1981:
The trivia:
- In 1809, in the middle of the Napoleonic Wars, the local council of Huéscar in Grenada, Spain decided to declare war on Denmark. And then… everyone forgot about it. Completely. For 172 years, Huéscar was technically at war with Denmark, though nobody in either country seemed to notice. No soldiers were mobilised, no shots were fired, no casualties recorded. Life in Huéscar carried on as normal, while Denmark remained blissfully unaware that a town in southern Spain had them on its enemies list. It wasn’t until 1981 that someone stumbled across the paperwork in the town archives and realised. By then, of course, the whole thing was ridiculous. So the mayor of Huéscar invited the Danish ambassador to a formal ceremony, and the two sides signed a peace treaty. After nearly two centuries of “conflict,” the war ended with handshakes and a round of drinks.
- Roger Fischer, a professor of law at Harvard suggested a unique idea to deter the use of nuclear weapons - put the codes in a capsule and implant it next to the heart of a willing volunteer, who would always carry a large knife. In order to use the codes, the President would have to kill the individual with his own hands - confronting the reality of taking a single life before ordering the deaths of millions. Fischer reasoned that it was a way of forcing empathy into a system designed to be cold and mechanical. Needless to say the Pentagon didn't go for it, citing that it would "distort the President's judgement"...
- The late 1970s and early ’80s were a golden age for niche record labels, and none were more mischievous than Stiff Records in the UK. Known for their cheeky marketing and punk‑era irreverence, they specialised in turning music into satire. One of their most notorious releases was an LP called "The Wit and Wisdom of Ronald Reagan". The joke? Both sides of the record were completely silent. Buyers got a glossy LP sleeve, a disc with grooves, and absolutely no audio. And yet, the gag landed so well that the record sold more than 30,000 copies.
The memory:
The Saga of the Exiles by Julian May
After a brief dalliance with a couple of SF stories in the early 1950s, Julian May became a prolific non-fiction writer, penning thousands of science encyclopaedia entries and over 250 books for children. So effectively she was a brand new author when I came across "The Many-Coloured Land" - the first in the "Saga of the Exiles" - in my local bookshop. The unusual cover and the premise of a group of time travellers going back to ancient Earth only to find that it was already occupied by aliens intrigued me enough to buy the book. What I never expected was that the story would be much more complicated, thoughtful and wide ranging - would expand to cover a further four volumes beyond the original quartet - and would become one of my favourite SF series of all time.
So here's the plot. By the late 21st / early 22nd century, three hugely important things have happened to the human race and society on the planet:
- Time travel has been discovered. However the time gate only works in one French location and back to one time - six million years to the Pliocene era. It's also just one way - any attempt to travel back to the "present" ages the traveller (or any organic object) instantly to death.
- Various individuals have emerged as "metapsychics" - possessed of mental powers strong enough to manipulate energy or objects, coerce others to do their bidding, communicate telepathically and heal mental illnesses.
- After being under surveillance for centuries, Earth has had an "Intervention" which introduced it to the wider galactic community and a number of equally psychic exotic alien races, which are together striving for mental "unity". A faction of humans opposed to this idea - and with a view to making humans supreme - fermented a "Metapsychic Rebellion". It waas a conflict which resulted in a horrendous loss of life across the galaxy, but was narrowly defeated.
Despite the advances of humanity and the expansion into the galaxy, there are still those who want to escape the modern world. A steady number of misfits and outcasts use the time gateway to try to start over in the simplistic world of the Pliocene. All technology that will not decompose after a hundred years is banned from being carried back and all females are sterilised to prevent the contamination of the past.
The saga begins as a fresh group of "exiles" prepare to travel through the gate to a new life. However the Pliocene world that awaits them is not the pastoral utopia they expected. Instead it is already inhabited by two evolutionary branches of a metapsychic alien race - the beautiful, tall Tanu and the short, ugly Firvulag - who are engaged in a centuries old war. Having fled their own galaxy, they were marooned on Earth when their living spaceship crash landed. The Tanu have enslaved most of the previous human settlers through the use of various metal torcs around their necks and use them as workers, battle troops and breeding stock (female sterilisation has been reversed) - and to assist in their constant battles with the Firvulag, which culminate each year in the "Grand Combat". The torcs also enhance any latent metapsychic powers of the wearer.
What follows is an epic science fiction, meets fantasy, meets super-powers series where the exiled humans begin to vastly influence and change the dynamic of the aliens endless conflict. Via the power of the Golden Torc, various individuals find themselves in possession of enormous mental abilities. Some like trickster Aiken Drum want to take over, while others like the unstable Felice are driven mad and seek to destroy the society the Tanu have built over the centuries since their arrival.
In the third book ("The Non Born King"), May introduces the survivors of the Metapsychic Rebellion who fled into the Pliocene, and the efforts of their leader and the Galactic Milieu's strongest mind, Marc Remillard, to escape his prehistoric prison. Marc's family don't necessarily see eye-to-eye with him on all his plans and this conflict adds another layer into an already large cast of characters.
The clash between the various factions of "exiles" mounts to a crescendo in the final volume when allies, friends and families turn against each other and the fate of both the ancient and futuristic worlds hang in the balance. I'm incredibly reluctant to reveal too much detail about the plot as experiencing it fresh for the first time is really the best way. Suffice it to say that there are plenty of twists and turns before all the players reach their final destinations. May also offers tantalising glimpses of background characters and past (or is that future) events, fleshing out the societies and races involved.
Like some modern celebrated authors (George R.R. Martin coms to mind), May is hugely adept at mixing multiple points of view, political infighting, human relationships, huge battle scenes, intricate plotting and life changing events. Although much of the world building has its roots in Celtic mythology and religious symbolism, it never feels anything less than fresh and exciting and there is a real cross-genre feel, which meant the storyline appealed to all of my interests. I remember impatiently waiting for each book to come out, and along with "The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant", this was a series which I read and re-read in my teenage years, each time getting something new out of it. Part of me thinks that it would make a great multi-season TV series, but then again, perhaps it's best that these characters live vividly in my imagination instead of watered down on the screen.
After the end of book four ("The Adversary"), May released "A Pliocene Companion" - a reference guide to the world she created, along with maps, author interviews and discussions on the sources that provided inspiration. It's certainly not essential to read it to enjoy the books, but it does offer some interesting background details for real fans.
She than followed up her epic with a further four book story that, although more pure SF in flavour, is both prequel *and* sequel to the original saga. The massive single volume "Intervention" details the history of the Remillard family and the events that lead up to the Great Intervention where the alien races inhabiting the galaxy reveal themselves to the population of Earth. The subsequent "Galactic Milieu" trilogy - "Jack the Bodiless", "Diamond Mask" and "Magnificat"" moves forward forty years and tells the story of the Metapsychic Rebellion. It fills in much of the backstory only hinted at in the original quartet, reveals many secrets, and in the end loops everything back very neatly to the events of the Pliocene Exile (just look at the mirror image in that final cover).
I really would consider Julian May to be one of the great science fiction or fantasy authors and as a complete eight book sequence (or ten books if you count the "Companion" and split "Intervention" in two as some versions have) it's an incredible inventive and enjoyable piece of work that must have taken meticulous planning across more than a decade of writing. It's amazing how things referenced in the last novel tie back to those in the first and vice versa.
Sadly May seems to have been largely forgotten about in the modern era, but she is well overdue discovery by a new generation of readers. Although it's been quite a while since I last re-read it - and I wonder if my much older self would get quite the same thrill now as I did back then - the "Saga of the Exiles" still remains one of those series which expanded my horizons on what could be accomplished in a genre novel.
Honourable mentions:
- The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - When people talk about "Hitchhiker’s", they could mean the novels, the LPs, the stage show, or even the video game. For me though, it was the BBC television series that really lodged itself in my memory. I’d already devoured the original radio episodes when Radio 4 re‑broadcast all twelve in one go, but seeing Douglas Adams’ universe brought to life on screen was something else entirely. Yes, Zaphod’s second head looked clunky, and Marvin the Paranoid Android’s costume now feels like a relic of early ’80s design. But those quirks aside, the production nailed the casting and atmosphere. Simon Jones as Arthur Dent was pitch‑perfect, embodying the baffled everyman caught in cosmic absurdity. David Dixon’s Ford Prefect had just the right mix of charm and alien detachment, and Mark Wing‑Davey’s Zaphod carried the swagger even if the prosthetics didn’t. What truly captured me, though, was "The Book". The hand‑drawn animations, paired with Peter Jones’ wonderfully dry narration, were exactly how I’d imagined the Guide itself. They gave the series its unique texture - witty, informative, and slightly surreal. No amount of 21st‑century CGI can match the charm of those sequences, which felt like a perfect extension of Adams’ humour.
- Shock Treatment - "Rocky Horror" casts a long shadow, which is probably why its semi‑sequel is so often overlooked. It never quite caught the same cult lightning in a bottle, but for me it’s just as much fun - and in some ways even sharper. Where "Rocky" was a gleeful send‑up of B‑movies and sexual liberation, "Shock Treatment" turns its satirical eye on television culture, consumerism, and the creeping influence of media on everyday life. The songs are a big part of why I love it. “Bitchin’ in the Kitchen” is a masterclass in wordplay, rattling off domestic frustrations with tongue‑twisting glee, while “Little Black Dress” bursts with sheer exuberance. They’re tracks that demand you sing along, and I often do. Richard O’Brien’s knack for mixing camp, satire, and genuine musical hooks is on full display here. The film’s reception was mixed, and it never achieved the midnight‑movie status of its predecessor, but that doesn’t mean it should be dismissed. I was lucky enough to see the first-ever stage production during it's limited run in London in 2015, and I wrote more about the film and that show here. Sneak preview: it was *really* good.
- An American Werewolf in London - One of the first horror films I can remember renting on VHS from our local video shop. It wasn’t the snarling werewolf transformations or the gruesome killings that unsettled me though. What really creeped me out was David’s dead friend Jack, who kept reappearing in ever more decomposed states. Each visit was darker, funnier, and more grotesque, and it lodged in my memory far more than the monster itself. John Landis’s film is often remembered for its ground-breaking transformation effects, but for me it’s that mix of horror and black comedy that makes it endure. The way Jack keeps turning up, cracking jokes while his flesh rots away, is the perfect example of the film’s tone: unsettling and absurd at the same time. And then there’s the cameo that always makes me smile - the much-missed Rik Mayall, tucked away in the Slaughtered Lamb pub. It’s a blink‑and‑you’ll‑miss‑it appearance, another big reason why this film gets on the list *.
- The Antipope - The first novel by humourist and "father of far-fetched fiction" Robert Rankin. it also launched the increasingly mis-numbered "Brentford Trilogy" - a sprawling, eccentric series starring anti-heroes Jim Pooley and John O'Mally, here drinking and womanising their way through a surreal adventure against Pope Alexander VI, last of the Borgia's, and his attempt to take over the world (or Brentford at least). I was lent the book by a friend originally and although I found it interesting enough, it wasn't until the early 90s when Rankin's career really took off that I truly appreciated what a gloriously book it is. Much like early Terry Pratchett, the seeds of the great writer to come are all present here: the absurd premises, the sly humour, the sense of community. The running jokes, old traditions and charters and art of "talking the toot" are still to come, but the foundations were already there.. There really is no one like Rankin out there and it's a damn shame his output has decreased in recent years.
- Ka-Zar The Savage - Another of my early Marvel comics titles and one of the first to go down the "direct market" route of distribution in speciality comics shops. This Tarzan analogue, with his trusty pet Zabu the sabre-toothed tiger and girlfriend Shanna the She-Devil, was a completely unknown character to me until the new series was released - but the combination of writing from Bruce Jones and fantastic art from Brent Anderson soon put it to the top of my reading list. The first dozen or so issues are the best, dealing with the discovery of the hidden land of Pangea, the descent into a version of Dante's Hell and the battle against the demon lord Belasco, whose presence adds a darker, more supernatural edge to the series. I lapped it up, and to be honest, I don’t think the character has been handled as well since. Later iterations never quite captured the same mix of pulp energy and philosophical undertones. For me it remains a perfect example of how comics can take a character you barely know and turning them into a favourite through sheer storytelling.
* Rik Mayall has a slightly more substantial appearance in another film on this list. Can you guess which one ?
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