I'm rereading a much loved series. And while it is a little dated, it's still a charming series with creative world building and great breadth of vision. Excellent fantasy, set when humans from the future go back to the pliocene era in a one way, one stop time machine and find that there is already a sentient race living there. All sorts of adventures ensue. ( )

None of the Tanu are operant metapsychially, they all use the Golden Torc to utilise their powers, or even communicate if they have no powers. They realise they are becoming more and more reliant on human technologists, as their own offspring are becoming very hedonistic. The Tanu king commissions Bryan, the anthropologist of Group Green to do a study on the long term ramifications.

Meanwhile, Claude, Stein, Felice, Amerie and Richard are aligned with the human rebels and alien sympathisers.

Elizabeth Orme, an operant, comes to the attention of Brede, a mystical figure, and Aiken Drum sees opportunity for advancement through the upcoming Grand Combat, where the Tanu and their Firvulag alien opponents get to ritually slaughter each other at an annual sporting contest.

The rebels see this as an opportune time to strike.

http://superprose.blogspot.com/2006/1... ( )

http://tamaranth.blogspot.com/2006/10... ( )