Customer Reviews

Rampart Worlds (Rampart Worlds 1)

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

 

 

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!

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.

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.

1. What happened to Julian May?

When it first came out, years ago, I read and loved the Pliocene Exiles series. Julian May became one of my favorite authors of the era. Now I was younger then, so picking up this Perseus Spur book, I must conclude that one of two things has happened: either Julian May has never been very good, and my tastes have changes; or May's writing is deteriorating. Based on the other reviews I have seen here, I wonder if it may not be the latter!

2) What's wrong with it?

Oh, you know, everything. But worst of all: it reads like an awkward adolescent male fantasy while Julian May is in theory a female adult. The main character's painfully bad moves on the female interest are absolutely agonizing, at every step. Moreover, none of the characters are even remotely compelling. I couldn't care less who lives, who dies, or who ends up with whom. When they do eventually get it on, it is ick ick ick. Not to mention rather improbable.

One thing I particularly remember about the Pliocene books was that they had vivid characters.

But the characters in Perseus Spur are flat, uninteresting, and unpersuasive.

3) The story.

Helmut "Helly" Icicle, comes out of exile to rescue his family's galactic corporation. The rich good guys win, the rich bad guys lose, and the Helly's not-rich friends from exile are forgotten by chapter three (except for the one rich friend from exile, who hangs around to save the hero a couple of times).

Bad things happen to Helly: his house is eaten by a sea monster. He is staked to a comet. He is trapped in an underground bunker with a bomb. A giant alien lizard falls on him. Good things happen to Helly: the bad fortunes of his exile are reversed, snivelling corporate weasels' jaws drop when they see him returned, he isn't killed by any of the bad things, he gets the girl.

But in the end, you probably won't give two figs one way or the other.

4) The best thing about the book?

On the back cover is a blurb quotation from the above Amazon.co.uk review. When a publisher needs to go to Amazon to take a vaguely positive blurb out of context to help sell the book, you know they are scraping the bottom of the barrel.

(Ooh, but look: Amazon quotes the amazon quote in the "From the back cover" section. It's like mirrors receding infinitely into the distance!)

Sorry about the one line summary up there. It's wanky, I know, but I couldn't help it-I thoroughly enjoyed reading May's latest novel. Being one of the premier sci fi authors in the world, the Grande Dame has a following of several million who are already predisposed to flip out over her works. Although this novel is no where near as deep and thought provoking as its' predecessors, Julian May once more wends a tale that is so easy to fall in love with that you can literally see it unfold as she describes it to you. All the other reader reviews have just about said it all- and I too love the way that this book emulates the style of old, whilst also take the piss out of it. It's no brain strainer, but May has obviously had a LOT of fun with this one..... Makes me think of Dr Who for some reason.

Julian May is one of my favorite authors. Her books are always imaginative, detailed, witty, and colorful. May is unmatched in her ability to string together sentences with multiple adjectives used in novel ways to create a world with sight, sound, texture, and soul. Reading May is like reading good poetry-- effortless, provoking, flowing.

That being said, Perseus Spur, the first of the Rampart Worlds Trilogy is a different kind of book for her. A new universe, 200 years in the future, dominated by megacorporations plotting and scheming to make a profit by exploiting the resources of our arm of the galaxy. There are no world-smashing psychic powers or Pliocene-era ramapthicines here. The protagonist is a former police officer, framed by the megacorps, and exiled to a tropical paradise where he has nearly drunk himself to death. He is a quasi-cynical, what-the-heck rough-around-the-edges sort with lofty, wounded ideals set against the galactic might of big business.

This book has a sort of sardonic, tongue-in-cheek feel to it. May's imagination and vision can leave you breathless with the images she provokes, but the overall plot is pretty basic. This is no Ludlum thriller or groundbreaking sci-fi epic a la Asimov's Foundation. What it is is a good fun, smile at Ms. May's sense of humor and imagery, and cheer on the good guy type of book. She also has a number of pretty interesting sci-fi ideas for the concepts-- with a strong genetic component as did her Galactic Milieu/Pliocene Exile series-- that I can appreciate.

The Pliocene Exile series is still my favorite from Ms. May. This one fails to deliver the depth of character for some of the supporting players in the story that her other series did. I feel like I understand the protagonist well, but not a lot of the others. Still, I had a great time reading it. Thanks, Ms. May. How about a sequel to the Pliocene Series? Hagen, Diane, Cloud, and Kuhal?

First of all, if you are expecting this book to be as good as Julian's multi-layered 'Galactic Milieu' series you will be disappointed, because this is low-fat reading. This doesn't mean it's a bad book, as once I got into it I enjoyed it, and the sequel 'Orion Arm' is even better. I found that the hero pleasantly reminded me of 'Uncle Rogi' from the 'Galactic Milieu' books (a gruff rascal with a heart of gold) minus the oddball relatives.

I liked the Galactic Milieu series, though I found parts rather hard going particularly the Exiles books which were a little too introspective for my taste. This, however, for me is the best May book so far. Enough of the characterisation without getting too detailed to interrupt the flow of the story, one main character to follow (easier for simple folk like me) and action all along the way. I'm looking forward to Orion Arm.

I really enjoyed the Saga of the Exiles. I thought the characters were well developed and the plots satisfying. So I was expecting a lot from this book. I hesitate to criticise what seem to me to be its failings, since it is obviously meant to be light and not to be taken seriously. Certainly it is packed with action and there are some amusing situations. But it has a bit too much of a feel of it doesn't matter what obviously stupid decisions the hero makes, because the writer is on his side, and she'll make everything turn out OK. Oh, and kill off any character who becomes inconvenient, because we can always invent more characters, but you don't need to be sad about them, because they weren't real anyway. I'm not going to bother with the next one.

While this book does have its moments, it have large holes in its logical underpinnings and a rather annoying main character without much depth. Granted the metapsychic rebellion series was a major letdown after the Saga of the Plieocene Exiles, but this is a further step down.