Red Thunder

Published by The Berkley Publishing Group,

a division of Penguin Putnam Inc.,

375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

Copyright © 2003 by John Varley.

Text design by Kristin del Rosario.

All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be

reproduced in any form without permission

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ACE and the “A” design are trademarks belonging to Penguin Putnam Inc.

First edition: April 2003

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Varley, John, 1947-

Red thunder / John Varley.-1st ed.

p. cm.

ISBN 0-441-01015-6 (alk. paper)

I. Title.

PS3572.A724R42003

813’.54-dc21

2002038231

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

To Spider Robinson and

Robert A. Heinlein

for the inspiration;

and to Lee, for that,

and everything else.