One reason I lost interest in reading science fiction after college is because nothing later seemed to be as good as these three books: "Titan," "Wizard," and "Demon" (aka the Gaea trilogy) by John Varley. I was excited when one of his stories was made into a movie, "Millennium" until I watched it and learned along with everyone else, that it was crap. After than disaster, I figured that we would never see a movie made of the the Gaea stories. For a few years after that, I would periodically look around for other books by him, but eventually gave up. This was long before the web, of course. I don't remember why, but last night I thought to google "John Varley", and found his website, a long list of novels new to me, and the news that the movie rights to Gaea are not yet sold.
I have loan ago loaned out my copies of the Gaea trilogy, so I guess I need to buy them.
Varley's website gives me a picture of his personality that was not clear in the books I had read. When his career started, people said he was the "new Heinlein." Like Heinlein, he created sympathetic, heroic, female characters who enjoy sex.
The protagonist of the Gaea trillogy is Cirocco Jones. I have never stopped being in love with her, no matter how self-destructive she became by the end of the series. Here's the drawing of her that was in the edition I read. I always thought of her as being played by Signorney Weaver, but I suppose she is too old now.
Varley gave an interview to Science Fiction Weekly that introduced me to his books that I haven't read yet. I can't wait. Several of them were written after I stopped looking.
Regarding a possible movie, this is the FAQ about that:
From: Brett
To: John
I’ve read your Gaean Trilogy probably 6 or 7 times over the years. What fantastic books those are. I just happened to have studied music composition and Greek mythology in college, so that might be a small part of why I love those novels so intensely! Thanks for writing them.
Would you ever allow a movie to be made of those books, or better question, is there a movie in the works or will you ever write more about Gaea? I guess that’s kind of 3 questions in one. I was surprised not to see any of them on your FAQ’s.
Titan, Demon and Wizard would make great CGI films!
Have a good night,
Brett W. Bertram
Dear Brett,
It's not a question of allowing. All somebody has to do is pay me for the rights and get to work. You're right, CGI has progressed to the point where it would be possible. Years ago a Canadian animation company expressed an interested but nothing ever came of it. Nobody is offering at the moment, but I can hope.
John
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