TITAN

by John Varley ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 19, 1979

Varley, a relative newcomer, has written some brilliant short stories (recently collected in The Persistence of Vision), but he's not yet entirely at home in a sustained narrative. The great strength here is the sheer inventiveness of the basic image: a vast and mysterious rotating wheel-like structure, filled with breathable air, orbiting Saturn. At intervals along the varied topography of ""Gaea's"" interior, a series of giant cables brace the ""earth"" (the rim of the spinning body) against the ""sky"" (the hub). Varley has a wonderful time inventing flora and fauna (from a sentient blimp to a race of singing centaurs) for this enclosed world. He has less success with his stranded human crew, whose varied sexual pairings are far more engaging than most sf romances, but faintly artificial in comparison with the imaginative evocation of Gaea. Not the real zinger Varley might give us one of these days, but a pretty lively try.

Pub Date: March 19, 1979

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Putnam

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1979

Categories: FICTION