Another of my favorite juveniles by Heinlein is Red Planet. This is more definitely a juvenile since the hero is Jim Marlowe, teenager, and most of the characters are his schoolmates and friends.
It’s another rebellion against authority type story the authority this time being the Mars Company.
Mars in this novel has the aspect of a ‘Company Town’. Something that was more common in the US in the 1950’s so quite familiar to his audience. The company has become repressive and thus problems ensue.
One thing that is a little odd to me. Heinlein is known for his conservative politics. He was a libertarian which is a different species of conservative to most of the current Republican party. However, I would think he was more anti-government than anti-business.
But in this novel, the bad guys are clearly this company. Maybe he is against repression no matter the source or just against big powerful entities. If so, I am more a fan of his politics than I thought. Whatever.
The company tries, through deception, to force the colonists to stay in their present location throughout the bitter Martian winter. This is the main cause of the rebellion.
But similar authoritarian actions at Jim’s school precipitate the action.
Heinlein does a great job describing the society on Mars. The ancient Martians are truly alien, the landscape is Percival Lowell’s Mars, but believable for the time, and the character of Willis, a Martian bouncer or roundhead,is one of the better cute aliens ever created.
This particular Mars also fits into the Future History of Heinlein, and many of the other juveniles.
But first of all it’s just a good story.
Welcome to Mars
The first James Blish juvenile I am going to post about is Welcome To Mars. Its also my favorite of the 4 he wrote that I have read. It’s in the junior scientist mold, but almost Heinlein-like it its main character.
Dolph Haertel is the classic lone genius, garage inventor that is one of the major myth archetypes (see Jung and Campbell) of America. There have been plenty of them in real life and they were popular in both juvenile and adult SF.
But, as far as I can see, this type of character has left SF. Maybe it’s a more real depiction of how science and engineering work, but I always liked this kind of character.
Dolph works out anti-gravity from a flaw in Einstein’s Theory of Relativity and builds a spaceship disguised as a tree house. He then goes to Mars, but crash lands and is unable to return.
His girlfriend, Nanette, figures this out and uses his first test rig to go after him.
They are on a Mars that is survivable, if barely, and the story becomes a survival story. And there is intelligent life on Mars and adventures follow.
This is a classic example of the Hero’s Journey as described by Joseph Campbell. This type of story is endemic throughout many cultures here on Earth. There is something within us that makes this sort of story successful in its various forms.
I think its one of the best juveniles out there and despite the dated picture of Mars its still a good read.
Now we come to 3 books by Donald Wollheim. They are not part of a series, but are set, more or less, in the same solar system. The one that was known in the 1950’s and is somewhat similar to the one in Isaac Asimov’s Lucky Starr series of books.
I have read these three, and there appear to be others such as The Secret of Saturn’s Rays . Some of these were written under the pen name of David Grinnell. I have never read these others.
He also wrote a series of books about Mike Mars which also appear to be juveniles, although again I have not read them.
Donald Wollheim was one of the Golden Age writers. If you consider that age the 1950’s which for me it was. Books written then are ones I like and remember a lot,not just the juveniles. And yes a lot of fans consider the golden age the 1930’s but some of that stuff is too dated for me.
Anyway, Wollheim was an editor, publisher, writer, fan, convention goer, etc. And this first book I will post about is one of my favorite juveniles.
It’s The Secret Of The Martian Moons. To me at the time I first read it, and still upon re-reading it’s a great story. There’s an abandoned civilization on Mars. The Mars of Percival Lowell, with plants and sort of canals and an atmosphere.
But where are the Martians? Their houses are here, and storerooms and evidence of an advanced civilization all sealed in vaults and inaccessible even after a century of trying.
So Earth abandons the Mars Colony as a lost cause, and too expensive. But, Nelson Barr, young hero, and his father and others secretly stay behind.
Because there have been mysterious goings on. They fly to Deimos to set up observation of Mars and wait.
Soon aliens are in evidence,but are they the Martians? Further adventures with them, and the invading Marauders ensue.
One of the better juvenile SF adventure novels in my opinion. I wish I could say the same about the other two, but that will wait for my next posts.
