Review: Titan, Wizard & Demon – John Varley’s Gaean TrilogyReview: Titan, Wizard & Demon – John Varley’s Gaean Trilogy

The original cover of Varley's "Titan"

With the series returning to publication in 2006, now is a good time for readers either to reacquaint themselves with Texas native John Varley’s epic Gaea series (Titan, Wizard and Demon) or read it for the first time.

While Cirroco “Rocky” Jones leads a group of astronauts to examine the moons of Saturn, they make the most amazing discovery in the history of space exploration-one of Saturn’s moons is not a moon but rather a sentient life form on a planetary scale.  The crew explore this new creature they name Gaea and discover within her centaurs with three sets of genitalia (both male and female in the horse part of their bodies and one set in the front which determines gender), a race of angels whose raison d’etre is a blood feud with the centaurs, and whistling, blimp-like creatures who pick up passengers and fly them around.

While much of the joy of reading this trilogy comes from the sense of discovery the reader shares with the humans, the complex relationships between the main characters are what make this trilogy such a completely engrossing read.  Themes such as lesbianism, the complex reproduction practices of the centaurs (with three sets of genitals, family trees start to look more like fractal images), and the goddess Gaea weave together in a tapestry of tension, occasional horror, and frequent delight.

Similar sexual themes in other sci-fi/fantasy works include: Tanith Lee’s Don’t Bite the Sun and Drinking Sapphire Wine, Lynn Flewelling’s The Tamir Triad trilogy, and Storm Constantine’s Wraeaethu works.

One of the Freff illustrations from the original printing of Titan

Characters similar to Gaea—alien, sentient, or psychotic habitats, appear in works like: Arthur C. Clark with co-author Gentry Lee’s Rama tetralogy (alien), Peter F. Hamilton’s Night’s Dawn trilogy (sentient), and Arthur C. Clark again with 2001: A Space Odyssey (“Open the pod bay doors, HAL.”).

Titan is a powerful first contact novel on the same scale as Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle’s The Mote in God’s Eye.  While this is science fiction, the awe created by the indigenous people of Gaea and their forms give it a fantasy feel.  The exploration of the interior of Gaea becomes a quest for the characters.  In Titan, that quest is to find the physical manifestation of Gaea to learn about her and to stop the warring between the Titanides (centaurs) and the angels.

The fusion of genres probably worked in Varley’s favor as he won the 1980 Locus Award for SF Novel and was a Nebula Award nominee for the 1979 Nebula award.  The second and third books in the trilogy earned Varley one Hugo and two more Locus SF nominations.  Titan introduces readers to compelling characters who must live within their new environment and sets up readers for the adventures in Wizard and Demon.

Never look for a good book to read; instead, look for good trilogies.

The recent republications do include the original artwork from the first publication in 1980.  The artist goes by Freff. I have been unable to locate any other examples of his work, so if anyone out there has anything, please share.