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

4.05 of 5 stars 4.05 · rating details · 4,383 ratings · 164 reviews

When a one-way time tunnel to Earth's distant past, specifically six million B.C., was discovered by folks on the Galactic Milieu, every misfit for light-years around hurried to pass through it. Each sought his own brand of happiness. But none could have guessed what awaited them. Not even in a million years....
THE SAGA OF PLIOCENE EXILE
Volume I: THE MANY-COLORED LAND
Volum...more

Paperback, 433 pages

Published June 12th 1983 by Del Rey (first published 1981)

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May 04, 2013 Clouds - (¿head-in-the?) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction-series, locus-sci-fi, science-fiction, reviewed, 5-star

Christmas 2010: I realised that I had got stuck in a rut. I was re-reading old favourites again and again, waiting for a few trusted authors to release new works. Something had to be done.

On the spur of the moment I set myself a challenge, to read every book to have won the Locus Sci-Fi award. That’s 35 books, 6 of which I’d previously read, leaving 29 titles by 14 authors who were new to me.

While working through this reading list I got married, went on my honeymoon, switched career and became...more

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Dec 24, 2010 Kat Hooper rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

The Many-Colored Land, a classic (1981) science fantasy novel by Julian May, wasn’t too high on my TBR list until I noticed that Blackstone Audio released it last month. I like science fantasy, so I gave it shot, and I sure am glad I did. I loved every moment of The Many-Colored Land and my only disappointment is that the rest of The Saga of Pliocene Exile is not available on audio.

The story begins on Earth and the rest of the Galactic Milieu in our 22nd c...more ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

The Many-Colored Land, a classic (1981) science fantasy novel by Julian May, wasn’t too high on my TBR list until I noticed that Blackstone Audio released it last month. I like science fantasy, so I gave it shot, and I sure am glad I did. I loved every moment of The Many-Colored Land and my only disappointment is that the rest of The Saga of Pliocene Exile is not available on audio.

The story begins on Earth and the rest of the Galactic Milieu in our 22nd century. Professor Guderian has opened a time tunnel that goes back 6 million years to Earth’s Pliocene period. He can send objects or animals through the gate, but when he attempts to bring them back, they age 6 million years and decay during the journey. When Guderian dies, his wife discovers that she can pay her debts by selling passage through the tunnel to nice people who are unhappy with their lives and want to escape. It seems that there’s no law against sending people back in time, and there are lots of people who are willing to give Madame Guderian their money for a chance at a new and adventurous life.

As the history of the portal is explained to us, we meet eight men and women who we’ll follow through the tunnel: Bryan, a middle-aged anthropologist who’s in love with a woman who’s already gone through; Stein, who fantasizes about being a Viking; Richard, the black sheep of a rich family of spaceship captains who’d rather be a pirate; Aiken who, despite careful genetic engineering, became an incorrigible — yet charming and creative — sociopath who chooses “exile” over brain surgery or euthanasia; Claude, an elderly but “rejuvenated” paleontologist who just lost his wife; Sister Amerie, a medic and counselor who helped Claude during his wife’s long convalescence, and wants to become a religious hermit; Elizabeth, who was once a widely respected meta-psychic but lost her powers after a traumatic accident; Felice, a 17-year-old ring hockey player (gladiator) who has some coercive powers and a penchant for S & M; Each is a fascinating character but things get even more fun when they become “Group Green” as they get trained in survival skills and useful trades before they all go through the gate together.

Each of these characters is quickly and deeply developed, and I was fascinated by them and the anticipation of what they would find and who they’d become 6 million years in the past. All of the set-up and backstory, which is often the dullest part of a novel, moved quickly and was exciting as the tension built. What will it be like when they get to the other side? What’s happened to all the people (90,000 by this time) who’ve gone on before? Have they worked together to develop a new civilization? Or have they been eaten by beasts that may be waiting for them on the other side as if the portal is a big invisible Skinnerian food hopper? I couldn’t wait to find out, and when I did…. I was shocked. That’s all I’ll say: Shocked.

Besides the excellent characterization and the excitement of a story like this, the writing was excellent, too. The dialogue, in particular, felt so right for each of these diverse characters, and it was often humorous (“'Fuck You!' said the nun.”) My audio version was read by Bernadette Dunn who I liked in Memoirs of a Geisha but didn’t like in Bujold’s Beguilement. Here she was perfect — her voices worked well with all of Julian May’s characters and the subtle humor.

I only have one complaint about Blackstone audio’s version of The Many-Colored Land, and that’s that I’m dying to read the rest of this story and it’s not available yet on audio (and I’m not sure if it will be). This is not a self-contained story and readers will definitely want to have the next volume, The Golden Torc in hand. I've ordered the print version.(less)

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Sep 26, 2008 Jon rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: science-fiction, my-favorites, fiction, read-in-my-20s, award-winners, hugo-nominee

I read this back in the mid 80's, soon after I had finished all of J.R.R. Tolkien's novels and Stephen R. Donaldson's Covenant series. It so intrigued me that I read the entire four book series in a week or two. I eventually read the rest of Julian May's works, but with less enthusiasm.

The Pliocene Epic was intriguing because it was a time travel science fiction story with psi powers thrown on top. It sometimes felt like fantasy, with what seemed like magic, but you knew it was really scienc...more

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Nov 13, 2009 Reinhold rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, science-fiction

Grandioser Einstieg in eine großartige Tetralogie

Das vielfarbene Land ist der erste von vier eng verbundenen Bänden aus dem sogenannten Pliozän-Zyklus von Julian May. Die Romane heißen: 1. Das vielfarbene Land; 2. Der goldene Ring; 3. Kein König von Geburt; 4. Der Widersacher.

Bei dem Zyklus handelt es sich um eine Zeitreisegeschichte ganz besonderen Ausmaßes. Den Ausgang nimmt die Saga im 22. Jahrhundert wo es einem Wissenschafter gelingt ein Zeitfenster ins Pliozän (Erdzeitalter vor rd. 7 Mio....more Grandioser Einstieg in eine großartige Tetralogie

Das vielfarbene Land ist der erste von vier eng verbundenen Bänden aus dem sogenannten Pliozän-Zyklus von Julian May. Die Romane heißen: 1. Das vielfarbene Land; 2. Der goldene Ring; 3. Kein König von Geburt; 4. Der Widersacher.

Bei dem Zyklus handelt es sich um eine Zeitreisegeschichte ganz besonderen Ausmaßes. Den Ausgang nimmt die Saga im 22. Jahrhundert wo es einem Wissenschafter gelingt ein Zeitfenster ins Pliozän (Erdzeitalter vor rd. 7 Mio. Jahren) zu öffnen. Nachteil an diesem Fenster ist jedoch, dass es an keinem anderen Ort reproduzierbar ist und vor allem, dass es nur in eine Richtung durchlässig ist. Der Transport von wirklich großen Geräten ist ebenfalls unmöglich. Viele Jahre nach dem Tod des Wissenschafters beginnt ein wahrer Exodus in das sogenannte Exil. Alle möglichen Menschen die mit dem Leben nicht mehr zurechtkommen nutzen die Maschine um in eine andere Welt zu gelangen. Was sie alle nicht ahnen ist, dass auf der anderen Seite des Fensters Aliens die Erde bevölkern. Diese Aliens haben eine Möglichkeit gefunden die Reisenden mittels sogenannter Metafunktionen (PSI-Kräfte) und spezieller Technologie als Diener um nicht zu sagen Sklaven einzuspannen. Einigen der Reisenden gelingt jedoch die Flucht und sie verbünden sich um die Herrschaft den Aliens zu entreißen. Zu allem Überfluss gibt es noch einen dritten Mitspieler: eine weiter Gruppe von Außerirdischen, die gemeinsam mit den Tanu ankam aber seit jeher mit diesen in Todfeindschaft lebt, letztlich aber den Menschen auch nicht sonderlich wohlgesonnen ist.

Der erste Teil ist sprachlich wunderbar gelungen. Die Autorin versteht es verschiedenste Stilelemente zu vereinigen und beweist ein großes sprachliches Repertoire. Zumindest im ersten Teil der Saga hält May die Sprache auf wirklich gutem Niveau ohne sich einen nennenswerten Lapsus zu erlauben.

Inhaltlich ist "Das vielfarbene Land" sehr ansprechend, wenngleich der Beginn sehr schwierig zu fassen ist. Hier werden sehr viele Handlungsstränge begonnen die scheinbar nichts miteinander zu tun haben. Sehr bald wird jedoch klar worauf die Erzählerin hinaus will und die Nebel lichten sich.

Ganz ausgezeichnet ist es May gelungen die soziokulturelle Entwicklung der Menschheit der Zukunft aber insbesondere der Tanugesellschaft zu beschreiben. Liebevoll erzählt sie von dem Kastensystem der Tanu in vielen Details. Dieser Detailreichtum, der niemals ermüdend wirkt, ist es auch, der dieses Werk so besonders macht. Ebenfalls hervorzuheben ist, die Tiefe der Hauptpersonen. Obwohl es viele Protagonisten gibt werden diese hervorragend beschrieben. Die Entwicklung der Charaktere kommt ebenfalls nicht zu kurz.

Zusammenfassend kann man also sagen: Erstklassige Idee, wunderbarer Erzählstil, viele Details, soziokulturelle Betrachtung und sich entwickelnde sehr tief gezeichnet Personen. All das fordert man von guter Science Fiction - all das liefert Julian May in diesem Werk ab. Zielerreichung nahe der 100% das kann nur eine Empfehlung bedeuten. (less)

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May 14, 2013 Ryan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fic-escapist, fic-fantasy, fic-speculative

I wouldn't call this 1981 novel the deepest book out there, but it's fun pleasure reading that mixes science fiction and fantasy in a creative way, and doesn’t feel too dated. The pitch is that people who are misfits in the safe, civilized world of the 22nd century have the option of going through a one-way time portal to six million years in the Earth's past (the scientist who invented the portal never discovered how to make it go to another time or place). In classic form, Julian May introduce...more I wouldn't call this 1981 novel the deepest book out there, but it's fun pleasure reading that mixes science fiction and fantasy in a creative way, and doesn’t feel too dated. The pitch is that people who are misfits in the safe, civilized world of the 22nd century have the option of going through a one-way time portal to six million years in the Earth's past (the scientist who invented the portal never discovered how to make it go to another time or place). In classic form, Julian May introduces a cast of ten or so main characters who come from different walks of life, but all have reasons for choosing "exile". There's a retired paleontologist, a nun/doctor seeking spiritual peace, a self-centered starship captain, an incorrigible sociopath, a teenage athlete with an unusual talent, a roughneck driller with fantasies of being a Viking warrior... and several more. After a few introductory chapters in which we get to know these individuals separately (a fine example of interesting but economical setup), they arrive at the portal in time to make the jump to together.

As it turns out, though, the Earth of the past is already occupied by out-of-towners, in this case two related groups of aliens that bear a strong resemblance to mythical beings from humanity's prehistory. Upon arrival, the travelers find themselves sorted into different categories, depending on their skills and latent "metaphysic" abilities (telepathy, telekinesis, hypnosis, etc.). The aliens have a society that everyone is free to join, provided, of course, that humans cooperate with the aliens' goals. For those less than perfectly willing, there are mind-control collars called “torcs” -- or being hunted by prehistoric animals if one tries to escape. Naturally, many of our protagonists select "none of the above".

I wouldn’t say that the characters are particularly original or deeply written, but May is imaginative, and her background as a science and biography writer is in evidence. The middle portion of the novel is a little slow and somewhat confusing, as she sets up the world of Pleistocene, giving us a lot of characters and cultural details to keep track of, but things pick up in the last third, which builds to an action-packed finale. This is one of those series where, if you’re going to bother at all, you might as well assume that you’re going to read the second book. It’s odd that Blackstone hasn’t done audio productions of any further entries so far.

Speaking of, I didn’t mind the voice of audiobook narrator Bernadette Dunne, but I found her reading a little sloppy. Characters start off with accents and lose them, or have ones that aren’t quite right for their background. At one point, she mispronounces the word “Polish” (as in nationality) as “polish” (as in floor). How did that get by?(less)

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Nov 06, 2012 Alan Denham rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: just-paper

The Many-Coloured Land

This is one of the possible starting points in an enormously complex epic covering four thick volumes set mostly in the Pliocene and four more set in something recognisably parallel to our present and near future.
Thick volumes! The paperbacks on my shelves are mostly around 500 pages, and all eight together take up just over a foot of shelf space!

The Many Coloured Land begins in our near future. Earth has been accepted into a galaxy including half a dozen alien races, all...more The Many-Coloured Land

This is one of the possible starting points in an enormously complex epic covering four thick volumes set mostly in the Pliocene and four more set in something recognisably parallel to our present and near future.
Thick volumes! The paperbacks on my shelves are mostly around 500 pages, and all eight together take up just over a foot of shelf space!

The Many Coloured Land begins in our near future. Earth has been accepted into a galaxy including half a dozen alien races, all highly civilised and active metapsychics - psi-enabled, in various ways. This (along with the general pressures of modern living) causes problems for some humans, some few of whom are able to escape through a one-way time gate to Earth some six million years in the past, where we meet more aliens, also psi-enabled, but socially distinctly primitive/barbarian. As some of our human time-travellers also acquire psi ability, life becomes highly adventurous, in ways that were not, at the original publication date, familiar from anyone else's work.

On the good side, this is inspired and different. I remember eagerly awaiting the publication of each new volume through the 1980s. And I have read the whole epic four or five times - given the total size, something I would only do for what I regard as really great work.

However, there is a down side. A work of such magnitude implies (requires!) enormous complexity. So we have a lot of characters to keep on top of, and because they are not always all present, there are many parallel threads. The various characters each have their own environment, their own backstory - and after a couple of hundred pages of one or two major characters, a change of thread can cause some confusion in the reader and the switch to another character or group can take a while to fit itself back into the overall flow of the story. When I first read this I was able to read in large chunks - two or three hours at a stretch - but I think that if I had been restricted to the odd half hour on the bus, I would have lost the thread and probably not finished it.

So to any new readers - be warned about the extent to which you will have to immerse yourself in this world: But with that caveat, if you are the sort of reader that enjoys long epics and heavy use of mind-powers in your fiction, then this is something you will enjoy, and I recommend it highly.

(less)

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Mar 09, 2012 Smcleish rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Originally published on my blog here in June 1998.

The Many Coloured Land is the first of Julian May's Exiles series set in the Pleistocene, and was one of my favourite speculative fiction books in my teenage years. I've been putting off re-reading it for two reasons: firstly, I was waiting until I had copies of my own of the four books in the series, and secondly, I was rather apprehensive that I wouldn't think it so good this time round.

The book still seems original even fifteen years on. The p...more Originally published on my blog here in June 1998.

The Many Coloured Land is the first of Julian May's Exiles series set in the Pleistocene, and was one of my favourite speculative fiction books in my teenage years. I've been putting off re-reading it for two reasons: firstly, I was waiting until I had copies of my own of the four books in the series, and secondly, I was rather apprehensive that I wouldn't think it so good this time round.

The book still seems original even fifteen years on. The plot reveloves around time travel. While the book is set at a time when time travel is not understood in general, one working application is sure. In the wilds of Provence, a portal has been successfully set up, allowing one way travel to the Pleistocene era six million years before the present day. (Attempting the return journey causes passed material to age six million years almost instantaneously.)

The portal becomes used by people who don't fit in in the human polity, the commonwealth of human-colonised worlds, to escape to some kind of different world. Since recording equipment is destroyed before it returns to the future, conditions in the past are unknown; prospective exiles need to be desperate enough to consider anything better than their current lives.

The book tells the story of one particular group of exiles - one which will become significant in the history of the time to which they travel. May gives the background to each member's reasons for taking the journey, and the ideas they have for what they might do in the past.

Once they arrive in the Pleistocene, they discover a situation completely different from any they could have imagined. The world is run by two alien races, the Tanu and the Firvulag, who are in conflict though tied together as a single dimorphic species. (Humans are yet to evolve; until the exiles began coming through the portal, the aliens had used the semi-intelligent ramapithecines as servants, controlled through the power of their minds amplified by metal torcs.)

The remainder of the book concerns the different adaptations made by the travellers to this condition.

Why is the book so good? It takes several of the most important themes of science fiction (time travel, alien invasion, psionic powers, first contact) and weaves them together in a new and surprising way. This is complemented by a well-thought-out set of characters, presented in easily readable prose.(less)

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Sep 17, 2011 Karen Brooks rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Once more I picked up an old favorite to see if it still resonated. This time, the inspiration was the trailer for Stephen Spielberg's new series, Terra Nova which, as I watched, reminded me of May's series and I wonder if there is a relationship there? The show hasn't screened in Australia yet and I am looking forward to it starting. In the meantime, however, I found my copy of TMCL. it was marvelous revisiting and once again being captivated by such a powerful novel and idea: that a mixed grou...more

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Jul 14, 2011 Kyra rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: scifi

I picked up this book after having it recommended to me by friends who are also scifi/fantasy fans. I struggled through the first third of the book bored out of my mind as she introduces too many characters, seemingly unrelated and goes into their background story which I don't care about and just confuses me,plus 1 set of aliens seemingly unconnected with the rest of the story and finally 1 set of preshistoric humans who also seem unrelated. My boyfriend noticed I was reading it and said he'd o...more

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Jun 23, 2011 Michael R. rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

Wow! What a concept! When a time wormhole is discovered to 6,000,000 BC, bored adventurers looking for excitement and having nothing on earth let to explore, take the one way trip into the unknown...

Sounds fun!

Except... unbeknowst to the wary time travelers... an exotic race already exists in 6M B.C., is well aware of the time tunnel, and posts guards to enslave everyone coming through!

What a shocker. This first book in the series sets up for much intrigue to come, as we follow eight of the tim...more

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Mar 27, 2011 Andreas rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The scope of this saga spanning eight novels is staggering. A gate is opened to the past, specifically the Pliocene era. But it is a one-way trip. Adventurous souls travel back, and find a world unlike any they could imagine. Epic conflict rages between ancient races, and the future destiny of man is decided. The initial four books make up The Saga of Pliocene Exile.

* The Many-Coloured Land
* The Golden Torc
* The Nonborn King
* The Adversary

These can be read as a standalone series, but who wou...more

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Sep 22, 2010 Colleen rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

It started very well, with interesting profiles and back-stories of all of the main characters. Then they went back in time and the main plot both started and took an immediate hard right turn. The characters split up, more characters jumped in, and everyone gained a second layer of motivation.

Unfortunately, by 2/3 through, it was more than obvious that nothing important was going to be resolved in this book. It was basically just a preface to some other story. Additionally, there had been so mu...more

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Mar 18, 2012 Reed rated it 4 of 5 stars

Sometimes nostalgia takes over and I am tempted to re-read something from my past. Knowing there are so many books I'll never get to, I don't typically read books again, but I like to allow myself one book a year or so to indulge the urge to go back.

Ever since the ill-fated TV show Terra Nova hit the air, I have been bitterly reminded of Julian May's enjoyable Pliocene Exile series. Aspects of Terra Nova, ie. people being exiled into the distant past, reminded me of May and her excellent books....more Sometimes nostalgia takes over and I am tempted to re-read something from my past. Knowing there are so many books I'll never get to, I don't typically read books again, but I like to allow myself one book a year or so to indulge the urge to go back.

Ever since the ill-fated TV show Terra Nova hit the air, I have been bitterly reminded of Julian May's enjoyable Pliocene Exile series. Aspects of Terra Nova, ie. people being exiled into the distant past, reminded me of May and her excellent books. Thoughts of reading it again tickled in the back of my brain for nearly a year, until I finally relented and dug up a copy of the first book in the series, The Many Colored Land.

May's series had everything I loved as a reader in my late teens--epic scope, SF grand adventure, a huge cast of characters, and writing that didn't "talk down" to its readers. Would it hold up upon a second read 25+ years later? In a word, yes.

While I didn't remember specific details, much of the book came back to me as I read it. I loved (and still do) May's concept of the future, a more utopian society that still has its share of misfits and malcontents'. I adore her concept of meta--abilities, and her involved history of how humanity developed operant mental powers and are invited into the Unity, and group of 5 other alien races with similar abilities. All of this is mere background for the tale that May unfolds, but it adds so much depth to her tale.

The Many Colored Land involves a group of the aforementioned misfits--people who don't fit into the more sterile future, or people who want to flee their lives that they abhor. Through an odd, seemingly useless scientific discovery, a scientist has discovered a way to open a one-way portal 6 million years into the past, during the Pliocene epoch. The world is post-dinosaur and romantics see it as the real Eden of Earth's past.

Our main point of view characters decide to leave their lives and take this one way journey into the past. This group includes criminals, people who feel they belong in an earlier age, the love lorn, and the psychologically damaged. May alternates her pov between these characters, and I grew to love many of them during the novel. Sometimes her characterizations are a bit easy, as are the romantic developments, but overall the characters are what make the series. Aiken Drum alone is a character who makes the series worth reading.

The novel is dividing into three parts: the intro of the characters and how they decide to enter "Exile" and travel to the Pliocene, their initial reactions and adventures upon arrival, and the more political and war-like reactions of some of the characters.

What sets their story into motion upon arrival are the Tanu, yet another operant alien race, themselves trapped on Earth during the Pliocene. As humans travel to the past, the find themselves enslaved or befriended by the Tanu. The rest of the novel, and the series, deals with the many characters on both sides of this conflict.

Was revisiting May's series worth it? Most definitely. While there are aspects that feel a bit dated from time to time, overall the series holds up quite well indeed. May's world building is top notch, her characters are fun, and her writing is quite deft. She does has some peculiarities, as there is a lot of scientific info-dumping from time to time. May wrote many non-fiction science articles in her career, and this knowledge is used in her writings. As a result, her depiction of the Pliocene feels genuine and authentic, if at times a bit forced.

I now face the pleasant yet upsetting task of reading the rest of the series. I know I have other books to read, but it's worth it. I don't know that I'd enjoy anything else as much right now. Recommended.(less)

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Dec 02, 2010 Marvin rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: autographed, science-fiction

This first book of a trilogy starts out as a rollicking adventure of time-travel and displaced worlds. When I read it back in 1982 I got the same sense of thrill I received when I first read Phillip Jose Farmer's To Your Scattered Bodies Go; that I was beginning a journey to somewhere I never been. Unfortunately it just didn't happen. May is no Farmer. While starting out beautifully, the novel gets bogged down with too many characters and too little development. It is like the author knows he ne...more

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Feb 06, 2013 Casey Hampton rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi

If I never encounter the word milieu again it'll be too damn soon. Seriously, someone please do a word count on how many times milieu comes up in this book. Here's the short of it, a great idea that was bungled. The author is far too heavy-handed and melodramatic for any of the characters to be more than predictable archetypal cutouts.

The first little bit is good but trust me, it's all downhill after that. What does it say when the best part of this book was when they got their Pleistocene equiv...more

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Jul 10, 2012 Jim rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: top-100-sf-books-list, science-fiction

#97 of my Audiobook top 100 SF book list that I was given by the kids over at TPB. Julian May

has been a source of stress for me since I first forgot to send the card in to decline an SFBC selection back in the 90s. The Galactic Milieu series has always seemed slow to this reader of High adventure space opera and Military SF. The narrator is excellent, and although I want to flip the ipod into 2x mode to move it along, it is just as well written and thought provoking as the other May books I h...more

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Oct 01, 2011 Alexander rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is one of the great science fiction series. And sadly, it appears to have been cannibalized by Terra Nova. In any case, I loved this novel and I think the other three after it are just as fantastic, in different ways. May is one of the few writers who can take you into the minds of so many different characters and keep the story going across several subplots and plots. I absolutely loved this from the first time I read it, and I re-read it about once a year. They hold up, these novels. May...more

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May 24, 2009 Joe rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

This series might better be read as mythic fantasy cloaked in the guise of science fiction, a disguise that allows May to slip characters with modern thoughts and feelings into a world derived from the greatest conflicts of ancient Irish mythology. Good stuff.

This series runs out to ten books, but the best four are set in the distant past. There are three "present" books and three future volumes, but none of them are as stunning as those set in the past. The quality of the novels in the is such...more

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Aug 12, 2012 Chak rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Chak by: Melinda

Shelves: fiction, sci-fi-and-fantasy, time-travel, favorites

Extremely enjoyable! The Many Colored Land had everything I like in a nice pulp science fiction book. I won't list all of those things, because they would be spoilers, but the ones I can list are a sense of urgency and importance among the protagonists, a tiny bit of moral ambiguity among the antagonists, solid justifications of important character behavior and motivation and a varied cast. In addition, there's a quasi-academic hook in the prehistoric anthropological and mythological hints scatt...more

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Jul 27, 2011 Ultan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: julian-may

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 28, 2013 Vincent rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

From the start to about 50%.. it's superb with good characters and fun spins. After that it disintegrates into another Tolkien battle plot. I really tried but had accept that the book wasn't really gripping after half the book. And I wanted so much for this to continue to be good. I mean... what the hell - Felice is the one I wanted to read about and Aiken but he sort of dropped out. Granted, I only read the first book. He and Felice might come back later.

I can't put a three, that's for mediocre...more

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Jun 29, 2012 Chani rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Rereading the Saga of the Pliocene Exile in honour of how much I enjoyed Terra Nova and because I found all four volumes at the Lifeline bookfair. I remembered loving these in highschool and I haven't been let down on the first volume.
The whole set up is a little trashy and a lot more obvious now I have some Celtic mythology under my belt but it's a fun read and I think that the ensemble cast is handled pretty well. Not too much focus on any one character and the plot isn't bogged down by the r...more

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Oct 07, 2012 Nathaniel Morgan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I'd forgotten how fantastic this book is since I first read it and it's sequels in the 80's. It's a fusion of sci-fi and fantasy set in a time before the evolution of homo sapiens. The setting and concept are genius.

In the not to distant future Earth is part of The Galactic Milieu, one race amongst a fraternity of older alien civilisations. In the event known as The Intervention aliens intervened saving humanity from destroying itself, giving us access to the stars, teaching us develop our nasc...more I'd forgotten how fantastic this book is since I first read it and it's sequels in the 80's. It's a fusion of sci-fi and fantasy set in a time before the evolution of homo sapiens. The setting and concept are genius.

In the not to distant future Earth is part of The Galactic Milieu, one race amongst a fraternity of older alien civilisations. In the event known as The Intervention aliens intervened saving humanity from destroying itself, giving us access to the stars, teaching us develop our nascent psychic potential and providing us with new clean technologies to heal the environmental scars of industrialisation.

However not everyone fits into this almost utopian civilisation and many feel they can never be happy in this age, craving a simpler life long vanished. The characters are misfits in their time ranging from a psychopathic hockey star called Felice, a nordic undersea driller who just wants to be a barbarian, a xenophobic starship pilot who can't be happy in a civilisation full of alien monsters to a polymath Scottish teenager with a fondness for drink and sociopathic tendencies and many others completing a large cast of misanthropes and outcasts.

These people are given the chance to escape - a one way time portal accidently developed by a French scientist, which is seen as a scientific dead end and mere curiosity by The Galactic Milieu. It leads back only to the Pleistocene epoch of Europe, an era where giant beasts walk the earth and the geography of climate are just as fantastic and surprising as any fantasy world.

When they exit at the staging post (which has been established decades before) they're expecting a simple life in a time millions of years before they were born, instead the discover that the world is already inhabited by two warring aliens species: the Sidhe like Tanu and the misshapen drawf-like Fivrulag. They must decide whether to fight or be enslaved.

I won't spoil want happens but it's a brilliant series of adventures set in what might be described as an alien time rather than an alien world. It features one of the best explorations of psychic powers I've read it any novel, and they are incredibly powerful.

It's not the worlds greatest literature but it is brilliant escapism and a great genre read.The Pleistoscene Epoch is a fantastic setting. The characters are interesting and varied and the aliens are original. It certainly made me want to take a step through the time portal too!

The series is out of print in the UK at the moment but it's often to be seen on the shelves of charity shops. The more I think about it, the more I think this would make an incredible TV series, probably far to obscure for this treatment, which is a shame.

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Feb 03, 2013 David rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

2013 is rather a special year for me, as it marks 25 years since I was introduced to the Saga of the Pliocene Exiles by Julian May. These books, along with their sequels "Intervention" and the Galactic Milieu trilogy, quickly became, and have remained, my favourite books. For those who know the books, 2013 is also the year of the Great Intervention.

This first book of the first series needs to be an introduction to a very large cast of characters. However, May does this in such a way that it neve...more

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Nov 14, 2012 Kevin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: good-ol-science-fiction

The Many-Colored Land is a time travel/alien invasion/political intrigue/what-the-genre-is-this? novel. It is the first of four books comprising the Saga of the Pliocene Exiles. As the first book, it sets up the setting and some of the conflicts for the following books.

We begin our story six million years ago when some alien refugees and their dying space ship from another galaxy land on a planet (presumably Earth).

We then jump forward six million years to 2110, when the human race is part of a...more The Many-Colored Land is a time travel/alien invasion/political intrigue/what-the-genre-is-this? novel. It is the first of four books comprising the Saga of the Pliocene Exiles. As the first book, it sets up the setting and some of the conflicts for the following books.

We begin our story six million years ago when some alien refugees and their dying space ship from another galaxy land on a planet (presumably Earth).

We then jump forward six million years to 2110, when the human race is part of a Galactic Milieu that is composed of five other alien races. This is a Golden Age for humanity, one that pisses off humans yearning for a simpler time when they could just speak French and be xenophobic assholes. Luckily for them, a "one way" time portal has been made on Earth that can transport these social outcasts six million years in the past to the Pliocene era, where they can leave behind the galactic civilization behind that they hate so much and pursue their individual dreams...

But once in the past, they find that the human time travelers have been enslaved by a new race of aliens known as the Tanu. They use humans to grow their food, mine their minerals, fight their battles, and be impregnated with their children. But some humans have escaped enslavement and joined forces with some of the Tanu's enemies in an attempt to free humanity from the yoke of Tanu servitude... whether they want it or not.

As you can tell, the story and perhaps the mood of the story jumps around a lot in this novel. It centers around eight of the Exile time travelers, each having their own reason to choose or be forced into taking this trip. Not knowing what awaits them, the first part of the novel deals with them making the decision to be Exiled and saying good bye to the worlds they have known and some of the comforts they will be leaving behind forever. It is intriguing, poignant, and sometimes inspirational in its romanticizing.

But there is no survivalist drama to be had in this series. Unlike in other 'libertarian' time travel stories like Farnham's Freehold our protagonists face off almost immediately with their antagonists. Any world building is done through the travel done by the characters as they are split into two groups. Eventually, the reader gets caught up in a rebellion storyline which concludes the novel and the setup for the series.

I found this to be an intelligent and quick read. Julian May, aside from having a terrific command of the English language, has also done plenty of research to help make her world of Pliocene Europe seem real to the readers. Even the alien cultures are given life by associating them with various Celtic folklore. The character variety is also satisfying. Each character is unique and rounded, with different races and sexual orientations thrown into the mix in a natural manner. Julian May is not necessarily writing a civilly progressive novel, but the way she treats writing different characters from different cultures as individual human beings with individual desires that define them is very refreshing and probably was/is ahead of its time. Each character is not merely the sum of its femininity/masculinity/homosexuality, rather each of those is part of a bigger whole.(less)

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Oct 16, 2011 Jan-Maat added it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, science-fiction, fantasy, 20th-century

Enjoyable series based around the premise that a time machine has been constructed that can transport people and objects back into Pliocene Europe.

The option of permanently travelling back in time is taken up as a form of exile by those who feel themselves to be alienated from contemporary civilisation. However Europe in the Pliocene past turns out to be dominated by two warring alien cultures intent on using humanity to their own advantage.

I enjoyed the links to European and classical myth and...more

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Jun 11, 2011 Robert rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: scifi

For me and, I suspect, many others, one of the things that makes SF uniquely fun is being dumped into a world that is far-future or otherwise alien and having to figure out how it all works and maybe how we got there from here: having culture/future shock and coming to terms with it as the book progresses. In this book, May treats us to a prolonged description of the galaxy spanning culture that humans have joined (it reminds me of Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat books, without the humour and wit...more

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Apr 10, 2013 C rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed it. It's not a quick read, but I was content to read a chapter or two, then move on to something else & come back to it again later.

It's a dense book that flies all over the language spectrum from known slang to created slang to scientific terminology...from big words and formal language to short snappy zingers. The book itself is creative, colorful, sometimes crass, sometimes hilarious.

The layout is set up in a way that is not entirely easy to follow - the prologue is in...more

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May 30, 2011 Bill rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

A while ago I stopped into a used book store and was astounded to discover all four volumes of this series. I had had this recommended to me by a visitor to my site several years ago.
The story started off with a great premise: People who have become disenchanted with life in 2030 elect to start a new life in 6000 B.C., thanks to a newly discovered portal. Actually, the portal is built by
some scientist based on a newly discovered phenomenon of magnetic conduits through the earth's crust.
Or someth...more

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Apr 17, 2013 Deirdre Culhane rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013-reads, audio, female-author, sci-fi, wwe-challenge

I really enjoyed this book, and thought it was well narrated, but I still wish I’d read it for the first time as an actual book. Unfortunately, I get a bit distracted by thoughts / shinies / people when listening to an audiobook and it detracted slightly. Perhaps need to leave audios to re-reading rather than initial reading.

This was simply a fun book. The timetravelling wove neatly around mythology and an action storyline.

While I thought the characters were each distinct from each other, and I...more

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About Julian May

Pseudonym Ian Thorne, J.C. May, Lee N. Falconer.

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Books by Julian May

Golden Torc (Saga of the Pliocene Exile, #2)

The Adversary (Saga of Pliocene Exile, #4)

The Nonborn King (Saga of the Pliocene Exile, #3)

Jack the Bodiless (Galactic Milieu Trilogy, #1)

Diamond Mask (Galactic Milieu Trilogy, #2)

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“You have always been alone, always self-centered and fearful of opening yourself to other persons, for to do so is to risk rejection and pain. But it is a risk we are born to take, we humans. We cannot live alone, cannot find happiness or peace alone, cannot love alone. The person alone must always be fleeing, always searching. He flees from the loneliness without end. He searches, whether he will or not, for another who will fill his emptiness.” — 2 people liked it

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

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