John Varley's RED THUNDER (A review by KZANOL)

Red Thunder

In some ways what may be the most atypical Varley novel may be the most typical Sci-Fi story he has produced. Varley stories are famous for being set in radically foreign future settings, and populated by misanthropic characters navigating through exotic scenarios. His strength is that he is able to connect with his reader through his character’s very human reactions in and around the events he runs them through, bizarre as they may be. RT however is set in the near future. Its characters are normal people put into unusual but not incomprehensible situations.

Set in the very near future (I place it no more than 25 years hence.) RT is marketed as mainline Sci-Fi.. A superficial accounting of the story will give you just that impression, but RT is far from ordinary.

The plot synopsis of RT does not seem immediately compelling. Reading the dust-jacket failed to pique my interest. In fact this may deter some Varley fans from delving into it. Its not that the dust-jacket blurb is inaccurate. In fact it does a passable job of depicting what happens. Its just wrong. It fails to give the reader any insight into whether he might enjoy the book because it misses the key elements of the book’s appeal, which do not include the plot or the science. My own attempt at a brief summary of the plot would be just as inadequate, and for the same reason. I mean, “A pair of 20 year old geeks that failed their college entrance exams and their girlfriends join forces with a drunken ex-astronaut and his idiot savant inventor cousin to build a homemade Mars rocket,” is not the type of synopsis one expects from a Varley plot. I would not have cracked the spine had not the name John Varley been on the cover. But because it was a Varley book I sought out the book immediately, and was not disappointed; for it is this very fact that the plot does not thrill that makes you appreciate how masterful Varley is at telling a story. Unlike his other novels, which are set in exotic locales, such as Saturn’s rings or Luna’s disneylands, that have an attraction all their own, Varley has chosen to set RT in Florida’s redneck country. It is as if he is intentionally breaking form with his other locales. Although, on the surface, it may seem mundane this book gives nothing away to his other, more ostentatious, efforts, such as his Gaea trilogy, or the baroque Eight Worlds stories. It just doesn’t seem to matter what the subject matter, Varley is able to engage the reader sublimely. Despite my ambivalence to the plot, I found myself, in the midst of reading, marveling at how enthralled I was by a novel that did not contain what I have come to regard as essential Varley elements. RT showcases his knack for characterization without any distractions. For this reason RT may be his most accomplished performance, demonstrating that his typical shock and awe techniques are just so much window dressing disguising the fact that he is a supreme storyteller.

The characters are so expertly drawn that the reader finds himself becoming pulled into the story regardless of the initial appeal of the story line. One finds himself empathizing with the characters and then, by association, becoming involved in the sequence of events simply because the characters care about what is happening. Told in first person narrative, from the perspective of Manny Garcia, the reader first becomes attached to the protagonist through just a few key scenes that anyone with a childhood fondness for the power and the glory of manned space-flight will immediately succumb. Manny is a likable guy that underachievers everywhere will relate to. Once that has been accomplished it is inevitable that his close friends will become your friends, and then their passion for the project becomes infectious, and you find yourself suddenly and unexpectedly rooting for the cast of characters, working with them on the project, and wishing you could be a part of the adventure yourself. It is really quite an event; to watch disconnectedly as you are transformed from a skeptic to a fan in the course of a few written pages. I try to be mindful of this as I recommend this book to others, avoiding plot synopses in favor of an emphasis upon the characterization and wit.

When discussing a book, the question, “What is it about?,” is invariably asked. RT is not about, “A bunch of outcasts going to Mars in a home-made spaceship,” but rather, “Four friends, brought together by a need to belong to something grand, adopt a washed up astronaut and his quirky mad-scientist cousin, and live every school kids dream by designing and crewing a ship to Mars, and end up changing the world.” It is about people. About their foibles and quirks and achieving greatness through the pursuit of your dreams. About friendship and the vicarious pleasure of watching them live out those dreams before your eyes.

Then, of course, there is Varley’s trade-mark humor; another way that Varley pulls you in, makes you a part of the story. You know how, in life, you are drawn to the people that can make you laugh through the hard times. When life gives you lemons you make lemon-aid, or in Varley terms, when life’s problems cause you to pilot a space shuttle a little too drunk and shoot a hole in your windshield with your illegal colt 45 to suck out the fire in the cockpit so you can crash-land into a herd of water buffalo in the African outback, you make it into a water buffalo barbecue and force NASA to pin a medal on your chest (35.3). He manages to coax a smile even in the most somber occasions; like when Manny is forced to plaster over bullet holes in one of his family’s motel rooms so that the guests wouldn’t be alarmed and their half-star Michelin rating would not be endangered (44.-4). Or when Dak’s estranged mother capitalizes on his new found fame by announcing to the press that, “She was praying for Dak’s safety and appearing nightly at the Riviera Room in Charleston South Carolina (317.-1).” This kind of wit is rare and fulfills the desire of many to be able to take life’s struggles in stride. His characters don’t take themselves too seriously, but they do make the best of things, and make you want to be there, to become part of their cordial intimacy. His characters may have problems, but they have a rousing good time in the midst of them, and they have each other to keep them company. Varley is supremely optimistic, and it is contagious.


Logarithmic Ending [The future’s so bright, I gotta’ wear shades.]
Varley has a recognizable pattern for the endings to his independent novels, of which there are now three. The Ophiuchi Hotline ends with the three Lilos headed for the stars and a life of seemingly endless possibilities. Millennium depicts Louise Baltimore and Bill Smith, in love, being catapulted into the far future to become the pioneers of the new race of man. Red Thunder has Manny and Kelly starting a family on Mars with the possibility of migration to the stars in a few years and a bright wide-open future ahead of them. Even Demon, the capstone of the Gaea series, ends on a very optimistic note with Gabby becoming the benevolent god of Gaea. All these endings have man poised on the cusp of a golden age of exploration and hope. This wide open optimism is endemic to Varley’s writing.


RT is a simple story expertly told. Were it not for the finely crafted characters one might be tempted to label this as a juvenile novel. Not that it is childish or immature, rather, it is so good that aspiring writers would be well advised to read it. It is not a complex tale, so readers of varying skill can profit from the reading. The plot is reminiscent of one of Heinlein’s juveniles: The protagonist is a youth just out of adolescence, who stumbles upon the invention of the century. He and his friends capitalize on this invention and embark on the adventure of a lifetime. But it is there that the comparison of RT with other juvenile novels makes its departure; for though its protagonists are young and brash, RT is always in control, masterfully enveloping the reader with prose whose simplicity and clarity belies its impact upon the reader. It does have a childlike quality that one remembers fondly from reading books in youth. Like Huckleberry Finn it is accessible to children of all ages, but far too good to leave to the kids. Read it to get a taste of Varley’s quality, but brace yourself for his other works; they are not nearly so tame.