God, talking about John Varley got me remembering about Steel Beach and I forgot how fucking weird that book was, I had remembered the screwball comedy pastiche and the Heinlein pastiche, I remembered how Hildy was rich off of fresh breath royalties, I remembered that he became a woman halfway through but I forgot that she suddenly became a mother or committed suicide several times, I forgot about the bang-bang rocket and the mirror suits, I forgot about the dome blowout and the shit-rockets.

I forgot that fucking opening line!

That’s one of 6 SF books that really shaped me in adolescence, the others are Vurt; Beggars and Choosers (and to a lesser extent Beggars in Spain but not Beggars Ride at all); Earth (the one where we fuck up and drop a black hole into the core); Sewer, Gas & Electric; and of course Snow Crash