Title: The Gaea series - John Varley. Consists of three books, Titan, Wizard and Demon.
Media: Book trilogy
Approx length: ~300 pages, three books.
Where to find it: Library, or wherever you get your old books (the first is from 1979).
What is it, in summary?: A science fiction staple, Gaea is an artificial(?) world, and our hero with her team is going to explore it. Turns out it's not artificial as such but living, Gaea is the personification/god/consciousness of the place, and she has... interesting ways of interacting with the visitors.
What do you love about it?: The worldbuilding is Something Else. I love the idea of everything organic - nothing mechanic, the variety of life-forms and evolution within Gaea and the ways our human crew deal - or don't deal - with it all. The literal parts of the Gaea are intriguing by themselves (if you know the books, I Maded A Pun) and all the alien life forms are endlessly fascinating.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: Adventures of Cirocco and Gaby, maybe one of those alluded in the books? Or just a slice-of-life in the life of a Titanide? Idk, the world is a treasure-trove for worldbuilding and adventure.
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?: Ehhh. The first book gives you a pretty good idea of the world and the characters, but the whole thing is a fast read and I'm confident you'll want to read the whole thing. (No cliffhangers as such... but the world is pretty capturing.)
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): There is a rape, but you can see it coming and it's not very graphic. There are mentions of an incestuous relationship in the first part, but it's not the main characters and it's mostly just mentions. Violence happens, but in a weird sci-fi way when it's not about humans. (The humans part does get a bit gory at times.) Otherwise, some weird alien sex and mentions of weird sexual organs, if that's not your thing. (If it is, there's not very much of it, which may be disappointing.) Also Varley seems to have A Type when it comes to humans of the future, and sometimes it includes very young people. And a thing I apparently forgot: forced pregnancy and improvised abortion, neither very traumatic but if you're sensitive to it, well, you're warned.
The Gaea series - John Varley
The Gaea series - John Varley. Consists of three books, Titan, Wizard and Demon.
Media: Book trilogy
Approx length: ~300 pages, three books.
Where to find it:
Library, or wherever you get your old books (the first is from 1979).
What is it, in summary?:
A science fiction staple, Gaea is an artificial(?) world, and our hero with her team is going to explore it. Turns out it's not artificial as such but living, Gaea is the personification/god/consciousness of the place, and she has... interesting ways of interacting with the visitors.
What do you love about it?:
The worldbuilding is Something Else. I love the idea of everything organic - nothing mechanic, the variety of life-forms and evolution within Gaea and the ways our human crew deal - or don't deal - with it all. The literal parts of the Gaea are intriguing by themselves (if you know the books, I Maded A Pun) and all the alien life forms are endlessly fascinating.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?:
Adventures of Cirocco and Gaby, maybe one of those alluded in the books? Or just a slice-of-life in the life of a Titanide? Idk, the world is a treasure-trove for worldbuilding and adventure.
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?:
Ehhh. The first book gives you a pretty good idea of the world and the characters, but the whole thing is a fast read and I'm confident you'll want to read the whole thing. (No cliffhangers as such... but the world is pretty capturing.)
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence):
There is a rape, but you can see it coming and it's not very graphic. There are mentions of an incestuous relationship in the first part, but it's not the main characters and it's mostly just mentions. Violence happens, but in a weird sci-fi way when it's not about humans. (The humans part does get a bit gory at times.) Otherwise, some weird alien sex and mentions of weird sexual organs, if that's not your thing. (If it is, there's not very much of it, which may be disappointing.) Also Varley seems to have A Type when it comes to humans of the future, and sometimes it includes very young people. And a thing I apparently forgot: forced pregnancy and improvised abortion, neither very traumatic but if you're sensitive to it, well, you're warned.