Saga of the Pliocene Exile

In the year 2034, Theo Quderian, a French physicist, made an amusing but impractical discovery: the means to use a one-way, fixed-focus time warp that opened into a place in the Rhone River valley during the idyllic Pliocene Epoch, six million years ago. But, as time went on, a certain usefulness developed. The misfits and mavericks of the future-many of them brilliant people-began to seek this exit door to a mysterious past. In 2110, a particularly strange and interesting group was preparing to make the journey-a starship captain, a girl athlete, a paleontologist, a woman priest, and others who had reason to flee the technological perfection of twenty-second-century life. Thus begins this dazzling fantasy novel that invites comparisons with the work of J.R.R. Tolkien, Arthur C. Clarke, and Ursula Le Quin. It opens up a whole world of wonder, not in far-flung galaxies but in our own distant past on Earth-a world that will captivate not only science-fiction and fantasy fans but also those who enjoy literate thrillers. The group that passes through the time-portal finds an unforeseen strangeness on the other side. Far from being uninhabited, Pliocene Europe is the home of two warring races from another planet. There is the knightly race of the Tanu-handsome, arrogant, and possessing vast powers of psychokinesis and telepathy. And there is the outcast race of Firvulag-dwarfish, malev-o olent, and gifted with their own supernormal skills. Taken captive by the Tanu and transported through the primordial European landscape, the humans manage to break free, join in an uneasy alliance with the forest-dwelling Firvulag, and, finally, launch an attack against the Tanu city of light on the banks of a river that, eons later, would be called the Rhine. Myth and legend, wit and violence, speculative science and breathtaking imagination mingle in this romantic fantasy, which is the first volume in a series about the exile world. The sequel, titled The Golden Torc, will follow soon.

The Many-Colored Land, the first volume in Julian May's dazzling series of science fiction-fantasy novels, began with a des perate act of exile. A group of talented misfits from a future society chose to pass through a time-portal into the unknown dangers of a world six million years past, the world of the Pliocene. They emerged in a proto-Kurope inhabited by two extraterrestrial races - the chivalric Tanu and the dwarfish, forest-dwelling Tirvulag. Both of which possessed far-reaching psychic powers. The humans soon became involved in the age-old struggle between the two. The Golden Tore picks up the story as one group of captured humans is brought to Muriah, the stately capital of the Tanu kingdom. Among them is Elizabeth Orme, who was once, in her own world, a Grand Master Metapsychic. In spite of Tanu harassment, she begins to recover her lost powers. Also in this group is Bryan Gren-fell, an anthropologist seeking his lost love. And there is Aiken Drum, an adventurer, schemer, and trickster who has the talent and ambition to become a ruler in this strange new-old world. The other human group, which has managed to overcome its Tanu guards and escape into the northern forests, includes Chief Burke, an American Indian, and Felice Uindry, an athlete gifted with certain psychic powers of her own. This group, with the ambiguous aid of the Firvu-lag, determines to launch an attack against the very heart of Tanu dominance. At the end of the Grand Combat tournament between Tanu and Kirvulag comes the astonishing climax to this astonishing novel. Fritz Lciber says the series is "altogether enchanting and engrossing." Vonda Mc-Intyre comments, "It's action-oriented and vivid"; and Joe W. Ilaldeman says. "It's one of the best-thought-out futures ever encountered in science fiction."

In the final novel of the award-winning sci-fi saga, both humans and aliens face destruction as a new time-portal opens a path back to the twenty-second century. Human time-travelers from the sophisticated Galactic Milieu of the twenty-second century came to the Pliocene Epoch seeking a Garden of Eden. What they found was slavery under the knightly Tanu race, who had been exiled to Earth from a far galaxy. Freed by the usurper Aiken Drum, the humans enjoy a brief period of dominance. But now King Aiken's rule is threatened by the dwarfish Firvulag, who scheme to destroy both humans and Tanu in an ultimate Gotterdammerung. This menace becomes almost incidental when Aiken discovers that his realm is about to be invaded by another human who possesses psychic powers even greater than his own. Marc Remillard, the instigator of the Metapsychic Rebellion, nearly conquered the Galactic Milieu before escaping through the time-portal after his defeat. Marc and his followers are out to overthrow Aiken just as a new time-gate is about to be built-one that will provide a two-way portal between the Many-Colored Land and the future world of the Milieu.

With its richly imagined universe and large cast of finely-drawn characters, Julian May's Saga of Pliocene Exile has won devoted fans across the globe who find new layers, details, and ideas with each reading. Covering all four novels-The Many-Colored Land, The Golden Torc, The Nonborn King, and The Adversary. This reading guide offers a plot chronology, the author's original maps, a descriptive listing of all the characters, and three delightful interviews with May herself. Beyond that, it gives the reader a chance to explore further the surroundings of a world six million years in the past. The glossary gives information on metapsychology, on the futuristic science of the Galactic Milieu, and on the exotic world of the Tanu and Firvulag. In all, A Pliocene Companion is a must for followers of the Saga.