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by E Neubert
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by Bruce Brander, Mary Ann Harrell, Hector Holthouse
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by Aladjem
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by Robert W. Broomall
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by Edgar Rice Burroughs
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(Larger Image)
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Wizard
by John Varley
Product Group: Book
Publisher: Berkley (1985-02-15)
ISBN: 0425081664
EAN: 9780425081662
Paperback
SKU: mon0000038198
Condition: Good
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Editorial Reviews
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Product Description
Second in the Gaean Trilogy. Human explorers have entered the sprawling mind of the alien Gaea. Now they must fight her will. For she is much too powerful. And definitely insane.
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Customer Reviews
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Totally love this series best books ever by John Varley
Rating  (5)
Date: 2008-09-29
Obviously I loved this series, and have recently rediscovered it. The premise is that a super intelligent machine/being lives in the orbit of Saturn, this is the second book in series, start with titan, wizard, then demon, and you get the entire series. Picking up here first will just confuse the reader. You need to read the series in order to get the full scope of the story.
This book starts off with the Wizard of Gaea, or Cirroco Jones who has made allies with the titanides, and as now deeply rooted in their birthing cycle, only Jones saliva has an enzyme that will quicken the titanides eggs. From that premise, the exploration of Gaea, and what ends up happening with the very insane entity running the bigger ship around Saturn, you get some great story telling.
This is one of those stay up all night reading books, and given five of five stars for the book. Enjoyed rediscovering the series again.
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John Varley Wizard
Rating  (1)
Date: 2008-08-04
1 out of 3 customers found this reveiw helpful
The printing quality of the book is atrocious. It's as if it had been scanned in at low-resolution from a bad copy. The text is blurry and noticeably bitmapped, making it less-than-enjoyable to read. The first and third reprints of the series -- Titan and Demon -- don't seem to share this problem.
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Great series by a wonderful author
Rating  (4)
Date: 2007-12-14
This series is perhaps easiest described as "Wizard of Oz - but with aliens". Sucked into an alien environment the crew of a spaceship struggles to survive and find a way to escape and return home. Varley does a great job painting pictures with his words, and the characters are all fascinatingly flawed.
I really recommend all three books (Titan, Wizard, Demon) in this series. I discovered this series, and this author, while buying and reading cheap used paperbacks while in college in the 1990s. He has been one of my favorite authors every since. I think I've now read everything he's written.
I really believe the plots Mr. Varley weaves are as good as any author in Science Fiction history, and his characters and character development are much better in my opinion than some of the big name pillars of scifi such as Asimov and Heinlein (i like both of those authors, dont get me wrong - especially Heinlein - but I prefer Varley's characters and story telling style). This is an early series of his, so it doesn't have all of the depth and amazing vision of the future that his later novels and characters can provide, but that doesn't detract much from the wonderful story and plot twists in this series.
I really recommend his "Steel Beach" and especially "The Golden Globe", both excellent novels as well. The "Ophiuchi Hotline" and "Blue Champagne" are also especially good stories. I am not such a great fan of his softer scifi stories like Red Thunder and Mammoth, but thats just my preference in general with scifi subjects.
Highly recommended author.
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Surpasses Titan
Rating (4)
Date: 2003-05-24
5 out of 5 customers found this reveiw helpful
I'd give it 4.5 stars if I was able. Whereas Titan was a very good explore the big space object novel as good as or better than Ringworld or Rendezvous with Rama, Wizard improves with some new characters and fleshes out Cirroco and Gaby from Titan. Gaea, the living entity/world has now established an embassy on Earth and allows immigration/visitors a few generations after Titan. Supplicants in need of something from Gaea such as a disease cured are allowed to come to Gaea and she amuses herself by making them perform "heroic" feats to get the boon they wish. We are introduced to two characters from Earth, a youngish girl from a space colony of lesbians suffering from a type of epilipsy, and a fellow with what seems to be multiple personality disorder. After reaching Gaea they join up with Cirroco and Gaby and the story really takes off. All of the sense of wonder of exploration from Titan is still evidenced here, and is even more imaginative. However the characters struggling with their issues as well as the environment is what drives the story and makes you care what happens. Cirroco has become a functional alchoholic, Gaby remains the most normal but bears the scars of loving Cirroco. Visiting the regional brains of Gaea allows the two visitors from Earth to develop their character while showing us more of the wonders of Gaea. Eventually we learn the visit is to sound out the possibility of a rebellion and the dramatic tension heightens. Though the book provides full closure to the story, there is a definite hook to Demon which will make you want to move right on. This is a fast-paced, fun read that is more than worth your while. I cannot believe I have waited this long to experience this bravura performance.
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A pleasant few hours' diversion
Rating  (2)
Date: 2002-05-23
3 out of 5 customers found this reveiw helpful
The Gaean trilogy is one of the classics of space operatic adventure. Wizard tries to be more than that. It tries to be a novel of difficult moral questions, of individuals who are at odds with the standards of their society, of individuals that must make decisions that affect everyone in their society for better or for worse. It doesn't do a very good job of that, though. It is a wonderful space opera, but weak as a psychological novel.Varley isn't afraid to sketch complex characters. Every one of the main characters of Wizard is to some extent or another mad. Since the events of Titan, Cirocco Jones has cracked under the weight of serving as Gaea's Wizard and become a depressive alcoholic. Gaby's century of unrequited love for Cirocco has filled her with bitter resignation. And over the course of the novel, Gaea herself no longer looks like the mostly benign, albeit callous deity she was in Titan, but instead is revealed as contemptous of mortal life and absolutely nuts. Of the new protagonists, Chris suffers from bouts of possession by other personalities, while Robin has a genetic epilepsy that has led her to cut herself off from the rest of her culture, a space colony of lesbian witches. But having assembled this motley crew, Varley just writes an imaginitive, but fairly typical, adventure fantasy that revolves around the protagonists repeatedly being almost killed by alien monsters. Their respective psychoses manifest themselves when dramatically convenient and may as well be absent the rest of the time. Most of the inter-character development comes through the characters either jumping in bed with each other or talking about how they would want to jump in bed with each other if only it weren't such a bad idea. Doing these characters proper justice requires more subtlety than Wizard offers. Wizard is good space fantasy adventure, but nothing more.
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