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Summary: One of the best books that I have read in years...
Review: It is difficult to find a good book. By a good book, I mean an engaging book that you have trouble putting down, that makes you laugh out loud and a book that you will think about for years afterward. Golden Globe, in my opinion is a good book because it elicited all of the above in me. That hasn't happened in a long time.I accidentally stumbled onto another Varley novel, Steel Beach, several years ago. It was a weird and challenging read but I loved every second. A Whole culture is created with only a few passing remarks about the past and a vivid, gee-whiz description of the era in which the story is set. The characters have depth; there is a great story and quite a few laughs. I danced for joy when I found Golden Globe. I knew it would be good and it was. In the world of Steel Beach, Mr. Varley created some great characters -a boy, his father and a hitman; not to forget some great supporting characters. The story was not overly complicated but it didn't need to be -the characters were! The environments where the characters found themselves were described beautifully, with enough details and reasonable explanations to keep it all moving with out getting boring. When I picked up Golden Globe, I was expecting a book about someone being chased. Then I thought that the author just wanted to write about the future of Hollywood child exploitation. Then I realized it was a book about a very interesting person being chased. While it's not your typical spoon-fed science fiction novel of daring space pilots and cruel aliens, it will definitely take the reader along on an incredible journey!
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Summary: I'll read anything written by Patricia McKillip
Review: John Varley's Ok, but if you're looking for poetry, phrasing that will shake you and worlds and people True and beautiful, read more of McKillip's works. In particular, _The RiddleMaster of Hed_ trilogy is one of the most incredible trilogy of books I've ever read. Just buy them.
Rating: 
Summary: Not THAT Great -- Not Bad, Though
Review: Looking at some of the other reviews of "The Golden Globe" here, it appears that most readers reacted either very positively or very negatively. I'm going to try to stake out some ground in the middle. I wouldn't characterize this book as "great" or a "must read". I thought some aspects of the future solar system society, as depicted here, were laughable. For example, as the story opens, Kenneth "Sparky" Valentine is a sometime actor/sometime con man traveling the outer reaches of the solar system as part of a traveling acting troupe. When he flees this outfit, he has a difficult time getting away because of the expense of interplanetary travel. And it would be expensive. Several months of food alone would cost a small fortune. Under such circumstances, how would a third rate traveling theatrical troupe survive? They'd never make enough to pay their expenses. That aspect aside, the first part of this book was slow. The lengthy flashbacks to Sparky's salad days were too lengthy. There was too little action. Nor did I need two or three hundred pages to get the idea of what John Valentine is like. The pseudo showbiz articles and reviews (especially the ones written in 23rd century valley-girlspeak) are especially tedious, and quickly become way too cutesy. Too many pages are spent on the showbiz aspect. Only when the Charonese Mafia appears do things get really interesting, and even they are just too nasty and relentless to be believable. On the other hand, I thought Sparky and the other principal characters were well conceived and believable. Sparky's wit and patter were enjoyable. Best of all, the last 150 or 200 pages got much more engaging. The main storyline is intriguing enough, and after slogging through the first two thirds, the final third of the book (when things got down to business) went by quickly. The bottom line on "The Golden Globe"? I ended up more satisfied with it than I expected, but it is longer than it should be and it has some other shortcomings. Not the best scifi I've read, not even the best book I've read by Varley, but it was OK. I felt that I should rate it somewhere between 3 and 4 stars. In the end, I decided to give it 4 stars, but be advised that this is a soft 4 stars (it would be 3.6 or 3.7). That's a tepid recommendation, so if you don't like it, don't blame me.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down!
Review: Maybe its just because I haven't read the Gaea trilogy, but I loved this book, as well as Steel Beach. And I have to admit to being completely surprised by the ending. Maybe a little gimmicky, but entertaining.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointed by my hero
Review: Me too I ran to buy Varley's latest only to quickly grow annoyed by the self-indulgent tone of the book and the hero. A big Varley fan, I could not finish the book as it failed to induce in me the same kind of fascination that previous novels or books did.
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Summary: Come Back, Sparky!
Review: My decision as to whether a book is good or not depends upon if I will miss the main character(s) when I have finished reading. I will miss Sparky Valentine quite a bit... I can give no higher praise.
Rating:
Summary: A Gem Of A Book
Review: Okay, I'll admit it, I haven't read all of Varley's books yet, but I did read Titan. How can anyone say that Titan is better than TGG? How can someone compare these books at all? I know that they're both science fiction, but the them of each of the novels are completely different. TGG was a beutiful book, the characters were fun and interesting, and the story was REALLY creative. Whereas Titan was dark and gloomy, it was very good, but just very dark. On a whole, I think most of these bad reviews come from you fella's thinking that Varely was going to write another dark, foreboding novel. I like what Varely's done, it's funny, interesting, and totally original!
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Summary: Much Ado About Nothing
Review: One of the most colossal, and tedious, displays of ego I have ever encountered. Early on Varley makes reference to a hobo stew that contains a little of this, a little of that; and then later, just to make sure we get the point, he does the same thing with an alcoholic's hooch. Obviously we're meant to view this book as that sort of concoction. The analogy doesn't hold; the book fails at nearly every level. This would-be picaresque about an itinerant Shakespearian actor and interplanetary grifter, accompanied along the road by an imaginary companion (named, of all things, Elwood P. Dowd) and a dog W. C. Fields would have fed gin to, comes to life only in one section--when, landing on Oberon, a moon of Uranus, Varley turns off the self-indulgence long enough to show how an artificial satellite might be engineered. But other than that, there's little to recommend here--one extended flashback, told as a parody of showbiz reporting (each imaginary reporter, Bermuda Schwartz--isn't that clever?--among them, gets not one, but two cracks at the bat) is simply excruciating. Varley apparently sees himself as the next Robert Heinlein, and apparently he actually has conned some readers into seeing him precisely that way. Ah well. It seems as if a sequel might be in the works. I intend to be very late for the party.
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Summary: Varley's best since the "Titan Trilogy"
Review: Perhaps I'm biassed. I have been both a fan of speculative fiction and a rider in the wheel wells of show business from an early age. I found "Golden Globe" one of the best science fiction novels I have read in years. I got involved with the main character at once, and I kept turning pages avidly. Subsidiary characters and plot twists were most satisfying. I eseecially appreciate speculative fiction which, like "Globe", refuses to take itself too seriously, and yet never strains to be cute, clever or quotable in every single line. Long may Mr. Varley reign!
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Summary: Varley's best novel yet!
Review: Since 1977, John Varley has been my favorite SF author -- not for his novels, but for his short stories. I've always found his novels a bit disappointing compared with the brilliance of his short stories. His previous novel, *Steel Beach*, although a very good book, was a huge disappointment to me -- it was published after a wait of oh so many years, yet it seemed rather tired. Consequently, when I started reading *The Golden Globe*, it was not with high expectations. Especially after such another long pause between books. As it turns out, I was blown away by *The Golden Globe*. It's the first of Varley's novels that is as brilliant as his short stories. It excells at what Varley has always done best -- constructing a fascinating character that must cope with an interesting environment. It may have been a long wait for *The Golden Globe*, but it was worth the wait! Now I can't wait for his next book. I hope it won't be another six years! (Alas, my favorite musician, Kate Bush, has not released an album is six years, so I've gotten used to waiting....)
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