From the author of Friday and Rocketship Galileo comes this classic tale featuring the grand master of science fictionтАЩs most remarkable heroine. Podkayne Fries, a smart and determined maid of Mars, has just one goal in life: to become the first female starship pilot and rise through the ranks to command deep-space explorations. So when she is offered a chance to join her diplomatic uncle on an interstellar journey to distant Earth via Venus, itтАЩs a dream come trueтАФeven if her only experience with diplomacy is handling her brilliant but pesky younger brother, Clark. But sheтАЩs about to learn some things about war and peaceтАФUncle Tom, the ambassador plenipotentiary from Mars to the Three Planets Conference, is traveling not quite incognito enough, and certain parties will stop at nothing to sabotage negotiations between the three worlds.
Robert Anson Heinlein (1907тАУ1988) took a variety of jobs before beginning to write science fiction in 1939. He became the dominant science fiction writer of the modern era, a writer whose influence on the field was immense. He won science fictionтАЩs Hugo Award for best novel seven times, and several of his books were New York Times bestsellers. In 1975 he received the first Grand Master Award for lifetime achievement.
Emily Janice Card has read a number of audiobooks, including Ben Bova's The Aftermath, Orson Scott Card's Ender in Exile, Lisa Gardner's The Neighbor, and several titles by Kimberly Willis Holt. Card is an actor, singer, and writer from North Carolina. On screen, she's appeared in The Delivery. Her stage work includes The Importance of Being Earnest, Bye Bye Birdie, The Fantasticks, and Once Upon a Mattress. She also adapted and starred in the play A Sepulcher of Songs, based on a short story by her father, Orson Scott Card.
Gabrielle de Cuir is a Grammy-nominated and Audie Award-winning producer whose narration credits include the voice of Valentine in Orson Scott CardтАЩs Ender novels, Ursula K. Le GuinтАЩs The Tombs of Atuan, and Natalie AngierтАЩs Woman, for which she was awarded AudioFile magazineтАЩs Golden Earphones Award. She lives in Los Angeles where she also directs theatre and presently has several projects in various stages of development for film.