Podkayne of Mars

By: Robert A. Heinlein

Narrated by: Emily Janice Card

Length: 6 hrs and 1 min

Publisher's summary

From the author of Friday and Rocketship Galileo comes this classic tale featuring the Grand Master of science fiction's most remarkable heroine.

Podkayne Fries, a smart and determined maid of Mars, has just one goal in life: to become the first female starship pilot and rise through the ranks to command deep-space explorations. So when she is offered a chance to join her diplomatic uncle on an interstellar journey to distant Earth via Venus, it's a dream come true - even if her only experience with diplomacy is handling her brilliant but pesky younger brother, Clark.

But she's about to learn some things about war and peace, because Uncle Tom, the ambassador plenipotentiary from Mars to the Three Planets Conference, is traveling not quite incognito enough - and certain parties will stop at nothing to sabotage negotiations between the three worlds.

©2003 The Robert A. & Virginia Heinlein Prize Trust (P)2008 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Flawless

A Heinlein classic that Ms. Card has brought to life beautifully. Highly recommended for fans of classic sci-fi.

Podkayne of Mars come to life!

What did you love best about Podkayne of Mars?

The story by iteself is excellent, one of the Grandmasters best 'juvenile' novels, but the reader does an excellent job with the voices. She really brings the characters to life. The only downside to this audiobook is the ending, the audiobook uses the censored ending, not Heinlein's original which is disappointing. It would have been nice, if they had used the uncensored ending, or even better done both and let the listener decide on their own which is more fitting.

What about Emily Janice Card’s performance did you like?

Her Voicework

Still good after first read over 40 yrs ago

Still a great story after all these years with an excellent performance. While a little dated, though not as much as other Heinlein books, it is a good listen and enjoyable story.

Great story

An oldie but goodie much prefer this ending where the heroine lives not the ending where she dies

A great Heinlein Juvenile!

What made the experience of listening to Podkayne of Mars the most enjoyable?

The Narration is perfect

What other book might you compare Podkayne of Mars to and why?

Any Heinlein Juvenile!

What does Emily Janice Card bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Emilie Janice Card was perfect for this book. She IS Poddy!

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

A female Will Robinson who is NOT Lost In Space

Any additional comments?

I just wish Robert would have written more about this character in other novels.

Where is the sequel?

I listened to this several years ago and enjoyed it very much. I am 72 years old and still enjoyed this especially with the lady that was the narrator. Her voice and the quality of her reading made this a book worth listening to over and over again. I think I enjoy reading Heinleins books for younger people such as this one, because it lacks the vulgarity and utter violence and sexual aspects of the more "adult" books. Anyway, I hope this review helps others to want to at least investigate Heinlein's books for the younger generation. Another one that I have read over and over again is Starman Jones which I highly recommend.

Exciting book and great narration!

I enjoyed reading this book and now enjoy it in as an audio book. It is great to see Heinlein's juveniles coming to Audible! The narration was perfect for the subject. I love Podkayne and her adventures and love sharing her world. This audio book brings me right into her experiences. I heartedly recommend this read!

excellently read

loved this book of course, but this reader is just FANTASTIC. really, really good. Emily Janice Card.

Written when eugenics was considered science

apparently Heinlein had a lot in common with a certain German dictators version of how to raise super children

surprised about the ending

Any additional comments?

So, about 5 hours into this book I was wondering if I would ever see Podkayne achieve her ambition of becoming a starship captain (or if she'd give into the weird baby obsession) and I asked google if there were sequels about Captain Podkayne Fries. Sadly there are not but the more interesting thing I learned was that there was a whole hullabaloo about the ending of this book, that Heinlein had disagreed with his editor and thirty years after the original publishing there was a like, "choose your own ending" edition with both versions and some kind of reader vote/essay contest, and that all editions since that vote in the mid-90s had Heinlein's preferred ending. So I was really surprised that this audiobook produced in 2008 had the editor's ending as published in 1963!

I honestly don't think I missed anything or was cheated, the differences are apparently all literally on the last page of the text and amount to three sentences if that. But I also was frustrated with the structure of the last section REGARDLESS of Heisenberg Podkayne, so maybe I'm not the best judge! I saw a Heinlein purist complaining about the "wrong ending" being on here in the reviews but seriously, so little changes and the weird baby obsession wins anyway, what does it even matter? Although the fact that there IS such a controversy about the ending of this novel is interesting and I do recommend reading up on that wankfest!