the Library Bar...Club...Establishment...Saloon...

[Tancred]

Has anyone heard of Julian May?

Just finished her Pliocine Exile saga, a clever blend of myth and sci-fi. Her world is set in a galactic federation - the Milieu - in which humans are but a part of the ordered, peaceful society; but there are always misfits, troublemakers, criminals, something the Milieu finds difficult to deal with.

One such way to deal with them is Exile.

A strange anomaly of physics, geology and magnetism exists in the Rhone valley, in France, on the world of Earth. Correctly pushed, it can form a one-way time tunnel back to the Pliocene era, a world where life has barely begun to exist. Many choose to restart their lives in what they believe is a free, open world, uncomplicated and happy.

The story centres around several characters, known as Group Green, one such party of time travellers: Aiken Drum, a bright but forceful troublemaker; Elizabeth Orme, a psychic who has lost her powers; Richard Voorhees, an alien-hating starship pilot; Felice Landry, a young but unstable gladiator; Anna-Maria Roccaro, a nun whose faith is waning; Brian Grenfell, an anthropologist looking for his lost love, who took Exile some years ago; Claude Majeuski, an ageing paleantologist who wishes to see the period he has studied for so long; and Stein Oleson, a minerals miner who wants a change of scene.

These individuals travel to the past, seeking freedom.

What they find is Pliocene Earth under the thrall of an alien race...

The saga - 4 books, The Many-Coloured Land, The Golden Torc, The Non-Born King and The Adversary - chronicle the effect these individuals have on the alien society of the Tanu, and the struggle to free the exiled humans from their grip. Damn fun read.

[Mouse]

Originally posted by Tancred: Has anyone heard of Julian May? "<snip>" The saga - 4 books, The Many-Coloured Land, The Golden Torc, The Non-Born King and The Adversary - chronicle the effect these individuals have on the alien society of the Tanu, and the struggle to free the exiled humans from their grip. Damn fun read.

Yes, read them a few years ago - IMHO, this was a case of the concept being better than the authors ability to cope with it. Julian May is by no means a bad writer, but I would have loved to read how an author like Silverberg would have dealt with the scenario........

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Regards

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Mouse

[This message has been edited by Mouse (edited 08-10-2001).]

[Lord of Alcohol]

Hey Djinn! I just finished Chung Kuo. Great book! I'll be ordering the next book tonight. Thanks for your great recomendation!

[Djinn Raffo]

Awesome! It's cool isnt it Lord of Alcohol.
Li Yuan...Fei Yen, Kao Chen, Hans Ebert. Kim Ward and Ben Shepard, Karr,
and DeVore.
Wicked characters and crazy concepts...those books are great reads. I'm glad you enjoyed them. It only gets better too.

[Lord of Alcohol]

I'm really looking forward to reading the second book which I just ordered from Amazon. Problem is it was $6.99 + $3 shipping for a USED book since this series is out of print and the later books get REALLY expensive! I'm going to have to scour the local used bookstores. Unfortunately for a fairly large city our used bookstores are pretty limited. I will find a way though! Hey have you ever read Birthright-Book of Man by Mike Resnik? Its about how mankind expands amongst the stars. Its sectioned into stories about specific occupations like Cartographers, Astronomers, Engineers, Explorers, etc and how they contribute to the rise of mankind. Its also out of print but worth a read if you happen to spot it

[Melusine]

Originally posted by Mouse: I have read ALL his SF output and 6 of his non-SF books. There - I said I would reply, now, where does the "Viewing of the White Bits" take place as promised......

Sorry my furry friend (Mouse I mean )...no bits to show...or at least precious little white ones


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Melusine, High Queen of Fluffies, Archbabe of the OHF, the LH,
the HADB and the SPAE(Society for the
Prevention of Acronym Extinction) &
Official Entertainer Elf of the BG2 Bar

Your voice is ambrosia
Amy Brown Fantasy Art

[Lord of Alcohol]

Somebody needs to put out a new review here. Hurry up!

[jabidas]

Oh hallo all a week later I show up I know, I should be more punctual but anyway here a little review of Icewind Dale perhaps the most poular Realms books and this review is going to be a little negative so perhaps not popular.


Well first of all I suppose I have start with tackle the concept of a shared world, the obvious benefits is that it does an awful lot of the work for the writer,the mere decision of location means gives them famous charecters in the region, the ememies of the region oh and lest we forget they havnt had to make up the entire universe for themselves. Thinking about it this should give the writer a lot more time to work on plot and charecterisation sadly this is very much lacking in all the realms books but I doing Icewind Dale so ill try to concentrate on that. Think about all the authors are having handed on a plate to them, so Im going to be singularly unforgiving because of this.

I suppose we should start with the charecters and theyre the cliched the goons weve come to expect but then its fantasy and thats all pulp so who cares? I bloddy well do, I know Robin Hobb and George Martin have brilliant charecters and theyre books can be considered literature so whay can these Forgotten realms writers who have most of the work done for them not get it right. Lets have a quick run through the charecters so you know Im not talking out my ass. Wulfgar the young barbarian, does exactly what it says on the tin. Next up Cattie Brie, where have we seen her before, the morally upstanding beautiful young woman yes it really it is all that predictable. Bruenor, well what I wouldnt give to meet a dwarf that wasnt a fighter and wasnt gruff with a tender side or god help us wasnt good with his hands but sadly not this time, oh well. Regis, short, thief, half-ling, magical gem, Bilbo Baggins\Tasselhoff burffot ripp off, nuff said. Finally Drizzt, people always howl about him overcoming his heritage which makes him a valid balanced charecter but I read the dark elf trilogy and he was always the same twat all the time, drizzt is basically captain kirk only a black elf apart from that exactly the same, less a charecter more acrobatic scimitars. The villains all 2 or 3 of them Kessell the wizard is less a charecter more an elemental force of eternal wizardly supidity with huge power, Errtu is a demon thats also his personality, nothing beyond that. Finally the most talked about Artremis Entreri the loner assasin, for some reason the fans love him with his aloof coolness or some simialarly childish perspective, sigh I ve see him done a million times before under different names always better but some people insist on saying hes original, how dull. All the charecters are hoplessly 2 dimensional and to be honest we cant take a book seriously that is so flat, part of reading fantasy is getting wrapped up ina different world and breaking of belief is a big crime with charecters that are so hoplessly fake I cant even be drawn in. Perhaps Salvatore isnt to blame though perhaps AD&D is because A system of gaming that embraces stereotypes has to have its books. Dwarfs are good fighters because of their stats hence that becomes an archtype where dwarfs are always fighters because thats how people play them and its not really novels but pandering stories to gamers.

The storyline well the first book Icewind Dale had a lot of closure in it so I guess they didnt know it was going to be a series hence the story just meanders along. Storyline is something I can hardly ascribe to Icewind dale though, its more the bits between the 6 page long swordfights, seriously with all the things Salvatore dosnt have to do you would think the work could go elsewhere in the book, perhaps the shared world books are just for fantasy authors that never grew up. As I was saying what we have is a lot of fight scenes which make up most of the book I suppose this would go down well in Hollywood but I find the endless fights dull, firstime it was interesting but we keep getting these endless description, think about this debatably the most powerful fight scene in fantasy is Gandalf Vs the Balrog in Fellowship of the ring, that took what a page or so and is possibly the most dramatic thing ever done in fantasy, it didnt need endless pages of acrobatics it just gave an incredible mental image and moved on with the story, Salvatores focus is the fightscenes so he cant even begin to compete with the great authors of the genre.

The next bit is a quote from something I wrote earlier but I think its valid. Salvatore style of writing I think his style of writing is too forceful let me explain by example. The adjective WICKED turns up a lot describing something in the drow world, forceful adjectives like this turn up a lot this forces a negative viewpoint on you. I believe a good writer should be able to present you with the picure and let you make up your own mind on what you think while never being in any doubt as what your going to think because he has written the scene in a way which gives you the viewpoint he wants but does it subtly enough so that you dont know it. In effect when you decide on how you feel about the image or scene you feel stronger about it because it is your decision. Salvatore cant do this, he forces what he thinks on you.

The realms books have a certain beauty though and thats a feeling of fun despite the fact that nothing in the world could actually work as a social system it just feels like anything could happen, I suppose childishness has its place too despite the fact there are so many better authors out there, I could I suppose equally scream about George R.R. Martin being unrelentingly grim (I will soon)I wont ever reccommend Icewind Dale to any one but I understand how it good to read junk evry so often too, now I must go before I slump unconcious at the keaboard.

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[Djinn Raffo]

Is this what you did on your vacation Jabidas. [j\k]

You've outdone yourself!!! You must have put a lot of time into that post...thanks!!!

The whole concept of a shared world thing...well it's been my experience that the whole sharing of characters by an author sounds like a pretty good idea. For big projects or amateur ones it matters not, it's an elegant idea with artistic design. Sometimes with big projects or poorly edited, written, executed ones or whatever; something is ususlly lost in the attempt. The DnD books are a big project.

You obviously know a hell of a lot more about the universe than me. I've read a few Dragonlance ones and from Forgotten Realms a couple...and i can barely remember them. The Dark Sun ones were my favorites. So i can't really comment on these books as well...and i won't.

Lord of Alcohol!!!
Sorry i couldnt hurry up...i still cant! been @@!busy!@@

[Lord of Alcohol]

Well shared worlds like the Realms gets boring. I dont buy them anymore. Theres better out there if you look.

Djinn-I'm halfway through "The Broken Wheel" and things keep getting better! Cant wait till I get to the next book! Wingrove does seem to have a preoccupation with teenage girls, Memnoch dont read it, theres sex. LOL sorry couldnt resist.