This was a reread. I thought I’d only read it once before, back in the early 1990s when it was published, but apparently I reread it in 2001. Which is odd, as I like Varley’s fiction a great deal, but I couldn’t remember Steel Beach’s plot. I had a vague memory of the ending, and I knew it was set in his Eight Worlds universe… but pretty much nothing else about the story had stayed with me. One thing I’d also forgotten was that Steel Beach is a fun read. Varley had spent the 1980s working on his Gaea trilogy and the movie/novel Millennium, so Steel Beach was a return to his best-known setting after a decade away. I remember the excitement when Steel Beach was published. I also remember the disappointment when Varley admitted, and repeated in an afterword to the novel, that he’d not bothered ensuring Steel Beach was internally consistent with earlier works set in the Eight Worlds. (For example, Steel Beach mentions the Barbies cult, which is actually from an Anna-Louise Bach story, which is set on the Moon, but not the same Moon as the Eight Worlds stories.) Anyway, this time this didn’t bother me at all. Nor did the fact a lot of Steel Beach is stuff recycled from The Ophiuchi Hotline and earlier stories. However, there are elements of the novel which read differently in 2024 than they did in 2001 or 1992. The gender stuff, obviously - although it’s far from antiquated, and up to the mark in some aspects. But there are bits where it’s plain Varley just made shit up and it doesn’t ring true (the science is good, though, and there’s an amusing dig at Freudian psychology). But the plot: it’s been 200 years since the Invaders killed everyone on Earth, and humanity now only survives on the Moon and scattered across the Solar System. Hildy Johnson is a reporter, and has tried to commit suicide several times. The Central Computer contacts him and asks him to investigate why suicide rates have risen. Which Hildy does. As well as trying to understand his own problems - which are temporarily resolved by changing gender, moving to the Texas Disneyland, and becoming a schoolteacher in a 19th century reenactment town. Steel Beach is told entirely in Hildy’s voice, and he, and then she, is an entertaining character. I didn't expect great things of Steel Beach on this reread, but it was better than I’d remembered - but it’s not one of Varley’s best. On second thoughts, Varley has only a handful of notable works - short stories included - and the rest is either ordinary or has not aged well. I still have my favourites, and I’ll continue to hold them dear, but I can’t honestly say he’s a sf writer for a 21st century sf reader. ( )

Steel Beach was a fantastic novel. I've always been a fan of John Varley and this book is a shining example as to why. Incredible protagonist who changes their sex and occupation mid-way and it made perfect sense. Parts of the novel were uncomfortable at times, but a good work should challenge the reader. The overall story of a depressed AI managing a colony on the moon was heavy and bleak but as told through the eyes of Hildy there was some whimsy and light heartedness. While the book is clearly SF some of the themes were very subtle and snuck up on me in surprising ways. I highly recommend this book to SF fans and those who like to ponder solar system spanning ideas and what a society could be like if changing sex was a routine surgery that people get, and often more than once. ( )

I keep forgetting why I can't finish this book, and then I'll try to read it again and remember. Too disjointed. Some interesting tech and backstory but all in all, ugh.

Kind of torn in reviewing this book -- it had some really good elements, as well as some recurring lame elements, an interesting but only hinted at universe in a lot of areas, reasonably good characters (especially for SF), and a good (if not great) plot.

The best parts of the book were a somewhat-post-scarcity world (on the moon, after the earth had been rendered inaccessible hundreds of years in the past) -- AI doing most of the real work, some high-level human work remaining, but a lot of people either being put into "goldbrick-enabled" type jobs (there was a union of electricians who literally got dressed up in uniform/equipment and then stood around doing nothing, and this was a long-term career...), or living in "disneylands" which were historical recreations (such as a Texas/old west universe) with limited overt tech but without true hardship (they could still "mail order" things produced using high tech as historical replicas, e.g. cast iron stoves and locomotives). Some humans went out to the asteroids, etc., but primarily in this book (unlike some of the others in the series) humans were post-growth.

Most of the book was about the psychological impact this and some other changes had on characters, and the overall impact on society. The "central computer" which ran everything was both a background mechanical process and essentially a sentient AI (or collection of AIs), and interacted meaningfully with every individual. One interesting thing was it was forced to firewall itself -- it could be used by a criminal to support ongoing criminal enterprise, including very odious interpersonal violence, as well as by a victim, as well as by a police, and each got full service from the system, and no information was (supposed to be, and generally actually) shared.

The main annoying recurring part of the book was that characters could gender-swap at will (or asexualize, although this was rare), and the author went extensively into detail in all this implied. The idea of extremely long lived (and age-invariant) characters being able to change gender with minimal effort is somewhat interesting, but I could do without the extensive sex/other gory details aspects. It wasn't too badly done, though.

Another interesting element: due to extremely good medical technology (essentially anything but brain destruction was survivable), and the ability to turn off pain, there were extremely bloody sports which were viewed as "non-violent" because people could be restored fully afterward. There were a few other interesting ideas throughout the book (brontosaurs, presumably from DNA, used as the main source of meat...), but the core element of the Eight Worlds series was only very minimally addressed (the invaders who took over Earth and essentially locked down humanity.)

There was a major hat tip to Robert A. Heinlein in the book -- probably the best that I've seen so far.

Overall, I liked it, but it just wasn't good enough (and was too long) to really be a 5-star book. ( )

The plot is very... "ambient". At face value you'd think it was mostly about gender swapping, having babies and midlife crisis but there was also a lot of imaginative stuff that kept me reading. ( )