essays discussing which ending is better. If you are curious you can read about it here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podkayne_of_Mars

So, this novel is not very good. Heinlein's flaws are magnified and his virtues are less evident than in other juveniles. I believe that if he had had more discipline about devoting his considerable talent to telling a good story instead of being self-indulgent in telling us about his pet-views the book would have been better. Still, as a storyteller Heinlein had a gift. I was entertained, and I never felt the temptation to stop reading, even if sometimes I rolled my eyes. It is a novel that I wouldn't recommend to an impressionable child (if children are still impressionable in this internet age) without some discussion about the context in which it was written and how it influenced the story.


All in all, this reading project has been a very enjoyable ride. I feel that now I have a better understanding about Heinlein as a writer, and I just love coming-of-age stories as Heinlein at his best can tell them. ( )

I think this is the only book by Heinlein where the central character and narrator is a teenage girl. He does a good job from my male point of view although some female readers complain about Poddy's excessively cloying cuteness. The ending is dark and when the publisher complained, Heinlein made it even darker. I still don't get the reason for this. There's a political plot lurking in the background that's never really explained as well.

This is one of the books from Heinlein's late period. I hated these books when I was younger, but now that I'm in my seventies, I find myself drawn to them. They're not so much slick SF stories but rather musings on "What is Life, After All". ( )

I have a feeling Heinlein had a new baby in the house when he wrote this. And he had a problem with it. Very amusing sexism floating around in a sea of racial equality. ( )

It is a Heinlein story, so that guaranteed quality to the writing, which it has. The story is told in a semi-journal manner mostly from Podkayne. Most of the book is about the main character's experiencing cultures and politics different than Mars. There is overt 1960s sexism going as there are awkward flirtations going on which Podkayne is uncertain to deal with

However little of that matters as the end is an abrupt change and a disappointing one, or I should say two.My edition of the story has 2 endings and both are sad, on more so than the other.

It's an okay book but far from Heinlein's best. I give it 3/5 stars. It could have been better. ( )

Podkayne is a young adult human female born and raised on provincial Mars, who dreams of becoming a starship captain... Heinlein wrote this novella in 1963 and it mostly serves as an expository vehicle for the author's ideas of what life might be like in the future in terms of science and social mores. The actual plot is superficial ("Poddy" takes an interplanetary trip with her uncle and brother) and the real action doesn't occur until the final chapters. Pure science fiction and dated, it doesn't hold up after sixty years of real-world advancements (both technological and societal) and and the lack of depth in regard to the plot make this little more than a curiosity. ( )