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5 out of 5 stars
By
David
on
05-30-09
First of Varley's classic Gaean Trilogy
Titan is the first part of the classic Gaea Trilogy which in my humble opinion is the Lord of the Rings of Sci-fi. Consider an insane goddess obsessed with Earth religions and Hollywood cinema who creates new kinds of creatures for her amusement and alleviates her boredom by dropping humans from bottomless elevators, offering miracles to pilgrims in return for heroics, and inciting thermonuclear wars. It has amorous blimps and submarines, holy zombies, smiling cattle, a giant Marilyn Monroe, and a story thread that would honor Joseph Campbell with the rise of the hero, the hero's fall, and the hero's redemption. I've long been convinced that Cirocco Jones must have been the inspiration for Alien's Ellen Ripley (although both appeared about the same time), and her partner Gaby the inspiration of Xena's Gabrielle. They're just too darn close. Of course I was thrilled when I spotted the series on Audible and I snatched it right up. I took a little time getting used to the narrator whose clean and even voice at first reminded me of an advanced text-to-speech program, but (except for giving Dulcimer an Irish accent... in the story I think it was supposed to be limited to the miracles line!) she has a comfortable voice and does fine work with the voices of Gaby, Cirrocco, and the others. Although the books can stand on their own, they work best taken sequentially with Titan giving the introductions, Wizard the tragedies, and Demon the triumphs. Titan starts the series a bit slowly, but Wizard and Demon are worth repeated reads. I recommend them.
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13 of 13 people found this review helpful
5 out of 5 stars
By
Ted
on
10-18-08
A good if dated SciFi Story
My apologies, I wrote my review on book 2 and meant it to be on book 1!
I read a lot of SciFi and this book was a good listen. The narrators voice was a bit difficult for me at first, but once I got used to her, she was actually a very good story teller. The book was written in 1979, so some of the themes are quite dated (The Soviet Union for example), however while dated, it was an entertaining read. I have just purchased the second book and will be listening to it right after I finish Neil Gaiman's latest book.
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13 of 13 people found this review helpful