Robert A. Heinlein is perhaps the greatest writer in SciFi history.

… popular, influential, and controversial …

Rockin’ recommended I revisit one of his “juvenile” classics, Red Planet (1949).

Jim Marlowe is a youngster living on Mars, and he has a “pet”-friend named Willis. Willis is a “bouncer,” a furry little guy of some intelligence whose most amazing quality is an innate capability to reproduce exactly anything he hears. Jim takes Willis with him when he and his friend Frank go off to school. The new headmaster makes life miserable for all the boys with his military discipline, and he has the audacity to take Willis away from Jim and lock him away in his office.

A bold rescue attempt by the brave lads manages to recover Willis before the headmaster sells him off to the London Zoo, but the friends’ joy soon turns to surprise when Willis plays back a conversation he overheard about the Company putting an end to the seasonal migrations on Mars. This means that Jim’s family in the South will be forced to remain where they are all winter, where the temperature easily falls below one hundred degrees freezing. Now it is up to the boys to escape from the school and somehow find their way back home (hundreds of miles away) and inform their families of the Company’s intentions. Only their bravery and a little help from Mars’ unique native inhabitants give them a chance to save the day.

The Martians are fascinating in and of themselves; needless to say, they are something entirely different from little green men. …

Good stuff. Entertaining and thought provoking.

Related …

I took a couple of dozen Isaac Asimov novels (audio) on my last long road trip. I must admit Heinlein is a far more nuanced and sophisticated writer than Asimov.

In fact, I was mostly disappointed with Asimov’s Robot series of books including I, Robot.

Two characters will stay with me, though, R. Daneel Olivaw and his human detective partner Elijah Baley. Brilliant fictional creations. Jehoshaphat!