Another enjoyable coming-of-age SF story, although this one has more problems than Space Cadet.

On the plus side, there's an enigmatic alien race (the Martians), quite different from humans, and the greatest pet ever, the Martian bouncer called Willis. As usual, the main character is a teenage boy, Jim Marlowe. Jim's parents are among the first human settlers of Mars. Willis is a semi-intelligent Martian creature who has the ability to replay the sounds it hears, sometimes creating mayhem (it reminded me of Kiki the parrot, from Enid Blyton's Adventure series, only even worse).

Unlike Space Cadet, where the authority figures are mostly benign, here when Jim and his friend Frank are sent to a more important settlement to attend school, they find some rather nasty characters in charge. Soon there's going to be a clash between the interests of the settlers and the colonial administrators.

As an SF novel, it probably has more elements of interest than Space Cadet (the Martians in Red Planet are more interesting than the Venusians in Space Cadet). There is also a lot of adventure.

However, there are some problems. The dated technology is more noticeable here: there's a plot point related to the inability to maintain communications between settlements unless the Deimos station is visible in Mars' sky. Obviously Heinlein here had not yet heard about geosynchronous satellites (another SF writer, Arthur C. Clarke, had been the first to suggest the idea in a paper published in 1945). Also, the sexism is more noticeable here, with a few comments regarding how women's role is to cook and have children, rather than fight and have adventures. The villains are probably too "villainous" to be realistic. Finally, the Martians serve as a "deus ex machina", often saving the day instead of letting the characters deal with the consequences of their sometimes too hasty decisions.

If one is able to look past those flaws, we are left with a solid YA adventure, some nice science-fictional ideas and an interesting plot revolving around the conflict of interests between settlers and colonial authorities.

The version I read was the one Heinlein wrote, and there were some notes about how the original publisher had censored and changed some parts, since they feared that as Heinlein wrote it there might be some resistance from the librarians that would make a good portion of the intended buyers. ( )

I never read any of the Heinlein juveniles when I was growing up (that I recall, anyway). And not many Heinlein books are available as e-books. But this one was, so I plunged in with relish. I wasn't disappointed, because it was exactly what I had always heard RAH's juvenile works described as.
This book was first published in 1949 and is set in some unnamed year in the future. What I found intriguing and jarring was not the overcome-by-time science (intelligent Martians, canals filled with ice, enough air pressure to forgo pressure suits) but rather the communications and entertainment technology that was still stuck in the 40s. Colonists have to wait for Deimos to be in the sky to relay radio signals, because there are no communication satellites. (I guess Arthur Clarke hadn't predicted them yet.) Phones are attached to buildings. The teenagers don't carry their music with them. All of these changes are relatively recent, and yet are so fundamental to how we live today that RAH's future world seems positively primitive.
But that's part of the fun of reading old SF: both seeing what was predicted that didn't come true and seeing what did come true that was completely unforeseen. I can simultaneously satisfy the hungry-for-wonder child within meand the somewhat cynical adult I have (somewhat regretfully) become. ( )

On Mars, members of Earth’s South Colony prepare to migrate north before winter arrives. It is also the beginning of a new school year at the academy on Syrtis Minor, near the North Colony. Returning to the school are best friends Jim Marlowe, Frank Sutton, and Jim’s pet, Willis. The latter is a round, furry Martian creature with the uncanny ability to remember everything it hears and repeat it with perfect accuracy.

This talent comes in handy when Jim, Frank, and Willis arrive at the academy and find themselves subject to the draconian rules and regulations of the new headmaster who confiscates Willis and locks the Martian in his office. While there, Willis overhears a conversation between the headmaster and the colony’s leader, Harold Beecher. After he is liberated by Jim and Frank, Willis recites all that he heard, including a plot to prevent the colonists in the south from migrating, thereby assuring that many will not survive the winter. With the headmaster monitoring all communications to and from the academy, there is no way to send a warning.

Can Jim and Frank break out of the school with Willis and survive the journey back to the South Colony on their own?

Published in 1949, Red Planet is the third in Heinlein’s juvenile novel collection (what might be called young adult in today’s vernacular). It’s a delightful romp with an imaginative take on indigenous Martians and their world’s landscape. I couldn’t help but think of Percival Lowell upon reading about the canals that our heroes traversed during their journey home. ( )

Boring and sexist. The punch line is: it's just too complicated for us to know! I could have known that without the 7 hours I spent reading this. ( )

Ex-lib. AADL ( )