From Amazon.com
Julian May's Rampart Worlds space-opera romps began with
Perseus Spur;
Orion Arm is volume 2. Asahel "Helly" Frost, disgraced scion of the mighty Rampart interstellar family company, again finds himself working for them as a wisecracking, spacefaring version of James Bond against the evil Galapharma corporation. Galapharma is selling priceless human know-how and DNA to the alien Haluk--cunning devils who've developed a "demiclone" process for changing reptilian Haluks into human form and vice versa. The slam-bang action moves through various cinematic set pieces: assignations in genetically enhanced brothels so lewd than even very bad men puke at the attractions offered; Frost betrayed and, instead of killed outright, left in a deathtrap with one slim chance of escape; a high-tech strike against a secret Haluk base closely resembling the one in
Perseus Spur; much blood and mayhem thanks to Galapharma traitors planted deep within the Rampart company and Frost's own family; murderous last-minute reversals at the crucial board meeting; and the final shoot out and offing of the arch-villain in a way that might just allow his return for book 3.
Orion Arm offers colorful, tongue-in-cheek violence and drama which pulls you along but refuses to be taken seriously.
--David Langford, Amazon.co.uk
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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
From the Paperback edition.
