“The Ophiuchi Hotline (Sf Collector’s) (John Varley)”:http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/redirect?tag=dougmillernet-20%26link_code=xm2%26camp=2025%26creative=165953%26path=http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html%253fASIN=0575072830%2526tag=dougmillernet-20%2526lcode=xm2%2526cID=2025%2526ccmID=165953%2526location=/o/ASIN/0575072830%25253FSubscriptionId=02ZH6J1W0649DTNS6002
Before reading any Varley, a couple of things to note: First, John Varley is not the most optimistic of SF authors when it comes to the future of humanity on Earth. In fact, I can’t remember a Varley story I’ve read that doesn’t involve something unfortunate and unpleasant happening to the human population of the Earth. Usually, humans of Earth are spared the worst of whatever disaster is in the works, and much of the plot revolves around the implications of their survival. Second, Varley writes a lot about sex, both in terms of the physical act and in terms of gender, and much of that falls outside of what most people would consider “normal.”
Stories set in Varley’s “Eight Worlds”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_Worlds future history fall well within the scope of the two points notes above. In these stories, the human population of Earth has essentially been wiped out by gas giant dwelling aliens called the “Invaders,” who, while not directly killing a single human, methodically erased all traces of human civilization. Within a year 10 billion humans died, and the only humans to retain a technological civilization are those on the Moon, who eventually colonize all of the remaining planets of the Solar System, except for Jupiter. Citizens of the Eight Worlds, courtesy of memory/personality transfer technology and cloning, can transfer to different bodies and change these bodies very easily — resulting in a lot of exploration of gender issues and not infrequent sexual exploration.
There are a lot of Eight Worlds stories, but _The Ophiuchi Hotline_ is the penultimate novel of Varley’s future history (despite being the first written). _The Ophiuchi Hotline_ provides the most complete explanation of why the Invaders cleaned off Earth, what their true nature is, and what humanity’s eventual destiny is in a universe populated by beings this powerful and alien. Aside from providing background information that clarifies the back story for the other Eight Worlds tales, _The Ophiuchi Hotline_ is a cracking good space opera mystery only matched today by the likes of “Jack McDevitt’s novels.”:http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/102-4920060-7484122?search-alias=aps&keywords=jack%20mcdevitt
In some ways the Eight Worlds stories are beginning to show their age, mainly in the clearly 1970’s-era depiction of computers and the lack of some technologies and science that have been invented or discovered since Varley wrote _The Ophiuchi Hotline_. In general, though, these stories are still great fun to read and, in their focus on exploring how humans deal with adversity and change as relevant today as when they were first written.
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