John Varley is always an interesting writer. His stories are very reminiscent of Heinlein and other Golden Age masters, but with a contemporary feel. So, I was looking forward to his latest novel, Slow Apocalypse. It starts in a way that is very similar to one of my favorite movies, Miracle Mile, in the slow buildup with one person knowing a disaster is coming and snowballing into madness. Unfortunately, after a good beginning, the book sort of peters out amid the humdrum details of life after the apocalypse. Let’s check out what happened.

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The Golden Globe is yet another Heinleinesque romp through the imagination of John Varley. Of all the current science fiction writers, Varley is the one who attempts Heinlein like book the most. Many writers love Heinlein, but few attempt to write in a style like the Heinlein juveniles. Varley even named a group of anarchist types in the book as Heinleiners. But did Varley make the book work?

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Rolling Thunder by John Varley is the third book in his Red Thunder series. I wasn’t thrilled with book 2, but upon learning that the main character in book 3 was named Podkayne, I felt I had to read it. I should have listened to my gut. The book wasn’t horrible, but it definitely wasn’t good.

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Red Lightning by John Varley is the sequel to Red Thunder (reviewed previously) and follows on with the next generation 20 years after the events of Red Thunder. This book has some of the same flaws as the original, but it’s strengths aren’t quite as good. By following up 20 years later, we can see some of the effects from the end of previous book and allow us to see how the events played out. The change in narration is handled well, but be still have too much exposition at times.

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Red Thunder by John Varley is a cross between The Astronaut Farmer and Salvage 1. It’s a story about a group of kids who work with an ex-astronaut and his genius (and slightly mentally challenged) cousin to develop a new power source into a trip to Mars. If you look at the cover and the title, it would appear to be more of a Tom Clancy book, but this is a homage to Robert Heinlein’s juveniles.

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