Rating: 
Summary: Eternity never looked so good
Review: An incredible tale of adventure and excitement that draws you in , holds your attention for six million years, then spits you back into the real world, dazed and confused. Early in the 22nd Century, humanity has joined a benevolent federation of psychicly operant aliens (Star Trek eat your heart out.) But not everyone enjoys this brave new world. For the misfits and undesirables, an escape route exists - a one way trip to Pliocene Earth, six million years in the past. We follow the adventures of Group Green, this weeks "tour group" as they discover that the past isn't exactly what we imagined. Felice Landry - maladjusted sports star,unloved and unloving, she confuses pleasure and pain. Robert Voorhees - ex-pilot and space trader, banished to the past for putting profit before his humanity. Stein Olsen - deep miner, a Viking born centuries too late. Brian Grenfell - anthropoligist and expert in social interactions, chasing his lost love . Claude Majewski - retired paleontoligist and widower, come to see the past for himself. Amerie Chan - dedicated Sister (the nun sort), seeking a life of religous hermitage. Aiken Drum - mischevious non-born, child of a test tube, banished to a time when his practical jokes can hurt no-one. Elizabeth Orm - ex Grand Master Psychic, victim of a horrific accident that stole her life mate and her awesome mental powers, fleeing a world filled with reminders of what she lost .These eight will change the past, and so create the future.
Rating:
Summary: Solid on on levels - Definitely worth a read
Review: Finally a fantasy that doesn't hint of a Tolkien takeoff. That's not to say all other fantasy books are bad, but there are a lot that resemble The Hobbit / Lord of the Rings in some way or another. This first book in the Saga of the Exiles series takes us back to prehistoric Earth from the future using a one-way time machine. The world if beautifully painted and the large number of central characters are alternated between wonderfully. The two alien races inhabiting prehostoric France are well developed with a thoughtful background and unique and entertaining characteristics. I couldn't put this book down from the moment I picked it up and I am delighted that there are more in the series because by the end of this book you want to know more.
Rating: 
Summary: Evil elves and revolutionary dwarves - Stone Age style!
Review: I admit it, the main part of the book takes place long before the Stone Age and the coming of man in general. Although it takes a while to pick up, this story of one-way time travel to a romantic Pliocene gone awry, that turns into a story of captivity, that turns into a story of liberation becomes a page-turner relatively quickly. This is probably the closest that "legitimate" science fiction will come to a fantasy epic. Julian May has great mastery with imagery, that, coupled with complex characterization, an interesting genre-bending mileau, and a solid scientific foundation, results in the beginning to a highly readable series that has a lot of potential (and, yes, I realize that it is indeed a finished series, but so far I am only done with book one). Overall, an excellent read.
Rating: 
Summary: The Pliocene revisited
Review: I first read the Saga of the Exiles when it came out, and remember being quite impressed. Recently I read it again and am amazed at the uncritical adulation this series receives. I appreciate that fantasy fans love their books long, and many-volumed. (a yearning for ancient grimoires?). I appreciate that they can't get too many weird names, genaeologies and knightly battlecries. However this series has about one good novel's worth of material in it.
The human characters to a man or woman are caricatures and stereotypes. The "exotics" are cobbled together bits of Tolkien and various human myths. Everyone, including aliens, speaks "Standard English" which sounds like the script from a sixties high school movie. The plot is ultra-simplistic - good v evil, light v dark,...Blonde, glowing Tanu (teutonic?) knights against the gnarled, shape-shifting, devious, accquisitive, Firvulag. Familiar? There is endless speechifying, sex and violence which is frequently gratuitious and just as frequently laughable, and confusion throughout as to which characters the author wants us to empathise with. Parts of the books read like geology textbooks, and others like "A Child's Guide to Celtic Mythology". As a Celt I particularly resent the liberties taken with my heritage in order to satisfy the limitless American capactiy for wanting to be Irish (or Scottish).
These books are overblown, overwritten, and overrated. They may not even be healthy
Rating:
Summary: In a world of her own...
Review: I know that there are 21 other reviews and I am not going to say anything unique but I have loved this series for so long, I just want to put it in writing. Sometimes you are just loping along in your own life and something wonderful happens - you fall in love, get your dream job, fall pregnant (if you want to be!) and for a while the world is a shing place where everything is glowing and bright. Sooner or later the shine dims, but the memory, of how happy you were, how special it was, that stays. So here you are, loping along, wondering what book to buy next, and here it is, a shining experience waiting for you... This is the start of a magical series (ignore the awful cover drawing show here! It doesn't reflect the books at all) I reread these books on average once every two years, so all the characters are now old and familiar friends. They are complex, with foibles and mistakes, with heroism and madness, with granduer and evil. There are dreamers and victims, great imagination and a sense of an entire universe out there. It isn't even strictly speaking science fantasy. It's set on earth, and everything is (sort of) feasible. It's an epic tale, one to sink your teeth into. It will fill your days and invade your dreams. Enough already - go out and buy it!! :-)
Rating:
Summary: Solid on on levels - Definitely worth a read
Review: It's difficult to assign a genre to this four-part series, which is really the strength of Ms. May's writing. She has a firm grasp of so many fields (general science, language, history, geology, sports, cultural myths, etc.) that are very well incorporated into her stories. May blends relevant factual details into her fantasy/science fiction journey, making the leaps of logic required to "believe" so much easier. Her characters are complex but still identifiable. Her settings unusual and exotic. And her overall story refreshingly original, a real treat in the fiction world. True, the core characters are introduced over a few hundred pages, making a first time read difficult. However, the story really accelerates thereafter, and the reader appreciates the detail May provides throughout the remainder of the series. I am always surprised when science fiction writers fail to do their homework - luckily, Julian May is not one of them. I would have to rate this series as one of the finest I've read, and head and shoulders above the hoard of hacks churning out the same rehashed yarns over and over again. Although I hate to give five stars to any book - I usually reserve such praise for the Tolkein's and Clarke's of the world, this series honestly rates at that level.
Rating:
Summary: Compelling and entertaining
Review: Julian May's Saga of the Pliocene Exile, in concert (metaconcert?) with the Galactic Millieu & Intervention novels, are either the result of really good luck, or a very nice, intricate, and thoroughly planned romp. The books don't have a great deal of depth to them, but what they lack in character development and stylistic advantages, they make up in their grand scale and audacious concept (metaconcept?). As a distracting and entertaining read, these books are hard to beat. The only flaw is that all of the nifty psychoverbiage starts to diffuse into your brain after a while, and you start thinking of redaction and PK as normal parts of your vocabulary (a similar effect can be obtained by playing fooseball for 4-5 hours a day for a month). In any case, this is a series of very clever (metaclever?) books that gets continually better. I don't, however, recommend reading the Intervention & Surveillance novels while staying in New Hampshire. After reaching the summit of the novels, it's just not as much fun to ride that incline-railroad thing as you might think it would be.
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: 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.
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