Orion Arm: The Rampart Worlds: Book 2: Bk. 2 (Rampart Worlds S.) - Softcover

May, Julian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0002247143 ISBN 13: 9780002247146

Publisher: Voyager, 2000

Synopsis

Second in the major new science fiction series from bestselling author Julian May.

Two hundred years into the future, the great corporations of Earth dominate all life in our Galaxy. But their endless pursuit of wealth and power is about to open the door to a malevolent alien race, intent on engulfing the commonwealth of Human Worlds.

In Perseus Spur, the disgraced Helly Frost was forced to return by his father as a last attempt to save the family’s business from hostile takeover by a rapacious rival. Not only was Galapharma AC a threat to Rampart Starcorp, but also to the entire human race, for it was selling advanced technology to the alien Haluk, who desperately need new worlds to ease their teeming population. Helly faced murder, mayhem and gun-battles in space to foil Galapharma’s first attack against Rampart.

In Orion Arm, Helly and his oddly assorted companions attempt to capture a crucial witness to the Galapharma conspiracy, who has taken refuge on a hostile planet. Its insanely ambitious boss, Alistair Drummond, will stop at nothing in his quest for power, and Helly is marked for death as the two corporations continue to do battle.

Meanwhile, the Haluk follow their own appalling agenda, using human science to mutate their bodies, allowing them to infiltrate human society. Helly must find a way to alert the Human Commonwealth to the Haluk peril, while also saving his family from Drummond’s increasingly desperate efforts to annhilate the Rampart Worlds.

With this exciting mix of high-speed thrills, humour and intrigue, Julian May has combined an entertaining and compelling human conflict with classic SF adventure on a grand scale.

About this title

Product Description:

363 pages. Book appears to have hardly been read and is in As new condition throughout. Two hundred years into the future the great corporations of earth dominate all life in our galaxy.

Review:

Julian May's "Rampart Worlds" space-opera romps began with Perseus Spur; Orion Arms is volume two. Asahel "Helly" Frost, disgraced scion of the mighty Rampart interstellar family company, again finds himself working for them as a wise-cracking, space-faring James Bond against the evil Galapharma corporation which is selling priceless human know-how and DNA to the alien Haluk--cunning devils who've developed a "demiclone" process for turning 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 that even very bad men puke at the attractions offered; Frost betrayed and not killed outright but left in a death trap 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 deep-penetration Galapharma traitors planted within Rampart and indeed Frost's own family; murderous last-minute reversals at the crucial board meeting, followed by a final shoot- out and the offing of the arch-villain in a way that might just allow his return for book three. Orion Arm offers colourful, tongue- in-cheek violence and drama that pulls you along but refuses to be taken seriously. --David Langford

About this edition

• Publisher: Voyager
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0002247143
• ISBN 13: 9780002247146
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 368