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unscrupulous colonial administrator of Mars, detailing
Beecher's plans for Willis and for the colony. When Beecher learns Howe has a bouncer, he is ecstatic; the London Zoo is willing to pay a hefty price for a specimen. Worse, Beecher has secretly planned to prevent the annual migration of the colonists (to avoid 12 months of severe winter weather) in order to save money. The boys run away from school to warn their parents and the colony.
241:, there are two versions of the ending. As originally written (and published much later) it is made clear that Willis will not emerge as an adult for 40 years. Heinlein's publishers edited and changed this, as well as a discussion early in the novel in which MacRae expresses strong support for adults and older children being free to carry handguns, and opposition to any government which would restrict that.
224:
the malcontents (as he calls them) from leaving. After two colonists are killed trying to surrender, and the power to the building is cut, the colonists decide they have no choice but to fight back. The colonists organize a raiding party, with the boys taking part, capture
Beecher's office and proclaim the colony's independence from Earth.
228:
to allow humans to share their planet, but
Beecher's threat to Willis has made them reconsider. They present the colonists with an ultimatum: leave the planet or else. Dr. MacRae negotiates with the Martians, and succeeds in persuading them to let the colonists stay, mainly because of Jim's strong friendship with Willis.
317:
The background of Mars presented in the novel, as a desert planet crisscrossed by giant canals built by an ancient civilization to bring water from the polar ice caps, is a common scenario in science fiction novels of the early 20th century, and was actually put forward as a plausible theory by some
227:
Several
Martians enter the school area, and one of them shows up in the door leading to Howe's office, hiding him from sight. When the Martian turns away, Howe is nowhere to be found. The Martians then go to Beecher's building, and when they leave, he also has vanished. The Martians had been content
292:
The general description of
Martian society as characterized by reverence for freedom is similar. For instance, the Martian Gekko "radiates displeasure" upon understanding what is meant by "london-zoo," and further discovering that Howe meant to sell Willis to a zoo—a reaction not dissimilar to that
223:
Once warned, Jim's father quickly organizes the migration, hoping to catch
Beecher off guard. The colonists reach and take over the boarding school, turning it into a temporary shelter. Howe locks himself in his office, while Beecher sets up automatic, photosensor-controlled weapons outside to stop
211:
At school, Jim gets into trouble with the authoritarian headmaster, Mr. Howe, who confiscates Willis, claiming that it is against the new rules to have pets. When Jim and Frank sneak into Howe's office and rescue Willis, the bouncer repeats two overheard conversations between Howe and
Beecher, the
219:
to their homes. During the trip, Frank gets sick. On the third night, they are forced to take shelter inside a giant
Martian cabbage-plant (nearly suffocating when it folds up at night). The next day they meet some native Martians, who accept Jim because of his relationship to Willis and
27:
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as
Heinlein's first genuinely successful effort in the sequence, saying that "Heinlein found his true direction ... The Martian setting is logically constructed and rich in convincing detail the characters are engaging and the action develops naturally."
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MacRae theorizes that
Martians start life as bouncers, metamorphose into adults, then continue to exist after their deaths as the "old ones". In the end, Jim resigns himself to giving Willis up so the bouncer can undergo the transformation to adulthood.
264:, reviewing the original edition, praised the novel's "verisimilitude, the attention to detail which Heinlein's adult readers know well. . . . the explanations are never dragged in for their own sake, and the plot grows naturally out of the setting."
289:, is demonstrated here. Jack Williamson writes that "The Martians in this story have a special interest, because they are the educators of Valentine Michael Smith they display the same appalling powers that Smith brings back to Earth."
208:. The three-legged alien takes the two boys and Willis to participate in a ritual called "growing together" with a group of its fellows. They also share water, making Jim and Frank "water friends" with the Martian, named Gekko.
191:
Mars has been colonized by humans, but is governed by an administrator appointed by an Earth-based company - the colonists have no political power. Colonial teenagers Jim Marlowe and Frank Sutton travel to the
200:
for the start of the academic year. Jim takes along his native Martian pet, Willis the Bouncer, a round furry ball the size of a volleyball, who is about as intelligent as a human child and has a
281:. It is noted in this novel that the "old ones" inhabit two planes of existence: the physical and the (unspecified) other. Further, the water friends theme is recapitulated in
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of Mike, who often senses a "wrongness" in cages, and whose first impulse when encountering the caged animals of a zoo is to attempt to set them free.
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175:). The version published in 1949 featured a number of changes forced on Heinlein by Scribner's, since it was published as part of the
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water-friendship with Gekko. The Martians treat Frank's illness and send the two boys home by a swift, previously unknown subway.
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for sounds, which he can also reproduce perfectly. At a rest stop, Willis wanders off and encounters one of the adult sentient
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The life cycle of Martians (as described by MacRae) is the same in
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December 2008, Virginia Edition (Vol. 12), hardcover, 171 pages,
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The boys set out to skate the thousands of miles on the frozen
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165:. It represents the first appearance of Heinlein's idealized
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astronomers around the turn of the last century, notably
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Heinlein Prize for Advances in Space Commercialization
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The Robert Heinlein Interview and Other Heinleiniana
362:September 26, 2006, Del Rey, paperback, 256 pages,
339:September 12, 1981, Del Rey, paperback, 208 pages,
179:. After Heinlein's death, the book was reissued by
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161:about students at boarding school on the planet
349:June 12, 1986, Del Rey, paperback, 189 pages,
1170:American novels adapted into television shows
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924:The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag
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359:January 1, 1971, Ace, paperback, 189 pages
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249:Surveying Heinlein's juvenile novels,
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472:The Internet Book Database of Fiction
438:Internet Speculative Fiction Database
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183:as the author originally intended.
16:1949 SF novel by Robert A. Heinlein
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1190:Novels about extraterrestrial life
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1201:
1165:Children's science fiction novels
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932:The Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein
116:Print (hardback & paperback)
1160:American science fiction novels
627:The Cat Who Walks Through Walls
186:
1180:Novels set in boarding schools
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1:
600:The Notebooks of Lazarus Long
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1175:Novels by Robert A. Heinlein
873:The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
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1155:1949 science fiction novels
916:The Robert Heinlein Omnibus
758:Have Space Suit—Will Travel
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841:Stranger in a Strange Land
643:The Pursuit of the Pankera
415:Astounding Science Fiction
283:Stranger in a Strange Land
278:Stranger in a Strange Land
270:Stranger in a Strange Land
172:Stranger in a Strange Land
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983:Grumbles from the Grave
619:The Number of the Beast
470:publication history at
750:Citizen of the Galaxy
568:Methuselah's Children
436:title listing at the
324:Giovanni Schiaparelli
169:elder race (see also
1150:1949 American novels
1045:Andrew Jackson Libby
825:The Door into Summer
592:Time Enough for Love
418:, August 1950, p.147
1071:Heinlein Centennial
881:I Will Fear No Evil
785:Beyond This Horizon
670:Rocket Ship Galileo
303:animated miniseries
202:photographic memory
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1185:Novels set on Mars
865:Farnham's Freehold
801:The Puppet Masters
742:Time for the Stars
710:The Rolling Stones
576:Orphans of the Sky
508:Robert A. Heinlein
262:P. Schuyler Miller
245:Critical reception
177:Heinlein juveniles
159:Robert A. Heinlein
69:Heinlein juveniles
41:Robert A. Heinlein
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268:Connections with
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970:(1946/1992)
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812:(1955/2006)
780:(1939/2003)
678:Space Cadet
659:Scribner's
297:Adaptations
126:Space Cadet
47:Illustrator
20:Red Planet
1144:Categories
1022:Characters
857:Glory Road
686:Red Planet
467:Red Planet
455:Red Planet
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384:References
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255:Red Planet
153:is a 1949
150:Red Planet
89:Scribner's
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307:Fox Kids
287:Stranger
235:As with
206:Martians
196:Academy
57:Language
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948:Requiem
167:Martian
60:English
1119:(film)
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