Customer Reviews

KINGDOMS OF THE WALL

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Like an ancient palimpsest, this is a book with layers of meaning. Picture a planet whose physical features are dominated by a single tremendously massive mountain peak with attendant foot-hills. At the foot of the mountain are clustered numerous villages, each with defined strata of clans and guild-like rankings. The people of the villages revere an ancient ancestor who is believed to have scaled the mountain and at its peak met with and received gifts from the Gods that enabled him to kick-start "human" civilization. Every year in commemoration, each village sends a team of chosen Pilgrims to replicate his climb. Few have returned from this pilgrimage and none of those few returnees has retained his or her sanity.

To be selected as one of the Pilgrims is a sought-after honor that most of the village children aspire to. The story follows one team of Pilgrims through the words of Poilar Crookleg, its leader. Silverberg takes us through the culling of the Pilgrims from the pool of applicants (a process that first causes Poilar to begin questioning some of his beliefs) and on to the actual climb. On its trek, the team of Pilgrims must surmount numerous hazards ranging from the violent to the beguiling. Many are the temptations to turn aside and leave the Pilgrimage; the growing hardships, the lure of sirens, the seductive hypnosis of the Kavnalla, the bliss of eternal youth. These are well described indeed, in their allure and their horror, and I initially thought Silverberg was spinning an allegorical rite of passage.

The culmination of the Pilgrimage however shatters the Pilgrims (through the reader sees it coming well beforehand). I do not wish to spoil the pleasure of readers so I will only say that Silverberg makes us feel the loss of moorings and direction experienced by the Pilgrims when they learn that their entire life has been given to a fable. A great work by a great author.

This fabulous story is told to us by Poilar Crookleg, who is about to ascend the mountain of Kosa Saag, like his forefathers before him, along with 39 comrades, to perform the holy pilgrimage to meet the gods. What follows is a tale of friendship, hardship and the power of faith, not to mention a hell of a Rite of Passage.

Great, fully fleshed characters, incredible imagination, a true sense of mystery and fantastic twists, turns and surprises. What is up there on the summit? What are the Kingdoms of the Wall? Who will survive the journey and who will not?

What a great author Robert Silverberg is. A true master of his genre. This book is spellbinding. Read it.

Robert Silverberg has written the definitive coming of age (sci fi/ fantasy) novel. Yes, the ending has a dark twist, but the disillusion experienced by the survivors represents a growth of personal awareness. They loose their innocence and find themselves able to face a reality far greater than the myth they had followed up the mountain.

I have read this book twice using library copies, but finding the book no longer available, I must purchase my own copy. So it goes. I have no regrets. I learn something new everytime I read it.

Read and enjoy!

I'm generally not the type to read fiction, but I picked this up used from a street vendor and I'm very glad to have stumbled upon it.

Silverberg creates believable and interesting characters from the very beginning, and always keeps the reader guessing as to what strange and interesting experiences the pilgrims are going to endure next. Silverberg is a master of metaphor, and his talent for concise description vividly recreates the surrealistic scenes without ever interfering with the action.

If you're looking for an easy, dirt cheap (check out the used prices!), and meaningful fantasy/fiction read, I highly recommend Kingdoms of the Wall.

Silverberg tells a good, if somewhat traditional, adventure story here, the tale of a long and dangerous journey with Homeric overtones. His effective, and sometimes subtle, use of first person narration takes the novel to a higher, more literary level. A very good read.

This is his best, in my opinion. The theme of the book is fairly simple (almost cliched when you get to the surprise near the end) yet it is still an engrossing read. However, the biggest surprise (unless you're smarter than me - not too hard!) is when you find out the nature of the main characters in the book, which happens not too far into it. All in all, a great book.

Silverberg is a fine author. He narrates his tales with finesse and precision. But what we've got here (..is a failure to communicate) is a simple, predictable storyline hyped up in a fantasy setting with The Changes. It's a good read, but deja vu may set in

This is a Homer-esque story about a primitive group of people (much like say ancient Greeks from a peasant village) who must a climb a mountain. It's a titanic mountain, dominating the landscape of their planet. The narrative has a mythic sense because these poor ignorant people are actually courageous and resilient, much like the voyages of Odysseus. The breadth of experience felt bigger than the typical pulp sci-fi novel.

I'd imagine you'd hate it instead if you didn't like the characters, since they are such a big part of what is going on. But much like an ancient parable, I enjoyed the journey of these exiled wanderers, facing a rite of passage, as they gradually climbed up the mountain, gaining enlightenment/disillusionment as they climbed.

Recommended fiction, if you are an intellectual, allegorical type of mood. An artful story.

This book ios one of the best books that I've ever read. This is the only book that'll I'll read more then once and still be excited. He is by far one the best sci-fi writers of our times!

When is a fantasy not a fantasy? When the writer gives a rational scientific explanation for everything that happens. At least that seems to be the concept behind this slow-moving account of the attempt by a company of Pilgrims to ascend the great Wall of their mysterious world. The story is told by Poilar Crookleg, one of the few Pilgrims who makes it back, and like everyone else in his village, he has little useful information about his place in the Universe and what the terrifying Wall really is. Dripping with mystery, mysticism, and dread, this book promises a lot, but, one wonders, will it deliver? This reader found the ending acceptable although a bit of an anticlimax.

Webster's defines "melodrama" as "a dramatic form that does not observe the laws of cause and effect and that exaggerates emotion and emphasizes plot or action at the expense of characterization." This analysis seems accurate enough for at least 90% of this book. Okay, eventually we do find out the secrets of the Wall and why everything is so unpleasant there, but up to that point it all seems like pure melodrama as the Forty pilgrims face one horrid experience after another to no obvious purpose. Remember when fantasy novels used to be fun - full of beauty and wonder? Or if they weren't all that much fun, didn't they at least have some point to them? It's hard to see any real point behind this tedious tome. If neither of these criticisms put you off, this might be for you.

Sometimes after reading a really terrific book, I find myself looking forward to reading it again someday. While this was perhaps not really all that bad a novel, it's one you'd have to pay me to read again. Two and a half stars.