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%T Jack the Bodiless
%S The Galactic Milieu
%V Volume 1
%A Julian May
%I Knopf
%D 1991
%O clothbound, US$25.00
%P 463
%G ISBN 0-679-40950-5
The author of the justly-celebrated Saga Of Pliocene Exile gives
us yet another volume in her sprawling future history of the Remillard family
and humanity's transhuman destiny in the Galactic Milieu. This book
chronicles the events surrounding the birth of Jon Remillard, he who will
become Saint Jack the Bodiless and the greatest of humanity's metapsychic
operants. The protagonist, oddly enough, is his brother Marc Remillard --- he
who will be called Abaddon, the Angel of the Abyss, the leader of humanity's
Metapsychic Rebellion. If you don't mind the odor of Christian theology that
hangs over much of this series you will get a hell of a bang out of it. Even
if you do (and I've personally decided my sympathies lie with the
individualist rebels) May is an able and thought-provoking writer who will
doubtless influence SF's treatment of Chardinist themes for years to come.
%T Through the Heart
%A Richard Grant
%I Bantam Spectra
%D January 1992
%O paperback, US$5.99
%P 376
%G ISBN 0-553-29320-6
Sigh. Here's another wretched pile of garbage aimed at the literary-merit
crowd, who will doubtless love it to pieces and proclaim it to be one of the
few decent works to come out of SF because it says what they want to hear.
Grant spends 300 pages working us up to the revelation that technology is
soulless and evil, scientists are arrogant vampires who feed (almost
literally, in this book) on human flesh, and they will destroy the world
before any of them repent of their ways. How original! How
shocking! And mainly what utter, tiresome bullshit. Avoid this
turkey.
Up to Eric's Home Page | To Index | Fri Mar 13 10:10:19 EST 1992 |
Eric S. Raymond <esr@snark.thyrsus.com>