Magnificat

Final installment in May's trilogy (Jack the bodiless, 1992; Diamond Mask, 1994) about the 21st-century Metapsychic Rebellion, pitting "operant" humanity against the peaceful mental-whiz alien races comprising the Galactic Milieu. Once again, the psychically gifted - and numerous - Remillard family take center stage. Wise old Rogi discovers that Fury, a powerful and evil psychic vampire, is actually Dennis Remillard - although Dennis is unaware that he unconsciously harbors the Fury persona. Meanwhile, Marc, humanity's greatest operant, is preparing psychic amplifying machines to help create Mental Man, a psychic association capable of ruling the Milieu. Jack the Bodiless and his wife Diamond Mask attempt to fuse Dennis's two personas and thus quell Fury, but the resulting mentality is dominated by Fury and has teleportation abilities as well. Marc prepares hundreds of psychically active embryos as mental boosters while he creates Mental Man, but he doesn't know that Fury has subverted them. Then Dennis, gaining the upper hand over Fury, kills the horrid embryos before ordering Rogi to mentally blast him. Marc backs up his mental attack on the Milieu with an armed space force but risks losing the support of his allies. Well plotted, with often intriguing complications and family interactions, though shamelessly padded out with irrelevant detail: still, a certain crowd-pleaser even at this bloated length. (Kirkus Reviews)