Rating: 
Summary: A tragedy from RAH?
Review: This book is completely out of character for Heinlein. The narrative is weak (for him), and is as full of foreboding as a cheap melodrama. He lets us learn to like the endearing heroine, then proceeds to make it clear that she's doomed. And she is. The editors forced him to change the original ending so that she survives - an excellent decision on their part. When my wife read the original, she jumped out of her chair in fury - the typical response. Heinlein is usually upbeat, but this ones a downer. Be warned.
Rating: 
Summary: A very good book.
Review: This book is very good. I was alittle upset wit the end. But I beleive that what I have read is a version that was not what heinlein intended. Other than that the book was great. I realy liked pody and I thought that clark was realy neat. I enjoyed the book and would recomend it to anybody
Rating:
Summary: Book succeeds despite Heinlein's political "message"
Review: This is one of those books with controversy surrounding it so I have to do two reviews of the book. First off, the story of a naive girl with feminist notions and a slightly warped brother is great fun. Podkayne is delightful as she stumbles into adulthood. Her narrative interrupted by notes from her brother is a series of growth and maturity in a modern society with conflicting viewpoints on what women should be. Many times Podkayne in trying to fight against societal limitations ignores her own personal limitations and its that tension that makes for an interesting read. Now about the ending. The original publication changed Heinlein's ending. Heinlein had to make it palatable for audiences. This book has both endings with the publisher (and many essays by fanboys) saying that they prefer Heinlein's first one to his second one, mostly because Heinlein preferred the first one and hated the very notion of doing a rewrite. However the second ending brings home Heinlein's point quite well and makes it a story instead of a Heinlein sermon. Considering Heinlein's intention is to say that working mothers neglect their families and create psychopaths and neglected children and that they should be punished as Podkayne's mother is punished, it is good that the sermon was not allowed to be played out in the first one. It is still there in the second ending but it isn't so blatant. Heinlein was a lousy preacher but a great story teller. Besides the first ending would make Podkayne's reappearance as an adult in later Heinlein works impossible. Either way, read the book for yourself. Decide which ending works for you. I personally think that the original ending is about as useless as "early previously unpublished works", "conceptual sequels based on author's notes", and "poems written when the poet was horrid", but that might not be your opinion.
Rating: 
Summary: Old morals die hard
Review: This story just isn't one of Heinlien's best. More than many sci-fi writers his works have managed to hold themselves and not age. Podkayne of Mars doesn't. In tone it starts similar to many of his other coming of age/adventure stories with a female lead, Podkayne instead of a male protagonist. Podkayne has ambitions of being a space pilot and her mother is much sought after engineer. Before long Poddy is cuddling babies and deciding she'd rather be a department head in nursing on a spaceship than be a pilot. Ok, so it isn't really Heinlein's fault that this book reflects prejudices of the era, but there is a strong moral message that a woman's place is in the home. Poddy does take action to go save Clarke at the end, but when threatened, she faints, practically grovels and waits to be saved. There are two endings neither which are very good. Both take potshots at Podkayne's parents for not raising their children right, despite the moral fiber shown by Poddy and bravery shown by Clarke.
Rating:
Summary: good
Review: this was a very good book. i think that heinlein should've written more books with a girl as the main charecter. it's not his best book though.
Rating:
Summary: The (Un)-Saintly Martian
Review: This was the last of the Heinlein 'juveniles', the only one written with a female point-of-view character, and the only one not subject to the editorial dictates of a certain prudish editor at Scribners, though it still suffered at the hands of the editor at Putnam (more of which later). Podkayne (named after a Martain saint, but just "Poddy" to her friends) and her younger amoral genius-level brother Clark get to take a trip to Earth with a side stop at Venus accompanied only by their retired Martian senator uncle Tom, as their parents are unexpectedly having to deal with three newly decanted babies due to a crèche mix-up. Most of the story is a detailing of the events during their journey on the spaceship and the sights, people, and society of Venus, as carefully recorded in Poddy's diary (with occasional inserts by Clark). This method of telling a story is difficult to do effectively, but for the most part it comes across very well in this book. Poddy is a very likeable, friendly person who is, unfortunately, a little too naïve, a little too cute, a little too much preoccupied with babies, boys, and proving herself to be 'just as good as a man' to be quite believable as a (supposedly) highly intelligent but otherwise normal teen-age girl. Clark, on the other hand, is all too believable as a boy with adult knowledge and a child's 'me' centered view of the universe. Clark is the prime mover of the events, but for the most part he remains offstage, and we only learn about what he has done as filtered by Poddy's perceptions. Clearly the most interesting character in the book, his actions, mistakes, and emotional development fit well with the thematic line that Heinlein is presenting, on the responsibilities of parenting, an individual's own responsibility for his actions regardless of external factors, on the importance of one's relations and duties to others. Along the way, Heinlein does his typical excellent job of describing the scientific aspects of space flight and navigation in a manner that consistently remains interesting, comprehensible, and accurate. Also part of the Heinlein territory are his comments on population control, gambling, unfettered capitalism, the art of politics, racial prejudice, the attitudes of the 'moneyed' class towards their 'inferiors', and prostitution - an item that would never have gotten by his editor at Scribners. The ending of this book has caused a fair amount of controversy. At the insistence of his publisher, Heinlein was forced to change his original ending to one that was far less traumatic, an 'all ends well' type ending, as this was, after all, a 'children's book'. In so doing, however, the thematic line and Clark's development do not reach full closure. This edition of the book has both Heinlein's original ending and the changed ending, along with multiple essays and comments from readers about the pros and cons of each ending. For my money, Heinlein's original ending is considerably better, even though it probably makes the book unsuitable for very young readers, dealing with the consequences of actions, death, and the harshness of the universe towards stupidity, but the average teenager should have not only have no problem with it, I think they will find it more believable, more true to life. Not his best, but certainly eminently readable and enjoyable by both teens and adults, and still better than ninety percent of all the other material on the racks.
Rating:
Summary: The (Un)-Saintly Martian
Review: This was the last of the Heinlein `juveniles', the only one written with a female point-of-view character, and the only one not subject to the editorial dictates of a certain prudish editor at Scribners, though it still suffered at the hands of the editor at Putnam (more of which later). Podkayne (named after a Martain saint, but just "Poddy" to her friends) and her younger amoral genius-level brother Clark get to take a trip to Earth with a side stop at Venus accompanied only by their retired Martian senator uncle Tom, as their parents are unexpectedly having to deal with three newly decanted babies due to a crèche mix-up. Most of the story is a detailing of the events during their journey on the spaceship and the sights, people, and society of Venus, as carefully recorded in Poddy's diary (with occasional inserts by Clark). This method of telling a story is difficult to do effectively, but for the most part it comes across very well in this book. Poddy is a very likeable, friendly person who is, unfortunately, a little too naïve, a little too cute, a little too much preoccupied with babies, boys, and proving herself to be `just as good as a man' to be quite believable as a (supposedly) highly intelligent but otherwise normal teen-age girl. Clark, on the other hand, is all too believable as a boy with adult knowledge and a child's `me' centered view of the universe. Clark is the prime mover of the events, but for the most part he remains offstage, and we only learn about what he has done as filtered by Poddy's perceptions. Clearly the most interesting character in the book, his actions, mistakes, and emotional development fit well with the thematic line that Heinlein is presenting, on the responsibilities of parenting, an individual's own responsibility for his actions regardless of external factors, on the importance of one's relations and duties to others. Along the way, Heinlein does his typical excellent job of describing the scientific aspects of space flight and navigation in a manner that consistently remains interesting, comprehensible, and accurate. Also part of the Heinlein territory are his comments on population control, gambling, unfettered capitalism, the art of politics, racial prejudice, the attitudes of the `moneyed' class towards their `inferiors', and prostitution - an item that would never have gotten by his editor at Scribners. The ending of this book has caused a fair amount of controversy. At the insistence of his publisher, Heinlein was forced to change his original ending to one that was far less traumatic, an `all ends well' type ending, as this was, after all, a 'children's book'. In so doing, however, the thematic line and Clark's development do not reach full closure. This edition of the book has both Heinlein's original ending and the changed ending, along with multiple essays and comments from readers about the pros and cons of each ending. For my money, Heinlein's original ending is considerably better, even though it probably makes the book unsuitable for very young readers, dealing with the consequences of actions, death, and the harshness of the universe towards stupidity, but the average teenager should have not only have no problem with it, I think they will find it more believable, more true to life. Not his best, but certainly eminently readable and enjoyable by both teens and adults, and still better than ninety percent of all the other material on the racks.
Rating:
Summary: My very first Heinlein - By Debbie O'Dair
Review: This was the very first Heinlein book I read as a kid (about 16 years old, I think) and I was immediately hooked. Podkayne was such a regular kid, but she had such interesting adventures and her little brother is a hoot! This is probably not Heinlein's most intellectual novel, but it was certainly the most fun. I recently gave my copy to my 13-year-old daughter to read and she lost it! Well, I guess I know where to find another copy now
Rating: 
Summary: Ending? Where's the plot?
Review: You know you're in trouble when the publisher feels the need to resort to baby talk to describe the title character ("People think she's the bestest" . . . she doesn't even talk like that, you talk to pets like that). One of the last novels Heinlein wrote for young adults specifically, this one seems like Heinlein on auto-pilot. You've got Podkayne, a breezy talkative oh so cute teenager who has perhaps one goal in life, to be a starship captain. To be the first female starship captain. And that's it. There's some giggly stuff about babies and how super neat peachy keen it is to visit Earth and Venus but if you try to dig deeper into Podkayne there's just nothing there. She's easy to relate to because she's so ultra-nice and kind but two hundred pages of that gets wearying after a while. Unfortunately it's not helped by a rather episodic plot mostly carried along by Podkayne's cheerful narration . . . she and her brother go visit Venus with her uncle, who apparently is a senator or something. Again, that's it. There's some conflict introduced but it's almost arbitrary, sort of like Heinlein was like, "Gee, this is boring, we'd better make this exciting". Which of course leads to the ending. Ah, the ending, the contraversial ending that so irked the publisher they forced Heinlein to change it. In Heinlein's original ending, Podkayne doesn't make out so well, and so it was changed so that she turns out better . . . however to do it and maintain the same point he was trying to make, he basically hits the reader over the head with it. People have debated this over and over and there are some very well written essays in the back arguing for either ending . . . all of them miss the point. There's no reason to care about Podkayne, if she lives or dies, I read it and I was like, "So?" And maybe I'm just callous, but hey. What saved the book was actually Heinlein's portrayal of her brother, Clark, who is brilliant but almost totally amoral, it's very chilling toward the end when you realize that Clark is basically a sociopath . . . it's handled very well and far more nuanced and interesting than Podkayne, who once she tells you her dream has basically told you all you need to know about her. If you read (or reread) the book from the perspective of it being Clark's story and not Podkayne's, it becomes much more interesting because you can chart his evolution and how he grows and changes (or doesn't). That alone redeems the book. Don't get me wrong, it's far more enjoyable than Friday was, since it's light hearted fun (except for the ending but she basically deserved it anyway . . . as one essayist points out, she was a moron) and Heinlein doesn't beat you over the head with his points. The pacing is good, keeping what little story there is moving swiftly along. And the essays themselves are fun as well. I won't be so dumb as to make a blanket statement that Heinlein can't write women well, once in a while he hits the mark, but if it wasn't for the ending being so notorious I think this would ultimately be judged as a pleasant, if not forgettable read.
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