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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

Halle Berry Gets a STAR

When: Tuesday, April 3, 2007 at 11:30 a.m.

Location: 6801 Hollywood Blvd, near Highland.

I want to officially state that I am an emotional retard. I am so emotional … as soon as I saw the crowds of people and friends here, I started to cry. ~Halle Berry

This was the first ceremony we watched from overhead, on a balcony at ...

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Novels

The Ophiuchi Hotline

Varley’s first novel. Cover by Boris Vallejo.

After the effortless capture of Earth by vastly superior aliens, humanity is forced to fight for existence on the Moon and other lumps of airless rock. The invention of the Hotline–a constant stream of data from a star in the constellation Ophiuchus–facilitates survival and enables the ...

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Movie Reviews

Mr. and Mrs. Murder

The best way to think of this is as Nick and Nora Charles for the 21st century. But where Nick was a boozing ex-P.I. and Nora was a wealthy socialite, Charlie and Nicola Buchanan are sole proprietors of a Melbourne toxic cleaning service, ToxiClean. Where N&N are full of sophisticated banter, C&N are more than a bit goofy. In a very endearing way.

While I assume they would ...

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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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