science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel uni ...
novel by American author Julian May, published in 1981. It is the first book of the
Saga of Pliocene Exile
The Saga of Pliocene Exile (or the Saga of the Exiles) is a series of science / speculative fiction books by Julian May, first published in the early 1980s. It consists of four books: '' The Many-Colored Land'', ''The Golden Torc'', ''The Nonbo ...
(known as the Saga of the Exiles in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth). The novel sets the series up by introducing the story of each of the characters. The main purpose of the book is to provide information for the rest of the series, only beginning the main storyline in its final part.
Characters
Group Green
;Elizabeth Orme: Elizabeth was a talented metapsychic practitioner on the human-colonised ski-resort planet Denali, but suffered severe injuries which resulted in the loss of her metapsychic abilities. Unable to cope with the trauma of this, she travelled to the
Pliocene
The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58anthropologist in the Galactic Milieu, but goes into Exile in pursuit of his love, Mercy. When he arrives in the Many Colored Land, he is regarded as special by the Tanu, who allow him to work bareneck without any torc, as he refuses to wear even a gold torc while he is there. He often quotes "There is a lady sweet and kind" by Thomas Ford:
''There is a lady sweet and kind,''
''Was never face so pleas'd my mind;''
''I did but see her passing by,''
''And yet I love her till I die.''
;Stein Olsen: He is an ex-driller with deep psychological scars from the death of his mother. He is of immediate interest to the Tanu, who want him as a competitor in the ritual Great Combat, due to his heroic physique. With the help of Elizabeth, he is mentally healed by the human woman Sukey, with whom he falls in love.
;Annamaria Roccaro: A nun who develops complex relationships with Claude and Felice.
;Claude Majewski: A retired, widowed palaeontologist, planning to see the 'fossil Zoo'. (Majewski was May's father's original family name.)
Other human exiles
* Mercedes Lamballe
Bryan Grenfell's beloved, a woman of Celtic ancestry who never felt 'at home' in the Mileu goes into Exile and is discovered to have grandmaster-level latent creative metafunctions by the Tanu. Her power and beauty attract Nodonn Battlemaster who takes her as his wife and later proves that she has some Tanu ancestry in her DNA, causing shockwaves among Human and Tanu alike considering the 6-million year time gap between the Tanu/Firvulag ascendancy and the rise of Humanity, while also explaining how metafunctions manifested in the Human gene pool in the first place.
The Tanu
;Lord Creyn: Creyn is a kindly redactor, a specialist in healing, who takes Elizabeth under his wing and appears to know of Marc's destiny.
;Lord Velteyn: Aggressive and the leader of the Flying Hunt, Velteyn is the city lord of Finiah, site of the barium mine where the raw materials for torcs are produced.
;Nodonn Battlemaster: Nodonn is a powerful
psychokinetic
Psychokinesis (from grc, ψυχή, , soul and grc, κίνησις, , movement, label=ㅤ), or telekinesis (from grc, τηλε, , far off and grc, κίνησις, , movement, label=ㅤ), is a hypothetical psychic ability allowing a person ...
and the battle champion of the Tanu, and the husband of Mercy, Bryan Grenfell's beloved.
;Lady Epone: Epone is the cruel coercive Tanu lady who oversees the transport of some of the prisoners from Castle Gateway, and also conducts their psychic testing. She is the first Tanu to be killed in the book, at the hands of her prisoners armed with iron.
The Firvulag
;Yeochee: King of the Firvulag
;Pallol One Eye: Battlemaster, or military commander and champion of the Firvulag, and a "first-comer" thus over a millennium old at the time of the events of the series. Pallol was very tall, wide, and strong, called an "ogre". His cognomen came because one of his two eyes was usually patched because it could emit a devastating beam of "creativity".
;Fitharn PegLeg: