Orion Arm: The Rampart Worlds: Book 2 - Softcover

May, Julian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0345395190 ISBN 13: 9780345395191

Publisher: Del Rey, 2000

Synopsis

After a brief (but heroic) fling with all that is right and just, Asahel Frost has reverted to his true nature--undisciplined and feckless, according to the girlfriend who just dumped him. Now he is once again the legal nonentity known as Helmut Icicle, living the riverboat skipper life in a tiny galactic outpost with the rest of the ne'er-do-wells.

That is until his sister Eve, herself genetically altered by the alien Haluk, begs Helmut to expose the Haluk's conspiracy, which threatens humans throughout the Spur worlds. Genetic alteration is tightly controlled, yet now it's running rampant. Helmut must find the culprits, but time is running out. Too many people have vanished into the secret empire where an evil genius reigns supreme. Worse yet, there's an unknown traitor in Helmut's own family who is quite willing to murder. Only one thing's clear: Helmut will emerge either triumphant . . . or dead.

About this title

Review:

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

From the Back Cover:

"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

About this edition

• Publisher: Del Rey
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0345395190
• ISBN 13: 9780345395191
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 384