Steel Beach (First Edition)

The Eden-like lunar colony that has become humankind's home since an alien attack had destroyed Earth, Luna is threatened by dark forces that lead reporter Hildy Johnson and other inhabitants to feelings of depression and suicide. 25,000 first printing. $30,000 ad/promo.

After nearly a decade's silence, Nebula and Hugo Award winner Varley ( The Ophiuchi Hotline ; Titan ; Millennium ; etc.) makes a triumphant return with this absorbing novel, set in a future where humanity, expelled from the Earth by the alien Invaders, now lives in artificial habitats on the moon, Mars and other planets. Advanced technologies ensure a fairly effortless and secure life--almost any injury or disease is curable; people can change their features or even their gender with an afternoon of painless surgery. But all is not well on Luna. Hildy Johnson, top reporter for a tabloid, has been unaccountably depressed, even suicidal, and he soon learns that he's not alone. Even the Central Computer that maintains Luna's environment has been feeling down. As Hildy and the CC search for a reason to live, Hildy changes gender, quits his/her job and examines religions; the CC takes steps for itself that may lead to moonwide catastrophe. Varley's tight, clean writing, full of wit and good humor, evokes despair, joy, anger and delight. His Luna is packed with wild inventions, intriguing characters and stunning scenery. This long-awaited return is one of the best science fiction novels of the year.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Imitative 23rd-century lunar ruling-computer-goes-mad yarn from the author of, most recently, Blue Champagne (1986). Two centuries after plot-device-only aliens invade and occupy Earth, the self-contained colony of Juna is run by the omnipresent Central Computer; its inhabitants enjoy a worry-free, want-free environment of perfect health and longevity. Hildy Johnson is a top reporter for (the equivalent of) a leading tabloid newspaper; what he doesn't know is why he keeps trying to kill himself. The CC prepares a series of artificial memories designed to explore Hildy's problem; but gradually Hildy learns that the CC itself has suicidal impulses (it's been forced to destroy several of its own subsystems). Indeed, the CC's problem may be causing Hildy's! Following a sex change, Hildy discovers that a crashed and apparently abandoned prototype starship actually contains a thriving colony of dissenters; they have made some startling scientific discoveries but fear becoming controlled by the CC, whose actions are growing ever more bizarre and dangerous. Though initially suspicious, ``Heinleiners'' come to trust Hildy, and explain their program (genetic research, interstellar flight, etc.). But then the CC--now insane, with ``good'' and ``evil'' aspects in conflict--attacks, intending to capture or kill Hildy. Hildy escapes, barely, while the CC is put out of action, and the child that Hildy has just given birth to dies. Sort of a Great Heinlein Memorial Novel--tediously so at times--hardworking and with flashes of wit, but weighed down with expository chat, a thin and contrived plot, and poorly defined characters. Once a prodigious talent, Varley has subsided into an overblown, obfuscatory mode that will disappoint all but his most ardent fans. -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Virtual immortality, freedom from disease, a perfectly controlled climate, and the benevolent, nonintrusive supervision of the Central Computer make the human colony on Luna almost ideal--except for the alarming increase in depression and suicide among its citizens. Varley's latest novel offers a strong argument for individual self-determination as an antidote to runaway technology. Reminiscent of Robert Heinlein's The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress in its lunar setting and its use of a sentient computer as a fully realized character, this sf novel of ideas belongs in most libraries.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.