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The third volume of the Rampart Worlds trilogy.

More daring-do, traps and escapes as Helly Frost battles the alien Haluk – hell bent on taking over the Human-controlled part of the galaxy – and human traitors, prepared to sell everyone else out in return for riches and power.

There were a couple of set-pieces where I felt Ms May had done a cut-and-paste from the earlier books, though I only picked them up as I read the books back-to-back. On the whole, a rip-roaring yarn with a suitably ‘folksy’ ending.

There are some nice touches concerning the alien Haluk which make them such an interesting character species – major things, like the three-stage life cycle as well as minor things, like their enhanced mechanical abilities balanced by their weakness in the life sciences.

There’s a brief article on Julian May on Wikipedia and a damning-with-faint-praise review of ‘Sagittarius Whorl’ here.