perelgut (04/16/83)
The Golden Torc
Julian May
Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1982
This is a hardcover book ($20Cdn). It is the second volume of
"The Saga of Pliocene Exile". I will review the next volume just
as soon as I can finish reading it. If you have not read the
first volume, it is titles "The Many-Coloured Land". I don't
have it with me, but it is a trade paperback costing roughly
$7Cdn. Go out and buy it as soon as you can. If they don't have
it, get them to order it. I will include a small amount of pre-
view from that book as background for "Torc". As with other re-
views, this steals directly from the text in too many places to
give credit. If you like the style of writing, it is probably
due to a direct theft from Ms. May but don't blame her if you
don't.
The series starts on Earth in 2110, but rapidly moves back to
6,000,000BCE as I will explain shortly. First some background on
the universe this adventure is set in. In 2013, humanity was in-
vited to join the Galactic Milieu, a benevolent society where
humanity became the sixth of the Coadunate Races. The society
consists of planet colonizing civilizations with high technology
and the ability to perform mental operations, known as meta-
functions. The alien aspect of this civilization can be ignored
for the rest of this review!
When Earth joined the Milieu, there was a burst of technological
inventiveness. A French physicist named Theo Guderian discovered
what he considered to be a useless phenomenon: a one-way, fixed-
focus time-warp into France's Rhone River Valley as it existed
during the Pliocene Epoch, 6,000,000BCE.
It eventually transpires that the misfits of galactic civiliza-
tion sometimes choose to go backward in time and escape modern
civilization. To prevent paradoxes, they are not allowed to take
back any high-tech or highly-durable items, and the women are all
sterilized.
The first section of "The Many Coloured Land" follows the past
and present of a group of people about to go back in time. The
characters are as three-dimensional as any I have met in fiction
although the galactic civilization is not explained in great de-
tails. Much, much later you learn more about it, and hints ap-
pear throughout all three books.
When the travelers arrive in the past they are met by a race of
humanoids who have left their own galaxy due to misunderstandings
and a devote belief in a religion based on ritualistic battles.
The aliens are actually two "clans" which fight. The Tanu are
tall, graceful exotics with latent metapsychic powers. The Fir-
vulag are ugly little gnomes with limited operant powers.
The Tanu use "torcs" to make their powers operant and the two
races happily fight each other regularly as part of their reli-
gion. The Firvulag are better adapted and breed a little faster.
Enter the humans who, it is discovered, can successfully breed
with the Tanu and Firvulag. The Tanu adopt the humans and, with
the help of galactic technology, build torcs with varying degrees
of constraints. The humans also help reverse the sterilization
and many of the women are used a Tanu breeding stock. The hybrid
children are always healthier, able to breed true at a human
rate, and tend to have stronger powers.
Enter "our" group of humans. This is no ordinary group (isn't it
always like this). One member was a human operant from the
Milieu who lost her powers. She regains them due to the shock of
traveling back in time and becomes highly honored by the Tanu.
Another is a psychopathic female who hates men but who turns out
to have some powers. A third is loveable scamp. If Harry
Harrison had written the series, he would be James Bolivar Di-
Griz!
"Torc" takes up where "Many-Coloured Land" leaves off. We follow
the characters through the various societies in the Pliocene.
The characters are very well developed, the writing style is ad-
dictive, and the scenary is very believable.
My only complaint about the series to date is the very poor
development of the 2110 society. We hear about aliens, but never
actually find out what they are like. There is a bit of mysti-
cism and a few (not too subtle) hints that perhaps humanity is
descended from the Tanu/human hybrids. This could lead to an in-
teresting problem although Ms. May tends to avoid scientific de-
tails for the humanistic elements.
--- Stephen Perelgut ---
{decvax!utzoo,ihnp4,uw-beaver}!utcsrgv!perelgut
P.S. Comments on the reviews are always welcome.preece (05/01/83)
#R:utcsrgv:-128800:uicsl:10700013:000:110 uicsl!preece Apr 19 07:35:00 1983 The Golden Torc is also available, in places that carry such things, as an English paperback (around $6 US).