The Gaea Trilogy
by John Varley

Reviewed by Galen Strickland
Posted May 14, 2026

Titan / Wizard / Demon

I think the photo to the right is the one I originally used for the Varley profile article I wrote over 25 years ago, but that page now has the most recent one I could find, and there had been another in between. This one is on the back of my copies of Titan and Wizard, but not Demon, which has nothing at all, no synopsis of the previous books, nor any blurbs from other writers or reviewers. The photo is credited to Jay K. Klein but there is no copyright date. If taken close to the book's publication Varley would have been 31, and 26 when his first story was published. It has been a long time since I read these books, although I can't remember exactly how long. I may not have read Titan until the trilogy was complete, or I may have read it soon after publication, but it was definitely later for the sequels. I have them all in SFBC hardcovers, the first possibly purchased directly from the club, but I bought the other two used.

The series began earlier than I was thinking, another indication of how prolific Varley was from the beginning. Titan was only his second novel, originally serialized in Analog from January-April 1979, with the first edition hardcover in March, before the final installment in the magazine. In my profile article, which I just edited again, I said I wasn't sure I finished Demon, but I intend to this time. I know I read the first two complete, and can remember a thought I had toward the end of Wizard, that I was sure what the title of the third book would be, and I was right. Demon wasn't published until 1984, almost four years after Wizard. I assume the delay was due to his work on the screenplay for, and the novelization of Millennium, which was released in 1983. There have been times over the past few years when I re-read books from decades before, liking some even more than I remembered from the first time (such as some of Varley's stories), but in this case I not only didn't remember the majority of the plot, it was less impressive than I had been thinking. My tastes have changed of course..

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Buy Titan from Bookshop or Amazon. Both links are for e-books, but at this time you will also see the option of paperbacks. I don't know how long those will be available, since it has been in and out of print several times throughout the century so far. A purchase through our links may earn us a commission.

I have tried to track down something I read long ago, my recollection being it was from Brian Aldiss, that science fiction is a sub-genre of fantasy. It may have been in his history of SF titled Billion Year Spree (later revised, expanded, and retitled "Trillion.") I skimmed his introduction in my copy of the latter but didn't spot it, could barely read it at all. The print is probably the smallest of any book I have tried to read lately. Anyway, Gaea is a mix of SF and Fantasy, closer to the myths of gods and goddesses than to realistic science, even though the beginning might lead you to think otherwise. The DSV (Deep Space Vessel) Ringmaster is nearing Saturn. It has a seven member crew, three men and four women, one of them the Captain, Cirocco Jones. At the time Titan was published there had only been 11 moons of Saturn discovered, although the latest count is 146. The ship's astronomer, Gaby Plauget, interrupts Cirocco to show her images of what she claims to be the 12th satellite of the ringed planet. At that time it is said to be very small, hence it not being spotted before, no more than 3 kilometers. That is either a misprint in my book, or something was wrong with their instruments. What Gaby initially names Thémis is actually much larger, several thousand kilometers in diameter. Later revelations show it to be a living, sentient being, which another crew member says should be called Gaea.

An indication I wasn't the only one originally impressed with Titan: it won a Locus Award for Best SF Novel, and was a finalist for Hugo, Nebula, and Ditmar (Australia) awards, and the serialized version was winner in the Analog Readers Poll. Even though I didn't find the reference to SF as a Fantasy sub-genre, I did check the index in the Aldiss history, where I found he had commented on Varley. I won't go into detail, but they were mostly negative, expecially concerning this trilogy.

It is sort of a mix of Niven's Ringworld, Clarke's Rama, even a bit of Farmer's Riverworld, although there are lots fewer humans and many alien species which had been created by the goddess Gaea. There are also lesser gods and goddesses with their own agendas that Gaea has to contend with. Whether it makes any sense or not, it is also an alternate version of The Wizard of Oz, with Gaea the one behind the curtain pulling all the strings, and presenting illusions to those from Earth. Then at the end Gaea names Cirocco her wizard, to be her go-between negotiator with other humans who have arrived on a combined rescue/revenge mission. I've skipped over the parts where the initial crew from Earth had been altered to fit into the world of Gaea, although some were not able to mentally process that, and had become insane or catatonic. Cirocco chose to stay, to become Gaea's wizard, and Gaby stayed too since she had fallen in love with Cirocco. There were things I thought I had remembered, but perhaps they are from the second book. I will get to that soon, and might add a few other comments about Titan as well, or save them for an overview at the end.

Related Link:
An Index of my other Varley pages.

 

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