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vintonole's review against another edition
4.0
Possibly better the second time around. I first read this sometime in high school in the mid-80s and liked it enough to later buy the rest of the series. Which I still own but haven't yet read. I remember liking the idea of the book, but had completely forgotten the details. The second time reading it I think I enjoyed it more because the detailed descriptions of the Pliocene geology and ecosystems made more sense. Now I'm looking forward to learning how the plot turns out and may have to read this and the two other associated series.
fairymodmother's review against another edition
1.0
Do not read this if you are reading it with SFFBC and want to go in without any preconceived notions!
Wow, this is an EXPERIENCE. It is veeeery 80s and did not age well for me.
First I think the author was dared to write a story with: dinosaurs, space travel, pirates, vikings, Catholicism, telepathy, time travel, and sword & sorcery.
So, she did, and then her agent said "listen, only two markets are buying right now--horse girls and men who are reading pulp novels about harems in pleasure domes."
So she added that, too.
What we have is an overly descriptive, overly serious, over the top LSD mash up of cheesy tropes, terms that have become offensive over the years, and a nonsensical geiser of plot points.
Good things:
-If you like D&D, this is a great source of inspiration.
-If you're a horse girl into pleasure domes, boy howdy are you in for a treat.
-There is representation beyond normal racist and homophobic tropes. It still isn't perfect, but it is more than anticipated.
-If you fall asleep while reading it, you won't know what's dream and what's real and it won't matter anyways, because your imagination is just as probable a plot point!
CONTENT WARNINGS:
Wow, this is an EXPERIENCE. It is veeeery 80s and did not age well for me.
First I think the author was dared to write a story with: dinosaurs, space travel, pirates, vikings, Catholicism, telepathy, time travel, and sword & sorcery.
So, she did, and then her agent said "listen, only two markets are buying right now--horse girls and men who are reading pulp novels about harems in pleasure domes."
So she added that, too.
What we have is an overly descriptive, overly serious, over the top LSD mash up of cheesy tropes, terms that have become offensive over the years, and a nonsensical geiser of plot points.
Good things:
-If you like D&D, this is a great source of inspiration.
-If you're a horse girl into pleasure domes, boy howdy are you in for a treat.
-There is representation beyond normal racist and homophobic tropes. It still isn't perfect, but it is more than anticipated.
-If you fall asleep while reading it, you won't know what's dream and what's real and it won't matter anyways, because your imagination is just as probable a plot point!
CONTENT WARNINGS:
Spoiler
homophobia, misogyny, racism, slurs against the Roma, jingoism, slavery, coercion of will, rape, loss of a loved one.ryan_dm's review against another edition
2.0
***This review contains hyperbole.***
This book might be worse (but almost certainly not better) than my rating suggests.
I zoned out from it frequently. Going back and listening to parts again was no help. It's as if some paragraphs and entire chapters had a stealth spell caste upon them that made me forget them immediately.
What I do recall from this book (that I've just finished reading in a single day with no actual distractions) is that if you tore a page out of every fantasy and science fiction novel that you and your local library own, then collated those pages into a book, you'd still have less ideas than the Many-Coloured Land manages to squeeze in and be only slightly less coherent. I'm all for authors being ambitious with their works but I also want them to give ideas time and room to grow. This book throws (what should be) unrelated and unoriginal ideas at you every couple of pages with the end result being disinterest and apathy.
I read this so you don't have to.
This book might be worse (but almost certainly not better) than my rating suggests.
I zoned out from it frequently. Going back and listening to parts again was no help. It's as if some paragraphs and entire chapters had a stealth spell caste upon them that made me forget them immediately.
What I do recall from this book (that I've just finished reading in a single day with no actual distractions) is that if you tore a page out of every fantasy and science fiction novel that you and your local library own, then collated those pages into a book, you'd still have less ideas than the Many-Coloured Land manages to squeeze in and be only slightly less coherent. I'm all for authors being ambitious with their works but I also want them to give ideas time and room to grow. This book throws (what should be) unrelated and unoriginal ideas at you every couple of pages with the end result being disinterest and apathy.
I read this so you don't have to.
scribal's review against another edition
1.0
When I read this many years ago I would have given it 4 stars, but I have no memory of the characters, just the geography (which was compelling)
jvan's review against another edition
2.0
I read this book plenty of times when I was younger, but it's been a couple decades probably since I picked it up and whoa, so many things bother me now. The idea that a culture 6 million years ago would leave random traces in human (mostly Celtic) cultures of the near past was ridiculous from the get go, but whatever. Thinking about that in conjunction with the two directional time travel that will eventually form makes it even sillier--but that's outside this particular book. This book, though. Some of characters I always thought were dull and pointless, but most of those I now kind of actively hate because they are terrible. Stein, for instance, I used to just kind of skim over because he was boring, but reading him now he is a frightful example of entitled toxic masculinity that I think you're supposed to feel sympathy for, and I'm certain you're meant to root for. The sexism sunk into the series is very deep and pervades every aspect, and Stein gets a big dose of that. Though he's hardly the only one. Anyway, I still like the conceit of it, and the setting is cool enough, but my former ranking of 4 stars was based on fond memory that my current self cannot begin to justify. And doesn't want to.
cynt's review against another edition
2.0
The story lost a lot of its momentum about halfway, when the author decided to stop following half of the characters. He chose to move their fate to the next book instead. I want to know what happened to them - but as the book ended on a low note for me I'm not sure if I have to heart to pick up the sequel.
ottopivnr's review against another edition
5.0
This is a classic of sci-fi world building that I have, quite uncharacteristically, reread many times. Julian May just recently passed, and quite coincidentally I have been reading a bit on nonfiction about paleontology and our ancestral and geological past, so a trip back to the Pliocene fit quite naturally. There is nothing about this saga that has aged poorly, and the characters are just as vibrant and compelling as they've always been. No doubt i will pick up the second book today.
kgm's review against another edition
4.0
Enjoyed this the first time I read it decades ago. Still a good read
octavia_cade's review against another edition
3.0
A book of two halves. The first I was deeply interested in: an original, heavily character-based story, in which people who couldn't fit into a future universe chose, for a variety of reasons, to travel back in time to the Pliocene Era and spend their lives there.
Unfortunately, then it turned into a story about a war against aliens who'd come to live on early Earth. The character stuff got essentially dropped in favour of action and my interest plummeted right along with it. It was a struggle to finish. Apparently there's another book following this one, but I care so very little about the Tanu that I can't see myself bothering to read it. A shame, as it started so well.
Unfortunately, then it turned into a story about a war against aliens who'd come to live on early Earth. The character stuff got essentially dropped in favour of action and my interest plummeted right along with it. It was a struggle to finish. Apparently there's another book following this one, but I care so very little about the Tanu that I can't see myself bothering to read it. A shame, as it started so well.