Take a photo of a barcode or cover
larsdradrach's review against another edition
3.0
Strange how a preconceived idea of what a book is about can influence the reading experience.
For a long time i thought this was a "Big-Dumb-Object" book like [b:Rendezvous with Rama|112537|Rendezvous with Rama (Rama, #1)|Arthur C. Clarke|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1405456427s/112537.jpg|1882772] and fully expected detailed (and understandable) descriptions of how Gaea worked and I was somewhat disappointed and underwhelmed.
Half way through I realized that this was more an adventure of a quest like [b:Riverworld: To Your Scattered Bodies Go/The Fabulous Riverboat|6665903|Riverworld To Your Scattered Bodies Go/The Fabulous Riverboat (Riverworld, #1-2)|Philip José Farmer|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1390169564s/6665903.jpg|6860772] and i began to enjoy the story somewhat.
We are following the Female! captain of a exploration spaceship that's captured by the artificial world Gaea and follow her and her companions eksploration though the hollow world though some interesting and at times outright silly surroundings.
There a fair bit of sex in the story, but kudos for giving our Female captain a lesbian love interest and limit the male characters to adolescent acting minor figures.
After reading this i realized that it's part 1 of a trilogy, but i will not be reading the rest.
For a long time i thought this was a "Big-Dumb-Object" book like [b:Rendezvous with Rama|112537|Rendezvous with Rama (Rama, #1)|Arthur C. Clarke|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1405456427s/112537.jpg|1882772] and fully expected detailed (and understandable) descriptions of how Gaea worked and I was somewhat disappointed and underwhelmed.
Half way through I realized that this was more an adventure of a quest like [b:Riverworld: To Your Scattered Bodies Go/The Fabulous Riverboat|6665903|Riverworld To Your Scattered Bodies Go/The Fabulous Riverboat (Riverworld, #1-2)|Philip José Farmer|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1390169564s/6665903.jpg|6860772] and i began to enjoy the story somewhat.
We are following the Female! captain of a exploration spaceship that's captured by the artificial world Gaea and follow her and her companions eksploration though the hollow world though some interesting and at times outright silly surroundings.
There a fair bit of sex in the story, but kudos for giving our Female captain a lesbian love interest and limit the male characters to adolescent acting minor figures.
After reading this i realized that it's part 1 of a trilogy, but i will not be reading the rest.
lindzee's review against another edition
1.0
Couldn't get into it. Also, the sex scenes before I'd even met the characters felt rushed and also, not safe for work.
caracalico's review against another edition
4.0
Hmm. Not crazy for this one. It was a bit too mature for me and too weird. The hardest part was going through all the descriptions which were extremely hard for me to visualize because not only were the things obscure in the first place, but he uses a lot of technical terms i don't understand and refers to aspects of technology i'm unfamiliar with to describe them.
mslauraeb's review against another edition
3.0
A ship's crew, investigating out near Saturn, gets abducted by the strange object they find. Shades of 2001 here, but it's really something else. The world they find is full of mythology and adventure. I'm enjoying it and moving on to the second in the trilogy.
thewallflower00's review against another edition
2.0
As I expected with “classic” science fiction, this stuff is just weird. A group of space explorers (including a set of incestuous test-tube twins) find a Dyson sphere that’s part living, part machine. Inside the sphere, our heroes find giant landscapes, geographical features akin to Avatar’s Pandora, and a war between centaurs and angels (their names for these alien beings).
It reminds me of “Jitterbug Perfume” and “The Demolished Man” — critically acclaimed and difficult to understand. And like those books, there’s a lot of unncessary sex in there. It’s really obvious, like the sex was put in there to sell the book.
I’ll be honest, I came here for the centaur sex. But there isn’t any. There’s naked centaurs who have both man junk and horse junk. But that takes the fun out of it. And that’s when the book is going off on weird tangents. You can tell this guy is a gardener, not an architect, but there’s nothing here to sell it.
There’s really no reason to read this book. I didn’t get what I wanted out of it and neither will you. It’s too ridiculous to be considered sci-fi and too scientific to be considered fantasy. I do not recommend it.
It reminds me of “Jitterbug Perfume” and “The Demolished Man” — critically acclaimed and difficult to understand. And like those books, there’s a lot of unncessary sex in there. It’s really obvious, like the sex was put in there to sell the book.
I’ll be honest, I came here for the centaur sex. But there isn’t any. There’s naked centaurs who have both man junk and horse junk. But that takes the fun out of it. And that’s when the book is going off on weird tangents. You can tell this guy is a gardener, not an architect, but there’s nothing here to sell it.
There’s really no reason to read this book. I didn’t get what I wanted out of it and neither will you. It’s too ridiculous to be considered sci-fi and too scientific to be considered fantasy. I do not recommend it.
kewlkat70's review
adventurous
medium-paced
5.0
I read this trilogy back in the 80s and I've reread it at least once since then.
A classic spec fiction book and highly recommend to anyone who is trying to look to expand their current library.
Although it's been many years since reading these books I cannot talk about trigger warnings as what was acceptable several decades ago may bother newer readers.
I can say this is like ring world without the blatant misogyny.
A classic spec fiction book and highly recommend to anyone who is trying to look to expand their current library.
Although it's been many years since reading these books I cannot talk about trigger warnings as what was acceptable several decades ago may bother newer readers.
I can say this is like ring world without the blatant misogyny.
burritapal_1's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Titan by John Varley was published in 1979 by Berkeley publishing corporation. On the back cover is a picture of the young John Varley. When you look up images of him on the internet, you see a bearded elderly man. How sad what time does to humans.
this ship goes to one of the moons of Saturn, because it sees something that looks like a ship attached to one of the Rings surrounding Titan. Well, it turns out it's a whole world, that is called gaia, and it's got centaurs and Angels. but the angels are bad; they kill the centaurs. and it's got sand worms that Gaea took from the story dune.
Before the story starts, there's a map of Gaia and an image of it from the top looking down, and then an image of one sector of gaia. I referred to these images of three pages constantly throughout the book, because I'm a really visual person and these images helped me visualize what was going on in the story. Thanks to the author and publishers.
Early in the book there's a part where they're approaching the edge of Themis. That's what they named the object before they realized it already had the name of Gaia. They're looking for a place to Dock and an object begins swelling on the side of it. All of a sudden things go crazy, with a buzzer sounding. the swelling becomes a long arm or a boom and begins to open out.
" 'The docking facilities!' Cirocco yelled. 'they're going to grab us! Bill, start the engine sequence, stop the carousel, and get ready to move.' "
and grab them the object does, and brings them inside of the ship. This object utterly destroys their ship, and causes every one of them to go into a blackness and a gel surrounding them and going down into their lungs and none of them know where the others are. In fact, it takes over their minds for a while so they don't even have consciousness. Totally creepy.
They wake up one by one, but some of them are lost for a long time. The protagonist wakes up by a river and begins to follow it, hoping that she will find another one of her crew.
They have met up with a few of the crew members, and have made crude shelter, when something really strange happens. Calvin is the crew member who was the ship surgeon. He likes to hang out with a blimp-type creature who he names Whistlestop, who allows other creatures to travel inside of his hollow stomach. He also knows how to communicate with Whistlestop. Each one of them, when they discover each other, finds out that there's some kind of ability that has been implanted in their minds. Cirocco can understand and communicate with the centaurs.
Cirroco discovers that she's pregnant, though she's had sex with nobody and also cirocco's best female friend Gabby is pregnant. Soon they learned that august, the other half of the Clone twins is pregnant too. Her twin April remains lost for the moment. They talk Calvin into performing abortions on them, though he makes them wait a month to make sure they're pregnant.
Later on we find out that gaia, the person gaia, did this to them while they were in their dark, gel stage. She thought it would be interesting to create a new species: a hybrid of centaurs and humans.
They've been eating these docile creatures, (this is a very sad part) and eating fruit from trees, when they decide to try and eat a different type of fish. They call it a mudfish, which likes to sit in the Ooze with its snout buried, moving by flipping its tail. she and Gaby and Bill soon had one surrounded.
"It was their first close look at one. Cirocco had never seen a creature so ugly. It was 3 m long, flat on the bottom, and bulged in the middle from its blunt snout to a wicked-looking horizontal tail fluke. There was a long gray Ridge along its back, soft and loose like a rooster's comb, but slimy. It swelled and deflated rhythmically."
Bill sticks his sword through the Flesh of the creature just behind its eye. He leaned Into The Sword and the fish jerked as Bill released the sword and danced back.
" 'Too easy,' he said. 'when is this place going to give us a challenge?' He took the hilt of the sword and pulled it out. Dark blood spurted over his hand. The fish bent, touching its snout with its tail, then swung the tail sideways and down on Bill's head. It scooped deftly under his motionless body and hurled him into the air. Cirocco did not even see where he came down. The fish arched again, this time balancing on its belly with both snout and tail in the air. She saw its mouth for the first time. It was round, Lamprey-like, with a double row of teeth that counter-rotated and clattered. The tail hit the mud and the fish jumped at her.
She dived flat to the ground, plowing up a wake of mud with her chin. The fish plopped behind her, arched, and flipped 50 kilos of mud into the air as it lashed madly with its tail. The sharp fin sliced the ground in front of her face, then Rose for another try. She scurried on her hands and knees, slipping every time she tried to stand."
They have a close call but they manage to escape. Gaby and Cirocco Carry bill to their shelter. He eventually gets better, but Bill will never be the same again, having suffered a concussion.
They meet a centaur, who turns out to communicate with a song-like speech. cirocco names her C-sharp because that's the key that she sings in, I guess. When they see a male centaur, cirocco names him B flat.
The really interesting thing about centaurs is their genitals.
"When the other Titanide joined them, the disturbing difference cirocco noted earlier was abundantly clear, and even more disturbing. Between the front legs, where C sharp had a patch of hair, B flat had a completely human penis.
'holy god,' Gaby whispered, nudging cirocco's elbow.'
'will you be quiet? This makes me very nervous.'
'you, nervous? What about me? I can't understand a note you're singing. But it's pretty, rocky [Cirocco's nickname]. You sing real nice.'
Other than the male genitals in front, B flat was almost identical to C sharp. Both had high, conical breasts and hairless, pale skin. Their faces were both vaguely feminine, wide-mouthed and beardless. B flat had more paint on his body, more flowers in his hair. Aside from that and the penis the two would have been hard to tell apart."
They experience a battle between the angels and the centaurs. It comes out of nowhere, seemingly, but Angels descend from the heavens, and begin to attack the centaurs. two of the centaurs, named Hornpipe and Panpipe take Gaby and cirocco on a journey to explore the part where one of the cables comes down to the ground. When the angels descend, on their way back home, They tried to tie them up so that they don't go into battle and get themselves killed. It's a bad experience, and panpipe becomes Savage and escapes the ropes tying him. When the Angels go back..
" she cried when they released her; the helpless Sobs of a child who doesn't understand what has happened to her. That turned into petulance and complaints, chiefly about her sore legs and ears. Gaby and cirocco rubbed her legs where the ropes had chafed. Her cloven Hooves were as clear and red as cherry jello.
She seemed confused as to the whereabouts of panpipe, but not distressed when she understood he had gone into battle. She gave them sloppy kisses and pressed herself against them amorously, causing Gaby some concern even when ciRocco explained the titanides rigidly divided frontal and rear intercourse. The frontal organs were for the production of semi-fertilized eggs, which were then manually implanted in a rear vagina and brought to fecundity by a rear penis."
you don't say? Interesting.
Gaby and cirocco and Gene, one of the other crew members, make a plan to climb one of the cables to the center where the spokes come out of, hoping to encounter Gaia and get some answers as to why they have been brought here. Gene turns out to be a typical man, and there's a terrible scene where he rapes Gaby and cirocco. They manage to subdue him and throw him over the side, attached to one of the parachutes from whistlestop, which is more than what he deserves. We never hear from him again.
After a terrible ordeal, Gaby and cirocco arrive at the hall at the top. Gaia puts on a great show, just like The Wizard of Oz.
" 'Speak, or return from whence you came.'
Cirroco squinted, saw a round head set on a thick neck, eyes that blazed like coals, thick lips. Gaia was 4 M tall, standing erect before her throne on a 2 m pedestal. The body was round with a monstrous belly, huge breasts, arms and legs that would have awed a professional wrestler. She was naked, and the color of green olives.
The pedestal changed shape abruptly, became a grassy hill covered with flowers. Gaia's legs became tree trunks, her feet firmly rooted in the dark soil. Small animals stood around her while flying creatures circled her head. She looked directly at cirroco, and her huge brow began to cloud."
after she scares Gaby and cirocco half to death, she brings them into a her living space, and shows herself as a plump, dumpy, elderly woman. She offers them food and drink, and even cocaine, which totally cracked me up. It is cirocco's only vice.
I'm not going all the way to the end. I just want to say that this was a totally enjoyable book. The creativity of the setting, the characters, was so admirable, I visualized this in my head throughout the whole book, and, like the cover of the book of the edition that I read, it was truly a paradise, even given the violence of some scenes. Kudos to John Varley, for his creativity.
xaymaca's review against another edition
5.0
Refreshed review:
Perhaps I might be biased on this one due to the feelings nostalgia that this invoked in me but if it were possible to give this book a 6th star I would. This book was way ahead of the literature mainstream at the time of its printing, like good science fiction is supposed to be. In spite of it's age, it's held up well. The artifacts of the decade are in here of course but many of the cultural challenges of gender, war and peace are still relevant. The world building and xenobiology are on a higher level than most of what I've read lately. The aliens seems real, not just props for the story. On the meta side, IMO, it's a love letters to the great SF writers of that era as well. Not every book I read when I was younger has stood the test of time but I'm so glad that this one did. I'm going to pause here on the trilogy re-read. Will pick back up Book 2 (Wizard) in the summer maybe?
Side note: One of the things I miss about paper books, esp from back in the day was the beautiful cover art and sometimes interior art you'd get with the book. Here is the one you'd find in the old paper version of Titan.
Would love to see the e-book formats support both color and B+W interior art.
Perhaps I might be biased on this one due to the feelings nostalgia that this invoked in me but if it were possible to give this book a 6th star I would. This book was way ahead of the literature mainstream at the time of its printing, like good science fiction is supposed to be. In spite of it's age, it's held up well. The artifacts of the decade are in here of course but many of the cultural challenges of gender, war and peace are still relevant. The world building and xenobiology are on a higher level than most of what I've read lately. The aliens seems real, not just props for the story. On the meta side, IMO, it's a love letters to the great SF writers of that era as well. Not every book I read when I was younger has stood the test of time but I'm so glad that this one did. I'm going to pause here on the trilogy re-read. Will pick back up Book 2 (Wizard) in the summer maybe?
Side note: One of the things I miss about paper books, esp from back in the day was the beautiful cover art and sometimes interior art you'd get with the book. Here is the one you'd find in the old paper version of Titan.
Would love to see the e-book formats support both color and B+W interior art.
digitaltempest's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars. During an exploration expedition to the planet Saturn, Cirocco “Rocky” Jones–captain of the space vessel, Ringmaster–and her crew encounter an anomalous satellite revolving around the planet. The closer they get to the anomaly, the more they begin to realize that it’s actually a habitat of some sort. While trying to report their findings back to NASA, they are pulled into the satellite. The Ringmaster is destroyed, and Cirocco and her crew are rendered unconscious.
After spending some time in darkness, with no idea of how much time has passed for them in that unconscious state, the crew wakens naked, hairless, and separated (at first) in this strange habitat. The descriptions used during their time unconscious and their eventual awakening sort of seems to be some analogy to birth. However, their time in the darkness is terrifying for them, and instead of coming into this new world innocent, they still have much of their personality and memories in tact.
The planet has changed them, though, and some of them learn this faster than others. Many of them learn, they are able to communicate with various intelligent species that live on the planet. Cirocco learns that she’s able to communicate with a centaur-like race called Titanides who speak a music based language. The Titanides are locked in a bitter war with a race of winged creatures called Angels. They don’t know why they fight. They only know that when they’re close to one another they’re compelled to fight.
Cirocco learns about a controlling deity called Gaea from the Titanides. She takes a journey to confront this being.
Gaea is an interesting paradox. She really is something of a goddess to the planet. She is capricious and curious, and she uses her powers to satisfy her whims. She programmed the Titanides and Angels to fight for practice. She has a keen interest in humanity and knows that one day, because it’s in our nature, we will declare war on her. She doesn’t know how to fight, and fears that, even though she is powerful, she still would not withstand an attack from humans. She feels that humans are better prepared and better tacticians than she will ever be.
Because she doesn’t have the knowledge to prepare for war, she hopes that her warring races will be able to create the things–strategy, tools, and knowledge–needed for war through their own struggle.
However, she is facing another obstacle that complicates things. She’s going insane, and her “children” are rebelling. Here we have a being who is essentially a god whose “mind” has started to fracture into parts. She acknowledges that she is losing control of herself. There are other intelligent godlike beings on the habitat, beings that she spawned and calls her children–one of whom she considers her most rebellious and volatile, the one she blames for Cirocco’s crash.
This book wasn’t quite what I expecting. The first pages was all about the sex life of the crew, and I started wondering what I’d gotten myself into. Then, it settled into a more serious tone, but continued to throw me for a loop throughout the story. One minute, they’re having a very technical talk about a subject and the next they’re gawking at seeing their first centaur penis, which I’ll admit had me chuckling like a 12-year-old, but that’s what I liked about this book. While there is plenty of science for the sci-fi lover, Varley also incorporated mythic fantasy and quite a bit of humor into this story. He played around with the idea of gods, their relationship with their creations, and how fickle they can be.
This story challenged gender, race, and sexuality roles. Given the period it was written, when I compare it to some other science fiction books written around the same time and how they handled similar subjects, Varley’s stands out as being a bit more progressive and imaginative than most. I’d complained about another popular science fiction writer from that same period not knowing what to do with the women in his books and the distasteful direction he took with sexuality. So, I was a little afraid that this might be the same.
I really appreciated that Varley was able to write this book and realize that the hang-ups that people had about various social issues at that time probably wouldn’t matter much in the year 2025. He didn’t erase the issues or try to make everyone seem so PC about everything. There are moments when ignorance rears its head, but mostly, these issues are not taboo.
Of course, this book didn’t do everything right. There were times when it felt a bit too childish, campy, and kitschy. I could see where this book might annoy someone who wants a strict hard science/first encounter type story. It may be be a bit too whimsical and fantastic in scope for some science fiction readers. Personally, I didn’t like how one of the character’s eventual sickening and evil actions were explained and sort of pitied, for lack of better word, because it was easier just to blame the planet for his actions.
If you like science fiction stories that heavily blend science and fantasy, this book is worth checking out.
After spending some time in darkness, with no idea of how much time has passed for them in that unconscious state, the crew wakens naked, hairless, and separated (at first) in this strange habitat. The descriptions used during their time unconscious and their eventual awakening sort of seems to be some analogy to birth. However, their time in the darkness is terrifying for them, and instead of coming into this new world innocent, they still have much of their personality and memories in tact.
The planet has changed them, though, and some of them learn this faster than others. Many of them learn, they are able to communicate with various intelligent species that live on the planet. Cirocco learns that she’s able to communicate with a centaur-like race called Titanides who speak a music based language. The Titanides are locked in a bitter war with a race of winged creatures called Angels. They don’t know why they fight. They only know that when they’re close to one another they’re compelled to fight.
Cirocco learns about a controlling deity called Gaea from the Titanides. She takes a journey to confront this being.
Gaea is an interesting paradox. She really is something of a goddess to the planet. She is capricious and curious, and she uses her powers to satisfy her whims. She programmed the Titanides and Angels to fight for practice. She has a keen interest in humanity and knows that one day, because it’s in our nature, we will declare war on her. She doesn’t know how to fight, and fears that, even though she is powerful, she still would not withstand an attack from humans. She feels that humans are better prepared and better tacticians than she will ever be.
Because she doesn’t have the knowledge to prepare for war, she hopes that her warring races will be able to create the things–strategy, tools, and knowledge–needed for war through their own struggle.
However, she is facing another obstacle that complicates things. She’s going insane, and her “children” are rebelling. Here we have a being who is essentially a god whose “mind” has started to fracture into parts. She acknowledges that she is losing control of herself. There are other intelligent godlike beings on the habitat, beings that she spawned and calls her children–one of whom she considers her most rebellious and volatile, the one she blames for Cirocco’s crash.
This book wasn’t quite what I expecting. The first pages was all about the sex life of the crew, and I started wondering what I’d gotten myself into. Then, it settled into a more serious tone, but continued to throw me for a loop throughout the story. One minute, they’re having a very technical talk about a subject and the next they’re gawking at seeing their first centaur penis, which I’ll admit had me chuckling like a 12-year-old, but that’s what I liked about this book. While there is plenty of science for the sci-fi lover, Varley also incorporated mythic fantasy and quite a bit of humor into this story. He played around with the idea of gods, their relationship with their creations, and how fickle they can be.
This story challenged gender, race, and sexuality roles. Given the period it was written, when I compare it to some other science fiction books written around the same time and how they handled similar subjects, Varley’s stands out as being a bit more progressive and imaginative than most. I’d complained about another popular science fiction writer from that same period not knowing what to do with the women in his books and the distasteful direction he took with sexuality. So, I was a little afraid that this might be the same.
I really appreciated that Varley was able to write this book and realize that the hang-ups that people had about various social issues at that time probably wouldn’t matter much in the year 2025. He didn’t erase the issues or try to make everyone seem so PC about everything. There are moments when ignorance rears its head, but mostly, these issues are not taboo.
Of course, this book didn’t do everything right. There were times when it felt a bit too childish, campy, and kitschy. I could see where this book might annoy someone who wants a strict hard science/first encounter type story. It may be be a bit too whimsical and fantastic in scope for some science fiction readers. Personally, I didn’t like how one of the character’s eventual sickening and evil actions were explained and sort of pitied, for lack of better word, because it was easier just to blame the planet for his actions.
If you like science fiction stories that heavily blend science and fantasy, this book is worth checking out.