Perseus Spur (Rampart Worlds Series Volume 1) [Mass Market Paperback]

Julian May (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 28, 1999

From Julian May, the acclaimed author who created the incredible worlds of The Many-Colored Land and The Golden Torc, comes a bold new science fiction adventure!

When rebellious Asahel Frost was expelled from the Interstellar Commerce Secretariat on trumped-up charges, he lost it all: wife, citizenship, fortune, self-respect. Exiled to a beautiful but remote planet in the Perseus Spur, Frost became Helmut Icicle, a man without a past or a future. But someone remembered Asahel Frost--remembered him enough to send an assassin to kill him. And in so doing, brought him back to life.

Now, determined to track down the would-be assassin, Helmut finds himself caught in a conspiracy as convoluted as it is deadly. His sister, Eve, has mysteriously vanished. His estranged father wants him to find her with the assistance of the lovely Matilde Gregoire, who happens to hate his guts. As Helmut follows the tangled strands of deceit, greed, and violence back to their common source, he begins to wonder if he is the hunter or the hunted . . .

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Julian May is noted for her two long, complex, and interlinked science-fantasy sagas, the Pliocene Exile and the Galactic Milieu series. Perseus Spur opens the more light-hearted Rampart Worlds sequence, which is full of colorful planetary descriptions and slam-bang action. This future galaxy is dominated by Earth's megacorporations, which have carved up space between them. The hero, who was fighting corporate corruption, has been framed and discredited but not forgotten, as shown by bizarre murder attempts: a giant alien sea-toad gobbles up his house, and soon he's staked out to die on a lonely comet. With help from his eccentric friends and estranged family of entrepreneurs, he sets off James Bond-style to smash an ugly galactic conspiracy among companies that are treacherously selling human secrets--including our DNA--to hostile aliens. Like Bond, he's repeatedly captured by the same bad guy and barely survives awful fates. Negotiating exotic, deadly jungles, he must penetrate a fortified enemy cave complex and then escape before the inevitable time bomb blows everything to hell. Will he defeat the villain and get the girl? Need you ask? Fast-moving, tongue-in-cheek adventure, with sequels to come. --David Langford, Amazon.co.uk

Review

"May has cemented her position as one of this generation's foremost storytellers."
--Library Journal

Julian May "is one of the few such writers I not only enjoy but read with only the faintest nagging sense of guilty pleasure."
--Locus

"Slam-bang action . . . Fast-moving, tongue-in-cheek adventure."
--amazon.com.uk

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Del Rey (June 28, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345395107
• ISBN-13: 978-0345395108
• Product Dimensions: 4.2 x 0.9 x 6.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,292,417 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not your usual Julian May book, May 5, 2000

By 

P. H. Gantz (VA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Perseus Spur (Rampart Worlds Series Volume 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

And this is no bad thing. As many others have pointed out, May's other books--wonderfully good reads themselves, by the way--are very much a different sort of thing than Perseus Spur. The Rampart books are indeed a throwback of sorts to the early sci-fi Lensmen books of EE Doc Smith, but they are full of today's style of brashness in writing as well.

Which makes for a great read. This is a good book, with an interesting setting and a fun adventure. It is not a thinking cap book, like her other books, so if that is what you like, you might not like this book so much.

And I agree--May must have had great fun writing this book, it would seem. It sure was fun to read it!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A swashbuckling space opera -- or is it?, May 30, 1999

By 

Evan H. Appelman (Kensington, California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Perseus Spur (Rampart Worlds Series Volume 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

Julian May is probably best known for her thoughtful four-volume Saga of the Pliocene Exile, along with its "prequels" Intervention and the Galactic Milieu Trilogy. With their deep psychological, philosophical, and religious underpinnings. these works have a unique flavor all of their own. But Perseus Spur, May's latest effort, is written in a very different and much less intense vein. In this novel, May is tapping the hoary tradition of the galactic space opera, a tradition that can claim among its venerable antecedents such classic yarns as those of the legendary E. E. (Doc) Smith, as well as the Northwest Smith stories of C. L. Moore. And although May echos the conventions of her literary forebears, she does so with her tongue very firmly lodged in her cheek. And she is never averse to sending up even the most sacred clichés of the genre. It is therefore not too surprising that in Perseus Spur we find the villain attempting to assassinate the hero by inducing a forty-foot diameter giant sea toad on an alien planet to devour his residence, while the hero himself belongs to a family that has made its fortune by commercializing a confection called "rozkoz," a product of an exotic biosystem that is many times more desirable than the finest chocolate.

The result of all this is a light-hearted romp through the galactic future that readers may, if they wish, take simply at face value and enjoy as an entertainingly fast-paced star-hopping swashbuckler. On the other hand, those old enough to remember the early days of science fiction will find themselves doing a lot of chuckling, as well as experiencing a delightful nostalgia trip that can't help but add substantially to their enjoyment of the novel.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Have some fun - Read this book, April 26, 2000

By 

Mfitz... "Mfitz..." (Cincinnati, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Perseus Spur (Rampart Worlds Series Volume 1) (Mass Market Paperback)

I've ben a fan of Juilian May since I read "Many Colored Land" quite a few years ago and I'm glad to see that she is still writing after she finished her Galactic Mileiu series.

"Perseus Spur" is a little less cerebral than her last few book, but every bit as good. It also has a less ensemble cast of characters, but that just makes the action go even faster. The first person narratior is the sort of laid back hapless hero that you can't help but like and the plot has plenty of twists and turns to keep you awake.

I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.