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4.0 out of 5 stars
Goofy, entertaining space opera/detective story, Oct 9 2003
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?
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