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Podkayne of Mars (1963)

Robert A. Heinlein

Baen Publishing, Riverdale, NY; ISBN: 0-671-87671-6; Pages: 282

Review © 2003 Branislav L. Slantchev

This is the last of Heinlein's juveniles and, just like "Starship Troopers" can hardly be classified as such. Despite the tender age of the main characters (Poddy and Clark are teenagers), the subject matter is serious and quite different from the space adventures that RAH usually wrote for the slicks. Ostensibly, the story is about Podkayne's coming-of-age during a pleasure trip from Mars to Earth by the way of Venus. Then it turns out there's a dark political intrigue involving her uncle Tom, but even this is not the point of the novel.

Briefly, Poddy and Clark grow up in a family where their father is a busy academic, who is more interested in things that have been dead for millions of years than taking charge of his family. This is a rare instance of a weak father figure in a RAH work. Their mother isn't much better---she is a good engineer and a horrible mother, spending most of her time on projects away from Mars, their home. For Heinlein, this parental neglect has predictable consequences: Poddy grows up a naive, and not too bright girl with an impossible dream (to become a starship captain), while her brother Clark is an overly intelligent but completely antisocial character. When the family has their last three children brought out of deep freeze (by bureaucratic mistake), the planned family trip to Earth is put off indefinitely until Uncle Tom manages to find a way to get himself and the two siblings on board of the luxurious "Tricorn" through what amounts to blackmail and extortion.

The bulk of the book is taken by the trip to Venus and the three's stay there. Poddy, the star-eyed doll, gradually becomes aware that the world around her is not as straightforward as it seems. She begins to entertain doubts in her ability to become a captain but does not give up on her dream to go to the stars. For the first time in her life she meets face to face with racism (or, rather, classism) and finds out about the second-rate status of women in society. This is an unusually dark vision for Heinlein. In his other novels women usually are better than men in many ways but on top of that they never complain about being discriminated against. From being starship pilots/captains to subtly manipulating the often stupid (in that respect) males, they always occupy the role of the prime mover, which is nothing to sneeze at. Not so here: most women are either mindless chatterboxes or otherwise simply dancing partners. Poddy finds it all too easy to fake ignorance and wide-eyed fascination in order to get men to show her around the control room so she can learn their trade. RAH also places an extreme emphasis on maternal feelings: from Poddy's caring about her three new siblings, to her behavior on the ship during the solar storm (cuddling, changing, and saving babies), to the reason for her going back to her death, all is permeated by the maternal instinct. But of a sweetly sick and sentimental variety. It is all the cuddling and "loving" but none of the responsibility.

When Poddy, Clark and Uncle Tom arrive on Venus (which seems like a planet-wide Las Vegas), it becomes clear that the uncle has been using his niece and nephew for his own political ends: uniting a planetary front between Mars, Venus, and Luna to stand up to the encroaching demands of Terra. Naturally, this scheme has plenty of enemies, who make various unsuccessful attempts on his life. Eventually, they succeed in kidnapping Clark, then Uncle Tom, and finally Poddie. They blackmail the uncle (it does not seem that he is going to buckle) and while he is off to the conference, Poddy and her brother make a daring attempt to escape. It all ends in disaster when Clark forgets to disarm his nuclear bomb and Poddy goes back to save a cub (the little orphan of a Venusian "fairy"). The bomb explodes and kills Podkayne. At least in the original version. Putnam had RAH change this ending to one where Poddy survives. It is inevitable that I will join the controversy about which one is to be preferred.

Certainly Poddy should die. And just as certainly she should live. It is the author's prerogative to make a statement any way he wants and if RAH felt that the tragic end was necessary to bring home the evilness of bad parenthood or to make Clark's redemption possible, then it must be so and Poddy dies. I, however, do not agree with some of these claims and therefore see the death of such a likeable character as regrettable. First, although there is a brief description of the busy parents, the mother's care of her three newly unfrozen babies is inconsistent with abandoning her children later on. It is not believable that she should have these extremely strong maternal feelings and then leave them be without any supervision. I have yet to meet a mother who transforms like this. It is true that Poddy starts out with a preposterous (as RAH calls it in his correspondence) dream, but it is dreamers who change the future. It is appalling that by the end Poddy seems to accept the "inevitable", giving up on her dream, and settling for going to the stars as a wife of a captain. That is reason enough to kill her, in my opinion. On the bright side, Poddy grows up and even though her (and Clark's) reaction to racism is juvenile and hilarious, she learns of the darker side of human nature. But then RAH goes off to show her unable to believe that some people could be simply evil, another inconsistency. Poddy becomes aware of the mystical powers her sex has over the "stronger" one and it seems that this is a discovery that will take root and make her a rather strong woman. In short, Poddy is weak but seems to be getting better.

The other side of the coin, her brother Clark is entirely different. Too smart and smug, too much in love with money, too selfish, some have called him an antisocial monster. I disagree. It is true that he possesses few likeable traits, but Heinlein presented his character through the naive eyes of his sister, who does not regard Clark as evil, but only irresponsible. It is often hard to tell whether he is serious or not. As for the disregard to other human beings, poppycock. Not only does he fall in love with Girdie, but it appears that he cares a lot about his sister. There may be condescension there, but he does give her the pistol and the inertial tracker, and he is genuinely devastated when she dies. I don't even see how her death is his fault. Granted, he planted the A-bomb out of revenge but she knew about it. She also knew the bomb had not been disarmed and she still went back to pick up Ariel. It is not his fault that she lost the tracker and went in circles until the explosion. It may have been his fault that he did not take her with him, knowing that Poddy could be quite stupid sometimes. It is not his fault and therefore the tragic end does not work: there is no reason for Clark to redeem himself and become a human being, even if one buys the hype and believes he is a monster, which I don't. Arrogant? Yes. Self-centered? Definitely. In my book this does not a monster make. He certainly isn't evil by any stretch of imagination.

So, Poddy must die because RAH decreed it, but the story hardly requires it. Unfortunately, this is not what the author wanted. RAH wanted to write a sermon, and the revised ending shows it beyond any doubt. Listening to Uncle Tom chastising the father for failing to rear his children is outrageous. The uncle seems to have completely forgotten that it was his political machinations that brought about the tragedy. He piles guilt up and high on the parents, yet it is not clear that had Poddy and Clark stayed on Mars, they would have been failures as humans. So there you have it, I do disagree with RAH, but then it does not matter. The story is great and definitely worth reading.

Quotes:

June 26, 2000. BLS