[[quoteright:201:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/unnamed_6685.jpg]]

''Podkayne of Mars'' is a science fiction novel by Creator/RobertAHeinlein.

Teenager Podkayne Fries and her asocial genius kid brother, Clark, go on a family trip on a space liner from their home planet of Mars to Earth by way of Venus. Along the way, they get involved in machinations surrounding an upcoming diplomatic conference.

The story was first serialized in ''Worlds of If'' magazine in 1962-1963, before appearing in book form in 1963.

Heinlein's publisher classed the work with his "juveniles" (works for younger readers), and forced him to change an aspect of the ending which was considered inappropriate for that market, over his objections that in doing so they were missing the point of the story. The 1993 edition published by Creator/BaenBooks included both versions of the ending and invited readers to write in and say which they preferred and why; a subsequent Baen edition included several of the resulting essays as bonus material and reported a clear preference for the original ending.
----
!!This novel contains examples of:

* AdvertOverloadedFuture: While on Venus people are constantly barraged by ads. Podkayne and Gertie even have a hologram of a devil appear inside their taxi and try to get them to buy an addictive drink called Hi-Ho. The company that makes it pays the taxi company to force the ads on their captive customers, though the passengers can bribe the cabbie to at least lower the volume.
* AerithAndBob: The two siblings are named Podkayne and Clark.
* BrattyHalfPint: Clark.
* ColonizedSolarSystem: Earth has colonies on Luna, Venus and Mars.
* CoolUncle: Tom to Podkayne. Revolutionary war hero, always has time for her when her parents don't, and a secret ambassador for Mars.
* CosmeticCatastrophe: Podkayne tries to imitate garish makeup from a magazine cover. Fortunately an older woman shows her how it should be done.
* DidNotThinkThisThrough:
** Clark leaves an IfIDoNotReturn message for his sister. [[spoiler:She tries to contact the local authority but his secretary claims she doesn't know where he is. Knowing she's lying, Pod loses her temper instead of saying ''why'' she wants to contact her boss, then proceeds to DitchTheBodyguards and follow up the clue herself, falling right into the kidnapper's hands.]]
** For all his genius, Clark [[spoiler:forgets to disarm the bomb in the excitement of the escape, then gets lost in the Venusian smog. Earlier in the novel he brags that he can always anticipate his sister's actions, but fails to anticipate that she would go back to rescue the baby of the Venusian he killed.]]
* EnfantTerrible: Clark Fries is asocial and entirely self-centred. The ending suggests that, having been shaken by the experience he's gone through, he may be improving.
* EpistolaryNovel: The text is presented as entries from Podkayne's diary, with occasional snarky entries from Clark written in invisible ink. [[spoiler:The final entry is written not by Podkayne but by Clark, after Podkayne is caught in the bomb blast.]]
* FantasticFightingStyle: Mentions a martial art called "Kill-Quick", which Podkayne's mother is skilled in.
* FantasticRacism: Podkayne finds herself on the receiving end from a couple of old ladies from Earth, because she's a mixed race Marswoman (Nordic-Māori). Clark gets revenge on her behalf by putting photograph dye in their face towels.
* GadgeteerGenius: Clark can reprogram a household robot to bring him midnight snacks and charge it to his sister's account, and ''disarm a nuclear bomb''.
* HandsOffParenting: Podkayne's parents, Professor and Dr. Fries.
* InfractionDistraction: Clark makes a crack about smuggling drugs onto the space ship, thereby preventing the guards from discovering the bomb he hid in Podkayne's luggage.
* IncestSubtext: There's some snide comments that Tom Fries is more attracted to his niece than he should be. [[{{Squick}} It doesn't help]] that Podkayne asks her uncle to spank her on one occasion, which was AuthorAppeal to Heinlein.
* IHaveYourWife: Podkayne and Clark are kidnapped to pressure Tom Fries into changing his vote at an upcoming political conference.
* InsistentTerminology: Humans from Mars are ''Marsmen'', not Martians. Martians are [[Literature/StrangerInAStrangeLand an entirely different race.]]
* KilledMidSentence: [[spoiler:In the original version, Podkayne says "Do listen please, because this is important. I love--" before she is killed by a bomb blast.]]
* LostAesop: Heinlein was trying for an Aesop about the dangers of HandsOffParenting. However, until the CharacterFilibuster at the end, there's really nothing in the novel that suggests that the characters' parents' lack of involvement was to blame for their problems -- or even that, by today's standards, the parents were uninvolved to begin with.
* MetaphoricalMarriage: The local MegaCorp on Venus doesn't bother with registering marriages by its workers, only caring about having new employees being birthed. People view themselves as married though.
* ObfuscatingStupidity:
** Senator Tom Fries pretends to be a doddering old man only interested in playing cards and taking his nephew and niece on an interplanetary tour, but he's actually a secret ambassador of the Martian government.
** [[spoiler:The kidnapper pretends to be a kindly old lady. Clark in turns pretends to be JustAKid who reads too many comic books (he even has some in his bag to give just this impression) who's too dumb to set his TrackingDevice when rushing off to save a DamselInDistress. Turns out Clark has a second tracker hidden in a false compartment, along with a small atomic bomb.]]
* OneNationUnderCopyright: Venus Corporation controls the entire planet Venus, and runs it like Las Vegas IN SPACE.
* PenalColony: The inhabitants of Mars are descended from prison colonists.
* PopulationControl: Marsmen apply to the 'Population, Ecology and Genetics' Board to be 'pegged' at a preset number of children, probably because of the necessity of not exceeding the support potential of the semi-terraformed colony. However none of the mentioned families seem to have any trouble getting the number they want; Podkayne's parents are in fact offered seven children but her mother prefers five as 'all she has time for'.
* PrecociousCrush: Clark develops a crush on a lady traveling with them on the space voyage to Venus.
* RevisedEnding: ''Podkayne of Mars'' had an original ending where [[spoiler:Podkayne is killed in the bomb blast]], intending it to be AnAesop about a working mother not properly taking care of her children. The publisher made him use a revised ending where [[spoiler:she is injured but survives]]. It was eventually published with both endings, which differ only on the last page. He blames the father, too, though perhaps not to the same degree.
* RipTailoring: Podkayne, free from the eye of her parents and determined to seem more cosmopolitan than her Martian upbringing, mentions altering her only party dress in the privacy of her cruise liner cabin to look a bit more grown-up.
* SociopathicHero: It's Clark who works out a way to escape, thanks to him being CrazyPrepared for the possibility that his own rescue plan would fail and he'd get caught.
* TakingYouWithMe: This backfires badly. [[spoiler:Clark sets a small atomic bomb to go off so if their escape fails, their kidnappers won't survive either. The escape is a success but the bomb goes off and kills Podkayne, who went back to save a Venusian baby.]]
* TwoOfYourEarthMinutes: Averted; Podkayne keeps referring to herself and her brother by their Mars ages (and later their Venusian age because it makes her sound older), not their age in Earth years.
* VenusIsWet: Venus is depicted as a swampy and smog-covered planet.
* WhyAmITicking: Clark is bribed to smuggle a 'gift to the captain' on board. However Clark isn't an idiot (why not just give the gift to the purser?) and breaks into the package from underneath and disarms what turns out to be a small nuclear weapon. [[TroublingUnchildlikeBehaviour That he decides to keep.]]
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: Being just as sociopathic as their kidnapper, Clark realises they're going to be killed to LeaveNoWitnesses regardless of what decision Tom Fries makes.
----