John Varley, Wizard

Another of the sequels that was nominated for the 1981 Hugos….a real reminder that this is the fan-nominated awards category, where popular brands are more beloved, more widely read, and thus get more nominations than out-of-the-box material that hasn’t yet found its footing. Wizard is a sequel to Titan, which had been nominated for a Hugo the year before and dealt with the adventures of a group of humans on something very like a living planet; here, the planet, Gaea, has really come into its own, and plays dice with the races that have been brought into being on its surface as well as the humans who have been allowed there (including one prominent holdover from the first novel, the intriguing woman Sirocco, known here both as Rocky and as the Wizard, granted eternal life by Gaea in return for playing an instrumental role in the life-cycle of the planet’s race, the Titanides). Rocky isn’t so happy about all the game-playing, and the novel is also a setup for her increasing opposition to and rebellion against Gaea, which will be the basis, I see, of a novel for a few years from now.

Varley was an astonishing short story writer in the late 70s and, for my money, at this point a significantly lesser talent as a novelist; but Wizard is a better novel than its predecessor, with some excellent set pieces (a trek across a desert, with monsters), and a nice presentation of an alien race. Some of the material about sexual politics (a race of women who, separated from men, have been brought up to believe all of them are rapists; she becomes enlightened over the course of the novel) is dated, but probably felt a little less so in 1980, even if LeGuin and Russ got there first. But it’s a novel that moves fast and leaves you wanting more, and so it’s a decent nominee.

Tags: 1981, hugo awards, James Tiptree, nebula awards, science fiction, varley