Red Planet (novel)
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| First edition cover | |
| Author | Robert A. Heinlein |
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| Illustrator | Clifford Geary |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Science fiction novel |
| Publisher | Scribner's |
| Released | 1949 |
| Media Type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| ISBN | NA |
| Preceded by | Space Cadet |
| Followed by | Farmer in the Sky |
Red Planet is a 1949 science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein about students at boarding school on Mars. It represents the first appearance of Heinlein's idealized Martian elder race (see also Double Star and Stranger in a Strange Land). The version published in 1949 featured a number of changes forced on Heinlein by Scribner's, since it was published as part of the Heinlein juveniles. After Heinlein's death, the book was reissued by Del Rey Books as the author originally intended.
In 1994, the novel was adapted by Lee Gunther's Gunther-Wahl Productions into an animated miniseries, featuring the voices of Mark Hamill, Roddy McDowall and Nick Tate.
[edit] Plot summary
The unscrupulous colonial administrator, Beecher, works secretly to prevent the annual migration (to avoid the severe winter conditions) in order to save money. Two boys who attend the Lowell Academy boarding school, Jim Marlowe and Frank Kelley, find out about the plan accidentally from Jim's Martian pet, Willis the Bouncer, who can talk and has the intelligence of a young child. The authoritarian school headmaster, Mr. Howe (a relative of Beecher's), had confiscated Willis, claiming it was against the rules to have pets, but in reality, he planned to sell him to the London Zoo for a hefty price. When Jim and Frank sneak into Howe's office and rescue Willis, the bouncer repeats an overheard conversation between Beecher and Howe, revealing the new policy. The boys run away from school to warn their parents.
In the course of their escape, Jim and Frank befriend adult Martians through a ritual called "growing together", a state of euphoria where the Martians sit and do nothing. They also share water, making Jim and the Martian Gekko "water friends". The boys are then transported back to their home in the South Colony by a Martian "subway" that transports them a long way in a short time without any feeling of motion.
Once warned, Jim's father quickly organizes the migration, hoping to catch Beecher off guard. The colonists take over the boarding school and turn it into a temporary shelter. Howe locks himself in his office, while Beecher sets up armed guards outside to stop the dissidents from leaving. After two people are killed while trying to surrender, the colonists decide they have no choice but to rebel. During the night, they sneak out, take control and proclaim their independence from Earth. The crusty Doctor MacRae and the two boys are heroes.
During the siege, several adult Martians enter the school and confront Howe over his scheme for selling Willis. They surround him, hiding him from sight; when they separate, Howe is nowhere to be found. The Martians then present the colonists with an ultimatum: leave the planet or else.
Jim's relationship with Willis ultimately saves the colony. It turns out that Martians start life as bouncers, metamorphose into adults, then continue their lives after death as "old ones". Jim's love for Willis persuades the Martians to let them stay.
In the end, Jim prepares to give Willis up so he can undergo the transformation to adulthood. Like Podkayne of Mars, there are two versions of the ending. As originally written (and published much later) it is made clear that Willis will not emerge as an adult for fifty years. This was censored by Heinlein's publishers, as was a discussion in which a character expresses strong views against gun control.
[edit] Connections with Stranger in a Strange Land
The life cycle of Martians is the same in Stranger in a Strange Land. It is noted in this novel that the "old ones" inhabit two planes of existence: the physical and the (unspecified) other. Further, the water friends theme is recapitulated in Stranger in a Strange Land as "water brothers".
Beecher's disappearance at the "hands" of the Martians is echoed in an incident described in Stranger, in which a xenophobic human similarly vanishes.
[edit] External links
- Red Planet at the Internet Movie Database
- Red Planet publication history at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
