Previous IBIC Reviews, as well as links to many other Internet information resources related to books, are available via the Internet Book Information Center WWW serverspace (provided courtesy of SunSITE, a joint project of the University North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Sun Microsystems). The URL is http://sunsite.unc.edu/ibic/IBIC-homepage.html. Selected text resources are available by anonymous ftp to sunsite.unc.edu; directory is /pub/electronic-publications/ibic. The IBIC Gopher server is temporarily unavailable but a new one is under construction. E-mail comments encouraged to ibic@sunsite.unc.edu. %A May, Julian %T Diamond Mask %I Alfred A. Knopf %C New York %D March1994 %G ISBN n/a %P 455 pp. %O hardcover, U.S. $22.00 Julian May's works are a recurring topic of conversation for the estimated 84,000 people worldwide who read the Internet newsgroup rec.arts.sf.written. In fact, there is so much interest in her work that a separate Internet mailing list, MILIEU, was formed specifically to discuss her works. A subscriber to the list can expect to receive 3-4 e-mail messages a day from fellow enthusiasts. So it is fitting that this review of her latest book, DIAMOND MASK, should be the first one posted to the Internet Book Information Center's WWW server. IBIC's mission is to use the Internet to connect book-lovers with information about books. DIAMOND MASK is the second book in Julian May's "Galactic Milieu" trilogy which began with JACK THE BODILESS and will culminate with MAGNIFICAT. The "Galactic Milieu" trilogy is itself a sequel to two previous series, "The Saga of Pliocene Exile" and "Intervention." All three series share a common setting and many of the same characters. This book focuses on the early life of Dorothea Macdonald, who became Dirigent of Caledonia and wife of St. Jack the Bodiless. I mean it as a high compliment to say that the Milieu metatrilogy is a more sophisticated successor to E.E. "Doc" Smith's much-loved galaxy-spanning space opera, the Lensman series. Both series feature noble, repressed supertelepathic supermen (Smith's Kimball Kinnison and May's Marc Remillard) playing out a destiny of galactic unity heavily influenced by human genealogy. May fashions characters and stories that will bear frequent, almost obsessive rereading. I have read all of her previous novels several times, and love them all. (Like most people, I think "The Saga of Pliocene Exile" is a cut above the "Intervention" series.) But I was worried about DIAMOND MASK. I had been disappointed in JACK THE BODILESS and felt that there had been a perceptible drop-off in quality from the previous series. I thought a lackluster effort in this second book would doom the trilogy. I need not have worried. The same evening I finished reading DIAMOND MASK, I went back and began rereading JACK THE BODILESS. With the additional context, I liked JACK a lot better. That touchstone makes it clear to me that DIAMOND MASK is a highly successful second book in the "Galactic Milieu" trilogy. I am now confident that the projected final volume in the series, MAGNIFICAT, will provide a profoundly satisfactory resolution not just to the Galactic Milieu trilogy, but to the entire Milieu metatrilogy which is so well loved by so many. I await MAGNIFICAT with tremendous anticipation. --Frederick Zimmerman [P.S.--For those of you who have been waiting to find out the identity of the mysterious, evil telepathic entity called Fury, I will only say that you will find DIAMOND MASK well worth reading.]