Rating: 
Summary: 6 million years in the making
Review: The "Many Colored Land" was the novel that started me on a reading frenzy that has lasted to this day. I read it in my first year of university. It was chosen mainly out of boredom and a liking for the cover art. Wow! I couldn't buy and read the next two novels fast enough. There were "The Golden Torc" and "The Nonborn King" and they were better than the first. The last in the series, "The Adversary", was not written at that time and I spent an agonizing year waiting for it. In the mean time I started reading other authors to feed my new born habit.
The plot is too complex to cover in the few paragraphs that I am willing to write here. In fact the story is expanded by several more novels that Julian May has since written. The Saga of the Pliocene Exiles mainly follows a group of people who are irrevocably exiled back in time to the Pliocene era. Not to worry, this is not a dinosaur story. This is the period between the extinction of the dinosaurs and the rise of homo sapiens, six million years ago.
Some of the group has voluntarily chosen exile to escape their life in the twenty first century. A century which has seen the rise of extra sensory powers in humanity and the introduction of the planet to a galactic community as a result. Our time traveling companions travel through a one way time portal, trained and ready to start a new life in the distant past. They expect to find some sort of civilization when they arrive, presumably created by fifty years of prior time travelers. Fair warning though. To get to this point in the novel you will have to be patient as there are several chapters devoted to the short term history of each member of the group. This is necessary to tell us why they are going back but may seem to some readers as a little dull. All I can say is stick with it.
I won't spoil it for those who I hope are going to read these books. However I will say that the group is very surprised at what they find when they arrive safely in the Pliocene. The remainder of May's series follows each character through a rich tapestry of diverging and reconverging sub plots. Our central group is eventually responsible for changing the world. Not only six million years ago but also in the 21st century.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Vision
Review: The beginning of a long and wonderful journey, the Many-Coloured Land is brilliant, exciting, though-provoking, well-told... I could go on and on. Read it and you will be at the bookstore (or on Amazon.com) a week later, buying the sequel. Perhaps my most cherished SF series to date.
Rating:
Summary: The standard by which all other scifantasy must be judged
Review: The four volume 'Saga of the Pliocene Exiles', starting with 'The Many-coloured Land' is, for me, the most outstanding piece of fiction ever written. A blending of science fiction and fantasy as exciting as it is unique; a wealth of deep, complex characters that feel like friends (and enemies) by the end; an audacious plot that makes your head spin; a narrative style that makes you wish you could read faster so you could get to the next page; descriptions of ancient earth and its inhabitants thats sets your imagination alight.. Julian May has created a series that is rich, intricate and real. No I'm don't work for her publisher. :-) I just love these books...
Rating:
Summary: Beginning here-- the best sci-fi series ever
Review: The Saga of Pliocene Exile, beginning here in The Many-Colored Land, is, IMO, the best sci-fi series ever written. May is a velvety smooth writer whose prose reads like a vivid oil painting done by a master. The Many Colored Land starts off a little slow-- she introduces at least eight major characters whose stories the reader will follow throughout the Exile. But while one is digesting what is ultimately a very complex beginning to a very complex tale, one can bathe luxuriously in the radiance of her vibrant, adjective-filled prose. This world starts to come alive, folks! Sight, sound, smell, touch, and soul! The basis is in the Galactic Milieu-- our galaxy of the future, where more and more humans are being born with fantastic psychic powers, and all are mind-linked in a harmonious galactic mind-- well, all of those with psychic powers. For those humans without psychic abilities, there are those that feel stifled by the growing order of progressive civilization. Those free-spirits, radicals, criminals that just don't fit in get a choice-- mental reprogramming/rehabilitation, or exile. Exile is via a one-way time machine that can send people back 6 million years to the Pliocene-- where ramapithicenes and the occasional wooly mammoth roam. The Many Colored Land introduces us to the eight members of Group Green, a motley collection of the rebellious, the bored, and the depressed. As the story progresses, May breathes life into these characters like some deity-- they live, breath, and feel. May left me gasping at times-- "That is exactly what that character would say in that situation!" I felt like I knew them like my best friends. Our heroes are quickly confronted with a Pliocene dominated not by sabretooths, but by an alien hegemony with psychic powers! They are imprisoned, enslaved, and slated for menial labor or sexual servitude or programmed breeding depending on their genetics. The action is only beginning in this book-- the other three only propel this series to greater and greater heights. I almost never re-read books. This series I've re-read twice, loving it more each time. I spent a lot of money going back and collecting the original hardcover editions. Totally worth it!
Rating:
Summary: Beginning here-- the best sci-fi series ever
Review: The Saga of Pliocene Exile, beginning here in The Many-Colored Land, is, IMO, the best sci-fi series ever written. May is a velvety smooth writer whose prose reads like a vivid oil painting done by a master. The Many Colored Land starts off a little slow-- she introduces at least eight major characters whose stories the reader will follow throughout the Exile. But while one is digesting what is ultimately a very complex beginning to a very complex tale, one can bathe luxuriously in the radiance of her vibrant, adjective-filled prose. This world starts to come alive, folks! Sight, sound, smell, touch, and soul! The basis is in the Galactic Milieu-- our galaxy of the future, where more and more humans are being born with fantastic psychic powers, and all are mind-linked in a harmonious galactic mind-- well, all of those with psychic powers. For those humans without psychic abilities, there are those that feel stifled by the growing order of progressive civilization. Those free-spirits, radicals, criminals that just don't fit in get a choice-- mental reprogramming/rehabilitation, or exile. Exile is via a one-way time machine that can send people back 6 million years to the Pliocene-- where ramapithicenes and the occasional wooly mammoth roam. The Many Colored Land introduces us to the eight members of Group Green, a motley collection of the rebellious, the bored, and the depressed. As the story progresses, May breathes life into these characters like some deity-- they live, breath, and feel. May left me gasping at times-- "That is exactly what that character would say in that situation!" I felt like I knew them like my best friends. Our heroes are quickly confronted with a Pliocene dominated not by sabretooths, but by an alien hegemony with psychic powers! They are imprisoned, enslaved, and slated for menial labor or sexual servitude or programmed breeding depending on their genetics. The action is only beginning in this book-- the other three only propel this series to greater and greater heights. I almost never re-read books. This series I've re-read twice, loving it more each time. I spent a lot of money going back and collecting the original hardcover editions. Totally worth it!
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating blend of science fiction and fantasy
Review: There aren't many people who can pull off such a blend of genres that unfold upon reading The Many Colored Land, but somehow May pulls it off. Normally one would expect some of each genre's fans to be turned off by her treatment, but the blend is entirely seamless. While the beginning of the book is mostly science fiction, when they actually get to the Pliocene, the science fiction elements, while still there, fade slightly to show the awe inspiring fantasy sequences.
But I haven't even gotten started on the story. Ah, the plot, I don't think I've ever seen anything like it before. It's complex yes, but when the book ends you get the sense that something has been accomplished, and that you haven't been reading four hundred pages to get shafted by a bunch of loose ends. There's a sense of closure. This is a book where you continue onto the next one because you want to, not because you feel some need to keep plodding on. It's just that good.
Oh, and just as an aside, those who are interested in the prehistory of this planet will find that most of May's research is completely accurate, keeping in mind of any new discoveries that have been made since the book was written. But the amount of research that had to go into getting the Pliocene right is astonishing, everything down to the crisp chill in the air warning of the Ice Age coming just a few million years down the road. The age comes alive.
But why listen to me ramble on? Read the darn thing already?
Rating:
Summary: One of the all-time greatest
Review: This book is the first volume in what I consider to be arguably one of the best series of all time. It's got it all: politics, violence, sex, intrigue, psychic powers, comedy, epic storylines, fascinating characters, anthropology, mythology, several other -ologies! Julian May takes standard elements of fantasy lit (long journeys, strange mystical creatures, a quest for some special artifact, etc.) and combines them effortlessly with standard science fiction stuff (aliens, galactic civilizations, etc.). I've never seen anyone do so with such pleasing results. I've read Many-Colored Land and its sequels many times over the years and they just get better with repetition. In regards to this volume specifically, it starts out kind of slow, but picks up once the main characters translate through time from early 22nd Century Earth to the Pliocene Era, 6 million years in the past. Part of this stems from the fact that it was written as one book with the second volume, The Golden Torc, and was then split by the publisher. The two books should be read as if they were one and they'll flow much better. Read this book! Then read the others! You will not regret it.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best
Review: This is just one of the best SF i read, and i have read a lot. This store is one of the few who could persuade my father (a poor english reader) to read the whole series. You don'r get them much better.
Peter from Denmar
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Summary: Le Fantasie Magnificat!
Review: This is where it all begins: A wonder-world, richly written and woven by the reigning master of fantasy - Julian May. Well, at least that's my opinion! I have tried to explain to my friends the basis of this series, only to find myself saying, "Oh, but wait, I forgot about this..". You must read the entire series and experience for yourself how May turns a possible conundrum of events spanning 5 generations into an amazing story circle. I have followed the entire series through to "Magnificat" for over ten years now, and each book gets better and better! P.S. Join the Julian May Newsletter!
Rating:
Summary: A fantastic, rich & complex universe
Review: This series of books is magnificent! Julian May creates complex characters, a rich universe that they are set in and a storyline that ties it all together. This is one of my favorite series and should be thought of in the same category as the Dune and Foundation series.
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