Red Planet
- 211
- Pages
- about 4 h
- Reading time
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Our view
“Red Planet” is a lively Heinlein juvenile that pits students at a Martian boarding school against questions of authority and freedom. It is also where Heinlein’s idealised elder race of Martians first appears. Some readers value it less as a coming-of-age tale than as a story about the limits of authority. Editions published after his death restore the text he intended, without the changes his publisher demanded.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Red Planet is a 1949 science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein about students at boarding school on the planet Mars. It represents the first appearance of Heinlein's idealized Martian elder race. The version published in 1949 featured a number of changes forced on Heinlein by Scribner's, since it was published as part of the Heinlein juveniles. After Heinlein's death, the book was reissued by Del Rey Books as the author originally intended.
Reading order · Heinlein juveniles
Full order & progress →- Rocket Ship GalileoStart here
–Not ranked yet - Space Cadet
7.67.6 / 10 - Red PlanetThis book
7.67.6 / 10 - Farmer in the Sky
7.67.6 / 10 - The Rolling Stones
–Not ranked yet - Starman Jones
7.77.7 / 10 - The Star Beast
–Not ranked yet - Tunnel in the Sky
–Not ranked yet - Time for the Stars
7.67.6 / 10 - Citizen of the Galaxy
7.67.6 / 10 - Have Space Suit—Will Travel
7.57.5 / 10
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.3 across 52 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 26% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Science fiction average of 7.8. That is how 7.6 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.8 | 10 | 19% |
| Hardcover | 7.2 | 42 | 81% |
Frequently asked
How long is Red Planet?
It has 211 pages — shorter than 91% of the ranked books in Science fiction.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
The same shelf — Science fiction — and a score of 7.6, the closest to this book.
