Skip to content

Category: Fiction
Reviewed by: Allen G. Taylor
Title: Red Lightning
Author: John Varley
NSS Amazon link for this book
Format: Paperback
Pages: 368
Publisher: Ace
Date: 2007
Retail Price: $7.99
ISBN: 0441014887

Twenty years after the events chronicled in Varley’s Red Thunder, the solar system is a very different place. Manny Garcia and Kelly Strickland have married, had two children, and moved to Mars to operate the Red Thunder Hotel. Mars has become a major tourist destination, served by squeezer-powered interplanetary cruise ships such as the Royal Caribbean Sovereign of the Planets. For this sequel to Red Thunder, the point of view character is teenage Ray Garcia-Strickland, a fairly typical Martian kid, despite the fact that his famous parents were members of the first crew to land on Mars.

Ray, like teenagers everywhere, is not totally enamored with his life on Mars, although he is convinced that life on Earth would be even worse. He has to confront life on Earth sooner than he would like when a large object traveling at nearly the speed of light strikes the Atlantic Ocean, launching a tsunami that devastates the islands of the Caribbean and the entire East Coast of the United States. Ray’s grandmother owns and operates a beachfront hotel in Daytona Beach, Florida, one of the hardest hit communities. Ray, Manny, Kelly, Ray’s sister Elizabeth, and Ray’s girlfriend Evangeline book passage to Earth on the Sovereign of the Planets to do what they can to rescue grandma. The devastation they encounter is graphic, informed as it is by Varley’s study of the Sumatra earthquake and subsequent tsunami of 2004. In this case, however, the damage and loss of life is far greater.

Although the damage caused by the tsunami was horrific, things were about to get worse. Ray’s “Uncle” Jubal Broussard thought the disaster was his fault and disappeared, setting off a chain of events that put powerful groups on Earth in conflict with each other, with Mars, and particularly with Ray’s family. The shadowy quasi-governmental groups trying to capture Jubal would stop at nothing to find him, and Ray’s family, particularly Ray himself, was believed to be the key to locating him.

Red Lightning, informed as it is by 9/11, the Indian Ocean tsunami, and the recent erosion of freedoms in America in the name of Homeland Security, paints a dark vision of the future, but with rays of hope (Rays of hope?) personified by courageous individuals such as Travis and Jubal Broussard and every member of the Garcia-Strickland clan. Like Red Thunder, this book is very reminiscent of the work of Robert A. Heinlein. Independent-minded people summon inner strength to break out of the control of a society that is becoming progressively more constricting. Will virtue triumph over the forces of evil? Maybe. The battle is never completely won.

© 2007 Allen G. Taylor

NSS Featured Review for May 2007

Please use the NSS Amazon Link for all your book and other purchases. It helps NSS and does not cost you a cent! Bookmark this link for ALL your Amazon shopping!

NSS Book Reviews Index

Share:

Facebook
Twitter
Pinterest
LinkedIn
Picture of Jim Plaxco

Jim Plaxco

Leave a Comment

Search
Categories
future 1

Don't Miss a Beat!

Be the first to know when new articles are posted!

Follow Us On Social Media

JOIN THE
GREATEST ADVENTURE

Give The Gift Of Space: Membership For Friends and Family

Book Review

Archives

ISDC 2025:
Together Beyond!

In Orlando at the Rosen Centre Hotel.
June 19 - 22, 2025

Recent Blog Posts

The National Space Society invites you to the next Space Forum Thursday, June 12, 2024, 9:00 pm to 10:15 pm EST Behind the Lens: CapturingFive

Isaacman Will Be the Featured Speaker at Dinner Event on June 21 in Orlando, FL Private astronaut and philanthropist Jared Isaacman will speak at the

Category: Nonfiction Reviewed by: Susan Raizer Title: Into the Void: Adventures of the Spacewalkers Author: John Youskauskas and Melvin Croft Format: Hardcover/Kindle/Audiobook Pages: 392 Publisher:

The National Space Society has just released a Position Paper on the NASA 2026 Skinny Budget. Précis: NSS advocates increasing NASA’s budget rather than reducing

Category: Nonfiction Reviewed by: Douglas G. Adler Title: Amazing Worlds of Science Fiction and Science Fact Author: Keith Cooper Format: Hardcover/Kindle Pages: 224 Publisher: Reaktion

National Space Society Annual Event Will Be Held on June 19-22 in Orlando, FL The National Space Society is pleased to announce that former NASA

The National Space Society invites you to the next Space Forum Thursday, May 22, 2024, 9:00 pm to 10:15 pm EST Blue Ghost’s Moon Mission:

The National Space Society ISDC Will be Held in Orlando, FL in June Former NASA astronaut Dr. Story Musgrave will receive the prestigious Robert A.

Your Doorway to New Worlds