seven Suburban Misfits Are Constructing A Spaceship Out Of Old Tanker Cars. The Plan Is To Beat The Chinese To Mars—in Under Four Days At Three Million Miles An Hour. It Would Be History In The Making If It Didn't Sound So Insane. the Washington Post varley's Great Strength Is In His Characterizations, But In Red Thunder He Also Shows A Strong Sense Of Place. He's Clearly In Love With Florida And The Many Quirky And Eccentric People Who Live There. As A Result, red Thunder Is A Realistic -- And Funny -- Novel That Happens To Be Set In The Future. The Novel Is Also In A Sense An Elegy: Sf Readers Have Long Hoped To Travel In Outer Space, And Varley Implies That This Will Be Possible Only If We Discover Something Radically Different From Anything Now Known To Physicists. But If You Are Willing To Simply Fantasize About Fleeing Your Office Cubicle And Becoming A Heroic Space Explorer, This Novel Will Amiably Fulfill Your Wishes. — martin Morse Wooster "The U.S. space program is effectively over. The loss of the Ares Seven ship was the final blow. Everyone has accepted that the manned Chinese ship, Heavenly Harmony, being prepped for a mission to Mars, will be the first vessel from Earth to land on the Red Planet." "Almost everyone." "In a deserted warehouse near Daytona, a band of seven suburban misfits - including a Cajun boy genius and a disgraced captain drummed out of NASA - is constructing a spaceship, built out of old tanker cars and held together with determination, guts, and all-American ambition. They call her Red Thunder, and they plan not only to beat the Chinese to Mars, but to rescue everyone aboard the marooned Ares Seven as well. What's more, they've geared their beautiful beast to make the trip in just under four days - that's over three million miles an hour. It would sound like history in the making if it didn't sound so insane. Is it possible?" "Anything's possible."--BOOK JACKET "An unlikely group of seven suburban misfits band together to construct a spaceship built out of old tanker cars that they call Red Thunder, determined to beat the Chinese in a race to become the first humans to set foot on Mars"--NoveList.
