Customer Reviews

Sorcerers of Majipoor (Prestimion Trilogy)

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

 

 

An oddly uninspired rehashing of every throne usurping novel you've ever read. Silverberg even manages to plagerize himself, reusing the premise behind "Lord Valentines Castle", but without the interesting parts.
In one of the most puzzling coups in the history of monarchial fiction, the books villian steals the throne from it's rightful ruler, by simply picking up the crown and placing it on his own head. Majipoor has always had a fascinating juxtaposition of high-tech and feudalism, but common sense never seemed to be a rare comodity before.
The book then becomes a listless repetition of: raise and army, fight and win, fight and lose, raise a new army, fight and win. The book culminates in one of the most anticlimatic methods possible, a character who has barely put in an appearance kills the villain and the fight is over. Except for the one token good guy who has to die to toss some credibility into the mix.
Had this been a first time authors submission, no way would it have ever seen paper.

beware--one of the richest worlds in scifi is really only the hobby terrarium of an old pro--its all about the scenery, the sex, and the thokka (liquor-filled berries).

its a great venue for short pieces (majipoor chronicles) but the novels are shameless blather--

the old "fantasy-series-retirement-plan", i suspect.

read jack vance's dying earth books instead.

Silverberg is one of my favourite authors and I've read all the Majipoor novels.
Generally I don't think the Majipoor novels are his best work and I get the impression that he churns out another Majipoor novel when he runs out of ideas for new work.
But the Socerers of Majipoor is I'm afraid the worst of the series. After an interesting start the novel seems to have gotten out of the authors control and just goes on and on and on and on..... Eventually it becomes a glorified soap opera, but I won't spoil the end for those he want to read it.
All I can say, he has done better Majipoor novels and a hell of a lot better other work.

This book was truely great, despite somewhat popular opinion. I cared about the characters as conflict for the crown ensued, every character was developed thoroughly as to make you like them or hate them. If you liked Valentine's castle then you'll definitely like this one as well(and all the others after it).

I consider Robert Silverberg to be the greatest living writer of science fiction, with the possible exception of Jack Vance. However, I found his fantasy work, particularly the bestselling Lord Valentine's Castle, to be predictable and bland. I wasn't able to finish that book. I picked this one up out of curiosity and didn't expect it to be very good: and was surprised to find myself utterly engrossed in it. Yes, Silverberg's capable of much more complex characters and a more sophisticated plot, but this novel is pure entertainment. Perhaps I'll give Lord Valentine's Castle another chance.

This book was one of the best I have read in a long time. It is an excellent prelude to the other books after it. Robert Silverberg has the gift of painting vivid and lively pictures with words that enable the reader to actually see the characters' surroundings and companions. I really got a kick out of this book.

The Majipoor Cycle has arguably one of the greatest scopes of any recent science-fiction/fantasy undertakings. The world created by Robert Silverberg is alive with rich, detailed history, and the lineage of the Coronals and Pontifexes is woven with intricate attention to detail. Given all of this, it's a surprise that the stories offered by Silverberg seem to suffer from a successive decline in substance.

Sorcerers of Majipoor is not a bad book. It's just not a very good book, a fact which becomes more disappoining when the amazing talents of the author are considered. Sorcerers of Majipoor was not as much a let down as Mountains of Majipoor, the installment that preceeded this current offering, but it certainly did nothing as far as redeeming the Majipoor Cycle. From the dizzying heights of Lord Valentine's Castle, one of the greatest fantasy novels of all time, we spiral down through the series, moving through Majipoor Chronicles, and Valentine Pontifex until w! e reach Mountains of Majipoor. After suffering through this extremely bland story in the hopes of returning somehow to the masterpiece of Lord Valentine's Castle, we are given Sorcerers of Majipoor.

This book, which takes place 1,000 years before the time of Lord Valentine, opens with the death of the Pontifex Prankipin and the succession of Lord Confalume to The Labyrinth, the underground city which serves as the seat of The Pontifex's power. Lord Confalume has chosen Prince Prestimion as his successor although he hasn't formally named him. However, Confalume's son, Korsibar, becomes convinced that he should be the rightful heir to the Coronal's throne. Using sorcery and dark magic, he manages to claim the throne during the celebration of Lord Confalume's succession to the post of Pontifex.. Prestimion does not challenge Korsibar at first. As Confalume never officially named him as successor, he feels that a challenge to the throne may have little foundation. So, Pre! stimion and his men steal away from The Labyrinth and plan ! their usurpation in secret.

The story unfolds as Korsibar struggles with the challenge of ruling Majipoor, and Prestimion plans to topple him. There are plenty of unexpected plot twists, and the landscape of Majipoor is as enchanting as ever, but the book fails to deliver in the way that the earlier works of The Majipoor Cycle did. There is too much diplomacy and not enough action. The characters are surprisingly thin, uninteresting, and inconsistent (Korsibar, who at the beginning of the book appears valiantly loyal and very distinguished, becomes nothing less than a traitor with a minimun of prompting from his sister and some of his advisors). The story moves at a snail's pace, and I found myself able to tolerate it for only short periods of time. I couldn't finish this book nearly as fast as I've been able to read some of Silverberg's other novels.

As I stated before, Sorcerers of Majipoor was not as uninteresting as Mountains of Majipoor, but this is not saying mu! ch. There were parts of Sorcerers that were wonderful, but there simply weren't enough of these parts. Considering the lofty position that Lord Valentine's Castle holds in my view of the science-fiction/fantasy genre, I sincerely hope that Silverberg isn't running out of Majipoor stories. However, if the last two installments in the series are any indication, the author needs to leave the giant planet alone and move on.

This is the Tale of the coming to power of the Coronal Lord Prestimion. Its really got the flavor of an epic saga, the way the book progresses through time and events. It's got friends, enemies, lust, idealism, betrayal, sorcery, defeat, triumph, and war. There is really very little that this book lacked. The characters are bad-ass (good and bad) and the plot is interesting. Very few parts of the book dragged out too long and the story progressed very quickly, keeping the reader interested, throughout the entire book (and its a long book). I strongly reccomend this book to anyone and can't wait to read Lord Prestimion, the next in the series.

This book has the same plot as "Lord Valentine's Castle" (rightful prince is overthrown by usurper). Silverberg is capable of far better.

I'd never read a Majipoor novel by Silverberg before, and I found this to be a fantastic initiation into this massive world. The plot grabs you from the first page, and you stay enthralled. Some characters can be a bit grating, but I found myself missing some of them when the book came to an end.

It's fast paced, filled with intrigue and overall a vastly entertaining novel. I definitely recommend it.