Wizard Mass Market Paperback – 1 May 1987

To put some perspective on this opinion... I read Varley's Titan when I was mid-teens, and loved the richness and variety it contained. Yes, some of the material was a little mature in nature, but from the start, I was hooked. I wanted to visit the setting for that book... live there, even. I wanted to hang out with Cirocco, go with her while she explored that truly unique and practically limitless world. Gaby was cool, but Rocky was the clear stand out.Now for Wizard. In my totally subjective opinion, this is one of Varley's best pieces of work. The story is interesting, with a wonderful mixture of drama, suspense, action, tragedy, humor, humanity, and richness that exceeded and amplified every aspect of the first book. Despite the jarring differences on many fronts, I still was almost immediately hooked here as well.. The characters were deep and compelling. Gaby became the standout. Not that I didn't sympathize with the Wizard's plight, but Varley had me so emotionally invested in Gaby that, while reading the book on a public bus, I drew alarmed reactions from the other passengers when I stood up and loudly said "No way!" Before returning to my seat, a bit embarrassed. (Anyone who has read it almost certainly knows exactly which part.) Gaby's growth was amazing. And then, at the end, we got to see a kind of redemption that was so well written, so filled with tension, that I could hardly stay seated (at home this time).This is not about Demon, the third part of the trilogy, but I will add that it has an equally jarring and seemingly disconsonant opening that took me a bit more to really get into, but it shared the same almost locomotive-like building of momentum that Wizard has... once rolling, both books just pull you along at sometimes breakneck pace... the words can't get from the page to your eyes fast enough.It would not be an exaggeration to say I love this trilogy, but Wizard in particular was, and continues to be on each successive reread (every few years) a source of amazement, wonder, and is (in my again subjective opinion) a model for great story telling.If you haven't read the trilogy, you should.

very good

Thanks.

For unknown reasons not available on Kindle -- like a great deal of fine American science fiction -- so I had to find space on a shelf for the book when it came to getting hold of a replacement copy (mine got ruined in a leak). In fact this trilogy of novels is becoming difficult to get hold of in the new format, which is a shame, because it showcases a writer at the height of his abilities.A lot of Varley's ideas were seen at the time as "revolutionary hedonism" and because SF of the 70s, and perhaps into the early 80s, tended to embrace anything remotely new or alternative, he got away with a lot of stuff that today might be seen as un-pc, or even a little disgusting and outrageous, especially concerning the "recreational reproductive" habits of youthful humans. How times change! Of course what's important is the writing itself, which is smooth and flowing and on the verge of humour but not quite breaking into comedy.The concept of "Titan", used for all three volumes of the trilogy, was somewhat psychedelic in its time, and the only downside is that Varley gets incredibly self-indulgent on occasion, going into needlessly extensive dialogues and descriptions. That puts him nicely among his peers of today (the twenty first century), so in that respect he was ahead of the competition when this was written, 1980.

I find this series by John Varley to be one of the most entertaining set of sci fi ever written.He takes you to a world and introduces you to characters and you really feel as if you are there with them in this "world that is a God". Another reviewer mentioned how racy the book is at times,but it wasn't written for the kiddies and i find those sexy moments in the books very entertaining and have no problem with them at all,sexuality is just part of being human and he is definately using that to help the reader relate better to the characters in the book. From Titan to Wizard to Demon a extremely exciting adventure awaits the reader!Another thought-i wonder if movie makers ever considered making a movie out of these books-i imagine probably but there is the whole problem of buying the rights to do that and besides a lot of books like this don't translate well to the big screen(case in point Stephen King's stuff).It's just with all this CGI and everything now it might be easier to make it more believable and true to the books -Sigourney Weaver as a older "Rocky"-not sure who i would like as the younger one.