Saga of Pliocene Exile

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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 Nonborn King and The Adversary. ^[1]

The story spans two time periods: the near future, where humans inhabit over 700 planets as part of the Galactic Milieu, an empire of five space-faring species, and the Earth six million years in the past at a time when the Strait of Gibraltar is closed and the Mediterranean Sea is dry and empty. The Many Colored Land and The Golden Torc are set in mainly in Europe just before and during the rupture at Gibraltar. The rupture and the rapid filling of the Mediterranean, based on the geological event known as the Zanclean Flood, form a Wagnerian climax to The Golden Torc, in which aliens and time-traveling humans are caught up in this cataclysm.