The Nonborn King and The Adversary are the last two books of Julian May's Pliocene Exile tetralogy. They are better than the first two books and much, much better than the books that came after them.
May had real strengths: high concept (the whole Pliocene Exile notion is a *great* high concept), plots of hundreds, Wagnerian climaxes. There is a great deal of fannishness and Celtolatry in the first two books. Well, in these two, too, but starting about halfway through Book Two she starts killing characters off with GRR Martin levels of energy and enthusiasm, and somehow that makes it somewhat better.
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May had real strengths: high concept (the whole Pliocene Exile notion is a *great* high concept), plots of hundreds, Wagnerian climaxes. There is a great deal of fannishness and Celtolatry in the first two books. Well, in these two, too, but starting about halfway through Book Two she starts killing characters off with GRR Martin levels of energy and enthusiasm, and somehow that makes it somewhat better.
Doug M.