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Wizard (novel)
Encyclopedia
Wizard is a 1980 science fiction
novel by John Varley
. It is the second book in his Gaea Trilogy
. It was nominated for the Hugo Award
for Best Novel
in 1981.
. Cirocco has become an alcoholic, apparently due to the strain of being the Wizard. Gaby Plauget has taken up the slack, carrying out special projects for Gaea such as building the Circum-Gaea Highway, in return for which she gets some of the benefits Cirocco enjoys, including apparently perpetual youth.
Gaea herself is bored. She arranges for streams of people looking for miracle cures to come to her from Earth, and then sets them a task: do something "heroic" (for example, travel once round the circumference of the great wheel), and their wishes will be granted. This is her way of ensuring an enduring supply of entertainment, as she arranges hazards for them to overcome or die trying. Meanwhile, she sits in the hub with her sycophants and watches old movies.
Chris Major and Robin the Nine-Fingered are two such pilgrims. Chris suffers from psychotic episodes. Robin, a member of a group of latter day witches, has a strange epilepsy that only manifests itself in gravity higher than the Moon's. With Gaby, Cirocco and four Titanides
they set out on a heroic trek. Gaby and Cirocco have a hidden agenda: they want to canvass the regional brains in order to overthrow Gaea, whom they see as being irretrievably insane.
During the trip, we begin to learn what drove Cirocco to her alcoholism. As the price for the discontinuation of the Angel/Titanide War, Gaea has made the Titanides
dependent on Cirocco to have children. Only her saliva can activate the eggs they produce, so that they can be implanted in a host mother to grow. The responsibility for an entire race's survival is more than Cirocco can bear; with resignation from her position as Wizard impossible and suicide ruled out by her love for the Titanides, her only release is alcohol-fueled oblivion.
The hazards of the trip include buzz-bombs, living creatures with jet engines that live high up on the support cables. They attack living beings, including humans and Titanides, attempting to capture them as food, and present a particular threat to pilgrims with their barbed noses and razor-sharp wings. Slowly the journey reduces the crew, killing first one of the Titanides and then, in an attack plotted by the crazed crewmember Gene, Gaby. All are separated. Cirocco and her Titanide companion Hornpipe are left on the Rim surface, while Robin and Chris are trapped underground, with the Titanide Valiha, who is not only pregnant but has been badly injured. Eventually Robin has to leave Chris to tend Valiha, and climb back to the surface for help. She finds herself in one of the Arctic cold zones of the habitat, and almost dies before being rescued.
Cirocco undergoes a complete transformation. She musters her considerable powers to rescue all the remaining expedition members. Robin and Chris go to confront Gaea, only to be told she has cured them anyway, and they can get lost. Cirocco eventually destroys the body Gaea had been using to talk to people. As she is in reality an intelligence living in the hub, itself, the death of this body does not kill Gaea; but it is Cirocco's way of resigning. Hereinafter, she is no longer the Wizard; she is the Demon.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel by John Varley
John Varley (author)
John Herbert Varley is an American science fiction author.-Biography:Varley grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, moved to Port Arthur in 1957, and graduated from Nederland High School. He went to Michigan State University on a National Merit Scholarship because, of the schools that he could afford, it...
. It is the second book in his Gaea Trilogy
Gaea trilogy
The Gaea Trilogy consists of three science fiction novels by John Varley. The stories tell of humanity's encounter with a living being in the shape of a 1,300 km diameter space habitat, inhabited by many different species, most notably Titanides, in orbit around the planet Saturn.The novels...
. It was nominated for the Hugo Award
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
for Best Novel
Hugo Award for Best Novel
The Hugo Awards are given every year by the World Science Fiction Society for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was once officially...
in 1981.
Plot summary
Wizard takes place in 2100, seventy-five years after the events in TitanTitan (John Varley)
Titan is a Locus Award winning 1979 science fiction novel by John Varley. It is the first book in his Gaea Trilogy. It was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 1979, and the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1980.-Plot summary:...
. Cirocco has become an alcoholic, apparently due to the strain of being the Wizard. Gaby Plauget has taken up the slack, carrying out special projects for Gaea such as building the Circum-Gaea Highway, in return for which she gets some of the benefits Cirocco enjoys, including apparently perpetual youth.
Gaea herself is bored. She arranges for streams of people looking for miracle cures to come to her from Earth, and then sets them a task: do something "heroic" (for example, travel once round the circumference of the great wheel), and their wishes will be granted. This is her way of ensuring an enduring supply of entertainment, as she arranges hazards for them to overcome or die trying. Meanwhile, she sits in the hub with her sycophants and watches old movies.
Chris Major and Robin the Nine-Fingered are two such pilgrims. Chris suffers from psychotic episodes. Robin, a member of a group of latter day witches, has a strange epilepsy that only manifests itself in gravity higher than the Moon's. With Gaby, Cirocco and four Titanides
Titanide (Gaea trilogy)
The Titanide is a fictional species featured in the Gaea trilogy, a series of three science fiction novels by John Varley. In the novels the Titanides are important secondary characters and we learn much about their biology, physiology and psychological makeup. They are an artificial lifeform,...
they set out on a heroic trek. Gaby and Cirocco have a hidden agenda: they want to canvass the regional brains in order to overthrow Gaea, whom they see as being irretrievably insane.
During the trip, we begin to learn what drove Cirocco to her alcoholism. As the price for the discontinuation of the Angel/Titanide War, Gaea has made the Titanides
Titanide (Gaea trilogy)
The Titanide is a fictional species featured in the Gaea trilogy, a series of three science fiction novels by John Varley. In the novels the Titanides are important secondary characters and we learn much about their biology, physiology and psychological makeup. They are an artificial lifeform,...
dependent on Cirocco to have children. Only her saliva can activate the eggs they produce, so that they can be implanted in a host mother to grow. The responsibility for an entire race's survival is more than Cirocco can bear; with resignation from her position as Wizard impossible and suicide ruled out by her love for the Titanides, her only release is alcohol-fueled oblivion.
The hazards of the trip include buzz-bombs, living creatures with jet engines that live high up on the support cables. They attack living beings, including humans and Titanides, attempting to capture them as food, and present a particular threat to pilgrims with their barbed noses and razor-sharp wings. Slowly the journey reduces the crew, killing first one of the Titanides and then, in an attack plotted by the crazed crewmember Gene, Gaby. All are separated. Cirocco and her Titanide companion Hornpipe are left on the Rim surface, while Robin and Chris are trapped underground, with the Titanide Valiha, who is not only pregnant but has been badly injured. Eventually Robin has to leave Chris to tend Valiha, and climb back to the surface for help. She finds herself in one of the Arctic cold zones of the habitat, and almost dies before being rescued.
Cirocco undergoes a complete transformation. She musters her considerable powers to rescue all the remaining expedition members. Robin and Chris go to confront Gaea, only to be told she has cured them anyway, and they can get lost. Cirocco eventually destroys the body Gaea had been using to talk to people. As she is in reality an intelligence living in the hub, itself, the death of this body does not kill Gaea; but it is Cirocco's way of resigning. Hereinafter, she is no longer the Wizard; she is the Demon.
Time measurement
Gaea, the structure, completes a full rotation every 61 minutes (per info provided in chapter 18). This is called a "rev". Thus, the common time measurements are:| rev | 1 hour (61 minutes) |
| decarev | 10 hours |
| hectorev | 4¼ days |
| kilorev | 42 days or about 1.4 months |
| myriarev | 420 days or about 1.16 years |
External links
- Wizard at Worlds Without End
- Gaea the Mad Titan fan site of the Gaean Trilogy