Red Planet

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 (see also Stranger in a Strange Land). 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. Plot summary 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 Lowell Academy boarding school 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 photographic memory for sounds, which he can also reproduce perfectly. At a rest stop, Willis wanders off and encounters one of the adult sentient Martians. 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. 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 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. The boys set out to skate the thousands of miles on the frozen Martian canals 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 water-friendship with Gekko.