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

Ms. May (b. 1931) started her writer career in the early `50s writing two sci-fi short stories. Immediately she changed to writing scientific articles, YA and children literature. In 1981 she made a dramatic return to sci-fi genre with this book, starting the Pliocene Exile Saga, earning the Locus Award. The author greatly profit from her scientific background. The descriptions of Pliocene fauna, flora and geography are minutely accurate. Whatever technical subject is used into the story is consistently and believably described: mining, sailing, astronomical orientation, weapon making or hunting. Does this make the novel boring? By no means! Julian is a wonderful writer and introduces all this stuff with a colorful prose giving substance and deepness to the story. As to start the tale with sure hand, Ms. May set up every character depicting its entourage, rising, motivations, draw-backs and virtues. Then, with all this neatly tied, she launches the whole bunch into a non-stop adventure in the Pliocene. You'll be really delighted by this mixture of strange landscape & fauna with alien dimorphic species: Tanu & Firvulag. You'll find people with extraordinary meta-functions active or latent, allying or fending with aliens & kin. The narration is very straightforward, interesting and never let you down. In this first volume of the quartet the author close the story very neatly but at the same time leaves enough loose threads as to keep you wanting for more. Fortunately there IS more to come! Reviewed by Max

Ms. May (b. 1931) started her writer career in the early `50s writing two sci-fi short stories. Immediately she changed to writing scientific articles, YA and children literature. In 1981 she made a dramatic return to sci-fi genre with this book, starting the Pliocene Exile Saga, earning the Locus Award. The author greatly profit from her scientific background. The descriptions of Pliocene fauna, flora and geography are minutely accurate. Whatever technical subject is used into the story is consistently and believably described: mining, sailing, astronomical orientation, weapon making or hunting. Does this make the novel boring? By no means! Julian is a wonderful writer and introduces all this stuff with a colorful prose giving substance and deepness to the story. As to start the tale with sure hand, Ms. May set up every character depicting its entourage, rising, motivations, draw-backs and virtues. Then, with all this neatly tied, she launches the whole bunch into a non-stop adventure in the Pliocene. You'll be really delighted by this mixture of strange landscape & fauna with alien dimorphic species: Tanu & Firvulag. You'll find people with extraordinary meta-functions active or latent, allying or fending with aliens & kin. The narration is very straightforward, interesting and never let you down. In this first volume of the quartet the author close the story very neatly but at the same time leaves enough loose threads as to keep you wanting for more. Fortunately there IS more to come! Reviewed by Max Yofre.

The Saga of Pliocene Exile, beginning here in The Many-Colored Land, is, IMO, the best sci-fi series ever written. May is a velvety smooth writer whose prose reads like a vivid oil painting done by a master.The Many Colored Land starts off a little slow-- she introduces at least eight major characters whose stories the reader will follow throughout the Exile. But while one is digesting what is ultimately a very complex beginning to a very complex tale, one can bathe luxuriously in the radiance of her vibrant, adjective-filled prose. This world starts to come alive, folks! Sight, sound, smell, touch, and soul!The basis is in the Galactic Milieu-- our galaxy of the future, where more and more humans are being born with fantastic psychic powers, and all are mind-linked in a harmonious galactic mind-- well, all of those with psychic powers. For those humans without psychic abilities, there are those that feel stifled by the growing order of progressive civilization. Those free-spirits, radicals, criminals that just don't fit in get a choice-- mental reprogramming/rehabilitation, or exile.Exile is via a one-way time machine that can send people back 6 million years to the Pliocene-- where ramapithicenes and the occasional wooly mammoth roam.The Many Colored Land introduces us to the eight members of Group Green, a motley collection of the rebellious, the bored, and the depressed. As the story progresses, May breathes life into these characters like some deity-- they live, breath, and feel. May left me gasping at times-- "That is exactly what that character would say in that situation!" I felt like I knew them like my best friends.Our heroes are quickly confronted with a Pliocene dominated not by sabretooths, but by an alien hegemony with psychic powers! They are imprisoned, enslaved, and slated for menial labor or sexual servitude or programmed breeding depending on their genetics.The action is only beginning in this book-- the other three only propel this series to greater and greater heights. I almost never re-read books. This series I've re-read twice, loving it more each time. I spent a lot of money going back and collecting the original hardcover editions. Totally worth it!

It's difficult to assign a genre to this four-part series, which is really the strength of Ms. May's writing. She has a firm grasp of so many fields (general science, language, history, geology, sports, cultural myths, etc.) that are very well incorporated into her stories. May blends relevant factual details into her fantasy/science fiction journey, making the leaps of logic required to "believe" so much easier. Her characters are complex but still identifiable. Her settings unusual and exotic. And her overall story refreshingly original, a real treat in the fiction world. True, the core characters are introduced over a few hundred pages, making a first time read difficult. However, the story really accelerates thereafter, and the reader appreciates the detail May provides throughout the remainder of the series.I am always surprised when science fiction writers fail to do their homework - luckily, Julian May is not one of them. I would have to rate this series as one of the finest I've read, and head and shoulders above the hoard of hacks churning out the same rehashed yarns over and over again.Although I hate to give five stars to any book - I usually reserve such praise for the Tolkein's and Clarke's of the world, this series honestly rates at that level.

The "Many Colored Land" was the novel that started me on a reading frenzy that has lasted to this day. I read it in my first year of university. It was chosen mainly out of boredom and a liking for the cover art. Wow! I couldn't buy and read the next two novels fast enough. There were "The Golden Torc" and "The Nonborn King" and they were better than the first. The last in the series, "The Adversary", was not written at that time and I spent an agonizing year waiting for it. In the mean time I started reading other authors to feed my new born habit. The plot is too complex to cover in the few paragraphs that I am willing to write here. In fact the story is expanded by several more novels that Julian May has since written. The Saga of the Pliocene Exiles mainly follows a group of people who are irrevocably exiled back in time to the Pliocene era. Not to worry, this is not a dinosaur story. This is the period between the extinction of the dinosaurs and the rise of homo sapiens, six million years ago. Some of the group has voluntarily chosen exile to escape their life in the twenty first century. A century which has seen the rise of extra sensory powers in humanity and the introduction of the planet to a galactic community as a result. Our time traveling companions travel through a one way time portal, trained and ready to start a new life in the distant past. They expect to find some sort of civilization when they arrive, presumably created by fifty years of prior time travelers. Fair warning though. To get to this point in the novel you will have to be patient as there are several chapters devoted to the short term history of each member of the group. This is necessary to tell us why they are going back but may seem to some readers as a little dull. All I can say is stick with it. I won't spoil it for those who I hope are going to read these books. However I will say that the group is very surprised at what they find when they arrive safely in the Pliocene. The remainder of May's series follows each character through a rich tapestry of diverging and reconverging sub plots. Our central group is eventually responsible for changing the world. Not only six million years ago but also in the 21st century.