The Golden Torc

Part II of The Saga of Pliocene Exile (now a projected tetralogy), and inferior by several grades to the not-so-hot opening volume, The Many-Colored Land (p. 250). These are the wearisome further adventures of a group of malcontents exiled via a one-way timewarp to Earth's Pliocene epoch - where two alien races, the Tanu and Firvulag (both, by an amazing coincidence, interfertile with humans), continue their age-old genetic and social rivalry. The Tanu - obsessed with sex, flowery titles, blood sports, Hollywood-style glitter, and murky intrigues - keep the humans enslaved by means of torcs which confer paranormal powers; only those that wear the gold are relatively free of coercion. So Madame Guderian's plan to defeat the Tanu, which involves destroying the torc factory and the timewarp, backfires as she's betrayed by gold-torc Aiken Drum, an ambitious man currying favor with the Tanu. And subsequently, during the Grand Combat (a sort of Roman circus-cum-jousting tournament, with Tanu, Firvulag, humans, and beasties all hacking away at each other), embittered gold-torc escapee Felice whips up a devastating flood to sweep most of them away. A bloated, theatrical mishmash altogether, with little plot or action; only for devotees of pseudo-significant sex/violence parables. (Kirkus Reviews)