Jack the Bodiless / Julian May

3 out of 5 stars

In the year 2051, Earth stood on the brink of acceptance as full member of the Galactic Milieu, a confederation of worlds spread across the galaxy. Leading humanity was the powerful Remillard family, but somebody--or something--known only as "Fury" wanted them out of the way.
Only Rogi Remillard, the chosen tool of the most powerful alien being in the Milieu, and his nephew Marc, the greatest metapsychic yet born on Earth, knew about Fury. But even they were powerless to stop it when it began to kill off Remillards and other metapsychic operants--and all the suspects were Remillards themselves.
Meanwhile, a Remillard son was born, a boy who could represent the future of all humanity. His incredible mind was more powerful even than his brother Marc's--but he was destined to be desroyed by his own DNA...unless Fury got to him first!

I was introduced to Julian May’s Galactic Milieu in her Saga of Pliocene Exile series (I’ve read three out of four and find them fabulous). So when I found the first two books of her Galactic Milieu trilogy at my local used book shop, I grabbed them fast and headed directly to the till.

Although I enjoyed this novel, I didn’t find it nearly as entrancing as the Pliocene books and it’s taken me a little while to figure out why. There are multiple points of view, which I’m okay with. I think what surprised me is that none of those POVs are female, and that to me was one of the strengths of the Pliocene Saga. And there was a perfect opportunity to feature Jack’s mother, Teresa, to do just that.

There was also a lot of religious discussion (done as Teresa and Uncle Rogi explaining things to Jack). Add to that an awful lot of description of various medical and mechanical technologies (certainly in more detail than I’m interested in), and I was finding myself skimming a number of paragraphs to get back to the good stuff.

May is at her best when she is dealing with interpersonal dynamics and intergalactic politics. Still, I will read the second book and then decide whether to keep looking for the third one.