Line #37 Literature/GaeaTrilogy


1	->Long before the creation of the angels, avian beings flew the towering vaults of her spokes, looked out the celestory windows, and knew the shape of God.
2	-->-- ''[[http://ammonra.org/gaea/ Wizard]]''
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4	A Science Fiction Trilogy by Creator/JohnVarley describing humanity's encounter with a moon-sized alien, and the indigenous aliens that live upon it.
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6	In the first book, titled ''Titan'', a space expedition to Saturn GoneHorriblyWrong when the ship gets swallowed by one of the satellites and find themselves inside a living planet with a god complex. The crew all get separated at first, and [[EveryoneMeetsEveryone start looking for each other]]. They find useful aliens in the form of Smilers, six legged kangaroos you can eat without killing; Titanides, musically oriented, friendly centaurs, and Blimps; [[CoolAirship living dirigibles]] that willingly serve as transports.
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8	The second book, ''Wizard'', is set some decades later. Some characters return from the first book, but two new cast members are introduced: Chris Major, who suffers from psychotic episodes; and Robin, a witch from an [[LadyLand all-female space colony]] who has a seizure disorder. Both come to Gaea to be healed, but get sucked into the original cast's plot to overthrow the crazed GeniusLoci that runs the world.
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10	The third book, ''Demon'', brings back most of the cast from ''Wizard''. It describes the final war between the human refugees and the GeniusLoci.
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12	----
13	!!This trilogy provides examples of:
14	* AffablyEvil: [[spoiler:Gaea]], at least until the last book when it's more FauxAffablyEvil.
15	* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: Gaea manifests as a plump, homely, slightly dotty but cheery and friendly little old lady. [[spoiler:Until ''Demon''—when she switches to a [[AttackOfTheFiftyFootWhatever fifty-foot-tall replica]] of Creator/MarilynMonroe—that is.]]
16	* BatmanGambit / VillainBall: [[spoiler: The world's 'consciousness', Gaia, is looking for a replacement. She's been holding the VillainBall, doing perverse and nasty things for a long time, in hopes that a WorthyOpponent would appear and take over before she becomes completely senile.]]
17	* ChubbyChaser: "[[MeaningfulName Fat Fred]]," at least by angel standards.
18	* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: Once at the end of the second book, when Cirocco [[spoiler: actually punches the incarnation of Gaea out]]. Again, at the end of the third book, when a team effort [[spoiler:manages to completely kill Gaea]].
19	* EldritchAbomination: All of the regional brains[[spoiler:, ''and'' Gaea proper]].
20	* ExoticEquipment: The Titanides, being centaurs, have one set of human-sized genitalia in the front (male or female), and both sets of horse-sized genitalia in the back (male ''and'' female). "Rear sex" is casual, but "front sex" carries an enormous amount of emotional baggage.
21	* FantasyContraception: In ''Wizard'', Gaea tries to exert her control over Cirocco by making her saliva the only substance able to take Titanide eggs to the next level of conception. This leads to her image involving all sorts of [[DysfunctionJunction drunken dysfunction.]]
22	* GeniusLoci: Gaea[[spoiler:, and she's neither a nice nor a sane one]]. The twelve "ring minds" at the bottom ends of Gaea's spokes could also qualify.
23	* GlobalAirship: The Blimps, especially Whistlestop. A 3000-year-old, ''living'' CoolAirship.
24	* HalfHumanHybrid: the Titanides, kinda.
25	** Exactly ''half'' human, in some ways, as lampshaded by Gabby in ''Titan''.
26	--> '''Gabby''': "I've heard of parallel evolution, but from the waist up?"
27	** And half human in other ways in ''Wizard'', after [[spoiler: it's learned that humans can breed with Titanides, and that one of the Titanides is actually Cirocco's grandson.]]
28	* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: OneWordTitle and ReligiousAndMythologicalThemeNaming: ''Titan'', ''Wizard, ''Demon''.
29	* ImprovisedMicrogravityManeuvering: At the end of ''Wizard''. The hub of Gaea is practically in zero gee, and Cirocco needs to get herself out of there and back down to the rim in a hurry.
30	* InterspeciesRomance: Several examples (both sexual and non-sexual) with Titanides and humans, and at least one with an angel and a human.
31	* LivingGasbag: The Blimps are floating sapient creatures, and often serve as a means of transportation. The one known as Whistlestop gives our heroes a ride in the first book.
32	* TheSymbiote: The Blimps rely on small, ape-like creatures living in their stomachs to "preprocess" the leaves and branches the Blimps eat. The Blimps actually digest the droppings from the ape creatures after the apes eat the foliage.
33	* MarsNeedsWomen: "Fat Fred," an angel, prefers human women to his own species. Tzigane, a Titanide, is stated to have a habit of "chasing human tail."
34	* OurAngelsAreDifferent: Nothing supernatural about them; "angel" is simply the term applied to several different species of WingedHumanoid.
35	** That said, Gaea's original inspiration was the "traditional" depiction of angels, modified by the limits and demands of real physics and biology.
36	* OurCentaursAreDifferent: Titanides have an incredible variety of possible appearances (smooth-skinned, short-furred, long-furred, ''any'' imaginable color and pattern). Above the waist, they all appear as [[FanService sexy human women, complete with boobies]], female and male both. They're also all hermaphrodites (although they identify themselves as either male or female) with three sets of genitalia (the frontal set corresponds to gender identity and determines whether or not they can [[TrulySingleParent reproduce via parthenogenesis]]). [[spoiler: And they can interbreed with humans.]]
37	* PhysicalGod: Gaea is a planet sized creature with inhabitants that she created.
38	* PlanetSpaceship: Gaea and her brood are [[LivingShip living space habitats]] large enough to be mistaken for additional moons of Saturn.
39	* PosthumanNudism: Over the course of the trilogy, Cirocco's sense of modesty evaporates entirely following her transformation. In "Demon", Cirocco spends a large portion of the novel (especially the first act) completely in the nude and characters generally have more reaction to the few times she's seen wearing clothes than seeing her without. This could also be due to how common nudity is within Gaea itself.
40	* RingWorldPlanet: The Titans.
41	* SanitySlippage: Gaea suffered this long ago but it becomes more and more obvious through the trilogy. By ''Demon'' she's not even hiding it anymore.
42	* SuperpowerLottery: Gaea does this in a half-assed fashion. Usually, it's TranslatorMicrobes (Titanide song or blimp speech), but [[spoiler:April]] is [[PowerGivesYouWings transformed into a]] [[OurAngelsAreDifferent compulsively solitary angel]].
43	* TakeMeToYourLeader
44	* TheGoodGuysAlwaysWin: Discussed in ''Demon''. Because Gaea is something of a sucker for cheesy classic Hollywood movies, she has internalized their cliches -- and by this point [[spoiler:she's decidedly playing the villain. The tricky part is if that she by and large expects the "good guys" to play by the movie rules as well... and if she considers Circocco and friends to be "good guy" enough to beat her.]]
45	* {{Tsundere}}: [[spoiler:Chris and]] Robin's daughter Nova is a Spicy of [[WesternAnimation/HeyArnold Helga Pataki]] caliber.
46	* WingedHumanoid: The angels.
47	* ZeroGSpot: Right out of the starting gate in chapter 2 of the first book.

Context Literature / GaeaTrilogy