"Red Planet" by Robert A. Heinlein (1908-1988)

Publisher: Ballentine Del Rey Books
Copyright:1949
ISBN: 0345260694

Red planet is the third in what are known as the "Heinlein Juveniles", and was written in 1949. It takes place after Space Cadet, but there is no actual year specified in the text. The story revolves around colonists on Mars, who because they live relatively near the polar regions are required to migrate from one pole to another on a yearly basis.

The protagonist in the story is one James Marlowe, a teenager who along with a friend (Frank) are being sent away to a boarding school which is located nearer to the equator. Their time at the boarding school, is fine until the headmaster retires and is replaced by someone who plan to run the school like a military academy.

The science of Red Planet, is consistent with what was known of the planet in the late 1940s. It draws a lot on the speculations of Dr. Percival Lowell (1855-1916), and though now we know that the vast majority of his hypotheses were incorrect, it still makes for a good story. Some of these ideas he put forth were things such as Mars being covered with a network of canals carrying water, and large areas of vegetation, etc.

Jim's adventures include meeting and interacting with the native population of Martians. The Martians in this book are not the same as the ones described in "Double Star" which was written in 1956, and which I reviewed a while back. These Martians are much more consistent with the ones that will be learned about in Heinlein famous novel "Stranger in a Strange Land". When looking at the events as described in this novel, Stranger in a Strange Land must take place a fairly long time prior to Red Planet.