Jack The Bodiless

Jack the Bodiless (1993) – Julian May
Del Rey | ISBN: 070999005997
Condition: Good | Sold by Crappy Old Books

Families. They’re complicated enough when the principal disagreements involve who inherited grandmother’s silverware, why Uncle Albert wasn’t invited to Christmas dinner, and whether anybody is ever going to repay that twenty pounds borrowed in 1987. But imagine belonging to a family whose members possess extraordinary psychic abilities, whose domestic arrangements have implications for the future of humanity, and whose arguments might eventually involve the fate of entire civilisations.

Welcome to Jack the Bodiless, Julian May’s wonderfully ambitious mixture of science fiction, family drama, political intrigue and paranormal speculation, in which the evolution of the human mind threatens to become considerably more troublesome than anyone anticipated.

The first volume of the Galactic Milieu Trilogy, and part of May’s much larger interconnected fictional universe, Jack the Bodiless takes readers into a future where humanity is developing remarkable metapsychic powers. Telepathy, mental coercion and other extraordinary abilities are no longer merely the property of stage entertainers, dubious mediums and individuals who claim to know exactly what you’re thinking. They are becoming central to the political, social and evolutionary destiny of the human race.

At the heart of this extraordinary situation lies the Remillard family, a dynasty blessed, or possibly cursed, with exceptional psychic potential. Their story unfolds against the background of humanity’s emerging relationship with a sophisticated galactic civilisation, where advanced intelligence and mental powers offer the possibility of extraordinary progress, provided everyone can resist the temptation to use them for personal advantage.

Naturally, this being humanity, resisting temptation proves rather more difficult than the optimistic philosophers might have hoped.

May constructs an elaborate narrative involving genetics, psychic development, political ambition, family loyalties and the unsettling consequences of possessing abilities that conventional society is scarcely equipped to understand. The novel explores what happens when evolution produces individuals whose powers place them beyond ordinary human limitations, but whose personalities remain stubbornly vulnerable to familiar human weaknesses.

For all its grand cosmic speculation, much of the fascination lies in the contrast between the extraordinary and the mundane. People may be capable of communicating across enormous distances through sheer mental effort, but that doesn’t necessarily make them any better at dealing with their relatives.

Originally published in 1991, this 1993 Del Rey edition provides an absorbing entry into May’s intricate science-fiction universe, where the past, present and future are connected through an ambitious tapestry of characters, events and extraordinary possibilities.

Julian May’s fiction rewards readers who enjoy enormous ideas, complicated genealogies, carefully developed worlds and the suspicion that what initially appears to be a domestic disagreement might eventually have consequences for half the galaxy.

This copy is offered in Good condition by Crappy Old Books, making it an appealing addition to any collection of intelligent, character-driven science fiction.

A tale of psychic powers, human evolution and one spectacularly complicated family.

Proof, perhaps, that even when humanity develops the ability to read minds, understanding each other will remain a completely different matter.

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