Isso soa como a trilogia gaeana de John Varley ( Titan , Assistente , Demon )
Tem os dirigíveis vivos:
“That’s our way off this cliff,” he said. “His name is—” he pursed his lips and whistled three clear notes with a warble at the end, “—but I see that’s awkward to use mixed with English. I call him Whistlestop.”
“You call him ‘Whistlestop,’” Cirocco repeated, numbly.
“That’s right. He’s a blimp.”
“A blimp.”
He looked at her oddly and she gritted her teeth. “He looks more like a dirigible, but he’s not, because he doesn’t have a rigid skeleton. I’ll call him and you can see for yourself.” He put two fingers to his lips and whistled a long, complex tune with odd musical intervals.
E os centauros:
The Titanide found them while they were taking down the tent prior to moving Bill. It stood on the top of the bluff where Cirocco had been the day before. Cirocco waited for it to make the first move, but it seemed to have the same idea.
The most obvious word for the thing was centaur. It had a lower part shaped like a horse, and an upper half so human it was frightening. Cirocco was not quite sure she believed in it.
It was not as Disney had envisioned centaurs, nor did it have much to do with the classical Greek model. It had a lot of hair, yet its dominant feature was pale naked skin. There were great multi-colored cascades of hair on the head and tail, on the lower parts of all four legs, and on the creature’s forearms. Oddest of all, there was hair between the two front legs, in the place where a decent horse—which Cirocco’s mind kept trying to see—had nothing but smooth hide. It carried a shepherd’s crook, and but for a few small ornaments, wore no clothing.
Os Blimps e Centaurs "falam" uma linguagem muito baseada em música, mas é sugerido que ela pode ter um componente telepático.
O primeiro livro, Titan, é uma história de aventura bastante direta. O segundo livro, Wizard, é mais um tipo de história de "busca". O último livro, Demon, é uma história pós-apocalipse / revolução / guerra com um pequeno comentário social. A partir da pergunta do OP, parece que eles podem ter lido o segundo livro. Embora o terceiro livro tenha mais dos eventos pós-apocalípticos, ele também tem um caráter ... maior que a vida que seria muito difícil de esquecer.
