Subject: Review of John Varley's THE GOLDEN GLOBE

From: [email-masked] (Scott Drellishak)
Date: 08 Feb 1999 11:51:54 -0500

_The Golden Globe_, by John Varley
		Review Copyright 1999 Scott Drellishak (sfd at nwlink dot com)

Rating:  7 (out of 10)

High-concept summary:
                    _Double Star_ meets _Vacuum Flowers_
                                    OR
                _Schizmatrix_ meets _The Stainless Steel Rat_

This was a very good book, full of snappy writing, interesting stfnal
ideas, and plain old entertainment.  It only gets 7 out of 10, though,
because of two unfortunate facts: it's by John Varley, and it's an Eight
Worlds story.

I'm not going to detail John Varley's career, except to say that I think
his short stories, and the Eight Worlds stories in particular, represent
one of the most impressive bodies of work in science fiction.  This
includes "Bagatelle," "Picnic on Nearside," "Equinoctial," "In the Hall of
the Martian Kings," "Blue Champagne," "Tango Charlie and Foxtrot Romeo,"
and "The Persistence of Vision."

_The Golden Globe_ tells the tale of Sparky Valentine, capital-A Actor,
hobo, thief, cyborg, con artist, and lovable rogue.  He's been on the lam
for 70 years, playing Shakespeare and other works from Mercury to the
Kuiper Belt.  In a fit of ill-advised nostalgia, he accepts the role of
Lear in a production on Luna, then has to get there from Pluto on time,
lack of funds and pursuit by the Charonese Mafia notwithstanding.  Sparky
is about as colorful a character as you can imagine -- he knows how to
hitch rides on cargo spaceships, put on Punch and Judy puppet shows, and
run all the classic cons, and he carries the coolest piece of luggage this
side of a Terry Pratchett novel.  As he makes his way to Luna (in the
first person), we're treated to parallel flashbacks (in the third person)
to his early career as a child star.  Great stuff, and great fun.

That's the good news.  I had problems with the book as well.  As usual,
Varley spins off lots of neat hard-sf ideas, but he never seems to *do*
anything with them -- they're part of the scenery.  His Eight Worlds
milieu, at its best an alien and thought-provoking possible human future,
seems very *familiar* this time.  It's populated with stereotypes from
central casting: relentless assassins, Depression era hoboes (but they're
Space Hoboes, see?), old-school theater people, and a fabulous babe or
two.  How likely is it that a space-based society which spent a couple of
centuries trying to recover from the abrupt Invasion of Earth would be so
familiar to us twentieth century types?  Also, it seemed several times
that Varley was grinding his anti-Hollywood axe (he apparently has had
some bad experiences with the movie biz) -- unfortunately, that's axe
which wrecked _Demon_, the third book in his Gaean trilogy.

I was entertained, and only put the book down twice.  The story pulled me
along to the big climax (it was good to see Hildy again), and I'll buy the
third book in the "metals" trilogy in hardcover (maybe we'll get to see
the Heinleiners kick some Invader butt!).  But I was disappointed --
Varley at his best is better than just about any other writer, but _The
Golden Globe_ was merely very good.

%T The Golden Globe
%A John Varley
%D October 1998
%I Berkley Ace
%G 0-441-00558-6 

A note on Heinlein references (and a minor spoiler):

Hey, I think that's Manny on page 13!  Also, how did Varley resist
including the line "Death and Destruction!" in Valentine's declaration of
war?

 /                           Scott Drellishak                            \
| "Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced." |
 \                "Perfect paranoia is perfect awareness."               /