An unlikely group of seven suburban misfits bands 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.
As government-sponsored manned missions from China and the United States vie to be the first to land on Mars, a homemade spaceship built and crewed by four Florida teens, an alcoholic former astronaut, and an unconventional scientific savant enters the space race in this Heinleinian homage by John Varley.
- Genre: Fiction + Literature Themes, Science Fiction + Fantasy
- Subgenre: Space Travel, Medicine + Health, Types of Characters, Society + Social Issues
- Publisher: Ace Books
- Pages: 411
- Edition: Reprint
- Language: English
- Format: paperback
- Release Date: April 1, 2004
- Date Published: April 1, 2004
- Author: John Varley