Don't know why, exactly, but I started thinking about John Varley earlier this evening. Varley has a whole series of stories set in a future time when Mankind has colonized the Moon and most of the other planets in the Solar system, but has been kicked off Earth by an invading alien race who thinks we're not fit to occupy the prime world in this system until we've grown up a bit.

Varley's humans are working hard on doing just that---due to some major advances in medicine, we've conquered disease, and made reproduction a function completely under our conscious control. Since the human race is restricted to the harsher, less-hospitable real estate in the System, over-population is completely unthinkable. But no big deal---everyone's DNA is registered at birth, human lifespans have been greatly extended, and everyone is licensed to produce ONE CHILD. Paternity is of no consequence; whenever a legal adult decides to produce HER one child, she can select from any available/acceptable sperm donor. (And since sex-change operations are done on an out-patient basis, anyone can have his/her child whenever he/she wishes.) But everyone IS stricly limited to ONE child---mess up and let that one get killed, etc., your genes have just met a dead-end---a very big vote for responsible parenting.

MsBatt, this thread is going to do nothing for the Geekiness rating of either of us!

Yes I really like John Varley's work. I assume from you post that you are talking about his 'Eight Worlds' books? This is the series where the 'invaders' have booted humanity off of the Earth to make it safe for the Cetaceans. So I was wondering if this post had been brought on by the 'Human Vanity' thread you have been posting to off and on? Certainly some of the ideas Varley deals with would be relevant to that debate.

I've read all of the 'Eight Worlds' books except the 'Golden Globe'. I enjoyed them all but my favourite is very much the first one "The Ophuichi Hotline". I remember when it came out in the late Seventies. It was a breath of fresh air. At that time there was very little in the way of new ideas in Science Fiction. The New Wave had worked its magic on plot and characterisation but had left a great sterility in its wake. I got a few dozen pages in and I was going "wow! this is different". The weakest of the lot is definitely "Steel Beach" it has great ideas, enjoyable if somewhat flat characters but Varley modified his future history in this book and it really grates. How do you think Varley's conception of a space based human civilisation compares with that of other authors, Sterling or Reynolds say?

Varley also wrote the 'Gaean' trilogy the first of which "Titan" is by far the best combining fantastical creatures and ideas with a romping good adventure story. I think that Varley was the first author to suggest that a space habitat could be organic, intelligent and capable of reproduction. Others have done it since. The 'Gaean' book I enjoyed the most though was the last one "Demon" where the whole central idea was taken to very very silly lengths. I think when reading this trilogy it is important to keep in mind that the spaceship is called the 'Ringmaster' a multi-layered joke but it tells you your in the circus.

He has also written some other books outside of these milieu. "In the Hall of the Martian Kings" is a very clever conception and the execution of the story is very good as well. He has just released a new juvenile "Red Thunder". I have not seen a copy yet but the US critics were a bit savage about it. His best work by far is "Millennium" which is based on an earlier short story "Air Raid". It was turned in to a dire Hollywood film. How anyone can turn a Varley story with Kistofferson as the star into crud is beyond me?

Well, at least TWO people like John Varley...

It seems you're read more of Varley than I have---I've read "The Ophuichi Hotline", of course, but seems like most of the other works I've read with this same 'future' were short stories, not novels. I'm terrible at remembering titles---the only one I can think of offhand is "The Persistence of Vision", which has a completely different setting. (But it's an excellent story--you've read it?)

I totally missed any film made from a Varley work---and it sounds like I should be glad, lol! You're mentioned a number of titles that I'm going to have to go to the library and look up, simply because I can't remember if I've read them or not.

Yes, the 'Human Vanity' thread did help spark this one, I guess, as did some comments on various threads about child-rearing, etc.If we could just get all of humanity to reading GOOD science fiction...

I enjoyed "Wizard", "Titan", and "Demon" quite a bit. Those and "Steel Beach" are the only novels of his I've read. Actually, I was under the impression that he'd given up the science fiction literary ghetto for some other sort of writing, screenplays or so. Also, I cut back on reading science fiction some years ago and haven't kept up on the new novels. The upshot is that I consider myself a fan but I'm ignorant of his work other than the few I've mentioned.

I didn't like the short stories I've read of his so well with one exception: "The Phantom of Kansas".

There have been /usually are quite a few threads going here at FT that make me think of various SF stories or novels I've read. Just a few minutes ago I ran across one on a different BB, but it's just NOT a place where a fruitful discussion can be expected to occur.

The primary topic under discussion is double jeopary, and it made me thinkof a Golden Age short story about a couple of now-ex convicts who've just returned to Earth after doing X years of hard labor in the penal colony on Venus---for murders they're planning to commit.

In this scenerio, one can get an 'early buyers' discount on time served by doing the time BEFORE doing the crime, and our two heros have done just that. Sadly, I can't recall the author or title---shame on me. But the 6 to 8 page story deals with all the folks who come to see our guys, begging for mercy or forgiveness or even to buy the "free murder" they have coming to them. Our guys have spent many a long year hating their proposed victims, but once returned to Earth, both have a change of heart (of a sort!)

Anyone remember this story? Lordy, I've GOT to catalogue my library!!!

I actually like Varley's short stories better than his novels. I love the early ones -- "Retrograde Summer" and "In the Bowl." "The Persistence of Vision" is very powerful. "Air Raid" (source of the novel and film "Millenium") was a unique time travel story.

Maybe the collection of stories I read was poor. I don't recall any titles other than "Phantom" which I liked a lot, but that was in an anthology. Taking a look at Amazon I think the collection might've been "The Barbie Murders and Other Stories". One of the reader reviews echos my complaint about the collection: "I would have liked more variety between the stories... they contain the same themes in the background: sexual ambiguity, body manipulation, etc." Those were themes in "Phantom" and "Steel Beach" as well so it wasn't the themes so much as the repetition. Keep in mind I read it long ago and my impressions are vague now.

While poking around I turned up what may be his email address.