"I love action-filled science fiction. I am a fan. I have been accused of being a fan and I admit to it," Julian May told Darrell Schweitzer in Science Fiction Review. After twenty-five years of earning her living by writing juvenile nonfiction works to order, May's love for science fiction led her to return to the field in the 1980s with the four-volume "Saga of the Pliocene Exile." This epic series involving time travel, psychic powers, alien conquerors, and human determination has proved popular with readers who enjoy tales of adventure. As the author told Schweitzer: "To me, SF should not be didactic, but rather a literature of entertainment.... I [have always] wanted to give the reader books that would be fun."

Even as a young child, May had a taste for the fantastic. "I was the kid who devoured the Lang fairytale books at the Elmwood Park...