Meet Jack the Bodiless - Freak of Nature, Child Prodigy and posthumous Saint (Jack the Bodiless - Julian May)

Member Name: Redhead23

Product:	Jack the Bodiless - Julian May
Date:	02/07/01 (197 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Thrilling, Funny, Revealing and simply DIFFERENT

Disadvantages: -

I thought long and hard about whether to sum up the whole of the 'Galactic Milieu Trilogy' in one opinion or to write a separate opinion on each of the three books.
As you might have noticed, I opted for separate opinions - apart from the fact that the three books just contain too much information and aspects to summarise them in a single opinion, I also felt that it might be seen as a spoiler, as the last two books require some background knowledge that you only find out by the by in this one, and it's better that way.

As you might know by now, I have previously read (and written opinions on) the four books of Julian May's 'Saga of the Exiles', followed by the magnificent 'Intervention'. Why I read them in this order can be found in my 'Intervention' Op, for now just believe me that you get the most out of them if you read them in that order.

Maybe one day I will post an analysis of the whole lot under 'The Galactic Milieu Trilogy in General', but that would contain spoilers, so for now you'll have to rack yer own brains ;-)


**** The Story so far ***

WARNING:

Unless you have a really bad memory or are not planning on actually reading these books soon, please only read the following paragraph if you have previously read - and digested (but maybe halfway forgotten) - the Exile books and 'Intervention'.

:WARNING OVER

The whole Remillard Saga begins with 'The Saga of the Exiles', which tells the story of a group of desperados who leave the year 2110 through a time gate in France to go to Pliocene Earth, 6 million years in the past - and run straight into a war between two alien races, the Tanu and the Firvulag, who themselves have come to Earth seeking Exile in order to continue their traditional war games and escape from the peace-loving confederation in Duat, their own galaxy.

Over time, the exotic genes will mix with
human DNA and the metapsychic abilities - which had been latent in the Tanu and only reached operancy thanks to the so-called 'torc' technology - start becoming operant some 6 million years in the future, in particular among Celts and Franco-Canadians, the two areas where the alien races had finally settled.

The world the human Exiles left behind is a peaceful one as well - six races are part of the Galactic Milieu, alien races united in peaceful 'Unity', a state of consciousness that promotes love and peace (they sound like hippies, don't they?) and makes hatred and selfishness impossible.

The story of how Earth became a part of this 'Galactic Milieu' has been told in 'Intervention', and in the same book we also got to meet Uncle Rogi - Rogatien Remillard, proprietor of the Sci-Fi bookstore 'The Eloquent Page' and author of the most revealing memoirs in the history of the Galactic Milieu.

But before we can return to Rogi's memoirs with 'Jack the Bodiless', let me remind you of the second group of Exiles, which we met somewhere in the third Exile book, 'The Nonborn King'.

They are the Metapsychic Rebels, led by the powerful metapsychic Grandmaster Marc Remillard, and they have entered the Pliocene 27 years before the main protagonists of the Exile books. Equipped with powerful weapons and a CE rig (a machine that freezes the body of the operator to near Absolute Zero and greatly enhances metapsychic powers), they settled in North America and followed their leader's unsuccessful search for intelligent (and metapsychically potent) life among the stars of the Pliocene sky.

But when his own children Hagen and Cloud start doubting their father's project, the other rebels lose confidence in their leader as well and Marc tries unsuccessfully to prevent them from opening a time gate back to the Milieu.

In spite of the 'immortality gene' which
gives Marc's body the ability to regenerate and rejuvenate itself, Marc never managed to restore his fertility after an unsuspected attack on his manhood (by his wife, of all people!), so his own children (and carriers of the superb Remillard genes) had been Marc's last hope for his 'Mental Man' project - creating a race of superhumans that only exist on a mental level - as a bare brain so to say - without a body to inhibit their god-like mental powers.

Sounds like a crazy idea? Well, then it's about time you meet Marc's little brother Ti-Jean, Jon Remillard, or as Milieu historians call him - Saint Jack the Bodiless!


**** The Build-Up ****

The prologue, like in 'Intervention', is still set in the year 2113 and Uncle Rogi has by now (after writing the first part of his memoirs) realised that his old 'friend' the 'Family Ghost' who claims to be a Lylmik and has guided Rogi ever since he was a young boy, is none other than his great-grand-nephew Marc Remillard. (Sorry, I couldn't help it - But if you've read Intervention then you'll know already anyway)

Rogi, who knew that Marc (with his immortality genes) had left the Milieu through the time gate thirty years ago, does not quite understand how or why Marc spent the past six million years meddling with history as he so obviously has done through manipulating Rogi himself - but at least the insight gives Rogi more of an incentive to continue his memoirs when Atoning Unifex, the Lylmik entity Marc has become, bugs him to continue writing while Rogi is trying to have a relaxing skiing trip on the colony planet of Denali.

Under the orders of Atoning Unifex, Rogi returns to his flat above the bookstore in Hanover, New Hampshire, and continues his memoirs with the story of one of the Milieu's greatest heroes, Saint Jack the Bodiless. But before the story of Ti-Jean, Marc Remillard's beloved and hated genius
baby brother, can begin, Rogi also has to describe how the Remillard family grows and prospers during the years following the Great Intervention.

'Jack the Bodiless', the second part of Rogi's memoirs, starts in the year 2040, 27 years after the Great Intervention where the first part left off.

Every Good Friday since Denis' brother Victor was zapped into a coma on the night of the great Intervention (Uncle Rogi, the Family Ghost and the Great Carbuncle had their fair share of participation in this event), Denis has called the family together to 'pray' for Victor's soul. Victor, the black sheep of the Remillard family, has spent the past 27 years in the most extreme form of solitary confinement - trapped inside his own skull.

But this year's get-together looks to be the last - while over the past years Victor's mind had apparently managed to keep his body alive through self-redactive powers, he is now showing signs of deterioration. It is Denis' last chance to help Victor's mind to repent his sins and make his peace.

Among the family members present at this year's 'prayer' are five pregnant women, the 2-year old Marc Remillard and Uncle Rogi, who only reluctantly agreed to turn up. While Denis and the seven children of the Remillard Dynasty - Philip, Maurice, Severin, Anne, Catherine, Adrien and Paul - and their spouses join in a metaconcert (a unification of their minds to create a stronger power), Marc waits outside and Rogi, having always been sceptical about opening his mind to others, pulls out of the concert.

While the others pray for Victor's damned soul, Rogi notices the presence of an entity called Fury - upon his request as to who or what Fury is, it simply replies "I am Fury. I am newborn - inevitably." When Rogi asks Fury what it wants, it replies "All of you" and goes on to try and take over Rogi's mind, only to be stopped b
y something (or someone) telling It that It should "Do as you must, but not with him."

When the spook is over, Victor has passed on, taking with him three people who were outside the room at the time. Rogi suppresses the memories of his scary encounter and dedicates the rest of the day to consoling baby Marc, who with his exceptional metapsychic abilities had perceived the horrific experience of Victor's death.


**** Who is this 'Bodiless' Guy then? ****

Fifteen and a half years later, Marc Remillard - who is fourteen by now - is 540 light years away from Earth on Okanagon, one of the multicultural colonial planets in the Galactic Milieu.

In spite of the vast distance, he can feel that he is being telepathically summoned by his mother, Teresa Kendall. He drops all his holiday plans and returns to Earth, where he puts his farsensing feelers out in his parents' house in Hanover, New Hampshire - the very house that, as le fantôme familier had so accurately predicted to Rogi, had now become the home of the Remillard Dynasty.

During his spying 'mission' Marc soon finds out that his mother is pregnant again - even though his parents' reproductive license had been withdrawn by the Milieu because of the lethal genes that had lead to so many stillbirths and forced abortions in the past. Teresa, a former singer who suffered great psychological stress throughout her failed pregnancies, is convinced that this baby, in spite of the predicted lethal genes in its body, is special. She claims the baby - a boy she has already named Jon - is 'the one' and she is convinced that he would be healthy, no matter what anyone said.

Aware that it is a crime of the highest order - punishable by death for both mother and child and severe penalties for anyone involved with it - Marc decides to help them, but he can't do it on his own. And who would be a better choice to be pulled into the
disaster than the good-natured Uncle Rogi?

So off they go, fleeing over various detours to 'Ape Lake', a reservoir where - you guessed it - the ominous Yeti are preserved, strictly off-limits the public tand thus perfect for people trying to hide away from society.

Rogi and Teresa spend the next months in the Canadian wilderness, while Marc spins up a tragic story claiming that Rogi and Teresa went missing on a canoeing trip.

While baby Jon (or Jack as Teresa calls him lovingly) grows inside Teresa's womb, Fury emerges again and offers Its minions - the Hydra, whose identities are as of yet unknown - the life of Catherine Remillard's husband Brett McAllister through extraction of life force through the seven chakras. The murder doesn't go unnoticed, and the members of the Remillard Dynasty - the only metapsychics capable of such a cruel execution - fall under the suspicion of the Galactic Milieu. As if the mysterious disappearance of Rogi and Teresa hadn't been trouble enough!

But the Lylmik, galactic overlords and founders of the Milieu, are having none of it - they insist that the investigations be swiped under the carpet and Paul Remillard, father to Marc, unfaithful husband to Teresa and most prominent member of the Remillard Dynasty, be appointed First Magnate to the Earth Concilium before the end of the Simbiari proctorship over Earth on 3 October 2054.

In January 2052 baby Jon/Jack - whose metafaculties and intelligence by now exceed anything previously known to mankind - is finally born and the two rebels and the newborn baby move to Teresa's place of origin in Kauai, Hawaii, and later return to their house in Hanover.

Marc dearly adores his genius baby brother and takes him wherever baby Jack wants to go - in particular to Dartmouth College, where Marc is now a freshman. Although the birth of the baby had not - as Teresa had hoped - stopped her husband's cheating ways, a
ll seems well for the Remillard Clan - until the Hydra starts rearing Its ugly heads again and one of the Hydra units (which turns out to be Marc's cousin Gordon) attempts to kill Marc.

The rest of the book tells of the desperate attempt to track down and stop the Hydra and of the attempts to stop the final manifestation of Jon's lethal genes, which had started to cause cancers that eat up all of Jon's body - bar his brain.

And so, at the tender age of three Jon Remillard aka Saint Jack the Bodiless, is finally born - a being merely comprising of a naked brain, with the creative ability to build bodies for Itself as and when It pleases.

His body might have perished, but his story is by far not over. As for Fury and Hydra - well, you'll just have to wait and see...


**** Conclusions ****

I obviously couldn't tell you the whole story of Rogatien Remillard's memoirs, but I hope my outline has at least showed you that, even after five books (The four Exile books and Intervention), there is still a hell of a lot of 'Oomph' in Julian May's epic.

'Jack the Bodiless' bridges the gap between 'Intervention' and 'Diamond Mask' beautifully, and even though Jon 'Ti-Jean' (as Rogi calls him) Remillard is only born near the end of the book, it is worth reading for Rogi and Teresa's Canadian adventure alone.

Many people were a little annoyed by the Fury/Hydra storyline and felt that the book (as well as the follow-ups 'Diamond Mask' and 'Magnificat') could have done without it, but even though the Fury/Hydra tale is not part of the overall storyline I find it is an interesting and valuable addition to the Galactic Milieu Trilogy.

All major events in the books contribute to the saga as a whole, but even though Fury/Hydra are not really part of this, their various appearances hold the story together and often seem to all
ow May to keep important characters in the limelight whom the reader might otherwise miss out on or forget about.

All in all, 'Jack the Bodiless' (along with 'Diamond Mask') is one of my favourite books in the whole saga, as it contributes a great deal to the 'overall scheme' while at the same time being a brilliantly written novel with uncounted amusing, thrilling and heart-wrenching moments.

As I said, the story is by far not over, and now that you have met child prodigy Saint Jack the Bodiless, you might probably want to know how the story goes on...

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