The Many-Colored Land (The Saga of Pliocene Exile Book 1)

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This was a buddy read with a few other people from the "Time-Travel" group after I had nominated it as a possible read for my partner in the Bossy Book Challenge. part of the "Apocalypse Whenever" Group. It’s not a terrible way to handle it. The fact that characters continue to live their lives even when we’re not watching them helps add a sense of authenticity to the story and, well, with this epic of a story I can’t say the ramping speed of the narrative didn’t match my own intensity. My favorite types of books, though, are those I read for the sheer enjoyment of reading (as opposed to getting to the conclusion). The Many Colored Land fit that description, but I’m not sure I can say the same about The Golden Torc. Which isn’t to say it’s bad by any stretch, it’s just different. Sagittarius Whorl: An Adventure of the Rampart Worlds (New York: Ballantine, 2001). ISBN 0-345-39518-2. It becomes clear to the reader that the Tanu and Firvulag did not escape our Earth of six million years ago, leaving the ramapithecines to evolve into humanity.

The second episode of The Saga of The Exiles takes us deeper into May’s bizarre, cruel and beautiful Pliocene civilisation. Bryan, who travelled to the past to find his lost lover, Mercy, discovers her to be the wife of Nodonn, pureblood Tanu, leader of The Host of Nontusvel (i.e. the innumerable Tanu children of the Queen and King Thagdal) and, via her golden torc, one of the most powerful Creators in the Elder Earth. The only thing that lets the book down, hence only 4 stars, is the narrator who, for me, fails to bring the characters to life. In particular, it is often hard to tell which character is speaking as the narrator's voice sounds very similar for each one, which is a huge shame as all of the characters in the book are expertly depicted by Julian May in such depth that you can feel yourself becoming drawn into their world. A Polish widower with silver gray hair, no other body hair, and a muscular build. Looks about 50 years old while actually being 133 years of age and is an exopaleontologist. Enjoys long mountain hikes. Met Sister Roccaro while she was caring for his dying wife and decided to look after her in her new mission in the exile world. Unfortunately, the US covers are beyond awful, but don’t be put off by that. Also unfortunately, the books are out of print, but can be easily found second hand.The Galactic Milieu Trilogy and the Saga of the Pliocine Exile are (for some reason) usually viewed as two separate series, even though they contain significant shared characters and are set in the same universe within one continuous timeline (albeit a sort of figure-8 line what with the time-travel). Personally, I’ve always viewed the whole shebang (including Intervention) as one eight book mega-works. It’s mostly about human-alien war, slavery, and metafunctions (farspeaking, coercive, psychokinesis, creative, and redact). If that is your thing, and you are willing to overlook a weak story, you’ll like The Many-Coloured Land. A weak-build man from Pakistan with fiery eyes and beard. He is a smith and under Peopeo Burke's command.

I’d also like to say that Sugoll makes an appearance in this book, and he alone is worth the price of admission. Also an interesting revelation: Mercy (the woman who drew the anthropologist Bryan into exile) has been genetically tested and though she came from the future, she is almost full-blooded Tanu. Which begs the question of how that was possible—presumably some hints will be given in later books. I really enjoyed the series first, The Many-Colored Land, and looked with anticipation to reading this one. The Golden Torc dropped many features that I liked and adopted many devices whose absence I had valued. The writing was not as pleasing and selective as it was in the first. The pacing, likewise, carried forward with momentum this time instead of with choice steps. The first one had a unique identity - not just with the mishmash of themes, but with its way of building up anticipation and delivering excitement. This was much more of a standard action-adventure. Of course, it remains aloft of the generic sword and sorcery since it employs science fiction tropes to supplement the sword and paranormal powers in lieu of the sorcery. Crazy times are in store for our protagonists. They will be tested by the historical earth in a way that is unexpected and much more dangerous than hunting overlarge fauna or in discovering poisonous flora, or in dealing with active volcanos and continents which still are moving into the positions we all know today. Another, alien, life form discovered the Pliocene Epoch of earth.... Amusingly, though, I find May’s depiction of Tanu men (and women) to be exceptional. Perhaps it’s because, as exotics, she doesn’t feel confined to trying to get them ‘right’ or finding a character arc for them. They get to just exist—and I think that puts their characterization as the best in the book.Richard is an ex-spacer who came to Pliocene after being sued by a space crew who he refused to help while on a mission for a client. Richard tries to act tough throughout the book and often refuses to help other people, especially the Lowlives, but always comes through for them in the end. Richard is most notable in the book for killing the first Tanu to die in the book, in the process discovering iron to be a potent weapon against them. As an all-around navigator, he helps the Lowlives find the Ship's Grave which may be the key to freeing Pliocene humanity from the Tanu. He also flies the aircraft at the end of the book being the only one with enough experience to work out how. The story breaks a lot of long-established SF and Fantasy conventions for the time, focusing almost exclusively on being fun, fun, fun. Julian May has a lot of respect for the genres and has a great time playing with ideas and sub-genres. This was a surprisingly good read, but I suppose I shouldn't have been that surprised. It won the Locus and was nominated for both the '82 Hugo and '81 Nebula, after all. Julian May grew up in Elmwood Park, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, the oldest of four children. Her parents were Matthew M. May (originally Majewski) and Julia Feilen May; as a child she was known as Judy May.