Much as I enjoyed the four books in the Saga of the Exiles, I can’t say I really loved them – there was something too intellectual and distant about them. This sequel, however, changed all that by adding a first person narrative to some of the chapters.

SotE dropped a lot of hints about huge events in the 21st and 22nd centuries, but was set around 6 million BC, with the characters having travelled back in time. Intervention is the first of four novels to go back… urm… to the future (sorry!) and explore the growth of humankind’s metaphysic abilities, and the joining of the Galatic Milieu of five alien races.

Centred around the Remillard family, this book tells of the first manifestations of ‘mind powers’ within that family and then the public discovery of such things in general. Some use it for evil, others try to study it, and through various unions the abilities begin to grow.

For a ‘bridging’ book, this was really great. It would have been easy to get bogged down in tracing out the family lines that would lead to Marc, and ‘Saint’ Jack the bodiless, among others, but each generation seemed equally vivid and important, each facing different challenges. The constant presence of Uncle Rogi as narrator probably helped – he’s a great character, in both senses!

I would recommend reading the Saga first, as the foreknowledge gives more weight to certain things. In a way, you rather know where this book is going, but finding out how it gets there completely held my attention.