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John Varley

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john varley

io9 Talks to John Varley About Climate Disaster and Space Opera

Science fiction author John Varley has been seducing readers and boggling their minds since the 1970s, when he began publishing his Gaean Trilogy (Titan, Wizard, and Demon), as well as other novels like The Ophiuchi Hotline, set in his posthuman 8 Worlds universe. His most recent novel, Rolling Thunder, came out last week. It's the third in a trilogy that marks a departure for the author: set in the near future, the books explore what happens when environmental disasters force part of Earth's population to settle on Mars. In Rolling Thunder, a woman born and raised on Mars has to deal with the fallout of the perhaps-final assault on Earth's biosphere from giant, incomprehensible aliens. We caught up with Varley on email to ask him about the new book and what he thinks of contemporary space opera (hint: he hates it). More »

9:30 AM on Mon Mar 10 2008
By Annalee Newitz
1,671 views, 6 comments

Latest by MaxTwice: @codydog: I'd call "Dunst" a space opera..... more »

rolling thunder review

An MP3 Star from Mars vs. Giant Aliens from Europa in John Varley's Cool New Novel

Earth has suffered a massive climate disaster that submerges most of Florida, rips the United States into several mini-nations, and sends a band of freethinking scientists and entrepreneurs to found a colony (and a really great restaurant) on Mars. Many years later, two of these early colonists have a grandchild whose aspirations are a little more pedestrian than "save the world" or "found a new planetary outpost." She's the star of John Varley's latest novel Rolling Thunder, and she just wants to be an MP3 pop star, the most downloaded girl on the net. The third novel in Varley's latest series, the book focuses on a a girl named Podkayne, who at the age of eighteen joins the Martian Navy's Music, Arts and Drama Division. But just as her music is hitting big, her career is interrupted by several giant mountains on Galilean moon Europa coming to life and zooming into the central solar system. More »

3:42 PM on Mon Mar 3 2008
By Annalee Newitz
1,585 views, 17 comments

Latest by Klebert: I wouldn't really call Red Thunder hard science... Haven't read Lightning yet.-Kle. more »

must read

Socio-Sexual Politics in the Body of a Giant Cyborg Near Saturn

John Varley's new novel Rolling Thunder, about the adventures of a Martian military brat, will hit bookstores in early March. But for those of you who aren't enjoying an advance copy like I am, I recommend you kick back this weekend with a classic Varley novel from 1979: Wizard, the second in his Gaia Trilogy. It's a quest tale set inside a vast, ancient cybernetic creature known as Gaia who houses several ecosystems and many species in her habitat-like body. Humans discover her in the Saturn neighborhood, and quickly start to immigrate — especially when they find out that Gaia is willing to heal sick people she deems worthy. More »

4:15 PM on Fri Feb 1 2008
By Annalee Newitz
2,258 views, 14 comments

Latest by engtech: I really enjoyed Steel Beach and the sequel The Golden Globe. Here's his bibliography: [www.varley.net] It looks like Rolling Thunder is part of a triology with Red Thunder and Red Lightning more »

john varley

The 23 Biggest Slackers In Science Fiction

Our promiscuous, body-swapping descendants will hit the skids in the third book in John Varley's Steel Beach trilogy — if he ever gets around to finishing it. Varley's Irontown Blues is one of the most long overdue books in science fiction according to SF Signal. Varley told Locus the book would be a futuristic detective story, and things would be "looking kind of bad for the human race" by the end of it. Other authors who should crank out those delayed works, according to SF Signal. More »

11:00 AM on Tue Nov 13 2007
By charliejane
407 views, 6 comments

Latest by FredKiesche: You know it would have been really nice if you had linked to the posting that inspired the SF Signal posting. That would have been something I wrote, BTW. more »