Варли Джон

"Marley is dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. Old Marley is as dead as a doornail. Things just haven't been the same around the small fiction-writing firm of Scrooge, Marley, and Varley since old Ebenezer went off his rocker and started giving all his money away. Eb is broke now, languishing in one of the union workhouses. Now I am left here alone to...

Although the promise of Varley's early work has petered out, he retains a remarkable storyteller's voice that supersedes his lack of good stories to tell. The reader is thus drawn into these tales examining the way technology complicates human relationships. From the computer and space flight to future prosthetics, the author asserts, greater options lead both to increased...

Following the effortless capture of Earth by vastly superior aliens, humanity was left to fight for existence on the Moon and other lumps of airless rock. Survival was greatly facilitated by the interception of the Hotline, a constant stream of data from the direction of a star in the constellation Ophiuchus, which enabled the development of amazing new technologies. Four hundred...

Fleeing Earth after an alien invasion, the human race stands on the threshold of evolution, like a fish cast on artificial shores. Their new home is Luna, a moon colony blessed with creature comforts, prolonged lifespans, digital memories, and instant sex changes. But the people of Luna are bored, restless, and suicidal - and so is the computer that monitors their existence.

All the universe is a stage...and Sparky Valentine is its itinerant thespian. He brings Shakespeare-a version of it anyway-to the outer reaches of Earth's solar system. Sparky can transform himself from young to old, fat to thin, even male to female, by altering magnetic implants beneath his skin. Indispensible hardware for a career actor-and an interstellar con man wanted for...

Twenty years ago, the Gaean Trilogy dazzled critics and readers. Now a new generation will discover that brilliant world-beginning with Titan. It begins with humankind's exploration of a massive satellite orbiting Saturn. It culminates in a shocking discovery: the satellite is a giant alien being. Her name is Gaea. Her awesome interior is mind-boggling—because it is a mind. A...

One of the greatest science fiction epics ever written, John Varley's Titan, Wizard, and Demon comprise a groundbreaking trilogy that will live forever. Human explorers have entered the sprawling mind of Gaea. Now they must fight her will. For she is much too powerful...and definitely insane.

"Titan, Wizard, and Demon" have enthralled a generation of readers with adventure, humor, horror, and dazzling imagination. Now, in the epic conclusion of John Varley's masterpiece, the satellite-sized alien Gaea has gone completely insane. She has trapped humans in her mind. She has transformed her love of old movies into monstrous realities. She is Marilyn Monroe. She is King...

"In the Bowl" is a thematic story, but in typical Varley fashion, it is a thematic story that will pick you up by the ears and carry you away. "Never buy anything at a secondhand organ bank. And while I'm handing out good advice, don't outfit yourself for a trip to Venus until you get to Venus. I wish I had waited. But while shopping around at Coprates a few weeks before my...

Mammoth is a 2005 novel by author John Varley. The book centers around the concept of Time Travel, and gives quite a bit of discussion to the concept that there may be limits to science. Mammoth opens with the billionaire scientist Howard Christian, and his attempts to clone a mammoth, largely for the sake of the countless circuses he owns. His team finds a mammoth frozen in...

Millennium features a civilization that has dubbed itself "The Last Age". Due to millennia of warfare of every type (nineteen nuclear wars alone), the Earth has been heavily polluted and humanity's gene pool irreparably damaged. They have thus embarked on a desperate plan; time travel into the past, collect healthy humans, and send them to an uncontaminated planet to rebuild...

Picnic on Nearside includes nine astonishing stories from an author whose imagination has changed the genre and the way that people envision the future. Bagatelle. A disgruntled misfit turns himself into an atomic bomb; it's up to the intrepid A.L. Bach to stop him. The Funhouse Effect. Boy is hypnotized to think that an asteroid cruise ship is being taken over by militants;...

This award-winning Science Fiction novella is part murder mystery, part romance, and more than a little bit scary. Victor Apfel, a troubled war vet, gets an odd, pre-recorded phone message, instructing him to go inside the house next door. He opens the door to find his neighbor shot through the head. But is it suicide - or murder? And is it possible that a computer is to blame?

Red Thunder is a 2003 science fiction novel written by John Varley. The novel is an homage to the juvenile science fiction novels written by Robert A. Heinlein. The novel begins in Florida in the near future. China and the United States are sending competing first missions to Mars, although it is clear the Chinese will arrive first. The book's protagonist is Manny Garcia, a...

The Persistence of Vision is an award-winning 1978 anthology of science fiction stories by John Varley. The anthology was also published in the United Kingdom under the title In the Hall of the Martian Kings. The anthology includes nine stories: "The Phantom of Kansas," originally published in Galaxy , February 1976. "Air Raid," originally published in Isaac...