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Saga of the Pliocene Exile #3
The Nonborn King
On Earth, six million B.C., two species of alien ruled, the graceful humanoid Tanu and their twisted brethren, the Firvulag. Then men from twenty-second century Earth arrived through a one-way time tunnel — and soon the aliens were locked in a battle to the death, for the humans had upset the precarious balance of power that existed between them.
But when the tides of combat had receded, no one group held firm control, though Aiken Drum, man of no woman born, had declared himself the Nonborn King...
But when the tides of combat had receded, no one group held firm control, though Aiken Drum, man of no woman born, had declared himself the Nonborn King...
393 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1983
180 people are currently reading
1512 people want to read
About the author
Julian May
201 books591 followersJulian 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...)
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...)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 126 reviews
March 7, 2025
This series would make a wonderful graphic novel—it has lots of prehistoric beasties, action-packed battle scenes, dramatic psychic powers, and lots of opinionated & quirky characters.
Humans from our future have become part of the Galactic Milieu, a kind of Federation of those races with psychic powers of various sorts. But not everyone has what it takes to fit into this system and others are unhappy with the direction that their society is moving. Some of the most disgruntled take a one-way trip through a time portal into the Pliocene era. You can imagine the sort of people who would not fit in to this future—those who really don’t care to conform. And the Milieu has made a ruling that no one with advanced psychic powers is able to take advantage of the time gate. What could possibly go wrong?
Upon arriving in the Pliocene, these non-psychic humans find themselves taken into custody by an alien race, the Tanu, who also fled their own world in order to do things their own way. By using neck-torcs of various colours they are able to wield psi powers too. The human “deliveries” from the time portal have meant that the Tanu have a distinct advantage over their traditional enemies, the Firvulag (deformed gnomish people who have similar powers without the hardware).
The political machinations are convoluted and, humans being what they are, there are many deviations from the Tanu tradition & system of honour. (As Tana French says in her novel In The Woods, “Humans are feral and ruthless.”) None demonstrate this as clearly as Aiken Drum, the self-proclaimed Nonborn King—created in a laboratory, without family, but with blinding ambition and late-developing psychic talents, Drum attempts to take over the Pliocene world. He faces opposition from all three races, none of whom fancy being ruled by a psychopathic upstart human.
As with the previous two books, female characters continue to play major roles in the action, if not in the warfare, and strong women of various races cause Aiken Drum some major headaches and sleepless nights.
Add to the mix one last group of future asylum seekers (who attempted to overthrow the Milieu and ended up retreating to the past) and the whole situation becomes precarious. There are few pauses in the action and lots of exploration of inter-race relations.
I definitely want to read the fourth book, The Adversary, and also to find May’s other books sets in this universe, Jack the Bodiless, Diamond Mask, and Magnificat.
Humans from our future have become part of the Galactic Milieu, a kind of Federation of those races with psychic powers of various sorts. But not everyone has what it takes to fit into this system and others are unhappy with the direction that their society is moving. Some of the most disgruntled take a one-way trip through a time portal into the Pliocene era. You can imagine the sort of people who would not fit in to this future—those who really don’t care to conform. And the Milieu has made a ruling that no one with advanced psychic powers is able to take advantage of the time gate. What could possibly go wrong?
Upon arriving in the Pliocene, these non-psychic humans find themselves taken into custody by an alien race, the Tanu, who also fled their own world in order to do things their own way. By using neck-torcs of various colours they are able to wield psi powers too. The human “deliveries” from the time portal have meant that the Tanu have a distinct advantage over their traditional enemies, the Firvulag (deformed gnomish people who have similar powers without the hardware).
The political machinations are convoluted and, humans being what they are, there are many deviations from the Tanu tradition & system of honour. (As Tana French says in her novel In The Woods, “Humans are feral and ruthless.”) None demonstrate this as clearly as Aiken Drum, the self-proclaimed Nonborn King—created in a laboratory, without family, but with blinding ambition and late-developing psychic talents, Drum attempts to take over the Pliocene world. He faces opposition from all three races, none of whom fancy being ruled by a psychopathic upstart human.
As with the previous two books, female characters continue to play major roles in the action, if not in the warfare, and strong women of various races cause Aiken Drum some major headaches and sleepless nights.
Add to the mix one last group of future asylum seekers (who attempted to overthrow the Milieu and ended up retreating to the past) and the whole situation becomes precarious. There are few pauses in the action and lots of exploration of inter-race relations.
I definitely want to read the fourth book, The Adversary, and also to find May’s other books sets in this universe, Jack the Bodiless, Diamond Mask, and Magnificat.
December 28, 2022
Just live volume one and two in this series, volume three and four is really one story divided by the publisher into two books, making reviewing The Nonborn King a little tricky. This picks up right after the devastation Felice inflicted, using her PK powers to open up the dry Mediterranean basin where the 'games' where being played to the Atlantic, flooding it and killing thousands. While the initial cast of characters of the 'green 8' was whittled down some, May introduces here many more. Somehow, given the wide array of characters and the constantly shifting POV the story is pretty easy to follow.
The remnants of the Tanu (elf-like) reluctantly unite under the 'trickster' Aiken; the Firvulag (gnome-like) are largely untouched by the Mediterranean calamity and now greatly outnumber their Tanu foe. The 'free humans' are still around, although some have gone over to Aiken. The new players here are the revolutionaries from the Galactic Milieu who fled to the Pliocene after their revolt failed about three decades ago before this series started. These folks, all powerful mindmasters, left proto Europe and now live in Florida. By now, they have kids and the kids are restless! The kids know of Felice (they helped her with the Mediterranean gambit) and sent a party across the Atlantic to 'hook up' with her. Meanwhile, all kinds of politicing is going on among the various factions in Europe.
What makes this series so unique concerns the story line and the mental powers. I already discussed them in the reviews of the first two, but May adds some new elements here. The folks in Florida were some of the most powerful minds in the Galactic Milieu and are still quite powerful; they even have mechanical means to augment their powers they brought with them. Felice is a 'natural' power and basically unhinged. Elizabeth, another member of the 'green 8' is perhaps the most powerful mind in Europe, but she takes a decidedly neutral role on all the scheming going on, along with some rather aloof Tanu. Good stuff! 4 solid stars!!
The remnants of the Tanu (elf-like) reluctantly unite under the 'trickster' Aiken; the Firvulag (gnome-like) are largely untouched by the Mediterranean calamity and now greatly outnumber their Tanu foe. The 'free humans' are still around, although some have gone over to Aiken. The new players here are the revolutionaries from the Galactic Milieu who fled to the Pliocene after their revolt failed about three decades ago before this series started. These folks, all powerful mindmasters, left proto Europe and now live in Florida. By now, they have kids and the kids are restless! The kids know of Felice (they helped her with the Mediterranean gambit) and sent a party across the Atlantic to 'hook up' with her. Meanwhile, all kinds of politicing is going on among the various factions in Europe.
What makes this series so unique concerns the story line and the mental powers. I already discussed them in the reviews of the first two, but May adds some new elements here. The folks in Florida were some of the most powerful minds in the Galactic Milieu and are still quite powerful; they even have mechanical means to augment their powers they brought with them. Felice is a 'natural' power and basically unhinged. Elizabeth, another member of the 'green 8' is perhaps the most powerful mind in Europe, but she takes a decidedly neutral role on all the scheming going on, along with some rather aloof Tanu. Good stuff! 4 solid stars!!
January 7, 2021
I don’t write reviews.
This saga has lost none of its original energy. May has a full story to tell and this doesn’t give that writing-another-volume-to-create-an-epic-blah vibe. There is a clear story she wanted to communicate and delivered it in such a manner that keeps me coming back for more.
This saga has lost none of its original energy. May has a full story to tell and this doesn’t give that writing-another-volume-to-create-an-epic-blah vibe. There is a clear story she wanted to communicate and delivered it in such a manner that keeps me coming back for more.
March 27, 2011
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 would want to stop there?
The “bridge” book deals with first contact and the emergence of humans with “supernatural” powers such as telekinesis.
* Intervention. In the US edition this was divided into “Intervention: Surveillance” and “Intervention: Metaconcert”.
The Galactic Milieu Trilogy deals with events after humanity has entered the galactic community.
* Jack the Bodiless
* Diamond Mask
* Magnificat
What surprised me as I finally finished the whole thing was how May had meticulously planned the entire arc from the very beginning, with elements important to the last novels referenced in the first. This lends the whole series a sense of completion rare in such works. Considering the fact that it took over 12 years to write, the achievement is even more impressive.
The characters are amazing, with rich depths and particular quirks that blend in well with the evolving destiny of humankind. The settings, especially in Exiles are fabulous.
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.
http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=236
* The Many-Coloured Land
* The Golden Torc
* The Nonborn King
* The Adversary
These can be read as a standalone series, but who would want to stop there?
The “bridge” book deals with first contact and the emergence of humans with “supernatural” powers such as telekinesis.
* Intervention. In the US edition this was divided into “Intervention: Surveillance” and “Intervention: Metaconcert”.
The Galactic Milieu Trilogy deals with events after humanity has entered the galactic community.
* Jack the Bodiless
* Diamond Mask
* Magnificat
What surprised me as I finally finished the whole thing was how May had meticulously planned the entire arc from the very beginning, with elements important to the last novels referenced in the first. This lends the whole series a sense of completion rare in such works. Considering the fact that it took over 12 years to write, the achievement is even more impressive.
The characters are amazing, with rich depths and particular quirks that blend in well with the evolving destiny of humankind. The settings, especially in Exiles are fabulous.
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.
http://www.books.rosboch.net/?p=236
May 22, 2018
I’m disappointed by The Nonborn King, but I wouldn’t say I’m surprised. It’s not like The Golden Torc ended on a note that resonated with me. How could it? All the characters who we got a careful introduction to, thanks to the deliberate pace of The Many Colored Land, were dead or written off, and May replaced them with at least thrice as many characters that we never got the time to properly know.
[Spoilers—and lots of swearing—ahead]
Still, despite things slipping towards a hard-core plot story where all that matters is war and betrayal, I had hope. We had to re-center ourselves at some point, right? Learn to love some new characters, take a moment to breathe in the humid Pliocene air and remember why we care about any of this. Right?
Instead, I closed the book last night at 2:30 in the morning (because I knew that if I didn’t just get it over with, I might never finish it), with a itemized list of things I hated about it.
The LGBTQ characters
When I read The Many Colored Land, I was thrilled that it included Felice. Sure, she wasn’t-quite-right in a way that could be dangerous, but her companions accepted her, and she definitely showed vulnerability and was, at least initially, often a sympathetic character. She started to get a little more dicey as time went on, but I figured there were lots of shitty straight people, too, so, eh.
Then Tasha entered the story in … book two? Tasha is a trans woman, a gynecologist, and a traitor to the human race. She’s the person who masterminded how to undo the human women's permanent birth-control so that the Tanu could use them as brood stock. So, she’s not great. Also, she’s also described as truly insane.
Okay, cool, now there’s an insane lesbian and an insane trans woman. This isn’t looking good.
And then Felice goes even more insane. Sure, it’s not her fault, yadda yadda, but point is, now she’s even less sane, and is so powerful she’s regularly referred to as a monster. And, well, HUGE SPOILER,
I was so pissed. Honestly, Felice was 90% of the reason I was still reading.
About this time, I think Julian May realized what she had done (namely, make her paltry two LGBTQ characters the worst), and backpedaled by bringing in Mr. Betsy—a cross-dresser who fashions himself after a Queen Elizabeth. He’s loyal as all get out to humans, and seemingly morally unbankruptable. But I don’t know him and frankly, this hasty incorporation of a good gender-non-conforming character lacked any sort of depth. Mr. Betsy gets a few lines, and has a minor part to play in the human rebellion. Whoooo.
The Women
Okay, okay, just Mercy and Felice. But still. So at the end of The Golden Torc, Felice is driven further insane by the torture perpetrated on her by Culluket. Fine. I didn’t love that she fell in love with her rapist/torturer, but at least it was clearly painted as an insane thing. And then Elizabeth heals her mind, and she’s sane, and she’s still calling Culluket her Beloved and still craves his love.
What the ever-loving fuck.
Then there’s Mercy. After presuming Nodonn dead after the flood, she joins up forces with Aiken as his partner/queen. She only joins him for the power. Aiken, on the other hand, is in love with her, though he despises this love. This anger over his love of her makes him incredibly dangerous, and Mercy is well aware of this fact. In addition to good old fashioned intuition, she has a vision of him murdering her. Still, for some reason or another, she sticks around, and she’s only attracted to him when she’s afraid of him.
Gross.
When Nodon comes back from the dead, she sneaks off to be with him. They share a moment, but then Nodonn tells Mercy that she needs to return to Aiken to be his spy, Mercy reveals her vision to her supposed beloved.
I say supposed, because Nodonn’s like, “Nah, you’re wrong,” and even though Mercy knows she’s not wrong, she’s like “You’re probably right. It’s fine. Besides, I’d gladly die (in this stupid, easily avoidable way) for you! Teeheehee.”
So we have two women who thrill at abuse, and a woman who vapidly lets her husband send her marching into death. Great. Just great.
Only the good die young
Everyone nice that we know—everyone—dies. Hell, most of it happened in the last book, but the trend continues. Even the characters who are somewhat sympathetic, but definitely not good, die. So I’m left with a book full of assholes or people who I don’t know. Cool, cool.
Worse, we get a new awful character: Marc Remillard. And unlike other characters who get thrown on screen with barely an introduction, we get to know Marc Remillard. He’s … well, an asshole. He’s abusive to his kids, convinced of operant human superiority to non-operant humans and aliens (and killed a few million humans and aliens while trying to prove his point), and, now forced into exile, he spends his days trying to find a new civilization of operant aliens that he can trick into coming and rescuing him (and his followers) from earth so that he can once-and-for-all dominate an alien race.
What a nice guy.
I kept procrastinating reading, I hated this guy so much. And not in that fiery-passionate way. He’s no Joffrey. He’s just awful and boring—lawful evil, if you will. Lawful is always the most boring character trait.
Apparently book 4 of The Saga of Pliocene Exile is about the showdown between Aiken Drum and Marc Remillard. I don’t think I even want to read that. Can they both lose? Can everyone except Elizabeth (and her helpers) and the Howlers just die, please? I want book four to mostly be about ramapithecines.
The Writing
In The Many Colored Land, I thought Julian May did a fantastic job of balancing in-depth character-driven sections and vivid landscape descriptions with what I would consider a narration-style of story-telling. The first two ground us in the world, the latter moves quickly and allows for a certain amount of analytical commentary.
In The Golden Torc, things started to move faster, and we spent less and less time in one setting or with one person. It was either a very quick snippet, or it was sort of a narrative.
This trend is continued to its extreme in The Nonborn King. I felt detached from the story from the beginning: Elizabeth, Amerie, Basil, etc, are all great heroes. They helped save Tanu, Firvulag, and Human alike after the flood. They organized, they planned, they got people where they needed to go through the worst of circumstances. But all of this happened between The Golden Torc and The Nonborn King. Elizabeth “I don’t want to help anyone, I just want to float away on a balloon” is a changed woman—and a hero—and we don’t get to see that transformation. We get a summary that it’s happened.
On the flip side, there’s Tony. He’s a new character that kinda liked being a silver-torc in the Tanu oligarchy and would like to escape the lowlives that captured him and removed his torc. We get to spend a few chapters with him, here and there, throughout the book. We get to see him under attack by Firvulag, or plotting an escape, or attending a feast. None of these moments actually matter in the grand scheme of things, and he comes up so infrequently that I regularly forgot who he was.
At the end of the book, he suddenly is involved in something that affects the plot. In a moment all his fluff chapters became clear: Julian May needed a character to be involved in this one thing, so she invented Tony and peppered his adventures throughout the book so that when he was involved in this critical moment, we wouldn’t go “Wait, who’s this guy?”
Except, the book is chock-full of “who’s this guy?” Most of the names that passed before my eyes were tertiary characters at best. I couldn’t tell you anything important about almost any of them, other than “Oh, he’s a Tanu knight/firvulag warrior/lowlife.”
And those descriptions cover pretty much everyone in this book.
In addition to this problem where things that aren’t important got a lot of air time while things that were important got swept under the rug, was a sudden change in writing quality.
This is a stupid example, and yet I think it proves my point perfectly:
Mercy is running through a castle with an ally, and a dog jumps out and startles them. Mercy says “Deirdre, down,” and the dog lays down. It’s her dog, you see. And, crisis averted, they keep running.
It doesn’t affect the plot; it doesn’t even affect their flight. And the moment isn't even long enough to startle us. Why include it?
Why introduce the idea that Mercy has a dog at this moment? It’s, like, the very end of the book.
There’s also the two-page-long speech where Aiken tells his troops exactly what they’re going to do—and then we watch them do it. And the four-page-long info dump within a stone’s throw of the end of the book disguised as two people who’d never met before talking about themselves and their histories.
These sorts of story-telling faux paus mixed with a bunch of characters I don’t like and a story that is focused almost exclusively on war and betrayal makes me feel like I accidentally grabbed a modern fantasy novel. Which is exactly what I've been avoiding.
Now I have to decide if The Adversary is a book I’m going to tackle or not. Blargh. I hate when things I love take a serious turn.
[I read old fantasy and sci-fi novels written by women authors in search of forgotten gems. See more at forfemfan.com]
[Spoilers—and lots of swearing—ahead]
Still, despite things slipping towards a hard-core plot story where all that matters is war and betrayal, I had hope. We had to re-center ourselves at some point, right? Learn to love some new characters, take a moment to breathe in the humid Pliocene air and remember why we care about any of this. Right?
Instead, I closed the book last night at 2:30 in the morning (because I knew that if I didn’t just get it over with, I might never finish it), with a itemized list of things I hated about it.
The LGBTQ characters
When I read The Many Colored Land, I was thrilled that it included Felice. Sure, she wasn’t-quite-right in a way that could be dangerous, but her companions accepted her, and she definitely showed vulnerability and was, at least initially, often a sympathetic character. She started to get a little more dicey as time went on, but I figured there were lots of shitty straight people, too, so, eh.
Then Tasha entered the story in … book two? Tasha is a trans woman, a gynecologist, and a traitor to the human race. She’s the person who masterminded how to undo the human women's permanent birth-control so that the Tanu could use them as brood stock. So, she’s not great. Also, she’s also described as truly insane.
Okay, cool, now there’s an insane lesbian and an insane trans woman. This isn’t looking good.
And then Felice goes even more insane. Sure, it’s not her fault, yadda yadda, but point is, now she’s even less sane, and is so powerful she’s regularly referred to as a monster. And, well, HUGE SPOILER,
I was so pissed. Honestly, Felice was 90% of the reason I was still reading.
About this time, I think Julian May realized what she had done (namely, make her paltry two LGBTQ characters the worst), and backpedaled by bringing in Mr. Betsy—a cross-dresser who fashions himself after a Queen Elizabeth. He’s loyal as all get out to humans, and seemingly morally unbankruptable. But I don’t know him and frankly, this hasty incorporation of a good gender-non-conforming character lacked any sort of depth. Mr. Betsy gets a few lines, and has a minor part to play in the human rebellion. Whoooo.
The Women
Okay, okay, just Mercy and Felice. But still. So at the end of The Golden Torc, Felice is driven further insane by the torture perpetrated on her by Culluket. Fine. I didn’t love that she fell in love with her rapist/torturer, but at least it was clearly painted as an insane thing. And then Elizabeth heals her mind, and she’s sane, and she’s still calling Culluket her Beloved and still craves his love.
What the ever-loving fuck.
Then there’s Mercy. After presuming Nodonn dead after the flood, she joins up forces with Aiken as his partner/queen. She only joins him for the power. Aiken, on the other hand, is in love with her, though he despises this love. This anger over his love of her makes him incredibly dangerous, and Mercy is well aware of this fact. In addition to good old fashioned intuition, she has a vision of him murdering her. Still, for some reason or another, she sticks around, and she’s only attracted to him when she’s afraid of him.
Gross.
When Nodon comes back from the dead, she sneaks off to be with him. They share a moment, but then Nodonn tells Mercy that she needs to return to Aiken to be his spy, Mercy reveals her vision to her supposed beloved.
I say supposed, because Nodonn’s like, “Nah, you’re wrong,” and even though Mercy knows she’s not wrong, she’s like “You’re probably right. It’s fine. Besides, I’d gladly die (in this stupid, easily avoidable way) for you! Teeheehee.”
So we have two women who thrill at abuse, and a woman who vapidly lets her husband send her marching into death. Great. Just great.
Only the good die young
Everyone nice that we know—everyone—dies. Hell, most of it happened in the last book, but the trend continues. Even the characters who are somewhat sympathetic, but definitely not good, die. So I’m left with a book full of assholes or people who I don’t know. Cool, cool.
Worse, we get a new awful character: Marc Remillard. And unlike other characters who get thrown on screen with barely an introduction, we get to know Marc Remillard. He’s … well, an asshole. He’s abusive to his kids, convinced of operant human superiority to non-operant humans and aliens (and killed a few million humans and aliens while trying to prove his point), and, now forced into exile, he spends his days trying to find a new civilization of operant aliens that he can trick into coming and rescuing him (and his followers) from earth so that he can once-and-for-all dominate an alien race.
What a nice guy.
I kept procrastinating reading, I hated this guy so much. And not in that fiery-passionate way. He’s no Joffrey. He’s just awful and boring—lawful evil, if you will. Lawful is always the most boring character trait.
Apparently book 4 of The Saga of Pliocene Exile is about the showdown between Aiken Drum and Marc Remillard. I don’t think I even want to read that. Can they both lose? Can everyone except Elizabeth (and her helpers) and the Howlers just die, please? I want book four to mostly be about ramapithecines.
The Writing
In The Many Colored Land, I thought Julian May did a fantastic job of balancing in-depth character-driven sections and vivid landscape descriptions with what I would consider a narration-style of story-telling. The first two ground us in the world, the latter moves quickly and allows for a certain amount of analytical commentary.
In The Golden Torc, things started to move faster, and we spent less and less time in one setting or with one person. It was either a very quick snippet, or it was sort of a narrative.
This trend is continued to its extreme in The Nonborn King. I felt detached from the story from the beginning: Elizabeth, Amerie, Basil, etc, are all great heroes. They helped save Tanu, Firvulag, and Human alike after the flood. They organized, they planned, they got people where they needed to go through the worst of circumstances. But all of this happened between The Golden Torc and The Nonborn King. Elizabeth “I don’t want to help anyone, I just want to float away on a balloon” is a changed woman—and a hero—and we don’t get to see that transformation. We get a summary that it’s happened.
On the flip side, there’s Tony. He’s a new character that kinda liked being a silver-torc in the Tanu oligarchy and would like to escape the lowlives that captured him and removed his torc. We get to spend a few chapters with him, here and there, throughout the book. We get to see him under attack by Firvulag, or plotting an escape, or attending a feast. None of these moments actually matter in the grand scheme of things, and he comes up so infrequently that I regularly forgot who he was.
At the end of the book, he suddenly is involved in something that affects the plot. In a moment all his fluff chapters became clear: Julian May needed a character to be involved in this one thing, so she invented Tony and peppered his adventures throughout the book so that when he was involved in this critical moment, we wouldn’t go “Wait, who’s this guy?”
Except, the book is chock-full of “who’s this guy?” Most of the names that passed before my eyes were tertiary characters at best. I couldn’t tell you anything important about almost any of them, other than “Oh, he’s a Tanu knight/firvulag warrior/lowlife.”
And those descriptions cover pretty much everyone in this book.
In addition to this problem where things that aren’t important got a lot of air time while things that were important got swept under the rug, was a sudden change in writing quality.
This is a stupid example, and yet I think it proves my point perfectly:
Mercy is running through a castle with an ally, and a dog jumps out and startles them. Mercy says “Deirdre, down,” and the dog lays down. It’s her dog, you see. And, crisis averted, they keep running.
It doesn’t affect the plot; it doesn’t even affect their flight. And the moment isn't even long enough to startle us. Why include it?
Why introduce the idea that Mercy has a dog at this moment? It’s, like, the very end of the book.
There’s also the two-page-long speech where Aiken tells his troops exactly what they’re going to do—and then we watch them do it. And the four-page-long info dump within a stone’s throw of the end of the book disguised as two people who’d never met before talking about themselves and their histories.
These sorts of story-telling faux paus mixed with a bunch of characters I don’t like and a story that is focused almost exclusively on war and betrayal makes me feel like I accidentally grabbed a modern fantasy novel. Which is exactly what I've been avoiding.
Now I have to decide if The Adversary is a book I’m going to tackle or not. Blargh. I hate when things I love take a serious turn.
[I read old fantasy and sci-fi novels written by women authors in search of forgotten gems. See more at forfemfan.com]
July 20, 2020
Continuing my re-read of this series. Book three brings to a head the confrontation between Aiken Drum and Battlemaster Nodonn for control of the Many Coloured Land.
This book holds up fairly well considering it's age and there are several characters and themes that you might associate with more recent works. (No spoliers here) Just proving that a lot of 'new' ideas are really just rehashes of older ones. As with the other books, I needed to frequently consult a dictionary as May uses a lot of uncommon and unfamiliar words. It's nice to read something that is challenging to read due to vocabulary rather than challenging to read because the author decided to be a pretentious ass just out to win awards.
This book holds up fairly well considering it's age and there are several characters and themes that you might associate with more recent works. (No spoliers here) Just proving that a lot of 'new' ideas are really just rehashes of older ones. As with the other books, I needed to frequently consult a dictionary as May uses a lot of uncommon and unfamiliar words. It's nice to read something that is challenging to read due to vocabulary rather than challenging to read because the author decided to be a pretentious ass just out to win awards.
May 17, 2021
8/10
While I sometimes have trouble keeping the characters, the races (human, hybrid, Tanu, Firvulag, Howler) and the factions within in race straight (yes, I would have liked a cast of characters list), the story itself moves right along and plot developments resolve some issues and complicate others. I like the blending of time travel, modern/futuristic technology, tools, and weapons, and metapsychic powers. One more book in the Saga of Pliocene Exile to bring it to a satisfying conclusion, I hope!
While I sometimes have trouble keeping the characters, the races (human, hybrid, Tanu, Firvulag, Howler) and the factions within in race straight (yes, I would have liked a cast of characters list), the story itself moves right along and plot developments resolve some issues and complicate others. I like the blending of time travel, modern/futuristic technology, tools, and weapons, and metapsychic powers. One more book in the Saga of Pliocene Exile to bring it to a satisfying conclusion, I hope!
October 24, 2016
This book is the third in the series. I don't think it matters which one you start with I am guessing they are all as dehumanising as this one.
There was a lot to dislike about this book. It was quite pretentious in the way it was written (obligatory poem in there and a lot of allusions or direct quotes from elsewhere, too many ethnic or plain strange ways of talking, diversity as exoticised stereotype, etc)
There were too many groups of characters and each group had a LOT of characters. Despite the overlong and over-explainy synopsis (is it still authentically called a "synopsis" when it is 36 small-print pages long?) it was very hard to remember who various characters were or what they had to do with each other. There did not seem to be a central plot or a main character although from the title I guess it was meant to be all about Aiken Drum who was possibly the most unlikeable character in the book Marc Remillard being the other contender for the title.
But what I hated most was the misogyny and rape culture throughout the book. Women apparently are attracted to being scared and abused. Men apparently have a drive toward power and no capacity for seeing anyone's point of view but their narcissistic own (and this is painted as just fine). For example Culluket who turned his torture of Felice into sexualised violence as everyone knows (and with deadly consequences for the world) is still seen by men and women alike as a really good guy. Also Aiken's relationship with Mercy was disgusting.
Women are valued for how attractive they are and...the list goes on
I somewhat liked Amerie for all that she was as anachronistic as nearly everything else in the book (and don't say "time travel" because that is not what I mean, she doesn't fit into EITHER time). She was a female and a catholic priest (see what I mean?), said the mass in Latin (??) and was a lesbian. Unfortunately although there are two lesbians in the book they fit the two stereotypes with Amerie being the functionally asexual one and Felice being the psychotic product of abuse as a child one.
After all those pages I hung on in case the ending gives it all some meaning or a ray of sunshine in a world where the men are hypermasculine and noone actually seems to give a shit about other people at all.
It doesn't. That's not a spoiler just a warning. I won't be reading any of the others in the lengthy series!
(oh if you don't take my advice and do read it count how many hilariously phallic references there are)
There was a lot to dislike about this book. It was quite pretentious in the way it was written (obligatory poem in there and a lot of allusions or direct quotes from elsewhere, too many ethnic or plain strange ways of talking, diversity as exoticised stereotype, etc)
There were too many groups of characters and each group had a LOT of characters. Despite the overlong and over-explainy synopsis (is it still authentically called a "synopsis" when it is 36 small-print pages long?) it was very hard to remember who various characters were or what they had to do with each other. There did not seem to be a central plot or a main character although from the title I guess it was meant to be all about Aiken Drum who was possibly the most unlikeable character in the book Marc Remillard being the other contender for the title.
But what I hated most was the misogyny and rape culture throughout the book. Women apparently are attracted to being scared and abused. Men apparently have a drive toward power and no capacity for seeing anyone's point of view but their narcissistic own (and this is painted as just fine). For example Culluket who turned his torture of Felice into sexualised violence as everyone knows (and with deadly consequences for the world) is still seen by men and women alike as a really good guy. Also Aiken's relationship with Mercy was disgusting.
Women are valued for how attractive they are and...the list goes on
I somewhat liked Amerie for all that she was as anachronistic as nearly everything else in the book (and don't say "time travel" because that is not what I mean, she doesn't fit into EITHER time). She was a female and a catholic priest (see what I mean?), said the mass in Latin (??) and was a lesbian. Unfortunately although there are two lesbians in the book they fit the two stereotypes with Amerie being the functionally asexual one and Felice being the psychotic product of abuse as a child one.
After all those pages I hung on in case the ending gives it all some meaning or a ray of sunshine in a world where the men are hypermasculine and noone actually seems to give a shit about other people at all.
It doesn't. That's not a spoiler just a warning. I won't be reading any of the others in the lengthy series!
(oh if you don't take my advice and do read it count how many hilariously phallic references there are)
March 31, 2007
Simply the best space opera, and the best series of novels I've ever read. This is the first of the nine, and while the last three show signs of fatigue, these novels capture a cast of characters, and one in Marc Remillard, that are truly memorable. From the worlds and milieu May imagines to her evocative themes, the novels capture humanity with all its foibles and promise, and if you stick around for #6, you'll get the best plot twist in all of bookdom.
April 4, 2024
Hasta el momento el que más me ha gustado, partiendo por el renovado escenario en la lucha de superpoderes meta. Tiene varios puntos de acción, el mismo ritmo endiablado que las anteriores, pero esta vez sentí una mayor fluidez en la trama, sin tantos deus ex machina ni recursos forzados, que limitaran el goce de la aventura.
Dentro de las novelas de ciencia ficción sobre poderes mentales esta saga debe ser la más ambiciosa por lejos. Recrea un mundo de tres razas, con múltiples personajes, varios tipos de poderes, armamentos, mucha acción, algo de amor, erotismo, intriga, y hasta un poco de humor. Gran mosaico, que una vez digieres, se disfruta.
Y otro punto a favor es que para cuando quiera leer el cuarto, en un par de años, encontraré las sinopsis más largas sobre tomos anteriores en todo el género. Bien por Ultramar.
Dentro de las novelas de ciencia ficción sobre poderes mentales esta saga debe ser la más ambiciosa por lejos. Recrea un mundo de tres razas, con múltiples personajes, varios tipos de poderes, armamentos, mucha acción, algo de amor, erotismo, intriga, y hasta un poco de humor. Gran mosaico, que una vez digieres, se disfruta.
Y otro punto a favor es que para cuando quiera leer el cuarto, en un par de años, encontraré las sinopsis más largas sobre tomos anteriores en todo el género. Bien por Ultramar.
December 23, 2022
This is somewhat better than the previous volume. There are still too many indistinct characters and subplots, but the narrative is more cohesive than the last time around. This book is so weird that I'm surprised it was ever popular. On the other hand, the scope of the author's imagination is astonishingly broad. I don't think that anyone else on earth would ever have come up with an idea quite like this.
May 8, 2020
Spoiler alert: Don’t read this review unless you have already read THE MANY-COLORED LAND and THE GOLDEN TORC as background.
Felice, possibly the most powerful psychic humanity will ever know, has changed the face of Pliocene Europe with her vengeance, but she has still not managed to kill Culluket, the sadistic Tanu who flayed open her mind and body in prison. Now descended into madness, she searches the Mediterranean coast wearing the shape of a huge raven, summoning him with her frightening mind powers. Culluket hates the human-Tanu kingdom which has risen from Felice’s devastation, but without its protection, he would be vulnerable to Felice.
Aiken Drum has won the kingship over humans and Tanu by the strength of his mental talents. But there are other people with strong mind powers. In the turmoil of a depleted population, each candidate for dominance has its own faction.
Felice didn’t wreak such devastation on her own. When she called for help, she contacted a group of Grand Master metapsychics in North America, who lent her their strength. Now the adult children of these exiled Grand Masters see in Felice an opportunity they can’t miss. In Europe is the time gate, through which their parents fled from the twenty second century Galactic Milieu. The children have decided they want to go back.
If the young people succeed in getting through the time gate, the Galactic Milieu government will be able to use the gate, too. The Milieu is not going to just forget the billions of lives lost in the Metapsychic Rebellion led by the Grand Masters, nor is it going to forget Marc Remillard, the rebel leader, now ruling his little band in Pliocene Florida with a mind of iron. To Marc, known as Abaddon or the Angel of the Abyss, it is life or death to his generation of rebels to keep the children from using the time gate.
All the Grand Master humans want to dominate Europe for their own purposes, and aside from Felice, Aiken is their strongest immediate opponent. To kill Aiken they ally themselves with a faction of xenophobic Tanu led by Nodonn Battlemaster. Nodonn was husband to the woman Aiken has taken for his queen. We have already met her as the succubus Mercy, and she still dreams of Nodonn. Farther north, the human Lowlives oppose any control by any alien species, Tanu or Firvulag. Attempting to heal all of Europe, every species, is Grand Master Elizabeth and her little band of helpers. And the unscrupulous Firvulag are hell-bent on wiping out every group but their own, in something their religion calls the Nightfall War – Armageddon.
A large cast of individual characters illustrates all the movements and viewpoints leading to the development of new societies. For example, wanderer Tony Wayland, an expert metallurgist, dupe, and hopeless coward, encounters the Tanu, Lowlife, Howler, and Firvulag societies, and still hasn’t found his niche. King Sharn and Queen Ayfa of the Firvulag make toys for their children while planning multiple genocide. An unborn boy is destined to drag all of Europe along with his predicted fate.
Author Julian May is a master craftswoman. Even 20 years ago, when The Saga of Pliocene Exile was written, she held more threads in her hand than most authors even imagine. The characters live, the societies have their own tides and currents, the earth breathes. Woven through THE NONBORN KING is a suspenseful progression toward one final standoff which, when it comes, is both a nail-biting confrontation and a cinematic eye-pleaser, leaving the reader cheering and breathlessly aghast at the same time.
Condensing THE NONBORN KING to review size means leaving out something important, whatever the reviewer does. Each book of the Pliocene Exile series is more complex than the last until, in THE NONBORN KING, a few of the factions play out their end hands. The final book of the series, THE ADVERSARY, will focus on Marc Remillard’s advance on Europe. He will decide his own future, and that of many other people who are unknowingly at the mercy of whatever lies deep in the soul of Abaddon.
Read 8 times
Felice, possibly the most powerful psychic humanity will ever know, has changed the face of Pliocene Europe with her vengeance, but she has still not managed to kill Culluket, the sadistic Tanu who flayed open her mind and body in prison. Now descended into madness, she searches the Mediterranean coast wearing the shape of a huge raven, summoning him with her frightening mind powers. Culluket hates the human-Tanu kingdom which has risen from Felice’s devastation, but without its protection, he would be vulnerable to Felice.
Aiken Drum has won the kingship over humans and Tanu by the strength of his mental talents. But there are other people with strong mind powers. In the turmoil of a depleted population, each candidate for dominance has its own faction.
Felice didn’t wreak such devastation on her own. When she called for help, she contacted a group of Grand Master metapsychics in North America, who lent her their strength. Now the adult children of these exiled Grand Masters see in Felice an opportunity they can’t miss. In Europe is the time gate, through which their parents fled from the twenty second century Galactic Milieu. The children have decided they want to go back.
If the young people succeed in getting through the time gate, the Galactic Milieu government will be able to use the gate, too. The Milieu is not going to just forget the billions of lives lost in the Metapsychic Rebellion led by the Grand Masters, nor is it going to forget Marc Remillard, the rebel leader, now ruling his little band in Pliocene Florida with a mind of iron. To Marc, known as Abaddon or the Angel of the Abyss, it is life or death to his generation of rebels to keep the children from using the time gate.
All the Grand Master humans want to dominate Europe for their own purposes, and aside from Felice, Aiken is their strongest immediate opponent. To kill Aiken they ally themselves with a faction of xenophobic Tanu led by Nodonn Battlemaster. Nodonn was husband to the woman Aiken has taken for his queen. We have already met her as the succubus Mercy, and she still dreams of Nodonn. Farther north, the human Lowlives oppose any control by any alien species, Tanu or Firvulag. Attempting to heal all of Europe, every species, is Grand Master Elizabeth and her little band of helpers. And the unscrupulous Firvulag are hell-bent on wiping out every group but their own, in something their religion calls the Nightfall War – Armageddon.
A large cast of individual characters illustrates all the movements and viewpoints leading to the development of new societies. For example, wanderer Tony Wayland, an expert metallurgist, dupe, and hopeless coward, encounters the Tanu, Lowlife, Howler, and Firvulag societies, and still hasn’t found his niche. King Sharn and Queen Ayfa of the Firvulag make toys for their children while planning multiple genocide. An unborn boy is destined to drag all of Europe along with his predicted fate.
Author Julian May is a master craftswoman. Even 20 years ago, when The Saga of Pliocene Exile was written, she held more threads in her hand than most authors even imagine. The characters live, the societies have their own tides and currents, the earth breathes. Woven through THE NONBORN KING is a suspenseful progression toward one final standoff which, when it comes, is both a nail-biting confrontation and a cinematic eye-pleaser, leaving the reader cheering and breathlessly aghast at the same time.
Condensing THE NONBORN KING to review size means leaving out something important, whatever the reviewer does. Each book of the Pliocene Exile series is more complex than the last until, in THE NONBORN KING, a few of the factions play out their end hands. The final book of the series, THE ADVERSARY, will focus on Marc Remillard’s advance on Europe. He will decide his own future, and that of many other people who are unknowingly at the mercy of whatever lies deep in the soul of Abaddon.
Read 8 times
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 14, 2012
Originally published on my blog here in September 1998.
The third of May's Saga of the Exiles follows on from the climactic events of Golden Torc, which ended with the Atlantic flooding in past Gibraltar to begin the creation of the modern Mediterranean. The three communities, Tanu, human and Firvulag, are all seeking to rebuild in various ways, the different factions among them trying to use the chaos - coming more from the deaths of a large proportion of the Tanu ruling class than from the other damage done - to seize power and influence events.
The major factions are the main body of the Tanu, led by the extraordinary human Aiken Drum (a test-tube baby, the non-born king of the title); the traditionalist Tanu, looking for a return to the old ways of before the arrival of the humans; the Firvulag, who escaped from the catastrophe relatively unscathed but in uneasy alliance with Drum; the Howlers, deformed Firvulag who have finally discovered that the radioactive stone around their country is causing their problem and desiring re-integration with the main body of Firvulag society; a peace faction, led by the human operant Elizabeth; and the remnants of the Lowlives, human rebels against the Tanu, who have discovered that the aliens are poisoned by iron.
Into the political bickering of these well-established factions erupts a new force. Marc Remeillard is familiar to those who have read May's later published (though earlier conceived) novels, Intervention and the Galactic Milieu trilogy. I don't remember his introduction into the story being confusing the first time I read The Non-Born King, without the benefit of reading the later books, but I can easily see that it might cause a great deal of difficulty for a reader. The story is that after the rebellion's failure (detailed in the Galactic Milieu trilogy), a band of the metapsychics involved escaped through the time gate, lead by Remeillard, who was the main instigator of the rebellion. (Hence, to the people of the Milieu he is known as Abaddon, or the Adversary.) This group settled in Pleistocene Florida, where they have been searching for the early civilizations of the other species who make up the Galactic Milieu. The disorganisation of Tanu society has now convinced some of the younger members of the group that they can take advantage of the confusion to take over the time gate and construct a mechanism to enable them to return to the future.
As The Many-Coloured Land was a preparation for the dramatic events of The Golden Torc, this novel is a scene setter for the climax of the series in The Adversary. The plot is less exciting, though the alien politics are interesting. The focus of the book is on establishing new characters and deepening our understanding of old ones. This process does reveal some limitations in May's ability to create characters that differ in depth as well as on the surface; many of the alien characters are extremely sketchy.
The third of May's Saga of the Exiles follows on from the climactic events of Golden Torc, which ended with the Atlantic flooding in past Gibraltar to begin the creation of the modern Mediterranean. The three communities, Tanu, human and Firvulag, are all seeking to rebuild in various ways, the different factions among them trying to use the chaos - coming more from the deaths of a large proportion of the Tanu ruling class than from the other damage done - to seize power and influence events.
The major factions are the main body of the Tanu, led by the extraordinary human Aiken Drum (a test-tube baby, the non-born king of the title); the traditionalist Tanu, looking for a return to the old ways of before the arrival of the humans; the Firvulag, who escaped from the catastrophe relatively unscathed but in uneasy alliance with Drum; the Howlers, deformed Firvulag who have finally discovered that the radioactive stone around their country is causing their problem and desiring re-integration with the main body of Firvulag society; a peace faction, led by the human operant Elizabeth; and the remnants of the Lowlives, human rebels against the Tanu, who have discovered that the aliens are poisoned by iron.
Into the political bickering of these well-established factions erupts a new force. Marc Remeillard is familiar to those who have read May's later published (though earlier conceived) novels, Intervention and the Galactic Milieu trilogy. I don't remember his introduction into the story being confusing the first time I read The Non-Born King, without the benefit of reading the later books, but I can easily see that it might cause a great deal of difficulty for a reader. The story is that after the rebellion's failure (detailed in the Galactic Milieu trilogy), a band of the metapsychics involved escaped through the time gate, lead by Remeillard, who was the main instigator of the rebellion. (Hence, to the people of the Milieu he is known as Abaddon, or the Adversary.) This group settled in Pleistocene Florida, where they have been searching for the early civilizations of the other species who make up the Galactic Milieu. The disorganisation of Tanu society has now convinced some of the younger members of the group that they can take advantage of the confusion to take over the time gate and construct a mechanism to enable them to return to the future.
As The Many-Coloured Land was a preparation for the dramatic events of The Golden Torc, this novel is a scene setter for the climax of the series in The Adversary. The plot is less exciting, though the alien politics are interesting. The focus of the book is on establishing new characters and deepening our understanding of old ones. This process does reveal some limitations in May's ability to create characters that differ in depth as well as on the surface; many of the alien characters are extremely sketchy.
May 21, 2016
Although I'd read this twice before, the last time was ten years ago, so I have to admit I'd forgotten some of the details. This made the re-reading familiar overall but with some twists that were unexpected until the last moment. The series continues to be as fantastic as I'd recalled, with more complicated machinations among humans, Tanu and Firvulag in the aftermath of the flood. It's also in this volume that we start to learn more about Marc Remillard, his family, and his band of rebels, laying the groundwork for his prominence in the final Pliocene book (about which I'm also a bit hazy now) as well as the Milieu saga. Nearly every character is multifaceted, with even the most villainous having some sympathetic qualities. May's writing is sharp, humorous, and brilliant as always. Highly recommended!
December 14, 2013
Am enjoying this series of books again. This third book has the political intrigue, 'magic', big monsters, bad guys, good guys, a dragon, Abaddon, gold, more gold, betrayal, love turning to ashes, intelligence, Wagner, Celtic myths, ancient geology, and fishing. Oh, and aliens. Such a lot of fun. So glad these didn't go into the 'charity shop' pile.
January 18, 2008
This trilogy was amazing. May's ability to blend such a wide range of characters into the story was flawless, and the overarching story was dramatic as well. Watching each character grow as the story continued was great too. I laughed, I cried, etc.;)
Read
January 5, 2009This series is amazing. The writer's canvas is huge - there are so many plots and so many characters, but I was never confused about who was doing what. Their plotting and machinations are as intricate as those at any royal court, and the double-crosses abound.
August 3, 2017
A great edition in the story. An excellent new structure to the world made after the monumental ending of the Golden Torc, brings the characters into a changing world. It also introduces one of my favorite characters in fiction, Marc Remillard.
August 2, 2007
this one was harder to get through. The first two I read cover to cover in a two or three days.
November 28, 2017
There is really no letup in this series, the world is well established, the pieces are in place and this third book brings not one, but two big showdowns. Satisfying every time.
January 31, 2009
A GREAT READ!!!!!!!!!
February 12, 2019
7/10. Media de los 7 libros leídos de la autora : 8/10
Las siete novelas que he leído suyas se agrupan en dos series. La de La Intervención (3 libros) y esta Saga del exilio en el Plioceno (4 libros). Autora poco conocida pero que se lee (o que leí) con auténtico frenesí.
Recomiendo ambas, tal vez esta del Plioceno baja un poco en los dos últimos, pero ambas son joyas que tiene Ultramar en su colección de Grandes éxitos de Bolsillo (Ciencia Ficción).
Las siete novelas que he leído suyas se agrupan en dos series. La de La Intervención (3 libros) y esta Saga del exilio en el Plioceno (4 libros). Autora poco conocida pero que se lee (o que leí) con auténtico frenesí.
Recomiendo ambas, tal vez esta del Plioceno baja un poco en los dos últimos, pero ambas son joyas que tiene Ultramar en su colección de Grandes éxitos de Bolsillo (Ciencia Ficción).
September 23, 2018
3.5 stars
January 12, 2024
After two books of build up, the main players have joined the game and it is worth it
October 25, 2020
At the end of the previous volume of The saga of the pliocene exile, no Don had been bested by Aiken drum. Felice, with the help of the North American group, had blasted holes in the land bridge that held back the Atlantic ocean from the Mediterranean basin, flooding it. Now Aiken drum has been declared the non-born king. He and NoDonn's wife, Mercy [the opportunist], are together now.
These authors from the 20th century used words that are considered fighting words now 🙄:
Hardback 1983 Houghton Mifflin
P.279:
" 'his chosen persona is Queen Elizabeth I,' said basil primly, 'hence the Pearl studded red wig and -- er -- costume. In the Milieu, his name was Martin hudspeth. he was a senior research engineer with Boeing aerospace company's commercial rhocraft division.'
'no s***?' Danny was chastened.
'Betsy takes some getting used to,' Burke admitted. But don't we all?' He stood up yawned hugely, then eyed the husky fighter with Sly humor. 'there's old basil, who'd rather be miserable climbing mountains then teach literature in a nice limey University. and Mr Justice Burke with the feathers in his hair and the breachclouted tushi, sort of a Geronimo Manqué. to say nothing of you, my fine Covenant garden baritone! Tell me, n***** – do you still sing "toreador" at the top of your lungs while you chop exotic raiders to dog meat?' "
I'm sad in this part because Amerie dies. Felice loves her, but Amerie refuses to cut her vows.
P.298-9:
" 'I can never enter your mind world, felice. I'm only a normal woman. I can't help but be afraid of people like you... just as I can't help loving you. Felice let me be. Go to your own people.'
'I won't!' The girl screamed. 'I won't go without you! if you won't come with me willingly, I'll force you!' The two altar candles were suddenly extinguished. only the wan mist-light from the two little windows in the garnet sanctuary lamp gave illumination.
Felice's hands seized Amerie by the shoulders. psychoenergies flowed from the girl's brain and Amerie was wrenched by shock. 'you'll do as I say!' Felice cried, Terrible in coercion. 'you'll stay with me for as long as I want you. do you hear me?'
Racked by clonic spasms, her vocal cords paralyzed, Amerie felt herself lifted. there was a smell of burning fabric as her vestments smoked beneath felice's grip, and then the priest's own flesh burned and her heart stopped.
Sursum corda.
'choose me, Amerie!' the one elevating her now was incandescently nude. 'do it – and I'll start your heart again. Just say you love me.'
Dignam et justum est.
Felice flung The body and its red vestments to the floor and loomed high, dimming. Hoc Est enim Corpus meum. 'choose me! Please, Amerie!' Per ipsum et cum ipso... 'please!' In saecula...
Amerie's dying eyes shone. her mind told felice: no. I love you. This mass is for you.
and then the mind escaped, leaving the girl to rage and mourn and finally shapeshift back to the old Raven form. In this felice set off for spain, to give the other lover his choice."
In her Raven form, Felice has been plucking the gold Torcs from the drowned bodies underneath the Mediterranean Sea. She stashes them behind a boulder in her cave lair. But Aiken drum plans a raid and
carries it out, stealing all of her treasure and the Spear. As a finishing touch he causes an avalanche that breaks off the part of the mountain that contained her cave.
P.311-12:
"Still clothed in her Raven's guise, her mind perfectly screened, Felice arrived at her lair on Mulhacén. she hovered, incredulous, at the sight of the stupendous Rock slide, the glittering blocks of Micaschist larger than houses that had been sheared off the face of the mountain and tumbled into the nook that had been her home. The trees were gone, the flowering shrubs, the waterfall with its Fern-bordered pool for bathing, the firepit and the quaintly wrought rustic furniture that had been just outside the cavern, the mossy boulders where the rock thrushes had perched and sung for her in the evening's hush. Gone. the small branch of the river where the fat trout swam was buried under tons of debris as was the game trail that had brought the animal friends to her door. The only living thing left to greet her was the lynx, pseudaelurus, which sat on the flat crest of an isolated Crag, basking in the last of the dying sunlight.
the Raven spiraled down, crying. at first, she believed the catastrophe to be natural; but then she saw a Dusty golden torc half buried in the detritus, and she thought to exert her powerful deep-seeing eye, scanning the barricaded interior of her talus cave. She discovered that the treasure chamber had been emptied."
Mercy, who was pregnant when noDonn was thought to have died, discovers that noDonn is still alive. She has taken advantage of the wrath felice brought down on aiken drum's fleeing quest to "disappear" and get back together with her former king. They hump, and noDonn says:
P.324-5:
" 'motherhood has deepened you, queen,' he said. 'you are a fountain of repose. A wellspring of comfort.'
'all my comfort is for you. I'll never leave you now – not even to return to agraynel. she is only my flesh. you are my mind's life. how could I have doubted that you lived? How could I have accepted him? Can you forgive my defilement?'
'If you forgive mine.' He told her about hulda. 'it was not done freely, but I know now that I had dark joy in the shaming. and now this wretched hybrid woman carries the son I would have given you, rosmar: the first of my host.' "
P.352-3:
" 'I know. And I'm more grateful that I can say for her nurturing of the child while I was – lost. I think perhaps it was my subconscious concern for agraynel that must have cured my amnesia at last as I wandered forLorn in the jungle of Koneyn.'
Aiken uttered a soft chuckle. 'well, we know that it wasn't subconscious concern for me!' He pretended to be absorbed in the action out on the beach. the scaffolding was being removed from the two great kites, which were held upright by the top anchor lines manned by the sweating crews. Sullivan's kite was predominantly scarlet and gold, decorated with a splendidly helmed Japanese warrior poised against a backdrop of cherry blossoms. aiken's kite was more stark, a medley of blues, a tsunami wave à la Hokusai Frozen elegantly in the breaking above a Rockbound islet.
Sullivan was making a valiant attempt to be urbane in the face of ominous mental undertones. 'no one was more astonished than i, great queen, when olone volunteered to suckle your precious child, believing that you had perished. I had not realized that such a thing was possible for a woman who had not herself given birth! the tanu are an amazing race, aren't they? so human and yet so fascinating in their difference! the unique breasts of the women have a counterpart in the folklore of several European countries, you know. the Ellefolk and skogrå of scandinavia, the Fée of france, German nixen, the aguane of the Italian alps, the GiaNe of Sardinia –'
'all elf women with long breasts. I know.' Mercy was gentle. 'but there's nothing mysterious about the milk, Tonn Dear. If a woman wishes it deeply enough and her will is strong, the prolactin hormone will be secreted along with others and the breast will fill – even for those who are childless. Human women or tanu, both are the same. the loving desire to nurture is all the magic that's needed.'
'but don't forget,' came aiken's wry interpolation, 'that the converse holds good as well. both agraynel and I were lucky.'
Sullivan's face flamed scarlet. He was on his feet, backing away from the Royal couple, his imperfectly curtained mind leaking mortification and futile rage. [He's Olone's husband.]
Mercy sad eyes saw only Aiken now. 'yes, I'm dry now, it's true. I've been sore troubled and I've been diminished, and so I have no life to give my daughter, poor thing. What I have to give you we both know! So take it.' "
Mercy talks Sullivan into using his psycho energies to open the doors to aiken's armory. when they come out again, Aiken is there waiting for them.
P.380-1:
" 'yes," Aiken agreed. almost casually he said to sullivan-tonn, 'get away from her, you.'
the psychokinetic levitated and whisked across the Great foyer, toward the passage leading to the exterior courtyard. Abruptly, his body seemed to meet an invisible wall. There was a sickening crackle, a choked scream.
'not too far away,' Aiken said.
Sullivan's Stout torso was pinioned to the invisible wall. His nose oozed blood and his jaw hung awry, the lower lip pierced by splintered teeth. He began to utter liquid-thickened cries.
Both his feet burst into flame.
'no!' Screamed mercy.
'it's your doing,' said Aiken.
the smoke roiled and blackened. Sullivan writhed, The sounds coming from his mind and throat as shapeless and hideous as his sloughing flesh. his clothing had flashed away in an instant; now he burned only from the knees up, his feet and lower legs having been reduced to calcined bone.
'oh, god.' Mercy was weeping. a small fulgurant ball flew from her, struck the flaming man full in the head. The mind-cries ceased. there was only the tick and sputter of the burning, and Mercy's low sobs.
'come upstairs with me.'
Aiken held out one hand to her. she came slowly to him, noticing at last that he was all in black, with even the golden tone of his thoughts damped down to a level of darkness more fearful – more exciting – than any aspect of him she had ever yet known. She took his hand, warm flesh, quite human.
'what will it be, then?' She asked with Fey archness. 'how will you do it, Amadán-na-briona?'
'come,' he said. 'and see.'
The spear. golden and rising from the dark, full of hot energy, hungry. A living shaft, not one of glass, as she had known it would be. first discharging light and pain, then reabsorbing its own energies and hers, all of the life force, all of the joy and sorrow, all memory, all thinking, all that had been created and matured and fulfilled. He took her and she was gone.
He was alive and shining.
as he looked at the ashes, he was surprised how little it had hurt."
These authors from the 20th century used words that are considered fighting words now 🙄:
Hardback 1983 Houghton Mifflin
P.279:
" 'his chosen persona is Queen Elizabeth I,' said basil primly, 'hence the Pearl studded red wig and -- er -- costume. In the Milieu, his name was Martin hudspeth. he was a senior research engineer with Boeing aerospace company's commercial rhocraft division.'
'no s***?' Danny was chastened.
'Betsy takes some getting used to,' Burke admitted. But don't we all?' He stood up yawned hugely, then eyed the husky fighter with Sly humor. 'there's old basil, who'd rather be miserable climbing mountains then teach literature in a nice limey University. and Mr Justice Burke with the feathers in his hair and the breachclouted tushi, sort of a Geronimo Manqué. to say nothing of you, my fine Covenant garden baritone! Tell me, n***** – do you still sing "toreador" at the top of your lungs while you chop exotic raiders to dog meat?' "
I'm sad in this part because Amerie dies. Felice loves her, but Amerie refuses to cut her vows.
P.298-9:
" 'I can never enter your mind world, felice. I'm only a normal woman. I can't help but be afraid of people like you... just as I can't help loving you. Felice let me be. Go to your own people.'
'I won't!' The girl screamed. 'I won't go without you! if you won't come with me willingly, I'll force you!' The two altar candles were suddenly extinguished. only the wan mist-light from the two little windows in the garnet sanctuary lamp gave illumination.
Felice's hands seized Amerie by the shoulders. psychoenergies flowed from the girl's brain and Amerie was wrenched by shock. 'you'll do as I say!' Felice cried, Terrible in coercion. 'you'll stay with me for as long as I want you. do you hear me?'
Racked by clonic spasms, her vocal cords paralyzed, Amerie felt herself lifted. there was a smell of burning fabric as her vestments smoked beneath felice's grip, and then the priest's own flesh burned and her heart stopped.
Sursum corda.
'choose me, Amerie!' the one elevating her now was incandescently nude. 'do it – and I'll start your heart again. Just say you love me.'
Dignam et justum est.
Felice flung The body and its red vestments to the floor and loomed high, dimming. Hoc Est enim Corpus meum. 'choose me! Please, Amerie!' Per ipsum et cum ipso... 'please!' In saecula...
Amerie's dying eyes shone. her mind told felice: no. I love you. This mass is for you.
and then the mind escaped, leaving the girl to rage and mourn and finally shapeshift back to the old Raven form. In this felice set off for spain, to give the other lover his choice."
In her Raven form, Felice has been plucking the gold Torcs from the drowned bodies underneath the Mediterranean Sea. She stashes them behind a boulder in her cave lair. But Aiken drum plans a raid and
carries it out, stealing all of her treasure and the Spear. As a finishing touch he causes an avalanche that breaks off the part of the mountain that contained her cave.
P.311-12:
"Still clothed in her Raven's guise, her mind perfectly screened, Felice arrived at her lair on Mulhacén. she hovered, incredulous, at the sight of the stupendous Rock slide, the glittering blocks of Micaschist larger than houses that had been sheared off the face of the mountain and tumbled into the nook that had been her home. The trees were gone, the flowering shrubs, the waterfall with its Fern-bordered pool for bathing, the firepit and the quaintly wrought rustic furniture that had been just outside the cavern, the mossy boulders where the rock thrushes had perched and sung for her in the evening's hush. Gone. the small branch of the river where the fat trout swam was buried under tons of debris as was the game trail that had brought the animal friends to her door. The only living thing left to greet her was the lynx, pseudaelurus, which sat on the flat crest of an isolated Crag, basking in the last of the dying sunlight.
the Raven spiraled down, crying. at first, she believed the catastrophe to be natural; but then she saw a Dusty golden torc half buried in the detritus, and she thought to exert her powerful deep-seeing eye, scanning the barricaded interior of her talus cave. She discovered that the treasure chamber had been emptied."
Mercy, who was pregnant when noDonn was thought to have died, discovers that noDonn is still alive. She has taken advantage of the wrath felice brought down on aiken drum's fleeing quest to "disappear" and get back together with her former king. They hump, and noDonn says:
P.324-5:
" 'motherhood has deepened you, queen,' he said. 'you are a fountain of repose. A wellspring of comfort.'
'all my comfort is for you. I'll never leave you now – not even to return to agraynel. she is only my flesh. you are my mind's life. how could I have doubted that you lived? How could I have accepted him? Can you forgive my defilement?'
'If you forgive mine.' He told her about hulda. 'it was not done freely, but I know now that I had dark joy in the shaming. and now this wretched hybrid woman carries the son I would have given you, rosmar: the first of my host.' "
P.352-3:
" 'I know. And I'm more grateful that I can say for her nurturing of the child while I was – lost. I think perhaps it was my subconscious concern for agraynel that must have cured my amnesia at last as I wandered forLorn in the jungle of Koneyn.'
Aiken uttered a soft chuckle. 'well, we know that it wasn't subconscious concern for me!' He pretended to be absorbed in the action out on the beach. the scaffolding was being removed from the two great kites, which were held upright by the top anchor lines manned by the sweating crews. Sullivan's kite was predominantly scarlet and gold, decorated with a splendidly helmed Japanese warrior poised against a backdrop of cherry blossoms. aiken's kite was more stark, a medley of blues, a tsunami wave à la Hokusai Frozen elegantly in the breaking above a Rockbound islet.
Sullivan was making a valiant attempt to be urbane in the face of ominous mental undertones. 'no one was more astonished than i, great queen, when olone volunteered to suckle your precious child, believing that you had perished. I had not realized that such a thing was possible for a woman who had not herself given birth! the tanu are an amazing race, aren't they? so human and yet so fascinating in their difference! the unique breasts of the women have a counterpart in the folklore of several European countries, you know. the Ellefolk and skogrå of scandinavia, the Fée of france, German nixen, the aguane of the Italian alps, the GiaNe of Sardinia –'
'all elf women with long breasts. I know.' Mercy was gentle. 'but there's nothing mysterious about the milk, Tonn Dear. If a woman wishes it deeply enough and her will is strong, the prolactin hormone will be secreted along with others and the breast will fill – even for those who are childless. Human women or tanu, both are the same. the loving desire to nurture is all the magic that's needed.'
'but don't forget,' came aiken's wry interpolation, 'that the converse holds good as well. both agraynel and I were lucky.'
Sullivan's face flamed scarlet. He was on his feet, backing away from the Royal couple, his imperfectly curtained mind leaking mortification and futile rage. [He's Olone's husband.]
Mercy sad eyes saw only Aiken now. 'yes, I'm dry now, it's true. I've been sore troubled and I've been diminished, and so I have no life to give my daughter, poor thing. What I have to give you we both know! So take it.' "
Mercy talks Sullivan into using his psycho energies to open the doors to aiken's armory. when they come out again, Aiken is there waiting for them.
P.380-1:
" 'yes," Aiken agreed. almost casually he said to sullivan-tonn, 'get away from her, you.'
the psychokinetic levitated and whisked across the Great foyer, toward the passage leading to the exterior courtyard. Abruptly, his body seemed to meet an invisible wall. There was a sickening crackle, a choked scream.
'not too far away,' Aiken said.
Sullivan's Stout torso was pinioned to the invisible wall. His nose oozed blood and his jaw hung awry, the lower lip pierced by splintered teeth. He began to utter liquid-thickened cries.
Both his feet burst into flame.
'no!' Screamed mercy.
'it's your doing,' said Aiken.
the smoke roiled and blackened. Sullivan writhed, The sounds coming from his mind and throat as shapeless and hideous as his sloughing flesh. his clothing had flashed away in an instant; now he burned only from the knees up, his feet and lower legs having been reduced to calcined bone.
'oh, god.' Mercy was weeping. a small fulgurant ball flew from her, struck the flaming man full in the head. The mind-cries ceased. there was only the tick and sputter of the burning, and Mercy's low sobs.
'come upstairs with me.'
Aiken held out one hand to her. she came slowly to him, noticing at last that he was all in black, with even the golden tone of his thoughts damped down to a level of darkness more fearful – more exciting – than any aspect of him she had ever yet known. She took his hand, warm flesh, quite human.
'what will it be, then?' She asked with Fey archness. 'how will you do it, Amadán-na-briona?'
'come,' he said. 'and see.'
The spear. golden and rising from the dark, full of hot energy, hungry. A living shaft, not one of glass, as she had known it would be. first discharging light and pain, then reabsorbing its own energies and hers, all of the life force, all of the joy and sorrow, all memory, all thinking, all that had been created and matured and fulfilled. He took her and she was gone.
He was alive and shining.
as he looked at the ashes, he was surprised how little it had hurt."
September 6, 2016
Storyline: 2/5
Characters: 2/5
Writing Style: 2/5
World: 2/5
I was a steadfast fan of the first in this series. It was an adventure and discovery novel done right. May took us into a new world (or an old one, depending on how you think about it), and on a delightful exploration. The encounters in the new world were momentous and revelatory. Along with the characters we grappled not only with the expected obstacles but had to face unforeseen and spectacular perils. Thus the worldbuilding and environment were as exciting and significant as the plot. Now, it has all fallen apart, and I'm left rather blue....
I'm especially low after reading this one because I thought I'd found a hidden gem. The Many Colored Land doesn't make it onto top science fiction and fantasy lists. Julian May's name isn't thrown around with the science fiction notables, and the Pliocene Exile isn't ranked with any of the best series. The first in the series was just so well executed, though. I was sure I had stumbled onto an unnoticed great. I rushed out and got all the books remaining in the series and the 4-book spin-off as well. Julian May was going to become one of my favorite authors. But it wasn't to be.
Almost everything I'd liked about the series first has been cast aside. The worldbuilding? It is no more. Now we're simply running through the already-established environment, chases and fights, double-dealings and intrigues. The characters and relationships? Most of the characters are interchangeable. The few that stand out were significant for me largely in how pleased I was to see them die. Random characters and perspectives are thrown in without any purpose or relevance. The pacing and plotholes? Somehow all the fighting turned into Dragon Ball Z anime sequences where each grimace, punch, and special power is exaggerated. The writing? What once was a careful selection of words for each scene has now become a scientific treatise. May doubled-down on the Pliocene Era taxonomic descriptors. Random sentences throughout are in untranslated Latin, and the narrative, bizarrely, proceeds with technical terms from French and adjectives from poetic Old English. The magic - that special paranormal turn in this science fiction tale? To the extent that there is new worldbuilding it is here, but it now has become ridiculous. What was once a complex and controlled power now has become a chaotic, unchecked system where anything can happen, where any development or outcome can be explained away by the system. Actions and activities no longer have to be consistent with the world, competencies don't have to reflect characters' abilities, and lingo's primary purpose is to hide the leaps and inconsistencies. Further, the writing makes reading the action scenes and "magical" system developments a chore to slog through. Imagine Robert Jordan enlisting C.J. Cherryh to write his "One Power" scenes and descriptions. Reading became work, and there was no payoff to justify that effort.
So I'll wallow in self-pity for a while. Mourn for my loss. I don't think I'll get to that spin-off anytime soon, but with only one book left in the Pliocene Era I'll probably finish off this series despite my disappointment.
Characters: 2/5
Writing Style: 2/5
World: 2/5
The thrill is gone
The thrill is gone away
The thrill is gone baby
The thrill is gone away
I was a steadfast fan of the first in this series. It was an adventure and discovery novel done right. May took us into a new world (or an old one, depending on how you think about it), and on a delightful exploration. The encounters in the new world were momentous and revelatory. Along with the characters we grappled not only with the expected obstacles but had to face unforeseen and spectacular perils. Thus the worldbuilding and environment were as exciting and significant as the plot. Now, it has all fallen apart, and I'm left rather blue....
The thrill is gone baby
The thrill is gone away from me
Although, I'll still live on
But so lonely I'll be
I'm especially low after reading this one because I thought I'd found a hidden gem. The Many Colored Land doesn't make it onto top science fiction and fantasy lists. Julian May's name isn't thrown around with the science fiction notables, and the Pliocene Exile isn't ranked with any of the best series. The first in the series was just so well executed, though. I was sure I had stumbled onto an unnoticed great. I rushed out and got all the books remaining in the series and the 4-book spin-off as well. Julian May was going to become one of my favorite authors. But it wasn't to be.
You know I'm free, free now baby
I'm free from your spell
Oh I'm free, free, free now
Almost everything I'd liked about the series first has been cast aside. The worldbuilding? It is no more. Now we're simply running through the already-established environment, chases and fights, double-dealings and intrigues. The characters and relationships? Most of the characters are interchangeable. The few that stand out were significant for me largely in how pleased I was to see them die. Random characters and perspectives are thrown in without any purpose or relevance. The pacing and plotholes? Somehow all the fighting turned into Dragon Ball Z anime sequences where each grimace, punch, and special power is exaggerated. The writing? What once was a careful selection of words for each scene has now become a scientific treatise. May doubled-down on the Pliocene Era taxonomic descriptors. Random sentences throughout are in untranslated Latin, and the narrative, bizarrely, proceeds with technical terms from French and adjectives from poetic Old English. The magic - that special paranormal turn in this science fiction tale? To the extent that there is new worldbuilding it is here, but it now has become ridiculous. What was once a complex and controlled power now has become a chaotic, unchecked system where anything can happen, where any development or outcome can be explained away by the system. Actions and activities no longer have to be consistent with the world, competencies don't have to reflect characters' abilities, and lingo's primary purpose is to hide the leaps and inconsistencies. Further, the writing makes reading the action scenes and "magical" system developments a chore to slog through. Imagine Robert Jordan enlisting C.J. Cherryh to write his "One Power" scenes and descriptions. Reading became work, and there was no payoff to justify that effort.
So I'll wallow in self-pity for a while. Mourn for my loss. I don't think I'll get to that spin-off anytime soon, but with only one book left in the Pliocene Era I'll probably finish off this series despite my disappointment.
I'm free from your spell
And now that it's all over
All I can do is wish you well
September 28, 2014
‘The dominion of the Tanu has been broken. In the aftermath of cataclysm, Aiken Drum seizes his hour to grasp control of the Pliocene world.
There are those, human and Tanu, who rally to him – and those who fear and hate him. The Grand Master, Elizabeth... the mad Felice... the goblin hordes of the Firvulag all thrust into a violent and stormy struggle for irresistible power.’
Blurb from the 1983 Pan paperback edition
In the third volume of May’s ‘Saga of The Exiles’ we join our heroes in the aftermath of the flooding of the Mediterranean basin which decimated the Tanu and upset the power balance within The Many Coloured Land.
Aiken Drum, the diminutive trickster, is quick to seize control of the situation and of the Tanu throne, taking as his bride, Mercy Rosmar, widowed since the flood in which her husband Nodon Battlemaster disappeared, his body never found.
Meanwhile in Pliocene Florida we join – for the first time – the exiled Rebel operants, led by Marc Remillard, disgraced Grandmaster of the Galactic Concilium.
Man has been attempting to discover a world where a race has developed a Coadunate Mind in order that he and his children can be rescued by them, after which they plan to stage a coup.
The rest of the rebels do not share Marc’s faith on the search and his children are secretly planning to travel to Europe in order to create a device at the Time Gate capable of taking them back to Twenty-Second Century Earth.
Elsewhere, further evidence is discovered that suggests that the Tanu and Firvulag, through interbreeding with humanity, will become the progenitors of the Human Race itself.
Old taboos are breaking down. Sugoll, leader of the mutated Howlers has resettled his people in a less radioactive area and, on the advice of a Tanu geneticist, allowed a thousand of his single women (gross mutations who cloak themselves in psi-generated visions of voluptuous beauty) to mate with itinerant humans who literally have no place to go following the ransacking of a Tanu city by the Firvulag.
Many of the traditionalists are predicting the coming of the Nightfall War, which signals the end of the world.
Nodon, it transpires, was not dead, but was washed ashore in Africa and tended by a crazed human/Firvulag hybrid, who manages to seduce her paralysed patient and becomes pregnant.
Like Peter F Hamilton, May is a consummate juggler of the multi-character storylines and simultaneously manages to seamlessly weld what is in effect a fantasy setting (providing a scientific rationale for the gnomes, trolls, ogres, elves and fairies of legend) with the people and the scientific marvels of the Twenty-Second Century. There is also a fair amount of humour, which cleverly serves to accentuate some of the horrors which all three races perpetuate upon themselves and each other.
One could argue that this is perhaps the weakest of the four books and perhaps suffers from a surfeit of characters and political machinations. On the other hand one cannot fault the characterisation since even the minor characters appear as fully rounded characters with histories and tales of their own.
I suspect these novels, along with the superb ‘Intervention’ which tells the tale of the emergence of human metapsychic abilities and the perhaps weaker trilogy which takes us through the Metapsychic Rebellion, will be reassessed as an exemplary body of work, ingenious in its concept and construction.
There are those, human and Tanu, who rally to him – and those who fear and hate him. The Grand Master, Elizabeth... the mad Felice... the goblin hordes of the Firvulag all thrust into a violent and stormy struggle for irresistible power.’
Blurb from the 1983 Pan paperback edition
In the third volume of May’s ‘Saga of The Exiles’ we join our heroes in the aftermath of the flooding of the Mediterranean basin which decimated the Tanu and upset the power balance within The Many Coloured Land.
Aiken Drum, the diminutive trickster, is quick to seize control of the situation and of the Tanu throne, taking as his bride, Mercy Rosmar, widowed since the flood in which her husband Nodon Battlemaster disappeared, his body never found.
Meanwhile in Pliocene Florida we join – for the first time – the exiled Rebel operants, led by Marc Remillard, disgraced Grandmaster of the Galactic Concilium.
Man has been attempting to discover a world where a race has developed a Coadunate Mind in order that he and his children can be rescued by them, after which they plan to stage a coup.
The rest of the rebels do not share Marc’s faith on the search and his children are secretly planning to travel to Europe in order to create a device at the Time Gate capable of taking them back to Twenty-Second Century Earth.
Elsewhere, further evidence is discovered that suggests that the Tanu and Firvulag, through interbreeding with humanity, will become the progenitors of the Human Race itself.
Old taboos are breaking down. Sugoll, leader of the mutated Howlers has resettled his people in a less radioactive area and, on the advice of a Tanu geneticist, allowed a thousand of his single women (gross mutations who cloak themselves in psi-generated visions of voluptuous beauty) to mate with itinerant humans who literally have no place to go following the ransacking of a Tanu city by the Firvulag.
Many of the traditionalists are predicting the coming of the Nightfall War, which signals the end of the world.
Nodon, it transpires, was not dead, but was washed ashore in Africa and tended by a crazed human/Firvulag hybrid, who manages to seduce her paralysed patient and becomes pregnant.
Like Peter F Hamilton, May is a consummate juggler of the multi-character storylines and simultaneously manages to seamlessly weld what is in effect a fantasy setting (providing a scientific rationale for the gnomes, trolls, ogres, elves and fairies of legend) with the people and the scientific marvels of the Twenty-Second Century. There is also a fair amount of humour, which cleverly serves to accentuate some of the horrors which all three races perpetuate upon themselves and each other.
One could argue that this is perhaps the weakest of the four books and perhaps suffers from a surfeit of characters and political machinations. On the other hand one cannot fault the characterisation since even the minor characters appear as fully rounded characters with histories and tales of their own.
I suspect these novels, along with the superb ‘Intervention’ which tells the tale of the emergence of human metapsychic abilities and the perhaps weaker trilogy which takes us through the Metapsychic Rebellion, will be reassessed as an exemplary body of work, ingenious in its concept and construction.
September 30, 2012
A great story expanding on the fortunes of the time travellers in the Pliocene era, in this volume you also get to meet some important key figures that are obviously going to impact on the later novels in the series. The story centres on the Nodonn / Aiken Drum power struggle for supremacy that leads to a climactic battle for the rule of the Many coloured land.
Powerful and rich in detail.
Powerful and rich in detail.
January 16, 2022
Finally got around to the 3rd book in the Saga of the Exiles. I found the continuing political machinations a bit tedious. I will push through to the finale, however.
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December 8, 2010Great book - now I have to go get the next one!
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