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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Written in the most beautiful, poetic fashion. The richest fantasy I’ve read since I was a kid in terms of world building, plot and actual fantasy creatures/beings. So glad this was recommended to me, wish I had heard of it years ago!
I have a bookshelf for 'science fiction with a fantasy vibe', but this book, while ostensibly science fiction in that it is fiction about the imagined future, and in that the underlying paradigm of the universe is supposedly scientific, is more like fantasy with a science fiction vibe. Star Wars would also probably fit that category. Not only is there magic in the universe (meta-psychic powers), but there are elves and goblins and ogres, and what amounts to an epic fantasy plot line.
The novel is weird enough for me, what with its Pliocene fauna, cosplaying characters, meta-psychic powers, flying eggs, and elf-human breeding program, but it's also so implausible for science fiction (which it wants to be) that I was continuously pulled out of the story to ponder just how implausible it is. I might compare this to Zelazney's Lord of Light, which is perhaps equally implausible if you think about it (there are sentient beings of pure energy, for example), but does not cause you to question it. That may be because Lord of Light is written to ostensibly be mythology, but the reader is in on the secret that its really science fiction. The Many Colored Land seems to be written to ostensibly be science fiction, but the reader is in on the secret that its 'really' fantasy/folk, only the reader is, at the time time, informed that its science fiction. It may also just be that there are extra implausibilities thrown in all of the time, like the pirate cos-player losing their eye, or finding a friendly Pliocene cat in the forest. I don't actually mind those for a fun adventure tale, but the book starts to get the tall tale vibe after a while.
The Many Colored Land's national and ethnic stereotypes do not age well. It's like everyone in the 22nd century is really into what they perceive to be their ethnic heritages, so they cosplay stereotypes of them. I suppose classic Trek does something similar, and that is what May is trying to get at here, but 40 years later there are moments that make you cringe. For example, it's very unlikely that the white husband woudl call his African American wife of 80+ years 'black woman' as a term of endearment. The author means well, and there are some brief, minor, but really forward thinking moments, like Felice the queer female athlete, but there are so many bombs. Like the 22nd century Native American judge from Washington state who dons war paint and wields a tomahawk.
I did really like the descriptions of the Pliocene world, and that aspect of the world seemed well researched. I especially like the description of the fungus forest, and the various Pliocene creatures. The Ramapithecae were not believable, but they were cute.
One other thing that was neat about this book was not it had a lot of cool, unfamiliar (to me) words. Favorite: eructation (to belch), which has exactly one instance of each vowel.
The novel is weird enough for me, what with its Pliocene fauna, cosplaying characters, meta-psychic powers, flying eggs, and elf-human breeding program, but it's also so implausible for science fiction (which it wants to be) that I was continuously pulled out of the story to ponder just how implausible it is. I might compare this to Zelazney's Lord of Light, which is perhaps equally implausible if you think about it (there are sentient beings of pure energy, for example), but does not cause you to question it. That may be because Lord of Light is written to ostensibly be mythology, but the reader is in on the secret that its really science fiction. The Many Colored Land seems to be written to ostensibly be science fiction, but the reader is in on the secret that its 'really' fantasy/folk, only the reader is, at the time time, informed that its science fiction. It may also just be that there are extra implausibilities thrown in all of the time, like the pirate cos-player losing their eye, or finding a friendly Pliocene cat in the forest. I don't actually mind those for a fun adventure tale, but the book starts to get the tall tale vibe after a while.
The Many Colored Land's national and ethnic stereotypes do not age well. It's like everyone in the 22nd century is really into what they perceive to be their ethnic heritages, so they cosplay stereotypes of them. I suppose classic Trek does something similar, and that is what May is trying to get at here, but 40 years later there are moments that make you cringe. For example, it's very unlikely that the white husband woudl call his African American wife of 80+ years 'black woman' as a term of endearment. The author means well, and there are some brief, minor, but really forward thinking moments, like Felice the queer female athlete, but there are so many bombs. Like the 22nd century Native American judge from Washington state who dons war paint and wields a tomahawk.
I did really like the descriptions of the Pliocene world, and that aspect of the world seemed well researched. I especially like the description of the fungus forest, and the various Pliocene creatures. The Ramapithecae were not believable, but they were cute.
One other thing that was neat about this book was not it had a lot of cool, unfamiliar (to me) words. Favorite: eructation (to belch), which has exactly one instance of each vowel.
I first read this back in the 1980s. I remembered the one joke in the book, the characters, the setting, but little else of any detail. My fault rather than the book’s. The style of writing is surprisingly - given the subject-matter - pedestrian, so for me the world of the Pliocene never really opened up. But for all that an exciting story. I’m surprised it hasn’t been picked up by a streaming channel.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I am not sure how many times I started reading this book, but then never made it to the finishing line.
2024 is the year, I finally read the whole book, and wow, what a story line, what excellent story telling in a language that is so immensely rich and nuanced is provided.
And then there is the plot, intricate and with twists and turns, going back into the pliocene and then see what happens there.
To me, this is science fiction writing at its best and this is only the first book in a series of for 4. I'm hooked.
2024 is the year, I finally read the whole book, and wow, what a story line, what excellent story telling in a language that is so immensely rich and nuanced is provided.
And then there is the plot, intricate and with twists and turns, going back into the pliocene and then see what happens there.
To me, this is science fiction writing at its best and this is only the first book in a series of for 4. I'm hooked.
This has sci-fi, this has fantasy, this has time-travel, faeries, psi-powers, alien tech and pre-historic animals so this is a book that, on concept, I should love. Sadly I didn't really enjoy it. It's been a while since last I had such a dissonant experience reading a book, constantly finding the ideas interesting and all the while being bored by the narrative itself.
The plot is simple, the characters have a good backbone but not enough to make me care a lot, the writing is not bad but lacks excellence. It's an OK book that feels like it could have been great.
The plot is simple, the characters have a good backbone but not enough to make me care a lot, the writing is not bad but lacks excellence. It's an OK book that feels like it could have been great.
Combination of a neat central conceit (the legends of Fae based on aliens who came to Earth millions of years ago - shades of John Keel's ultraterrestrials!) and very shallow characterization and obvious plotting. I'll check out the second volume, but that's because I'm enough of a geek to be curious how the plot resolves.
Concept is refreshing, but it was ultimately a bit too '70s somehow for me
Different.
When listening to the audio version, it's hard to follow the story as it jumps around quite a bit, both in time, and in scenes.
Enjoyable enough for me to go on to book 2.
When listening to the audio version, it's hard to follow the story as it jumps around quite a bit, both in time, and in scenes.
Enjoyable enough for me to go on to book 2.
Sometimes nostalgia takes over and I am tempted to re-read something from my past. Knowing there are so many books I'll never get to, I don't typically read books again, but I like to allow myself one book a year or so to indulge the urge to go back.
Ever since the ill-fated TV show Terra Nova hit the air, I have been bitterly reminded of Julian May's enjoyable Pliocene Exile series. Aspects of Terra Nova, ie. people being exiled into the distant past, reminded me of May and her excellent books. Thoughts of reading it again tickled in the back of my brain for nearly a year, until I finally relented and dug up a copy of the first book in the series, The Many Colored Land.
May's series had everything I loved as a reader in my late teens--epic scope, SF grand adventure, a huge cast of characters, and writing that didn't "talk down" to its readers. Would it hold up upon a second read 25+ years later? In a word, yes.
While I didn't remember specific details, much of the book came back to me as I read it. I loved (and still do) May's concept of the future, a more utopian society that still has its share of misfits and malcontents'. I adore her concept of meta--abilities, and her involved history of how humanity developed operant mental powers and are invited into the Unity, and group of 5 other alien races with similar abilities. All of this is mere background for the tale that May unfolds, but it adds so much depth to her tale.
The Many Colored Land involves a group of the aforementioned misfits--people who don't fit into the more sterile future, or people who want to flee their lives that they abhor. Through an odd, seemingly useless scientific discovery, a scientist has discovered a way to open a one-way portal 6 million years into the past, during the Pliocene epoch. The world is post-dinosaur and romantics see it as the real Eden of Earth's past.
Our main point of view characters decide to leave their lives and take this one way journey into the past. This group includes criminals, people who feel they belong in an earlier age, the love lorn, and the psychologically damaged. May alternates her pov between these characters, and I grew to love many of them during the novel. Sometimes her characterizations are a bit easy, as are the romantic developments, but overall the characters are what make the series. Aiken Drum alone is a character who makes the series worth reading.
The novel is dividing into three parts: the intro of the characters and how they decide to enter "Exile" and travel to the Pliocene, their initial reactions and adventures upon arrival, and the more political and war-like reactions of some of the characters.
What sets their story into motion upon arrival are the Tanu, yet another operant alien race, themselves trapped on Earth during the Pliocene. As humans travel to the past, the find themselves enslaved or befriended by the Tanu. The rest of the novel, and the series, deals with the many characters on both sides of this conflict.
Was revisiting May's series worth it? Most definitely. While there are aspects that feel a bit dated from time to time, overall the series holds up quite well indeed. May's world building is top notch, her characters are fun, and her writing is quite deft. She does has some peculiarities, as there is a lot of scientific info-dumping from time to time. May wrote many non-fiction science articles in her career, and this knowledge is used in her writings. As a result, her depiction of the Pliocene feels genuine and authentic, if at times a bit forced.
I now face the pleasant yet upsetting task of reading the rest of the series. I know I have other books to read, but it's worth it. I don't know that I'd enjoy anything else as much right now. Recommended.
Ever since the ill-fated TV show Terra Nova hit the air, I have been bitterly reminded of Julian May's enjoyable Pliocene Exile series. Aspects of Terra Nova, ie. people being exiled into the distant past, reminded me of May and her excellent books. Thoughts of reading it again tickled in the back of my brain for nearly a year, until I finally relented and dug up a copy of the first book in the series, The Many Colored Land.
May's series had everything I loved as a reader in my late teens--epic scope, SF grand adventure, a huge cast of characters, and writing that didn't "talk down" to its readers. Would it hold up upon a second read 25+ years later? In a word, yes.
While I didn't remember specific details, much of the book came back to me as I read it. I loved (and still do) May's concept of the future, a more utopian society that still has its share of misfits and malcontents'. I adore her concept of meta--abilities, and her involved history of how humanity developed operant mental powers and are invited into the Unity, and group of 5 other alien races with similar abilities. All of this is mere background for the tale that May unfolds, but it adds so much depth to her tale.
The Many Colored Land involves a group of the aforementioned misfits--people who don't fit into the more sterile future, or people who want to flee their lives that they abhor. Through an odd, seemingly useless scientific discovery, a scientist has discovered a way to open a one-way portal 6 million years into the past, during the Pliocene epoch. The world is post-dinosaur and romantics see it as the real Eden of Earth's past.
Our main point of view characters decide to leave their lives and take this one way journey into the past. This group includes criminals, people who feel they belong in an earlier age, the love lorn, and the psychologically damaged. May alternates her pov between these characters, and I grew to love many of them during the novel. Sometimes her characterizations are a bit easy, as are the romantic developments, but overall the characters are what make the series. Aiken Drum alone is a character who makes the series worth reading.
The novel is dividing into three parts: the intro of the characters and how they decide to enter "Exile" and travel to the Pliocene, their initial reactions and adventures upon arrival, and the more political and war-like reactions of some of the characters.
What sets their story into motion upon arrival are the Tanu, yet another operant alien race, themselves trapped on Earth during the Pliocene. As humans travel to the past, the find themselves enslaved or befriended by the Tanu. The rest of the novel, and the series, deals with the many characters on both sides of this conflict.
Was revisiting May's series worth it? Most definitely. While there are aspects that feel a bit dated from time to time, overall the series holds up quite well indeed. May's world building is top notch, her characters are fun, and her writing is quite deft. She does has some peculiarities, as there is a lot of scientific info-dumping from time to time. May wrote many non-fiction science articles in her career, and this knowledge is used in her writings. As a result, her depiction of the Pliocene feels genuine and authentic, if at times a bit forced.
I now face the pleasant yet upsetting task of reading the rest of the series. I know I have other books to read, but it's worth it. I don't know that I'd enjoy anything else as much right now. Recommended.