Sprite
Sun, 3rd Mar '02, 4:09pm
My favorite series of books, EVER, is Julian May's Saga of Pliocene Exile. It's hard to say whether it's fantasy or science fiction: it walks the line between the two better than any other "ficton"* I've ever encountered.
It is set in the not-too-distant future as well as the ancient past: Earth has joined a federation of sentient races as a junior member, and has had telepathy, peace and wisdom benignly imposed upon us (the stories of how this came to be are in "The Surveillance" and "The MetaConcert"). This makes life very difficult for non-conformists, rugged individualists, and other "antisocial" types.
The solution? These people travel to Pliocene-era France, the only destination and time that anyone has ever succeeded in inventing time-travel to, and it's a one-way trip. They expect to go as pioneers, to stake out lonely new lives for themselves as farmers, only to find that Earth of that era is *not* as scientists believed: in fact, it is being ruled by rival alien races vaguely recognisable to fantasy lovers as drow and goblins, and humans are quickly enslaved. While some men are lucky enough to live as farmers, smiths, and brewers under these exotic feudal lords, all women are enslaved to produce monstrous offspring for the nearly-sterile enemies.
Naturally, there's a "resistance" movement led by a fiesty Frenchwoman.
Believe it or not, all this is not the plot- it is merely the background for absorbing tales of swords and sorcery, great battles and true love. And better yet- it all interconnects with stories "simultaneously" taking place in the Earth of the 21st century (yet another series, the "Galactic Milieu" trilogy).
Here are the reasons I love this series:
- You can read any of the books in any of the three trilogies in any order- each is perfectly conceived to stand alone.
- The fictons- both Pliocene Europe and post-modern Earth- are perfectly and thoroughly conceived with no "holes"; and every book you read is loaded with sweet little details that enhance your pleasure in books you've read before
- The writing style is sensitive, wise and funny: you are not just entertained, you are drawn in and fully engrossed.
- There are lots of little in-jokes for those intimately familiar with European (especially French) history: a pageantry expert named Mercy Lamballe, a villain named Donatien, another villain who is described as looking remarkably like Machiavelli etc.
- The level of English is high enough to improve the vocabulary of anyone who reads it, even the best-educated of English speakers. This might not appeal to everyone, but I love it.
For reference, here are the books in the Saga of Pliocene Exile (the sagas of The Intervention and the Galactic Milieu are separate but equal ;)):
* The Many-Coloured Land
* The Golden Torc
* The Non-Born King
* The Adversary
Does anyone else love these books? Or if you don't love them, WHY?
*(Note for non-Heinlein readers: "Ficton" is a useful word Robert A. Heinlein coined to describe a time/place combination, whether real or true- so Oz, Forgotten Realms, the Italian Renaissance, Elizabethan England, Karyst, the Discworld are all fictons).
It is set in the not-too-distant future as well as the ancient past: Earth has joined a federation of sentient races as a junior member, and has had telepathy, peace and wisdom benignly imposed upon us (the stories of how this came to be are in "The Surveillance" and "The MetaConcert"). This makes life very difficult for non-conformists, rugged individualists, and other "antisocial" types.
The solution? These people travel to Pliocene-era France, the only destination and time that anyone has ever succeeded in inventing time-travel to, and it's a one-way trip. They expect to go as pioneers, to stake out lonely new lives for themselves as farmers, only to find that Earth of that era is *not* as scientists believed: in fact, it is being ruled by rival alien races vaguely recognisable to fantasy lovers as drow and goblins, and humans are quickly enslaved. While some men are lucky enough to live as farmers, smiths, and brewers under these exotic feudal lords, all women are enslaved to produce monstrous offspring for the nearly-sterile enemies.
Naturally, there's a "resistance" movement led by a fiesty Frenchwoman.
Believe it or not, all this is not the plot- it is merely the background for absorbing tales of swords and sorcery, great battles and true love. And better yet- it all interconnects with stories "simultaneously" taking place in the Earth of the 21st century (yet another series, the "Galactic Milieu" trilogy).
Here are the reasons I love this series:
- You can read any of the books in any of the three trilogies in any order- each is perfectly conceived to stand alone.
- The fictons- both Pliocene Europe and post-modern Earth- are perfectly and thoroughly conceived with no "holes"; and every book you read is loaded with sweet little details that enhance your pleasure in books you've read before
- The writing style is sensitive, wise and funny: you are not just entertained, you are drawn in and fully engrossed.
- There are lots of little in-jokes for those intimately familiar with European (especially French) history: a pageantry expert named Mercy Lamballe, a villain named Donatien, another villain who is described as looking remarkably like Machiavelli etc.
- The level of English is high enough to improve the vocabulary of anyone who reads it, even the best-educated of English speakers. This might not appeal to everyone, but I love it.
For reference, here are the books in the Saga of Pliocene Exile (the sagas of The Intervention and the Galactic Milieu are separate but equal ;)):
* The Many-Coloured Land
* The Golden Torc
* The Non-Born King
* The Adversary
Does anyone else love these books? Or if you don't love them, WHY?
*(Note for non-Heinlein readers: "Ficton" is a useful word Robert A. Heinlein coined to describe a time/place combination, whether real or true- so Oz, Forgotten Realms, the Italian Renaissance, Elizabethan England, Karyst, the Discworld are all fictons).