The Sagittarius Whorl: Book Three of the Rampart Worlds Trilogy

As I've stated earlier, Julian May is one of the tops in the business. A stunningly talented writer whose prose makes me envious. Colorful, vibrant, textured verbiage make her worlds come to life. This world, set 200 years in the future, features humans having colonized and exploited two of our galaxy's spiral arms--thousands of worlds. Megacorps dominate all aspects of society-- but big business is corrupt.May ups the ante in this concluding volume of the Rampart Worlds Trilogy. The antagonist is now a xenophobic alien species secretly usurping our technology in a covert attempt to eventually overwhelm the human species and take over our worlds. They need "breathing room".The tension in this one is certainly a bit higher than the other two books in the series-- the stakes are higher, and her protagonist, Asa Frost, is in dire straits when the book opens. Still, this wasn't a page turner like a Ludlum thriller. The twists and turns of this book were fun, tongue-in-cheek, goofy at times, with just a bit more seriousness than the first two. I must commend May-- I never tired of Asa Frost,although all three books are written from his perspective. Despite this, I still felt like her supporting characters were relatively undeveloped.What do I mean by relatively? Hey-- she still does a better job than 99% of sci-fi writers out there! May is a brilliant writer, with fresh ideas and perspectives that are a joy to read! By all means, read all her books, including this series, concluding with this finale, Sagittarius Whorl.

Julian May has a serious problem. She is such a wonderful writer, her plots, her style . . . . everything is at such a high level that her readers have come to expect nothing less than perfection from her. Certainly, I expected perfection when I began to read Sagitarius Whorl. I didn't find perfection, but nor did I find any thing less than pure enjoyment.This book, and the series as a whole, has everything that makes science fiction worthwhile. An intriguing plot with many twists and turns, a compelling yet not entirely sympathetic hero, sex, violence, and a vision of a humanity that continues to grow, mature, and slowly begins to eschew greed for humaneness and concern for the common weal.In some ways, this series is more accessible than the Pliocene and Galactic milieu epics, but it is no less compelling. Highly recommended.

Sagittarius Whorl lived up to the Rampart World's books' trend for twists, twirls, ups, downs and cliffhangers. This book was different from the others, though. Asa Frost (He's not Helmut Icicle anymore in my mind) has had his character change and grow. May's tendency to play with style, timeline and perspective grew in this book as well. Much of the book is narrated in such a way that the future is known, but may manages to still kick the struts out from under expectations of *when* the events the reader knows about will happen. The result is a surprise that isn't a surprise, which is an good trick.

The Sagittarius Whorl is an amazingly well thought out, interesting, and thought provoking conclusion to Julian May's Rampart World Trilogy. Julian May is quite well known to many sci-fi junkies, and this trilogy of intergalactic corporate control, alien demiclones, and the one man willing to fight for right can't fail to please her old fans while concurrently drawing in new fans. While some may say that the story of an intergalactic cowboy fighting personal and political injustice is somewhat cliche, May manages to not only make it fresh, but to make it so intriguing i couldn't even put the book down. This is a great story that even has relevance to the increasingly corporate world of today. Buy this book, buy this series, you won't regret it.