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VarleyLog

We Bought a Tesla!

Here’s what happened. Lee came across what looked like a tiny, yellowing IOU at the bottom of some ancient records. It was from the Tooth Fairy, and she said she was a little short of cash and would pay me a dime the next night. It was dated May 8, 1954. I was seven! She’s still in business, you know, the Tooth Fairy, so Lee tracked her down and demanded payment. The old biddy was not ...

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Looking Back

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Watts

David Crosby kindly comped us to a couple tickets to the Crosby, Stills, & Nash concert at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, the fourth or fifth-to-last appearance on their 2005 American tour. So on September 10 we got up bright and early and motored on down 101 to Hollywood, where we’d booked a room at our old standby, the Motel 6. It was a little hard to find it; 99% of Motel 6s are ...

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Novels

Wizard

Wizard is the second book in the Gaean Trilogy.

Gaea is world and goddess, a dazzling pageant of wild mythology and chimerical creatures in a gargantuan, strange and beautiful world. Cirocco is now the Wizard of Gaea, powerful but troubled. And ready to lead the revolt against Gaea’s mad, capricious tyranny.

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Movie Reviews

Aliens

Aliens (1986) I didn’t recall that this movie ran a bit over two and a half hours the first time I saw it. There’s a reason for that. It didn’t. What I have on my DVD is the Special Edition, or director’s cut, I guess, that adds seventeen minutes. Reading about what was added, I think it was a good idea, as the new scenes have mostly to do with Ripley’s character development.

I ...

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Collections

Good-Bye, Robinson Crusoe and Other Stories

“This stellar collection by John Varley contains eleven provocative, utterly distinctive stories and novellas. None of them are currently available in any other book. Some have been unavailable in any form for twenty-five years or more. The result is a publishing event that no admirer of Varley—or of first-rate imaginative fiction—can afford to miss.

“The ...

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Short Fiction

Lollipop and the Tar Baby

Spacetime might not be the only thing that gets warped near a black hole.

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Titan: An Overview

A Short Overview of Titan

Here's a very short but quite impressive video made by Jean-Paul Verne, a fly-through of Gaea from my trilogy. M. Verne wants to be involved if a movie ever gets made. Over the years many, many people have written to me wishing these books would be made into a movie. Naturally, I'd like that, too. Let's hope this is not as close as we'll ever get.

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Accidental Hippies

Accidental Hippies

Sometime not long after my high school graduation I was studying at Michigan State University when my long-time girlfriend dumped me. I entered such a state of depression that I could not continue in college. So I dropped out and decided to hit the road with Chris Kingsley, my best friend in the world. Chris had much more experience of life on the road than I did, had actually hitched to ...

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