Customer Reviews

JACK THE BODILESS

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Jack the Bodiless is the first book in the Galactic Milieu Trilogy. This book and the rest of this trilogy should be read after reading the other related series, the Intervention books (Surveillance and The Metaconcert) and The Saga of The Pliocene Exile (The Many Colored Land, The Golden Torc, The Nonborn King, The Adversary). Those two series can be read in any order, but I would recommend perusing first the Saga and then Intervention. Those two series will give you a significant grounding in the characters and setting you encounter in the Galactic Milieu trilogy.

I tried to read this book after reading the Intervention series and it was too jarring a transition for me at the time. So I put the book away for a few years and then came back later after having read the Saga of The Pliocene Exile and found this series much more comprehensible and absorbing. Once I came back to his series I read all three books in about a weeks time.

The story (and in fact the whole Galactic Milieu trilogy) is told as a recollection of Rogi Remillard a familiar character to those who read the Intervention books. Many times his is the voice telling the story and at other times we transition to the individuals themselves to see from their perspective.

This book is mainly about the events that form around the time frame encompassing the gestation, birth and early life of Jack the Bodiless. These events include the early life of Marc Remillard and the threat to the Remillard family caused by the Fury and Hydra entities. I found the Remillard family interaction and characters created in the series to be very compelling overall. The continuity of events ties neatly into the other series, but unfortunately without those books it can be a bit daunting to pick up on references and terminology in this book. To get the full effect that previous events have had on the characters in the book (enormous in many ways for Rogi, but often glossed over by him in these books to avoid dwelling on unpleasantness) it is almost required that one delve into those previous series.

I highly recommend this book, but only after the above mentioned series have been read.

Julian May has created an amazing tale with characters who are brilliant and lovable. I have 20 more pages to read and am still thrilled as I turn each page. Glorious scifi. The relationships of Marc, Theresa, Uncle Regi, and of course Jack are so well developed that I feel as though I know these people. This book was recommended by my daughter who is married to a scifi nut. I read this book first and can't wait to read the two that came before "Jack."

Julian May has just been added to my list of all-time favorite authors. I heard about Jack the Bodiless from a friend and decided to buy all three books of the series at the same time, I was not disappointed. The narrative character is given spirited depth and the rest of the characters are equally described. The plot fits together and will make you wish that all three books were released as one volume. The ideas in this book will light the fire under your imagination.

This book was my favourite of all the 'Galactic Milieu/Exile' books because there was so many special moments - the scene where Atoning Unifex/Marc remembers with love his 'great adventure' with Elizabeth in the Duat galaxy and the unexpectedly comical first meeting between Atoning Unifex and his younger self. Marc was my favourite character and it was fascinating to see his transformation in this epic series from a villain to the Merlin-like Overlord of the Milieu.

Within the first 13 chapters I realized this book had a fatal flaw -- multiple personality disorder. Rogi is the protagonist, and he works in that regard. But there are at least a dozen other characters, many of them too minor to deserve a POV of their own. Due to this fact, I never felt a great connection to any of the characters. The reader never stays in the head of any of them long enough (with the sole exception of Rogi). The POV problem felt glaring, especially early on. I didn't like jumping into first person POV for Rogi's "memoirs" and back to third person for the rest. It added to the inconsistency of the book.

Too much telling. Some was interesting, some not so much. It added to the detachment I felt from the characters. I especially disliked reading characters rehash historic and philosophical stuff. Skipped through some because it felt like I was being lectured to. And it didn't have much relevance. Too many adverbs. Passive voice needed some work as well. Terrible opening hook. Too much foreshadowing.

The plot just wasn't all that interesting. Same old cliche mysterious entity causing havoc while others try to determine whodunit. Very little action or sense of danger despite the fact there was the potential for it. No fleshing out of the villain. The other thread followed Jack, but due to the way the story was framed, the reader more or less knows how it will turn out. While the relationship between Rogi-Teresa-Marc-Jack was developed well, it felt like that's all the book was.

The speculative universe didn't seem that imaginative. The alien races were interesting but they played no major role in the book. The telepathic conversations needed work, formatting wise. I didn't care for how that was done.

A little disappointed in this one. By fixing a few things, it could've been pretty decent. It was just too all over the place for me.

In 2051 the Earth is soon to be admitted into the Galactic Milieu political structure, after much politicking. The Remillard family are an important part of this, politically and in operant terms. A spectre named Fury haunts the family, and is still killing. Two young Remillard boys, brothers, show remarkable abilities and potential, but the younger and more powerful, Jack, is being killed by his own body.

This is one of the most interesting books in the saga. It provides a rich and interesting environment for the reader, that never gets old. A must read.

I thoroughly enjoyed Jack the Bodiless, despite making the error of reading it while I was pregant with my own Jon. (Made for as many nightmares as The Handmaid's Tale) An excellent beginning to a new series and well worth the wait since the end of the Pliocene books. Solid SF without so much technology one's eyes glaze over.

Next to Intervention this is May at her best. The scope of the book is incredible. Character development is solid with enigmatic characters whom manage to aquire heroic stature whilst having devistatingly flawed characters. This is the future in impressionist form. We have broad brushstrokes and you will, outside of the boys own adventure, have to evaluate the morality of this world on your own. May meerly describes the scene and doesn't chose to comment one way or another. As in the Saga the obscure use of technology in entirely plausable ways make this universe *real*. Technology not of a solely violent/macho nature but used in the sunday suppliment useless gadget of the week way. Like having a women design kitchen appliances the resultant differences from "masculine" views of technology are profound and practical. No rail guns or mass drivers here boys... sorry! The whole thing (tied in with Saga) is of an order of scale of the finished tolkein works IMO. The scope of what occurs is titanic. The foces at work throughout the series are glacial. There are periods where nothing *appears* to be happening but the landscape has changed dramaticly when the ice thaws! Things have happened in this series over epochs and we don't have the sudden violent release found in other modern fiction. May has written of the sculpting of a race and the forces at work as as great as those that form mountains. Beware... the last book is a real let down compared to the rest of the work. *shrug* But then you can't have everything... where would you keep it all?

This book is one of the best I have ever read.It is written in such a way as to make the reader instinctively emphatise with the characters.The central character Ungle Rogi is unique in the fact that he is not the hero but more often than not, a bystander who gets caught up in events as they sweep by him. Take my advise a get your hands on a copy as soon as possible.