Titan Q3: Writing

clash_bowley

How did you feel about Varley as a writer? Did his style appeal to you? Annoy you? Leave you indifferent? What was he best at? What should he not have bothered attempting?

NeilNjae

I'm not a good one for picking up on writing, turns of phrase, and that sort if thing. That said, I think the writing here was serviceable if a little dull.

Apocryphal

It didn't annoy me - I think he's a very serviceable and engaging writer. But neither did I ever find a passage so nice I was moved to jot it down - which I did with the other books by Boorman and Cooper that I read this month. The writing here was thriller-like and it kept me engaged - it was a page-turner, as they say. I like that Varley tackles women and gender fluidity. I'm not sure I was all that convinced by Gene's sociopathic behaviour, but it was hand-waivable given the circumstances. (I don't mean Gene' behavior was excusable - I mean Varley's treatment of it was excusable.) Unlike Neil, I never found the book dull.

RichardAbbott

Agreed - his writing was competent and fluent, but not exciting or memorable. The most interesting departure from some SF was the conscious and creative inclusion of Greek mythology into the mix. I didn't find it dull, and was never at any risk of giving up, but equally I wasn't especially drawn to read other books by him - my impression is that they'd be interesting rather than anything more.

I did feel (without of course having read the next two books in the series) that it could have been a stand-alone volume, and felt that the fairly sudden switch into setting up the next volume jarred a bit. I'd have been happy for the book / series to end with a bit more about the arrival of and interaction with the second Earth ship and less "don't miss next week's exciting episode".

Agreed with @Apocryphal that for its time the variation in sex and gender was unusual and innovative.

Apocryphal

I see the next book, Wizard, has a good star lower rating on GR. Still, worth a try, I think.