Julian May's Galactic Milieu Series of science fiction novels is the sequel (and prequel) to her "Saga of Pliocene Exile." It comprises four novels: Intervention, Jack the Bodiless, Diamond Mask and Magnificat. Julian May (b. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... A novel is an extended work of written, narrative, prose fiction, usually in story form; the writer of a novel is a novelist. ... The Saga of Pliocene Exile is a series of science / speculative fiction books by Julian May, first published in the early 1980s. ...

Intervention

Intervention: A Root Tale to the Galactic Milieu and a Vinculum between it and The Saga of Pliocene Exile (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987). ISBN 0-395-43782-2. (Released in mass market paperback as two volumes: Surveillance and Metaconcert)

May calls Intervention a vinculum, or link-tale, between the "Saga of Pliocene Exile" and the Milieu trilogy proper. It follows the Remillard family from the years immediately after World War II through an increasingly turbulent world, in which various "metapsychic" humans maneuver in secret to direct the destiny of the human race. The Remillards play a central role in this story, though the narrator, Rogatien "Uncle Rogi" Remillard, is often an alienated observer rather than a central participant. At the same time, the earth is under surveillance by representatives of a galactic culture (the "Galactic Milieu" of the series title), who monitor the human race's fitness for admission into the wider galactic community. Interwoven with this narrative are glimpses of the time after the main action of the series, drawing together threads from it and the Pliocene Exile series. A vinculum is a horizontal line placed over a mathematical expression, used to indicate that it is to be considered a group. ...

Intervention climaxes with the Great Intervention, the revelation of this wider galactic society. This sets the stage for the more focused story May has to tell in the remainder of the series. It deals with the self-discovery of Rogi's powers and his search for like minded individuals. Rogi finds one such as him in his nephew Denis. Denis is a precocious child and quickly learns to master many faculties and excels. Rogi learns of a christian monastic schools and manages to get Don (Donatien - Rogi's alcoholic and vindictive brother) to allow him to send Denis there. This leads to Denis attending Dartmouth College due to a forming party of 'special students'. He becomes prominent in many fields, particularly psychology and eventually becomes the 'Grandfather of Metapsychology) Subsequent research leads results in many places in the world and Denis organises yearly meetings within the secret metapsychic conmmunity. At the same time, Denis's almost evil brother Victor, is plotting with a homocidal maniac known as Kieran to bring down the government with their metapsychic powers. This culminates in a show down at the end of the book where Denis calls out to all the present and non-present metapsychics to join in a 'metaconcert'. The watching Milieu agents invisible in the sky, Hear this pleading and the subsequent metaconcert and therefore intervene. Victor, meanwhile, goes after Rogi who has seen too much. Somehow, Rogi had learned several Yoga techniques and mind lasers Victor into a vegetative state.

Jack the Bodiless

• Jack the Bodiless (New York: Knopf, 1991). ISBN 0-679-40950-5.

As the Milieu trilogy proper begins with Jack the Bodiless, humankind, led by the Remillard family, is awaiting acceptance into the Galactic Milieu. However, some humans, both metapsychic operants and "normals" are wary of the aliens. It is in this turbulent political atmosphere that Teresa, wife of prominent politician and clan leader Paul Remillard, gives birth a child who may well be the most powerful human mental talent ever, but whose genetic defects may condemn him to death under Milieu law. Teresa's older son, Marc farsenses emotional problems and visits his mother to investigate. Upon learning of his mother's illgal birth, Marc takes it upon himself to hide Teresa and his future brother in the Canadian wilderness. Marc realises that Rogi is the only family member that would be empathetic enough to help. Rogi is awkward but gives in due to previous assertion from the 'Family Ghost'. Marc fakes their deaths in a 'canoe-ing accident' and the Remillard family and the Magistratum of the Milieu believe them dead. After many months in the wilderness, Rogi assists Teresa in her birth, and Saint Jack is born. Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. ...

Although Jack outwardly appears to be a normal human child, his intellect and mental prowess rapidly set him apart from the rest of humankind, as does the fact that his body begins to generate inoperable and incurable tumours that are slowly overwhelming him. Despite the fact that Jack possesses each of the five higher mindpowers (also known as metafaculties) at the highest known level, he is incapable of effecting change in his own physiology. An attack by Fury, the secretive villain of the series, on Jack as he lies in his hospital room, leads to an evolutionary jump in which Jack discards his physical form and metamorphoses into his final state as a disembodied brain.

Diamond Mask

• Diamond Mask (New York: Knopf, 1994). ISBN 0-679-43310-4.

The second book deals greatly with Dorothea MacDonald on the irish world of Caledonia. Dorothea lives with her father and her brother amid several step brothers and sisters. After serveral events and conflicts with the entity know as Hydra (A metapsychic entity that Fury uses as a tool), Dorothea realises that she is a latent metapsychic and is able to use her mind to protect herself. In the meanwhile, Paul Remillard is preparing for human entry into the Milieu and is inline to become the first Magnate of the concillium. When his rival's newly wedded wife is cooked using a mind laser by an entity (it is in fact Hydra on instruction from fury), A 1000 galactic day hold is put on the human entry. The Krondaku investigators suspect the Remillards being involved.

Magnificat

• Magnificat (New York: Knopf, 1996). ISBN 0-679-44177-8.

By the third book in the series, Marc has matured into a highly capable metapsychic and is regarded as a Grandmaster. Through manipulated dreams, Marc conceives an idea called 'Mental Man' which would create a new subspecies of Man called Homo Summus. Ultimately it would create hundreds of humans with the powers of Jack. This project is kept highly secret for several years but peers and competitors of Marc begin to get suspicious. He develops several increasingly powerful augmented deviced called CE devices. These amplify the metapsychic ability by several fold. The CE devices is highly discussed in the debates of the Concillium and is deemed to dangerous to allow the Humans to gain such power. Marc however disagrees and his research (although outlawed) continues and culminates in devices capable of 800x amplification. Marc's increasing ambition draws him to side with a rebel faction of the concilium - those that do not wish to join 'Unity' with the other races and therefore with the galactic mind itself. The rebel faction determinely opposes this as they believe humans will lose individualism and therefore be thralls to the other races.

Paul, the father of Jack and Marc, is the leader of the Pro-Unity camp and Jack decides to help to campaign against the rebels. As tension builds and several children start to co-adunate, the rebels long laid plans take place. Marc has equipped hundreds of individuals with his CE devices and his collegues armed many ships. The rebels decided to destroy a planet - Molakar - the Krondaku planet in which the intervention was staged. Billions die in several seconds as the joined minds of the Rebels superheat the core of the planet. Marc intends this to be a Tour De Force. However, he does not expect a response. Jack, Dorothea and his father, Paul decided to confront him peacefully and will not let him take war to the galaxy. Marc decides to fight but the three pacifists call out to all the metapsychics in the galaxy to help join in Unity and stop the Rebels.

Although the attempt to halt the Rebel faction of humanity is successful, it leads to the deaths of both Jack and Dorothea. Their deaths, however, propel humanity into the state of mental co-ordination (called "coadunation" in the novels) which the member races of the Milieu refer to as Unity.

After the Rebel faction is defeated, their leaders flee through a unique one-directional gate in France 6 million years back in time, to the Pliocene period. There they stay in exile, and the events of the Saga of Pliocene Exile take place. Marc Remillard survives all those years (thanks to his "immortality gene", a trait shared by most members of the Remillard clan) and eventually becomes the enlightened leader of the same galactic society that starts the intervention. The Saga of Pliocene Exile is a series of science / speculative fiction books by Julian May, first published in the early 1980s. ...

See also

• Julian May
• Saga of Pliocene Exile