First edition, 302 pages
English language
Published March 1979 by Berkley Publishing Corporation.
In TITAN, Varley has embarked on a masterwork, the creation of Gaea, the Titan, an astronomically huge creature in orbit around the planet Saturn. Captain Cirocco "Rocky" Jones and her crew soon realize that the awesome object they have found can only be an artifact of alien intelligence. Abandoning all previous plans, the Ringmaster sets about investigating the enormous wheel-shaped structure. But before they even have a chance to establish orbit around it, Gaea sends out tentacles, pulls the Ringmaster apart, and draws the crew deep inside its bowels. There they remain, isolated from one another, in a state of near-total sensory deprivation, while Gaea works her mysteries on their minds.
After an unknown period of time, Rocky and her crew are disgorged into the Titan's incredible internal world—an organic kaleidoscope of a fairyland which they share with centaurs, harpies, angels, mudfish, not-quite-kangaroos, whalelike things that sail through the sky …
In TITAN, Varley has embarked on a masterwork, the creation of Gaea, the Titan, an astronomically huge creature in orbit around the planet Saturn. Captain Cirocco "Rocky" Jones and her crew soon realize that the awesome object they have found can only be an artifact of alien intelligence. Abandoning all previous plans, the Ringmaster sets about investigating the enormous wheel-shaped structure. But before they even have a chance to establish orbit around it, Gaea sends out tentacles, pulls the Ringmaster apart, and draws the crew deep inside its bowels. There they remain, isolated from one another, in a state of near-total sensory deprivation, while Gaea works her mysteries on their minds.
After an unknown period of time, Rocky and her crew are disgorged into the Titan's incredible internal world—an organic kaleidoscope of a fairyland which they share with centaurs, harpies, angels, mudfish, not-quite-kangaroos, whalelike things that sail through the sky and other indescribable products of a Disneyesque imagination. Though this world seems benign, almost a paradise, Rocky is too well trained to accept it at face value. And too curious. She sets about to find her crew, re-establish her command, and find out what makes Gaea tick.
Rocky's story is an odyssey through this unpredictable world, a trip fraught with unexpected dangers and dazzling discoveries, leading her ultimately to the intelligence that presides over Gaea.
Good world building and an engaging read, but very sexual throughout for indiscernible reasons and heavy themes that are kind of just swept under the rug
