A Pliocene companion: Being a reader's guide to The many-colored land, The golden torc, The nonborn king, The adversary

Saga of the Pliocene Exile

by Julian May

1984 1st Ed. Houghton Mifflin

Genres: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction, Reference

219 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Julian May was an American science fiction, fantasy, horror, science and children's writer who also used several pseudonyms including Ian Thorne, Lee N. Falconer and many others.

Some 1960's and 1970's biographies and children's science books may belong to Julian May (the science fiction & fantasy writer) profile but no reliable source has been found

Per Encyclopedia.com, May wrote juvenile science non-fiction along with the science fiction novels for adults. (https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/edu...)

Reviews

[Terry · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Pliocene Companion is an informative and useful reference for Julian May’s Saga of the Pliocene Exile, but, as the author herself states early on, it is not advisable to open it until after your first read—through of the series at the danger of otherwise experiencing a severe case of spoilers. The book is broken up into a glossary that covers characters, places, and things of importance to the saga, a timeline of the major events, some family trees, maps, and some miscellaneous essays by the author centring on specific topics from the Saga of interest to her. There are also several interviews most of which follow the same pattern: who is Julian May and how did she get involved in sci-fi specifically and writing in general? What was her major inspiration for writing the time-travel saga in the way she did, and what her thoughts were on the state of the sci-fi publishing industry/community at the time.

The glossary is no doubt the most useful, and interesting, section of the book not so much because it elucidates any great mysteries regarding the specific characters and places of the saga (though there are many of these and it’s no doubt handy to have a gazeteer to do memory checks when required), but more due to the fact that it provided May with a platform from which to go into some detail on the elements that make up her concept of metapsychology (psi-powers) and how they fit into the cosmology she has built. Despite its title there is a significant amount of material relevant to the ‘future’ portion of her in-story universe centring on the Galactic Milieu, though the majority of the focus is definitely centred on the Pliocene era. I’m not sure if there’s much else to say. It’s definitely a recommended companion book to the Pliocene Saga if you’re a fan, and even if you’re not some of the ideas and concepts May is playing with are interesting enough that it still might be worth a look.

[AndrewP · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used this book extensively while reading the four books comprising the Sage of The Pliocene Exiles as there are a lot of characters with hard to remember names. The majority of this volume consists of a glossary of names, places and other unique info. There are also some maps but these are small and hard to read in mass market paperback format. In hardback I guess they would be fine. After finishing the series I went on to read the supplemental information mainly consisting of three interviews with May.
The interviews give some insight into the author and the books. Before writing 'The Many Colored Land' she worked in a publishing office and wrote several thousand entries for encyclopedias. This explains her use of many, many uncommon words that had me reaching for the dictionary almost every chapter. She also recounts a funny story on how some famous academic read something of hers and then 'examined' it. She remembers thinking 'that's not what I wrote' as the guy discovered all kinds of hidden meanings that she never put there. (This is a problem with a lot of new SF, the authors are so concerned with writing in hidden meanings, opinions and trying to be clever that they lose sight of the fact they are supposed to be telling a story.)

Good book if you are reading the series, useless if your not :) 3.5 starts rounded up to 4

[Duffy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not really essential reading to enjoy the series, nothing all that new in it, but there are some interesting interviews with Julian May in the back.

[Lois · Rating 2 out of 5]

This isn't bad it just isn't what I wanted.
This had character lists and backstory but I needed more in depth coverage.
I'm rereading the companion series to this, The Galactic Milieu. This series is only slightly related and i hoped to avoid a reread but now think one will be necessary.

[Richard Guion · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ve wanted to read this for about 20 years but it was hard to find. Luckily, Kindle Unlimited has it available to borrow. It contains a bunch of stuff: maps, a timeline, a glossary, and three interviews with Julian May. The interviews are the best section. May is a writer who uses “purple prose” - overly dense but also with a very high vocabulary - never have I needed the Kindle built in dictionary more than when reading the Pliocene quartet of books. May wanted to write a more traditional SF adventure, more like the pulpy stuff she read in her early days, with a little more modern touch. This was in contrast to the “New Wave” SF of the 1960s/70s, which you could say was more literary and not centered around adventure. Algis Budrys wrote a review of The Many Colored Land and called it the sort of novel a fan would write. Somewhat true, somewhat not. May was a very involved SF fan in the 1950s, wrote one successful story and took a 20 year gap before returning. I’m the meantime she kept writing, but for non fiction publications. These interviews give a good glimpse into her thoughts and personality.

[John Devlin · Rating 2 out of 5]

A look into the nooks and crannies of May's masterful Pliocene books.

[Helene_In_Awe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome addition to the best series ever written

[Stephane Watteeux · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really nice. With some insights in Julian’s thinking

[Brett]

Fantasy

[Iain Watson]

A Pliocene companion by Julian May (1985)