John Varley

John Varley is a bestselling science fiction author best known for his novels on Big Ideas, compelling characters, and plausible science. He wrote his first piece of fiction “Picnic on Nearside,” a short story in 1974 before he published his world-beating debut novel “The Ophiuchi Hotline” in 1977. His “Eight World” series that would become his most popular is about the future in a densely populated solar system, sentient black holes, gigantic themes, fluid genders, mind uploading and more.

The best place to start is the Eight Worlds series, the earliest of John Varley's multi-book series: it opens with The Ophiuchi Hotline (1977) and runs to 5 books across 1977–2018, ending with Irontown Blues (2018). John Varley's other series stand alone, so they can be read in any order.

John Varley has 81 books catalogued in this guide, published between 1975 and 2018. 37 of them belong to 6 named series — the largest being the Eight Worlds series with 5 books — and 44 are standalone titles, collections or anthologies.

Read each series in publication order — the numbered entries in each series follow the year each book first appeared. John Varley's series do not depend on one another, so they can be started in any order; by start date they are Eight Worlds (1977–2018, 5 books), Gaea Trilogy (1979–1984, 3 books) and Metal (1992–1998, 2 books), plus 1 more.

This guide splits John Varley's 81 books into 6 named series and 44 titles that stand alone or appear only in collections: Eight Worlds (5 books, 1977–2018); Thunder and Lightning (4 books, 2003–2014); Gaea Trilogy (3 books, 1979–1984); Metal (2 books, 1992–1998); Isaac Asimov's Anthology (19 books, 1980–2001), plus 1 further series.