I bought this on the recommendation of a friend and to be honest, I had a few reservations. All the descriptions of the book, including those here on amazon.com sounded a little hoky and a little weird. I said I would eat my hat if I loved the book. In time I was duly forced to get out the salt and pepper and get torn in to my trilby. This is a massively enjoyable book that is an exercise in imagination beyond imagination. For those looking for a more concrete idea of what Titan is about and how good it is then look no further than Larry Niven's Ringworld or A World Out of Time. It's drawn from exactly the same vein as those two classics. Varley has let his imagination run wild while still retaining suspension of disbelief. To those who claim this book is not SF then I would challenge you to point out exactly where. This is no less SF than the aforementioned Niven classics and as a fan of hard SF than is a strong recommendation in its favour. Varley writes with a terrific style, being easy to read and maintaining a breakneck pace, never once lulling into middle-book periods of tedium that seem to plague some novels. Having read this book, having been proved wrong and having enjoyed it immensely I can't recommend this book strongly enough to anyone with a mind for SF or good fantasy for that matter. If you like the aforementioned Niven books then why haven't you bought this earlier? My only regret is not discovering it sooner. Now, anyone know where I can get a copy of Wizard and Demon? :o)