Customer Reviews

The Many-Colored Land (The Saga of Pliocene Exile, Vol. 1)

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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.

I know that there are 21 other reviews and I am not going to say anything unique but I have loved this series for so long, I just want to put it in writing.

Sometimes you are just loping along in your own life and something wonderful happens - you fall in love, get your dream job, fall pregnant (if you want to be!) and for a while the world is a shing place where everything is glowing and bright. Sooner or later the shine dims, but the memory, of how happy you were, how special it was, that stays.

So here you are, loping along, wondering what book to buy next, and here it is, a shining experience waiting for you... This is the start of a magical series (ignore the awful cover drawing show here! It doesn't reflect the books at all)

I reread these books on average once every two years, so all the characters are now old and familiar friends. They are complex, with foibles and mistakes, with heroism and madness, with granduer and evil. There are dreamers and victims, great imagination and a sense of an entire universe out there.

It isn't even strictly speaking science fantasy. It's set on earth, and everything is (sort of) feasible. It's an epic tale, one to sink your teeth into. It will fill your days and invade your dreams. Enough already - go out and buy it!!

:-)

Edited to add that I reread this again recently (in 2009) and while it is a little dated in some of it's approaches, it's still and an excellent series and well worth tracking down.

An incredible tale of adventure and excitement that draws you in , holds your attention for six million years, then spits you back into the real world, dazed and confused. Early in the 22nd Century, humanity has joined a benevolent federation of psychicly operant aliens (Star Trek eat your heart out.) But not everyone enjoys this brave new world. For the misfits and undesirables, an escape route exists - a one way trip to Pliocene Earth, six million years in the past. We follow the adventures of Group Green, this weeks "tour group" as they discover that the past isn't exactly what we imagined. Felice Landry - maladjusted sports star,unloved and unloving, she confuses pleasure and pain. Robert Voorhees - ex-pilot and space trader, banished to the past for putting profit before his humanity. Stein Olsen - deep miner, a Viking born centuries too late. Brian Grenfell - anthropoligist and expert in social interactions, chasing his lost love . Claude Majewski - retired paleontoligist and widower, come to see the past for himself. Amerie Chan - dedicated Sister (the nun sort), seeking a life of religous hermitage. Aiken Drum - mischevious non-born, child of a test tube, banished to a time when his practical jokes can hurt no-one. Elizabeth Orm - ex Grand Master Psychic, victim of a horrific accident that stole her life mate and her awesome mental powers, fleeing a world filled with reminders of what she lost .

These eight will change the past, and so create the future.

This book is the first volume in what I consider to be arguably one of the best series of all time. It's got it all: politics, violence, sex, intrigue, psychic powers, comedy, epic storylines, fascinating characters, anthropology, mythology, several other -ologies! Julian May takes standard elements of fantasy lit (long journeys, strange mystical creatures, a quest for some special artifact, etc.) and combines them effortlessly with standard science fiction stuff (aliens, galactic civilizations, etc.). I've never seen anyone do so with such pleasing results. I've read Many-Colored Land and its sequels many times over the years and they just get better with repetition.

In regards to this volume specifically, it starts out kind of slow, but picks up once the main characters translate through time from early 22nd Century Earth to the Pliocene Era, 6 million years in the past. Part of this stems from the fact that it was written as one book with the second volume, The Golden Torc, and was then split by the publisher. The two books should be read as if they were one and they'll flow much better.

Read this book! Then read the others! You will not regret it.

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.

I've been reading science fiction for a long time and confess to a weakness for space opera. Of all the universes I've visited, this one doesn't let go. I've read all 9 of the books that comprise May's Galactic Milieu universe--at least four times. There are two reasons folks love this universe, particularly the Exile quartet: the delightful mixture of classic sci-fi elements with fantasy, and the fact that the story is circular; that is, questions are answered, stories are completed, and it all is connected.

A group of eight malcontents flee a far-too-orderly, benevolently dictatorial galactic civilization through a gate into the Pliocene, 6 million years in the past. It's a one way trip and they don't know what they'll find when they get there.

What they find: the origins of some of our most deeply felt legends about little people, elves, trolls and others. And space ships. And laser lances. And amazing mind powers. And sex. And violence. Not much rock and roll, though.

No, this isn't Steinbeck, or even Silverberg. May is telling a rip-snorter here, not going all LeGuin on us. That's why I love the books. They're just loads of fun.

Granted that when you look at this cover, you kinda go,"huh, looks cheesy." That goes for the current cover shown here (I mean the person on the cover is supposed to be Felice, this hard core athlete girl.) What I get on this cover is a dorky looking gal wearing what looks like a wig.) And that's the current cover! What I actually saw when I first discovered this excellent book, (I can already tell the whole series will be a favorite of mine,) was the throw back cover from a 1981 edition of The Many Colored Land. Not to get into it too much, but let's just say there were hokey looking monkey's wearing jewlery,and a poorly drawn cheese-ball pirate and viking on it.

Anyways, don't use the cover as a basis for judgeing whether the book will be good or not. The actuall story is really very good and is a clever blend of sci fi, fantasy and is inspired by Celtic myth. The characters are all really original and so is the setting. May definatly has a well based scientific slant when she describes the Plieocne plants,animals and geographic layout.

Actually, I haven't read anything quite like this (and I have read Jane Aule's Clan of the Cave Bear Series and also Brin's Uplift saga.)The whole book makes for a really creative story and is a must read for people who like their books a little off the norm in either sci fi or fantasy. Also I was impressed with the breadth of the universe May creates for her characters. The characters in this series and their future time period will tie in with other books outside of the Exils series. I also liked how all the characters had a distinct culture. That included everyone from believable a Frenchwoman to alien races. In addition, the characters motives and attitudes were well thought out and distinct to each, making for "3-dimensional" people that stand out. Great Book!

Bought the book second-hand (1982 sc edition) from a charity fair. Left it there for about 2 months. Took the Many-Coloured Land accidentally while rushing to my reading room (toilet) instead of another I was reading halfway. Emerged from the toilet a changed man!

Initially, it reminded me of Philip Jose Farmer's fantastic Ringworld series. How wrong I was! Julian May had indeed created an Asimov-nian universe with the Galactic Milieu as the overall setting melted with such interesting characters. There are only 4 writers of this genre that I consider must-buy authors and Julian May is at the top of my list now!

Anyway, finished the book in two days and immediately rushed out to a local bookstore searching for the sequel (did not know that there were sequelS! ). Did not find any in the stores. But from Amazon (isn't Internet great!), I found out that there are so many sequels! I am so GLAD and HAPPY that I just only discovered Julian May's books, because now I have so much books to look forward to reading! Happinessmustbuy mustbuy wherecanIfind! Amazonyes...