Red Thunder

The Thunder and Lightning Series, Book 1

By: John Varley

Narrated by: Eddie Lopez

Length: 13 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

As Chinese and US spacecraft compete to be the first to land on Mars, a former astronaut, his cousin, and four teens from Florida decide to take matters into their own hands. If they can quickly build their own space-worthy ship using scrap metal, appliances, and power tools, they have a chance to come from behind - thanks to an inventive new power source that can propel them to the Red Planet within three days. No guts, no glory.

©2004 John Varley (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing

A fun, yet unrealistic, listen.

Thoroughly enjoyed listening to this book. The science is way off and not accurate often, but sounds plausible. The stereotyping in the story reads as if the story was written in the 1950’s, not the 2000. Reminds me of Heinlein at times. Bottom line is I recommend it.

Highly Enjoyable

Red Thunder is one of my favorite stories - thought provoking, very topical for today and just plain happy. Eddie Lopez credibly pulled off the Cajun accents and Jubal in particular.

If you loved the book, you will love the Audible performance.

Good sci-fi stiory

Very entertaining. Good plot, good pace and story is set up to continue to book 2 in the story.

A good read / listen

I read this book several years ago and enjoyed it. I also listened to this copy and enjoyed it. I purchased the next two on the series and will listen to them next. John Varley gives good reads and I enjoy listening/ reading them again and again.

One of my favorites!

This book was initially given to me by a friend. Little did I know at the time how much I'd come to love it. I've been checking for audio versions for years. Imagine my shock when I finally saw it. Even better, the reader did an excellent job. too many great books have been butchered by bad narration.

The book held up well

John Varley writes fantastical fantasy and it was multicultural without being overbearing on the subject. From takeoff to Mars in 3 days without the astronauts turning into paste ... WHAT A RIDE!

Eddie Lopez's performance was very good.

New spins on Classic Science Fiction with memorable characters

This story grabs you right in and takes you for quite the ride! ..and that’s just the beginning!! This series is one of my favorites, it’s got all the fun sci-fi adventure elements that keep you enthralled. John Varley is one the best living authors today, read all of his stuff as soon as you can -

Enjoyed all the way through

This book is full of enough unique description to bring it to life, but not too much jargon. It is an easy listen, with events and characters trackable, though the narrator tended to slip a Cajun accent in to various characters at random rather than keeping it to a few people and occasional teasing but bothers it seemed designated for. There is also some dated language, but the story and sci-fi elements are still pretty solid.

Maybe a little YA, but worth the sale price

Not what I expected. Characters not very believable. Pretty good science mixed with some pseudo science. A Hispanic kid a mixed race kid a black kid and a white kid with never a MF or F U to be heard, unbelievable!

Good Sci-Fi

I enjoyed the listen even if some characters were a bit un-real (in-mature for their age). Hard to put down at times, so I give it 5 stars. The narration was also great.