John Varley - My Favorite Short Story Writer

John Varley was born in Austin, Texas in 1947, but grew up in Ft. Worth and Port Arthur; he went to Michigan State, where he majored in physics and then in English before dropping out and heading to San Francisco and Haight Ashbury. He has since lived in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Eugene, and New York. Currently he lives in Los Angeles. He has been writing science fiction since 1973, including novels as well as short stories. He also wrote one trilogy: The Gaea Trilogy, which is really one very long novel published as three separate books

John Varley is a master of the craft of science fiction, so much so that, when he does something unexpected, you know it's intentional. He is also in love with interesting ideas, especially about sexual roles. And he loves to play games with our expectations. For example, much of his work is set in the "eight worlds" universe. The Earth has been invaded by incredibly powerful aliens, who wipe out humanity easily. Mankind survives only on the moon and the outer planets. But that invasion happened long ago, and most people don't really think about it much.

His short stories are collected in The Persistence of Vision, Picnic on Nearside, Blue Champagne, and The John Varley Reader.

Here are some of my favorites of Varley's shorter works.

The Persistence of Vision is a post-apocalyptic story of a United States that is in a more-or-less permanent depression following a (relatively small) nuclear war. It tells the story of a man who hitchhikes across country, and finds a commune that was set up by and for a large group of deaf-blind people.who were victims of the 1964 outbreak of German measles (that is, all of their mothers were infected while they were pregnant, and their offspring were born deaf and blind). Given that, one might expect a dark and depressing tale, full of morals about the folly of war. But instead we get a tremendously uplifting story about human survival, but much more than survival - about human capability and about the capacity for joy. We also get a great lesson on the nature of ability and disability. Persistence of Vision is an elegiac tale, a gentle tale about a gentle community that nevertheless is very tough indeed.. It's an amazing story that will stay with you for a long time. Persistence of Vision won both the Hugo and the Nebula, science fiction's two most prestigious awards.

PRESS ENTER on the other hand, is a near future story about an America not much different from ours, and people not much different from us. Yet it is darkly foreboding and, with not a hint of horror story, is one of the scariest things I've ever read. It is a story of human fear and weakness and how it can lead to paranoia - and whether paranoia is the proper reaction. PRESS ENTER has become only more relevant since it was published, as the role of computers in our lives continues to grow. It will also stay with you for a long time. Don't start it right before sleep, if you get troubled by this sort of thing.

Tango Charlie and Foxtrot Romeo is a story about a little girl who is trapped with her dogs on a space shuttle. Unfortunately, she is the only survivor of a devastating plague. If she is rescued and brought back to Earth, it could wipe out all of humanity. But if she isn't rescued, she will die. The story is really two tales: Her story about how she lives up in the space shuttle, and the story of the adults down on Earth who have to figure out what to do about her.

Sources and more info on John Varley

John Varley's official website

Wikipedia