The Webs of Varok portrays a steady state economy, with all its differences from our current situation, hence it provides ripe fruit for Book clubs to pick, in discussion. Varok's legal definition of family provides another topic, as does the metaphor represented by the traitor Mahntik's unnatural ability to block her mind from reading.

The Webs of Varok might be called soft or relational or women's science fiction, because it features a mixed family of aliens and humans in an alternate 21st century solar system, dealing with their complex relationships. The book's aliens provide more fun than in most scifi stories, while the main thrust of the story deals with current economic issues.

The family is determined to see that an overcrowded Earth finds a way to solve its dilemmas. They decide that Varok would serve as a good model for how to maintain a sustainable, equitable society. However, when the family arrives on Varok, after a realistically long voyage, they find their trust in each other and in Varokian economics threatened by an ambitious traitor. The story's metaphor for human double-dealing is presaged in the first scene, in which the lovely human protagonist practices her mind-link with her varokian partner. The varokian traitor has learned to block her mind from its natural openness, giving her unusual leverage in the society.

The Webs of Varok is told by two storytellers. The human protagonist TANDRA tells her first person view on things as she leaves Earth for the alien planet Varok. When she is not present, the third person omniscient storyteller gets into the other interesting heads pushing the plot forward. The most fun is the ahlork Nidok, not too literate and yet able to exchange ripe insults with his best friend, the aquatic elll of the mixed family, CONN.