Magnificat

Author: Julian May
Publisher: Del Rey
ISBN: 0307776107
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 590

Book Description
“Fascinating . . . May has cemented her position as one of this generation's foremost storytellers. . . .This satisfying end to a remarkable feat of the imagination is a necessary purchase.”—Library Journal By the mid-twenty-first century, humanity is beginning to enjoy membership in the Galactic Milieu. Human colonies are thriving on numerous planets, life on Earth is peaceful and prosperous, and as more humans are being born with metapsychic abilities, it will not be long before these gifted minds at last achieve total Unity. But xenophobia is deeply rooted in the human soul. A growing corps of rebels plots to keep the people of Earth forever separate, led by a man obsessed with human superiority: Marc Remillard. Marc's goal is nothing less than the elevation of human metapsychics above all others, by way of artificial enhancement of mental faculties. His methods are unpalatable, his goal horrific. And so Marc and his coconspirators continue their work in secret. Only the very Unity he fears and abhors can foil Marc's plans. And only his brother, Jack the Bodiless, and the young woman called Diamond Mask can hope to lead the metaconcert to destroy Marc, Unify humanity, and pave the way for the Golden Age of the Galactic Milieu to begin . . . “A certain crowd-pleaser.”—Kirkus Reviews

Diamond Mask

Author: Julian May
Publisher: Del Rey
ISBN: 0307776131
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 607

Book Description
The 21st century was drawing to a close, and metapsychic humankind was poised at last to achieve Unity -- to be admitted into the group mind of the already unified alien races of the Galactic Milieu. But a growing corps of rebels was plotting to keep the people of Earth forever separate in the name of human individuality. And the rebels had a secret supporter: Fury, the insane metapsychic creatrue that would stop at nothing to claim humanity for itself. Fury's greatest enemy was the mutant genius Jack the Bodiless, whose power it craved. But Jack would never be a tool for Fury . . . And so it turned to Dorothea Macdonald, a young woman who had spent a lifetime hiding her towering mindpowers from the best mind readers of the Milieu. But she could not hide them from Fury -- or from Jack. Time and again she rejected their advances, unwilling to be drawn into the maelstrom of galactic politics or megalomaniacal dreams. And in the end, no one -- not Jack, not Fury, not even the Galactic Milieu -- would be a match for the awesome powers of the girl who would come to be called Diamond Mask . . .

The Golden Torc

Author: Julian May
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 0547892454
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 494

Book Description
Second in the series that portrays “one of the best-thought-out futures ever encountered in science fiction” from the author of The Many-Colored Land (Joe Haldeman). Six million years in the past, a proto-Europe is inhabited by two extraterrestrial races, the chivalric Tanu and the dwarfish, forest-dwelling Firvulag—both of which possess far-reaching psychic powers. But now, time-traveling humans from a future society have become involved in the age-old struggle between the two. One group of captured humans is brought to Muriah, the stately capital of the Tanu kingdom. Among them is Elizabeth Orme, who was once, in her own world, a Grand Master Metapsychic. In spite of Tanu harassment, she begins to recover her lost powers. The other human group, which has managed to overcome its Tanu guards and escape into the northern forests, includes Chief Burke, a Native American, and Felice Uindry, an athlete gifted with certain psychic powers of her own. This group, with the ambiguous aid of the Firvulag, determines to launch an attack against the very heart of Tanu dominance. At the end of the Grand Combat tournament between Tanu and Firvulag comes the astonishing climax to this astonishing novel. Praise for the Saga of Pliocene Exile “Enchanting and engrossing . . . I was captivated.”—Fritz Leiber “Julian May has woven a many-colored tapestry of exotic adventure.”—Roger Zelazny “Action-oriented and vivid.”—Vonda McIntyre “An amazing journey from the distant future to the distant past . . . High adventure.”—SFReviews.net

Intervention

Author: Julian May
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 9780395437827
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 546

Book Description
In 2013, with the world on the brink of an all-out war, a group of powerful psychics send a plea for help to the stars and receive an answer

A Pliocene Companion

Author: Julian May
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 0547892489
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 239

Book Description
The author of the acclaimed Pliocene Quartet offers an in-depth guide to a saga that “has most closely matched J. R. R Tolkien's achievement” (San Francisco Chronicle). With its richly imagined universe and large cast of finely-drawn characters, Julian May’s Saga of Pliocene Exile has won devoted fans across the globe who find new layers, details, and ideas with each reading. In the words of Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine: “Julian May has made a new and fresh masterwork in the genre and has irrevocably placed herself among the great of fantasy and science fiction.” Covering all four novels—The Many-Colored Land, The Golden Torc, The Nonborn King, and The Adversary—this reading guideoffers a plot chronology, the author's original maps, a descriptive listing of all the characters, and three delightful interviews with May herself. Beyond that, it gives the reader a chance to explore further the surroundings of a world six million years in the past. The glossary gives information on metapsychology, on the futuristic science of the Galactic Milieu, and on the exotic world of the Tanu and Firvulag. In all, A Pliocene Companion is a must for followers of the Saga.

The Many-Colored Land

Author: Julian May
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0547892470
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 435

Book Description
In the year 2034, Theo Quderian, a French physicist, made an amusing but impractical discovery: the means to use a one-way, fixed-focus time warp that opened into a place in the Rhone River valley during the idyllic Pliocene Epoch, six million years ago. But, as time went on, a certain usefulness developed. The misfits and mavericks of the future—many of them brilliant people—began to seek this exit door to a mysterious past. In 2110, a particularly strange and interesting group was preparing to make the journey—a starship captain, a girl athlete, a paleontologist, a woman priest, and others who had reason to flee the technological perfection of twenty-second-century life. Thus begins this dazzling fantasy novel that invites comparisons with the work of J.R.R. Tolkien, Arthur C. Clarke, and Ursula Le Quin. It opens up a whole world of wonder, not in far-flung galaxies but in our own distant past on Earth—a world that will captivate not only science-fiction and fantasy fans but also those who enjoy literate thrillers. The group that passes through the time-portal finds an unforeseen strangeness on the other side. Far from being uninhabited, Pliocene Europe is the home of two warring races from another planet. There is the knightly race of the Tanu—handsome, arrogant, and possessing vast powers of psychokinesis and telepathy. And there is the outcast race of Firvulag—dwarfish, malev-o olent, and gifted with their own supernormal skills. Taken captive by the Tanu and transported through the primordial European landscape, the humans manage to break free, join in an uneasy alliance with the forest-dwelling Firvulag, and, finally, launch an attack against the Tanu city of light on the banks of a river that, eons later, would be called the Rhine. Myth and legend, wit and violence, speculative science and breathtaking imagination mingle in this romantic fantasy, which is the first volume in a series about the exile world. The sequel, titled The Golden Torc, will follow soon.

Conqueror's Moon

Author: Julian May
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1440621853
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 446

Book Description
From the author of The Many-Colored Land comes the saga of a land beyond the horizon, where the quest for power is eternal, where magic and mystery are feared above all, and one man sought to reign. On a remote island, far in the Boreal Sea, four kingdoms have struggled against one another since time out of mind. Most mysterious is the marshland kingdom of Moss—feared by the others and ruled by the Sorcerers. Soon, all will be put in peril’s way. In recent years, three of the kingdoms have suffered fearsome volcanic eruptions that choke crops, famine among people, and an ailing leader on his deathbed. Only Moss, poverty-stricken and desolate at the best of times, seems untroubled. But Prince Conrig of Cathra, who waits patiently as his father, the king, wastes slowly away, is in league with his lover, the seductive sorceress Princess Ullanoth of Moss. And if their secret alliance succeeds in its goal, the warring kingdoms of High Blenholme will be united once and for all—under the iron hand of one supreme rule.

The Adversary

Author: Julian May
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 0547892462
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 515

Book Description
In the final novel of the award-winning sci-fi saga, both humans and aliens face destruction as a new time-portal opens a path back to the twenty-second century. Human time-travelers from the sophisticated Galactic Milieu of the twenty-second century came to the Pliocene Epoch seeking a Garden of Eden. What they found was slavery under the knightly Tanu race, who had been exiled to Earth from a far galaxy. Freed by the usurper Aiken Drum, the humans enjoy a brief period of dominance. But now King Aiken's rule is threatened by the dwarfish Firvulag, who scheme to destroy both humans and Tanu in an ultimate Gotterdammerung. This menace becomes almost incidental when Aiken discovers that his realm is about to be invaded by another human who possesses psychic powers even greater than his own. Marc Remillard, the instigator of the Metapsychic Rebellion, nearly conquered the Galactic Milieu before escaping through the time-portal after his defeat. Marc and his followers are out to overthrow Aiken just as a new time-gate is about to be built—one that will provide a two-way portal between the Many-Colored Land and the future world of the Milieu. The Adversary brings Julian May’s Locus Award-winning series—which also includes The Many-Colored Land, The Golden Tore, and The Nonborn King—to a rousing climax.

Dying of the Light

Author: George R. R. Martin
Publisher: Bantam
ISBN: 0553900978
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Book Description
In this unforgettable space opera, #1 New York Times bestselling author George R. R. Martin presents a chilling vision of eternal night—a volatile world where cultures clash, codes of honor do not exist, and the hunter and the hunted are often interchangeable. A whisperjewel has summoned Dirk t’Larien to Worlorn, and a love he thinks he lost. But Worlorn isn’t the world Dirk imagined, and Gwen Delvano is no longer the woman he once knew. She is bound to another man, and to a dying planet that is trapped in twilight. Gwen needs Dirk’s protection, and he will do anything to keep her safe, even if it means challenging the barbaric man who has claimed her. But an impenetrable veil of secrecy surrounds them all, and it’s becoming impossible for Dirk to distinguish between his allies and his enemies. In this dangerous triangle, one is hurtling toward escape, another toward revenge, and the last toward a brutal, untimely demise. Praise for Dying of the Light “Dying of the Light blew the doors off of my idea of what fiction could be and could do, what a work of unbridled imagination could make a reader feel and believe.”—Michael Chabon “Slick science fiction . . . the Wild West in outer space.”—Los Angeles Times “Something special which will keep Worlorn and its people in the reader’s mind long after the final page is read.”—Galileo magazine “The galactic background is excellent. . . . Martin knows how to hold the reader.”—Asimov’s “George R. R. Martin has the voice of a poet and a mind like a steel trap.”—Algis Budrys

Return from Tomorrow

Author: George G. Ritchie
Publisher: Baker Books
ISBN: 1493441116
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 119

Book Description
The True Story of an Uncharted Journey Through the Afterlife As a world war raged around him, a young soldier named George Ritchie barely comprehended his own death as he left the physical world--only to return minutes later. Yet in the space between death and coming back to life, he experienced eternity. In this riveting true story, Dr. George Ritchie shares some of the most stunning and detailed descriptions of life after death. You'll encounter other non-physical beings, travel through different dimensions of time and space, and discover a series of worlds--some hellish in their separation from life, some glorious in their heavenly brilliance. But most amazingly, you'll witness his transformational meeting with the Light of the world, the Son of God. Hailed as one of the most amazing visions of the afterlife ever recorded, Ritchie's experience forever changed the course of his life and his understanding of the realm beyond our own--and it can do the same for you.