Podkayne of Mars (1963)

This is far from my favorite Heinlein story, but out of the universe of all stories by all authors, it was still pretty good. Narrator was a brilliant young Mars girl with an even smarter younger brother, engaged in misadventures. The story itself is kind of forgettable, but it was interesting seeing the same themes which would be in his better books (in particular, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress). There is dated science and a lot of sexism, plus some really weird implied sexual degeneracy, but enh. ( )

Starts out YA bubbly then goes dark as Heinlein's biases take hold ( )

Includes alternative endings and commentary on them. ( )

It had been a while since I'd been exposed the that dirty old man, Heinlein. I was hoping that the sometimes fun and happy go lucky tone that I remembered could carry the story, but sadly, poor Podkayne becomes a teenage mouthpiece for his gender policing. She starts out with dreams of becoming a spaceship captain and her mom is a successful engineer, but her voyage to Venus brings out the baby-crazy in her and she narrows her vision. The reader is good at perky, but there's nothing she could do about the prattling. Oh well, that should learn me. ( )

Not one of Heinlein's best, IMO. Nothing much happens until right at the end, and even then it's not as riveting or entertaining as I know Heinlein is capable of.
It was interesting enough to keep me reading it in one sitting, but mostly just... meh... Heinlein can do sooooooo much better. ( )