Diamond Mask

Galactic Milieu Trilogy #2

by Julian May

The year is 2069. The location, the planet Caledonia - one of the Ethnic Worlds which has been largely settled by people of Scottish descent.



The Macdonalds are a fairly typical family of colonials who operate an air farm producing a valuable fungoid organism.



Their youngest daughter Doro is a metapsychic and at twelve is forced to leave the family home to enter the planet's Metapsychic Institute. There is brain surgery, painful training and a gradual realization that she is even more different than the 'normals' with whom she has spent her entire life. Not only is Doro a meta, but she is a profoundly superior meta, earmarked to become the eventual Dirigent - head of Caledonia's government. It's a grim prospect.



When the current Dirigent dies, Doro, now twenty, is placed in charge and is immediately thrust into a crisis of gigantic proportions. It is a catastrophe that could lead to utter devastation and Doro is faced with a difficult decision. Should they abandon the planet? Or should Doro follow the advice of the mysterious alien race the Lylmik, who seem to have a metapsychic solution involving the use of a dangerously primitive device.



Success in such a venture may mean a more important role for human metas within the leadership of the Milieu.



Failure will ultimately lead to the destruction of their world...

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Space Opera, Speculative Fiction, Ebooks

463 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Librarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
This profile may contain books from multiple authors of this name

Some 1960's and 1970's biographies and children's science books may belong to Julian May (the science fiction & fantasy writer) profile but no reliable source has been found

Per Encyclopedia.com, May wrote juvenile science non-fiction along with the science fiction novels for adults. (https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/edu...)

Reviews

[Wanda Pedersen · Rating 4 out of 5]

2025 Re-Read

Each time I read this series, I see entirely different things and I wonder how I missed them before. It's been 5 years since I last read this volume and it was almost like it was the first time, I had forgotten so much. This time through, I found myself much more impatient with May's psychobabble—all the jargon invented for her mentally talented main characters. I was painfully aware of how much of it there was. I was also a little wearied by all the geological detail in the final chapters.

The main story (at least to my mind) involves the maturation of both Jack and Dorothea, with the added bonus of their struggle against Fury and Hydra. There is an awful lot of political padding around it, though, something I was less inclined to tolerate this reading. I note my previous experience was in 2020, during the Covid lockdown—what else did I have to occupy my time? If I read this series again (which I suspect is a strong possibility), who knows how I will feel or what I will fixate on? May certainly writes a convoluted tale. And then drops a bomb in the last sentence.

I will attempt to keep up with my resolve to read Magnificat this month, to finish up this rereading cycle. It also seems to be largely purged from my memory banks, so I will go into it with a clean slate. As for this book, I would move my rating down to 3.5 stars for this run through.

Original Review

I wasn't impressed with the first book in this series, but I had purchased this one along with it. The public library is closed right now, so I'm working my way through these books that I've ignored for far too long. This one was a pleasant surprise and now I must search for the third book.

There was far less religion and philosophy in this installment plus far more exploration of metapsychological talents. There's an effective evil genius and his henchmen to deal with. But for me, the pièce de résistance was Dorothea as the main focus of the story. Someone that I found interesting and who had problems that I could identify with. Someone who is not a Remillard. Uncle Rogi is the only one of them that I find intriguing and thankfully he is one of the main narrators here.

May does political plotting extremely effectively. The Rebels are trying to block humanity's incorporation into the Galactic Milieu and I could see both sides of the argument. Apparently getting human agreement is like trying to herd cats. Not very effective. Its difficult to sell something where you can't try before you buy and there's no money back guarantee! Now what I want to know is why the Lylmik are so adamant that humanity must be corralled into the Milieu.

[Ria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another totally brilliant installment in Julian May's Galactic Milieu trilogy.
This one as usual is narrated mostly by old Uncle Rogi and tells the tale of a new player in the saga.
Dorothea Macdonald is a little girl who has amazing metapsychic superpowers but even from a young age knowing that she would be destined to play an integral part in the milieu she tries desperately to hide her powers from her family and officials who have an inkling of her metapyschic prowess and live a simple and quiet life but things take a drastic turn when her mother, aunt and uncle are murdered by the mythic Fury and his minions the Hydras.
As she gets older she knows she can no longer ignore her place in her society and actively develops her powers and tries to hunt the killers along the way insinuating herself in the path of the Remillard dynastic first metapsychic family of magnates.
But are they her enemies or her friends and who can she trust with enemies all around her?
Things come to a head when she has to rely on and trust some of the Remillards when her home planet Caledonia is facing a natural disaster that only she and Jack the Bodiless a mutated Remillard may have the power to subvert.
A thrilling book that is a wonderful novel in itself charting Dorothea's life but also an integral part of the Galactic milieu trilogy and is totally useless when read alone as this is such a sweeping epic even if to a certain extent the novels are defined and narrate the story of one of the main characters they are so inextricably linked to the other key players in the drama and events of past books that you just cannot get a full idea of the scope of the author's massive imagination. Overall though if you have read all in the series, an awesome book that leaves you desperate to get on to the last in the series.
Well worth reading.

[Kristeen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not paced quite as well as the other books in this series. On re-reading I skipped a lot of the political discussions. Don't assume that this is like Lucas showing trade route discussions. The politics are central to the story and full of interest and intrigue. I just wanted to hurry through and get back to Marc who is more present in the third book.

[Lois · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dated slow, didn't age well.
Cringey elements of fascism, sexism, ableism, elitism, genocidal attitudes and practices.

[Michael Battaglia · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are times when its clear that May is having a blast writing this series and there are moments when, having come up with a complicated future history, she looks at it with vaguely veiled exasperation and says, "Geez, now I have to write all this out?"

One of the ways she seems to be keeping the series fresh for herself is by introducing new characters (or fleshing out ones that were only briefly mentioned earlier) and playing those new characters off the established characters to see what happens. In fact, she's so good at defining her characters and the relationships between them that sometimes she almost forgets that there's supposed to be a plot going on in the background.

Here, we start to accelerate forward in time a little bit faster as she introduces us to Scottish lass Dorothea Macdonald, who figures out very early on that she has vast mental powers and also decides she wants as little to do with them as possible, causing her to basically hide them and pretend to be normal, difficult to do when you learn how to read minds and can hear what everyone thinks about you. She's fated to become the formidable Diamond Mask (which sounds like those ladies who are always trying to seduce and/or kill James Bond) and fall in love with the presumably hard to fall in love with Jack the Bodiless, who has now grown into a teenager, although given that he exists as a floating disembodied brain that keeps forming new bodies around himself, you can be forgiven if its hard to tell how old he is. But at least he doesn't have to worry about acne. And since she's destined to fall in love with him, she does the sensible thing and hates him the first time she even hears about him. What's a detached cerebrum that only wants emotional support to do?

Much of the book is the gradual development of Dorothea from a young lady of about five to what she eventually becomes, with the rest of the subplots sort of dancing around that central focus. Its interesting to read, mostly because of May's gifts with characterization, but its becoming clear around this point that May isn't so interested in narrative drive as much as simply depicting the human side of the events that make it to the highlights in her history. Its a ground level view of the extraordinary but its like exploring George Washington's life by using a calendar. Sometimes you just want to skip to the good stuff.

To that end the main concerns from the first book are still in play. Humanity is still trying to come to grips with the fact that the Galactic Milieu is about to enfold them into the collective with something called Unity, which chunks of people aren't exactly keen on and in fact some of them are so not-keen on it that they're secretly banding together to form a rebel group that seems to be leaning toward armed insurrection but isn't quite clear. To be honest, the rebel portions of the series have always been the weakest parts for me. I understand the need to move deliberately when you're attempting to separate yourself from a whole slew of alien races that are potentially more powerful than you are, but after two solid books they're still gathering in rooms debating who they should recruit and agreeing that they should do something soon about this. Out of all the subplots this one feels the most like May is marking time until we get to the foretold Metaphysical Rebellion that Marc is apparently supposed to lead, so she has to keep checking in on it to remind us that she hasn't forgotten about it but clearly nothing is going to happen until the third book. The concept of the rebellion itself is interesting in that May has a number of people who should be protagonists talking frankly about overthrowing the aliens, who have so far been nothing but nice, giving the plot a bit of a subtle xenophobic streak that the book intelligently doesn't call attention to, letting you decide for yourself whether these people are doing it for a good cause or simply out of a misplaced racism.

The other big plot is the mystery of who Fury is as he and what's left of Hydra continue to randomly murder their way across the landscape. With the collective of Hydra revealed and gone into hiding what's really left is wondering which of the Remillards is unwittingly harboring Fury (since it becomes clear fairly early that he's a manifestation of a split personality) . . . something that the book takes a stab at revealing at the very end although that by that point the number of possibilities are fairly limited unless you figure she's going to stick Fury in someone random. Fury occupies a bit of a strange place in the series, as a definite antagonist he's the boogeyman that everyone is afraid of even if his impact seems to be limited to a leeriness about his future plans and the tragedies he leaves in his wake. And while he's clear he has a plan its not totally clear what that plan is, unless you want to argue that he's acting like the Joker would without Batman, sowing chaos constantly without any end except pure destruction. With the mystery of who Hydra is settled it saps the concept of some of its power since it becomes a crazy smart person talking to other crazy people who are in its thrall. Their tendency to strike without warning even while basically hiding in plain sight gives the book an off kilter edge at times and while their eventual confrontation with Dorothea almost pushes the book toward a superhero comic, it is at least a dramatic high point.

Which is good, because for the most part May is clearly more concerned with the characters as people instead of historical figures and you can nearly sense her wishing that she hadn't set out the fates for the more prominent characters already so it would give her a chance to play with them more. Ol' Bodiless Jack himself remains the most fascinating character in the crew, clearly the most powerful and most idiosyncratic, he has a boundless curiosity that belies the tragedy of his life. He remains steadfastly good hearted and yet unpredictable, human but only barely so at times. The scenes with him make the book come a bit more alive, especially as the narrative skips forward in time (mostly to give Dorothea a chance to get older and catch up with everyone else) and you can see his development. He remains the most vibrant and the eventual scenes with Diamond Mask show you why he might frighten her and why she might also warm up to him later (two of the best scenes in the book are when they're just sitting talking to each other). When she focuses on the characters, even when their traits might become tiresome (despite Rogi being the narrator, he seems to be pushed more and more to the side, set enough in his ways between his functional alcoholism and unwillingness to let anyone into his head that there seems to be nowhere for him to go) the story shines in their interactions, giving the book a family feel, if everyone in your family was a hundred years old.

It's that ability to create characters with problematic flaws that acts as the book's engine even when its clear that the plot is something that will be dealt with when the book darn well feels like it (that does mean some characterizations get short shrift, notably Marc's Anakin Skywalker like transformation into what will eventually be the leader of the rebellion). Some of this is middle child syndrome, having given us the premise in the first book and unable to give us any dramatic climaxes until the last book she only has to steady the course and get everyone in position. That she does so by centering it around the eventual romance of a reluctant telepath and a boy without a body at least shows some lateral thinking. If she can't juggle all the pieces to give everything the time it deserves it does at least prove that some writing talent and enough imaginative balls in the air can keep you reading at least long enough to want to see how it all ends.

[tatterpunk · Rating 4 out of 5]

FOUR STARS: An old comfort re-read, but its flaws do grow a bit more obvious each time.

May knows how to tell a ripping tale, and that's exactly what she does here: complex family histories, worldbuilding, galactic politics, it's all the same fun stuff as the trilogy's incredibly promising first installment Jack the Bodiless.

However... it doesn't work with the same verve the second time around. And I say this as someone who STARTED the trilogy with this volume. May just doesn't care as much about her supposed heroine, Dorothea, as she does about the Remillards in general (and the male Remillards specifically). This renders the second installment fantastically uneven, where Dorothea is a mere child for most of the book who cares only about hiding her operant powers until dragged kicking and screaming into agency. Even when she achieves it, the book spends so much more time with the drama surrounding Paul's sex life, or Marc's lack thereof, or which Remillard siblings join the rebellion, etc and so on.

This is only exacerbated by May's problem in writing women. May is GOOD, which is why it's so easy to overlook, but I've read and re-read these books for years now, and patterns have emerged. Female characters unerringly function as support systems for their male loved ones; if they go against them they die (Theresa, Laura Tremblay, Violet) or if deprived of a man they then become adrift in their own lives (Catherine, Anne). The father-daughter dynamics in these books would give a psychoanalyst the willies, from Dorothea shaping her entire personality to suit her father's taste, and this after she "cures" his depression with her five-year-old operancy, to Anne retreating from the material world and subjecting herself to unending penance for Denis's sake. The romantic dynamics are even worse. Two women are paired with a guy who isn't her "superior" either mentally, professionally, etc. Masha, who succumbs to lust and rebellion for... whatever reason. And Maddy, who is Evil.

And like I said, May is GOOD, so good you might manage to overlook the pervasively unsettling patterns. Except they are wholly exposed when she tries to write a heroine in Dorothea, none of whose defining choices make any sense. She's the ultimate bleeding heart who at first won't eat animals, and then later won't even kill Hydra because of this empathy -- which comes out of NOWHERE, fyi, and doesn't even make sense within the context of the book, except there has to be some reason Maddy and Parnie survive their encounter with her to wreck havoc in later books. The philosophical underpinnings of why Dorothea invests so heavily in pacifism are never explored.

And it self-contradicts! Because she literally abhors Jack for his inhuman form, until she... doesn't? It was abrupt and confusing even when I was a less critical reader, but as an adult even childhood nostalgia can't quite hide what a hack job it is, again, only functioning to keep Dorothea and Jack separate until he confesses his undying devotion. And, idk, until her own experiences teach her it's not all about the physical form?? EXCEPT the book stresses how plain she from page one and how she KNOWS what people think of her because of that, so..?

(There's also something ugly in here I never noticed, which is that Dorothea is deemed "culpable" in her mother, aunt, and uncle's murder. HOW THE FUCK DOES THAT FLY, she was FIVE, and even if she was a paramount she was UNTAUGHT and latently BLOCKED. I wouldn't rage so despondently if this weren't also the volume which protests to the high hills that the "core personality" that houses Fury is "an innocent," and guess who that turns out to be! A man! Wow, what a coincidence that a grown-ass man is absolved of all responsibility while a very young girl is expected to shoulder adult burdens. AGAIN.)

So, yeah. May worked hard, but there's something that has to be admitted, and that is: Dorothea was basically created as a "reward" for Jack, and so her character isn't given a truly fair shake. What's arguably the most important section of her life, serving as Deputy to Caledonia's Dirigent, is four years glossed over in a few pages. Considering what this 400+ page book DOES spend time on... it's clear Dorothea is not its real concern.

And so it becomes a lot of pieces moving across the board in order to reach the final showdown of the third installment. If you care about those pieces it's still a fun time -- and I do! Which is what draws me into so many re-reads! But I do shake my head and mourn a bit for what might have been, had May cared enough about Dorothea MacDonald to really dig in, and give us a complex portrait instead of a glorified Cinderella story.

[Harald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Drie moeten wachten op dit tweede deel. Het was het zeker waard.

[Kathi · Rating 4 out of 5]

8/10–it’s a very good book. May continues her detailed world-building, fleshes out certain key characters while leaving others quite opaque and mysterious, and especially continues to expand our knowledge of the Lylmik.

I can’t quite decide how I feel about the whole Fury/Hydra storyline. In some ways, it feels superfluous. In other ways, it’s critical to how/why certain characters developed the way they did. I will reserve judgement until I finish the series.

[Nahir · Rating 4 out of 5]

The cliffhanger at the end! Arrrg
I need to know how it'll continue.

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The little girl who will become Saint Illusio Diamond Mask is so frightened of her mind powers that she keeps them hidden unreachably away. They might never have been released if it wasn’t for the murder of her mother by the predatory group mind named Hydra.

Dorothea is what they call a latent. She has one of the strongest sets of mind powers known among humans, but they are unusable, except for a mental shield so strong that doctors with the power of mind healing can’t get through it no matter how they hammer. They have caused little Dorothea a great deal of pain without making any progress whatever in bringing her powers to the surface. It is finally love, not the determination of her relatives, that makes it worthwhile for her to express her abilities.

We learn throughout DIAMOND MASK that Dorothea is not the only person reluctant to submit to the educational methods of the Galactic Milieu. There is a growing Rebel movement, made up of humans who fear Unity, the mental mingling that is predicted for their race when they reach the crucial population of ten billion. No one among the exotic races of the Milieu has been able to adequately explain Unity. Humans are sharply divided among those who long for a sense of union with all other Milieu members, and those who interpret it as a loss of individuality and privacy. The mental monster known as Fury is encouraging the Rebels, influencing key people, determined to rule a human empire free of domination by the exotic races of the Milieu.

Jack the Bodiless and his brother Marc Remillard are maturing. Marc cares for nothing but his CE technology, a means of mechanically enhancing mind power. His equipment is strongly disapproved of by the Milieu, but he controls earthquakes with it, so it has not been outlawed. Jack works with Marc, but his interests are broader. For instance, he has learned of the existence of a girl near his own age, equal to him in power. His attempts to talk to Dorothea across broad expanses of space get their relationship very much off on the wrong foot.

DIAMOND MASK is principally the story of Dorothea, but her early life brings to light the things that are most wrong with the Galactic Milieu’s handling of humans. It is easy for us to generalize from Dorothea’s example, to see why the Rebels feel as they do. Author Julian May does not intend for us to condemn either side – yet. She shows the tide of human thought very much as it might result from these circumstances. Where matters go awry is in those places where Fury is taking a hand, turning human leaders in new directions that may be fatal for mankind.

DIAMOND MASK has an element of the horror novel which is missing from the rest of the nine-book series. We are given a clear picture of Hydra, the killer entity controlled by Fury. There are also a couple of scenes underground, in what amounts to a charnel house, that are not for the gentle minded. Dorothea’s determination to put an end to her mother’s killers leads her into dangerous paths.

May gives us a celebratory ending in the best novel tradition. Then she adds a single dark line. It sends us racing for MAGNIFICAT, the final book of the series – to find out if it’s true and what the hell they can do about it.

Read 4 times

[Ben · Rating 3 out of 5]

The weakest book is a fabulous series, this is the penultimate book in an eight book series, and the second book of the trilogy which wraps up the loose ends of the story and fills in some background in an odd sort of prequel/sequel. Still, perhaps because of the amount of time which has passed since I last read it, I enjoyed it.

The Galactic Milieu Trilogy is itself not as powerful or as exciting as the Saga of Pliocene Exiles, though is very different. However, it does not pack the punch that makes Intervention such an excellent read. Diamond Mask shifts the action away from the Remillard family and the characters which we have become most familiar with and focused the story very strongly on the character of Dorothea MacDonald, also known as Illusio Diamond Mask. On the one hand it is nice to be introduced to some new characters, and to meet the famous saint who is mentioned by Elizabeth Orme in the Saga of Exiles. On the other, it is somewhat annoying to have so little attention on the characters from the previous books.

The background to the Matapsychic reballion is well and truly laid in this book, and the revelations regarding Hydra have come and gone. It is pleasing to note that the mystery of Fury's identity is not dragged out any further as well, which is just as well as that twist had just about run it's course. Very much a 'middle book', Diamond Mask is a useful read for those who want a full understanding of the series and properly sets us for the main action in Magnificat. However, the book suffers from being rather slow and the without much in the way of action and little real dramatic tension.

Still, it is an enjoyable read for those who have got this far with the series, and has some interesting nuggets of background information.

[AndrewP · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book suffers a bit from the 'middle book' problem that plaques a lot of trilogies. The first book does all of the setup and world building, the last book has all of the payoff but the middle book has neither and therefore does a lot of filling. That's not to say this was a bad book, far from it, but the pace was pretty slow for most of it's length. The title character did have a lot more to do with the story than Jack did in the previous book, but you only really find out how she got her name right at the very end.

A good middle book and I'm looking forward to finishing off this nine book series with the final volume 'Magnificat'. (I'm just wondering where that title comes from.)

[Penny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another re-read. I don't quite know what it is about these that I enjoy so much. I like the characters, but deplore the constant harping on about ethnic characteristics; I like the whole idea of metapsychology, but get bored with the pseudo-technical bits; I like the Lylmik and the looping round plot, but - no, I just like that. And I think the whole guilt/repentance/presence of evil thing is well observed.
Everyone needs a bit of comfort reading sometimes. This is mine.
Magnificat is waiting for me at home.

[John Devlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simply the best space opera, and the best series of novels I've ever read. This is the first of the nine, and while the last three show signs of fatigue, these novels capture a cast of characters, and one in Marc Remillard, that are truly memorable. From the worlds and milieu May imagines to her evocative themes, the novels capture humanity with all its foibles and promise, and if you stick around for #6, you'll get the best plot twist in all of bookdom.

[Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

More a story of a small girl growing up amidst the monster of Fury and its pet Hydra than of the Remillards. But the story carries on with the building of the rebel faction against the Galactic Milieu. It does also deal with the growing to maturity of Jon, and the amazing helmets of Marc that amplify the psychic powers.
So, look these are good stories but it's meaningless unless you've been in on the journey that started six million years in the past....

[Malcolm Cox · Rating 5 out of 5]

This mammoth family saga style book should by rights be a real slog to get through, but it maintains a high level of interest and intrigue throughout. The brilliantly realised characters are very endearing and even knowing where Marc ends up, he's a fascinating character to follow. Dorothea's introduction is also heart-warming and watching her grow up was a joy.
The final book's going to be devastating.
Why don't people talk about this series more?

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
Wow, what a cliffhanger! If you'll recall from my first notes on Jack the Bodiless, I got grounded from reading the last book in this series. I never knew what happened with Fury!! Twenty years later, I finally get to know lol.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy this book as much as the first. I was not really interested in Diamond Mask's life story. I think, via Intervention and Jack the Bodiless, I've become more locked into the Remilliards' story.

[Charlie Devlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the lesser of the series, a little to much focus on Diamond Mask, although she is still a fine character, she didn't have to much chemistry with Jack until Magnificat after this book. Still a good story nonetheless.

[Bradley Mcglothlin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dragged on. Would have made a better chapter to Jack the Bodiless.

I love the writing style. But it seemed as though the character was never fully formed. This book could have been titled Jack meets a girl.

[Helen Fink · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Galactic Milieu Trilogy is my ABSOLUTE favorite within Scifi. I read the books before #3 was ready, and had to wait impatiently for the end of the plot.

I have read the Trilogy at least 3 times - and often think about the characters.

[Stuart Lutzenhiser · Rating 3 out of 5]

We see the childhood of Dorothee MacDonald. Really wonderful story - I'm so glad that I chose to reread these after I had initially read them with a huge gap in time between books.

[Jorge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as great as the first book of 3 but once you’ve read the first part you’ll come and want to read the second and now on to the third!

[Helene_In_Awe · Rating 5 out of 5]

7. book in best series ever written

[Katy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great second book in the Galactic Milieu trilogy, & plots the path of Dorothea Macdonald, a young girl, very affected by the metapsychic gifts she is born with.

She loses her Mother, Aunt, and Uncle, at a young age - all victims of Hydra, and Fury, those metapsychic killers so closely associated with the Remillard family.

Because of this she, and her older brother, Kenneth, go to live with their father, an airplant farmer on the Scottish planet, Caledonia, whose mental latency helped contribute to his divorce from Dorothea's mother.

Dorothea loves her father and, even at the early age of five, knows that the only reason she and Kenneth were allowed to live with him, is because they, too, are tested as latent so, when Dorothea's gifts start slowly being released, it's only because she's so strong in them all, that she's able to hide them.

While growing up on the farm, she's contacted by the youngest son of the Remillard family, Jack, known as the Bodiless, who is as strong in his metapsychic elements as she is, so he wants to be friends with someone he feels will know how life is like for such strong meta powers.

Unfortunately, because she is trying to hide her powers, she assumes that Jack is trying to trick her into showing them, and so she blocks him, thinking him a part of the Hydra/Fury mix.

Eventually, Dorothea can't hide what she is, and so is collected from Caledonia, by her Talented grandmother, to go live on Earth, to be trained in her Talents.

While Dorothea grows, she learns to watch and listen to those around her, as those Rebels who are against joining up with the Galactic Milieu, with its mysterious Lylmik, and it's four client races.

The politics of the Human Race joining with the five races in Unity, is something that she learns isn't popular with not only the Latent humans, but also a growing group of those who are high in their mental talents.

Hydra/Fury, consider Dorothea, and Jack, to be their greatest enemies, and plot to kill them, only to be weakened when they attack Dorothea further and, with the secret help of Jack, Dorothea kills one of the Hydra, leaving them in hiding.

Dorothea slowly learns to trust Jack, and its only when Jack, and his brother, Marc, helps her to save her beloved planet, Caledonia - an action that nearly kills her in the process, and which earns her the name of Diamond Mask - that Dorothea realises that Jack loves her.

All throughout this book, I was in two minds over the Unity thing, as I felt a great sympathy for the Rebel cause, but also understood the politics involved in the five race's worry about humanity joining with them, not only as a race much stronger in the Talents than all but the Lylmik , but also the fact that we're an argumentative lot, and Unity is all about peace!

I did enjoy this more than the first book, as there was a bit too much talk of religion in that. This nook, on the other hand, gives a much better insight into Humanity's political problems, and how the five races look on them, because of it.

There was a great ending to it, too, which makes me anxious to start the third book in the trilogy: Magnificat!

[James]

The 21st century was drawing to a close, and metapsychic humankind was poised at last to achieve Unity -- to be admitted into the group mind of the already unified alien races of the Galactic Milieu. But a growing corps of rebels was plotting to keep the people of Earth forever separate in the name of human individuality. And the rebels had a secret supporter: Fury, the insane metapsychic creatrue that would stop at nothing to claim humanity for itself. Fury's greatest enemy was the mutant genius Jack the Bodiless, whose power it craved. But Jack would never be a tool for Fury . . . And so it turned to Dorothea Macdonald, a young woman who had spent a lifetime hiding her towering mindpowers from the best mind readers of the Milieu. But she could not hide them from Fury -- or from Jack. Time and again she rejected their advances, unwilling to be drawn into the maelstrom of galactic politics or megalomaniacal dreams. And in the end, no one -- not Jack, not Fury, not even the Galactic Milieu -- would be a match for the awesome powers of the girl who would come to be called Diamond Mask . . .From the Paperback edition.

[David Meiklejohn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dorothea is a Scots lass, whose mum is killed by the dreaded Hydra monster, after which she's taken to the "Scottish" planet where her dad runs a farm harvesting floating balloon creatures. She has amazing mind powers locked up in her head and doesn't want them to be revealed, but we know she's due to be one of the most powerful minds in the galaxy. The story jumps between Dee growing up, Uncle Rogi's continued memoires, and the continued progress of Jack, who is coping with teenage years and just being a naked brain.
Great story telling and it's all set up for the final book.

[Benj · Rating 3 out of 5]

The curse of the trilogy. Between them, the author and the publisher decided that there had to be three volumes in The Galactic Milieu, but unfortunately didn't have enough content to fill them. The result is a series of very long descriptions of events which, whilst they are mildly interesting in themselves, do nothing to move the plot along.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Diamond Mask is the middle book of the trilogy, but avoids most (not all) of the usual issues typical of them. We get everyone moved into position for the final showdown and the rebellion, but we also get the wonderful origin story of Diamond Mask herself.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

one more interesting character developed - but otherwise a lot of the failings from book 1 repeated for me
and how many times does Uncle Rogi have to destroy any sense of tension by an off hand comment about what will happen