Titan (John Varley)
Titan is a
1979 science fiction novel by
John Varley. It is the first volume of a trilogy, followed by
Wizard and
Demon.
The novel deals with Captain Cirocco "Rocky" Jones and the crew of the Deep Space Vessel Ringmaster sent in 2025 to investigate the rings of
Saturn. They soon focus on
Themis, one of the moons of Saturn, which turns out to be an enormous hollow wheel - like a space station.
NASA tells Cirocco and her crew to investigate even closer...
Shortly after the start of the novel, the
spaceship Ringmaster is ensnared and destroyed by Themis. The crew is captured and are eventually deposited onto the surface of the inside of Themis.
1,300
kilometers in diameter, the giant wheel rotates every hour, resulting in
gravity a quarter of Earth's. The atmosphere is breathable. The interior is inhabited by a kaleidoscopic array of intelligent species, musical-genius
centaurs, flying pseudo-
harpies, and enormous blimp-like creatures. The most startling discovery, however, is that the wheel itself is alive and intelligent, calling itself Gaea. Gaea is part of a race called the Titans, which are sentient creations. She has been around for more than 3 000 000 years, and is old even by her race's standards. Old age has made her slightly
insane and
senile, and it's up to Cirocco and her crew to meet with this alien to find a way to get home.
