Magnificat

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant End to a Major Sci Fi Series
Review: A brilliant end to the series. She ends of the triliogy in a fashion that links up various series in a almost seamless way. Few authors can write a series over such a long period and make little mistakes in the time line. Truly an outstanding.

Rating:
Summary: A long awaited ending to a dynamic series,but anticlimatic.
Review: A must read for anyone who has read the other novels in the series. I thought the ending didn't really fit the profile that May had weaved for Marc Remmilard,but then again after millions of years I suppose a being can change! The religious/spiritual connotations get a bit on the heavy side but it doesn't hurt to remind us now and then that everyone is entitled to seek there own destiny and that we all must pay the price for our actions.Like other fans of the Pliocene adventures I wish there was more about the many facinating characters that May created ie.(Katlinel,Suggol,Kuhal,Aiken Drum),Then again a good author always leaves you wanting more.

Rating:
Summary: Solid beginning, but kludgy finish.
Review: After a 10 year wait to reach the end of the the Pliocene/Milieu cycle, I can only rate this book as ultimately disappointing.

Magnificat continues the tradition of intricate, facinating characterization and psycho-sexual drama against the backdrop of a richly-detailed socio-historical setting. However, I expected better from the author who kept me entralled for days on end the first time I was handed her Pliocene novels.

Although, May maintains her solid and entrancing style until the final chapters, her use of the deus ex machina to achieve continuity was weak and seemingly rushed.

The whole issue of the Rebellion, so intricately laid out and escalated over the course of Jack the Bodiless and Diamond Mask, seems almost sketchy in Magnificat compared to what we have come to expect from May. The apotheosis of Jack and Diamond was lacking in appropriate drama.

Finally, the identity of Fury was probably the biggest disappointment for me, and failed to realize one of the more intriguing plot threads laid down in the Pliocene Tetralogy (I won't say anymore to avoid spoiling for anyone who hasn't read it or already guessed).

Overall, for the loyalists like myself, still a must for all its faults, and if only for completion (and hold out for the paperback). But, for the casual reader, a pass.

Rating:
Summary: not a worthy finale
Review: Allow me to give out one or two helpful hints to anyone who is reading Julian May's books for the first time. First off, do NOT begin with Magnificat. For that matter, don't even start with the Galactic Milieu series. May's nine book collection is a story cycle; meaning, the last book leads immediately to the first, and so on. For those who read Magnificat and felt "let down" and "confused", or that the book was too predictable, remember this: Rogatien Remillard first began the familly history in The Surveillance, and much of Marc's (and the Family's) history was disclosed in The Adversary. I knew what would ultimately take place in the final confrontation, who would die, and who would be spared. With intuition, I knew who Fury and The Family Ghost were from reading the previous books. I knew how the story began and ended- and yet, I read on. I put myself (figuratively) in Uncle Rogi's shoes- he lived though it once, and had to relive it, reluctantly, through the memoirs. I was saddened that this ten year long journey I'd taken with May was finally at an end. And then I remembered: It's not over! The story continues! It may be a little while, but I'll soon be dusting off The Many Colored Land, and starting all over again...

Rating:
Summary: The Grand Finale...or is it just the beginning?
Review: Allow me to give out one or two helpful hints to anyone who is reading Julian May's books for the first time. First off, do NOT begin with Magnificat. For that matter, don't even start with the Galactic Milieu series. May's nine book collection is a story cycle; meaning, the last book leads immediately to the first, and so on. For those who read Magnificat and felt "let down" and "confused", or that the book was too predictable, remember this: Rogatien Remillard first began the familly history in The Surveillance, and much of Marc's (and the Family's) history was disclosed in The Adversary. I knew what would ultimately take place in the final confrontation, who would die, and who would be spared. With intuition, I knew who Fury and The Family Ghost were from reading the previous books. I knew how the story began and ended- and yet, I read on. I put myself (figuratively) in Uncle Rogi's shoes- he lived though it once, and had to relive it, reluctantly, through the memoirs. I was saddened that this ten year long journey I'd taken with May was finally at an end. And then I remembered: It's not over! The story continues! It may be a little while, but I'll soon be dusting off The Many Colored Land, and starting all over again...

Rating:
Summary: This book did absolutely nothing for me
Review: I enjoyed the previous two books ("Jack the Bodiless" and "The Diamond Mask"), they were above average science fiction books.

With "Magnificat" however, I kept rolling my eyes at the blatant attempts by the author to use the novel as a platform for her religious and moral views. She just ended up making the characters look stupid. These people are ultra-intelligent, demi-god like characters, yet they ended up acting like a bunch of dumb, little kids, no intrigue, no slick plots, just "the biggest brain wins" period.

Rating:
Summary: Rewrite the last 30 pages
Review: I had a similar problem with the Pleiocene Saga in that May weaves a rich tapestry of characters and compelling situations, only to cut you off after the climax. This book would profit from a lengthy denoument, something for the reader to savor after making it through the first 8 books. Events at the end do happen too quickly and while the final conflict and resolution is cogent, as always, a deeper satsifaction is lacking. Still, May's universe is extremely well-structured and just a staggeringly brilliant vision of the future. The scope and bredth of her entire body of work is inspiring. Magnificat begins in the same meticulous and careful manner we've come to expect from May. Right about the time that Marc first meets Cyndia, it seems events get a little clumsy and rushed. Still a highly recommended series, and if you've read the first two, you can't stop there.

Rating:
Summary: excellent
Review: I read this book four years ago - I was hoping the next book would be out (was under the impression that there would be one more called 'Fury') - I loved the trilogy but couldn't really get into the Pliocene Exile saga.. pretty strange as everyone else seem to think the saga is much better - I'll definitely give it another go!

Rating:
Summary: took too long for all the books to come out
Review: I think that the galactic milieu saga was a bit long winded it seems to me that the author made a commitment to write these 3 books in her first saga,but maybe lost heart along the way,and the end result was not what i had hoped for. It also took alongggggg time for the whole story to finish up, if you think that golden torc was written in 1982 any way its a good read ,bit slow paced,and if you waited for a few years(like i did) for each book,well its o.k just!!!!!

Rating:
Summary: What about Marc?
Review: I was deeply suprised to read reviews of this whole series on Amazon and find so little mention of Marc. For me Magnificat was solely his tale, and the whole nine books were basically his story as well. He was after all the shaper of all that passed through the two series, for the Saga was post-Revolution and the Milieu books post-Duat. I've never been affected as deeply by a character as I have been by Marc. For this reason, I suppose, I found Magnificat the most engrossing of the books excepting Intervention. Intervention was my favourite but Magnificat was the premium. I think May, unlike some of the other reviewers, depicted the revolution just how I had expected. And realistically too. The way Marc used the deeply held convictions of those humans who (oh so human-ly) refused to sacrifice what they believed were their individual rights for his own self-centered reasons was very realistic. The echoes of horror that were seen in the Saga, the memories of the revolution, did not seem unwarranted to me. Two planets were obliterated. The flower of the metapsychic families in May's genealogies were destroyed. And Marc became the true angel of the abyss. I find it difficult to understand how readers of this series brush off the central character so easily. Perhaps re-reading of the other books would contribute to their awareness of the subtlety with which May presented the choices and regrets (or lack thereof) which her characters made, particularly during the Rebellion. Little things like the 'scent of pine' that was Jack's last thought had me in tears where pages and pages on the relationship of Jack and Marc at that point would have been crass. The reference to this in the brilliant opening sequence of Intervention where Rogi is in the pine glade brought this home so strongly for me. I think the comment by another author about these super brains being basically children was very relevant.It rings true in the light of the eternal issue in this series about the true nature of humans. Is it in our immense brains and mental capacity or in our physical/emotional experience of life? Thi sis not an issue resolved in the novels but definitely something to think on. Marc is a hater of the body (cf Nietzsche "Zarathustra' - On the Haters of the Body) and Jack is trapped within his mind. The Lylmik, the embodiment (excuse the pun) of Mental Man, are urged towards the experience of the flesh in Magnificat, yet the humans are simultaneously being shuffled along the path of Jack's radical evolution towards discoporality. Which is right? Is Marc's denial of his flesh the inhuman flaw from which he never redeems himself? Can the freedom of discoporality be anything less than a disaster until we gain the psychological maturity to deal with the chains of the body? Cycles within cycles within cycles, just as the books themselves are.