Customer Reviews

Valentine Pontifex: A Novel in the Majipoor Cycle

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

 

 

I hate to say it, but this series ended with more of a whimper than a bang. The first novel was good, a little strangely paced (took forever to get to the Isle, then -zip! the book was over), but still a good read. The second book was also good, probably the best of the three. But then this book takes a big dip in quality. Valentine comes off looking like a naive, almost[...]bumpkin, who insists on dealing with every situation with love and peace, even as it becomes more and more obvious that his enemies are out to destroy him. The book starts with him fainting because he has a premonition that Majipoor is in trouble, and he never really rallies from that experience. From there he bumbles from place to place, never quite sure what to do but determined to do it without force. And this guy leads 50 billion people?!

As noted by other reviewers, many of the surrounding characters are not well drawn out and in many cases, hardly have any dialog. And the ending is almost preposterous.

OK, I've painted a pretty bleak picture here. But the saving of this novel is Hissune, the young protege of Valentine who's up on Castle Mount learning how to become a Coronal. Training that apparently Valetine missed. Anyway, Hissune is a great strong character, and it is always a delight when he is the subject of a chapter. In the end, Silverberg makes some good points about governments and the governing process, but never brings this book up to the standard of the other two books. If you have read the other two books, then go ahead and read this, it is still decent. If you have never read Majipoor, then run away as fast as you can and go read the other two first, or you'll never pick up another Majipoor novel again!

This book was very enjoyable, the first being Lord Valentines Castle (A masterpiece), the second Majipoor Chronicles (A dissapointing compilation of short stories), and finally Valentine Pontifex, which was more in the ilk of the first in the series. The book was well written and held my interest from start to finish. My only minor criticism being that some of the earlier characters, whilst present were not explored further or made much use of in this the final rendition. Still a great book and worth a read.

I enjoy Silverberg's writing enormously, and loved the previous two books. However, I found this book to be a chore to read, and a big disappointment in so many ways.

The best things in the book, in my opinion, are the little side stories; some of them seem like they could have come straight out of Majipoor Chronicles.

The main storyline and characters are just pathetic, however. Valentine wanders aimlessly. Hissune seems to be the only person in the government paying attention to anything that's going on. Hissune's rival is a cardboard cutout. Sleet is reduced to an angry bitter man whose only lines call for war and genocide against the Metamorphs. Carabella is a decorative prop who occasionally pulls Valentine out of his funk, and nothing more. Other characters from the first book appear, but have so little involvement in the story that they only serve to distract.

Various plot elements fail to live up to their potential. The fainting spells of Valentine, the awesome mental powers of the sea dragons, the legends and prophecies of the metamorphs, the rivalries of the nobles, a visit to the king of dreams...all of these were plot elements that could have grown to be something interesting. Either they just fizzle into nothing, or they are resolved in boring, obvious ways. Really uninspired.

If you loved the earlier books, it might be worth your time: you'll see a few new aspects of the setting, and some of the embedded short stories are pretty good. But overall, it's pretty unsatisfying.

For all its ponderous, slow pace, I still found this a very enjoyable read. Perhaps because that marveous world of Marjipoor
continues to have the ability to draw you in.

Here we have Coronal Valentine simply being his gentle, persistant self. Underneath the sweet exterior, Valentine's actually rather strong- but he still frustrates because we want to see some action! But Silverberg's ongoing theme throughout the Marjipoor novels has been universal acceptance, forgiveness, and love.

Valentine has to cope with those dastardly Shapeshifters and their nasty plots to take over the world by way of plagues, horrible mutant species, etc. that plunge the world into chaos.
Add in a strange new religious cult, Valentine's horror of becoming Pontifex and the Labyrinth---and you have the new plot for Valentine Pontifex.

Sometimes I've thought Silverberg has an abundance of imagination when it comes to world-building and description- but little in the way of human nature. Here we have a huge world with people who struggle all their lives to reach the top level of the Isle Of Dreams, yet Hissune's mother just steps right in and takes over the job of Lady Of The Isle. Just as Hissune just steps in and takes over as Coronal - though he's still wet behind the ears. Not very realistic- and a marvelous setting for some great conflict.

Instead, we are given scenario after scenario of good-hearted, hard working characters who are ruined, made destitute, or commit suicide due to seeing their life's work destroyed. While Valentine goes hither and thither, leaving dead bodies in his wake.

Even so- the scenarios are fascinating, Hissune is fun to root for, the Sea Dragons are a new interesting element and- given Valentine's nature, the resolution should not be surprising.

I'll take a Marjipoor book any day over most of the science fiction/fantasy that's out there. Not too many writers can pull me in to where I forget I'm reading a book. It's pure escape reading- and just a lot of fun.

For very page I read, there was at least two I skipped. The previous twos books were great, but sadly, they had to be capped off with this.

The charcters lost their charm, and there was only one I was interested in, but since Silverberg suddenyl changed his style from one character persepective to all, sadly, that one character came around all to few times.

This book also pocesses one of the worst endings I have ever read. To think that I forced myself all the way though those long pages only to see that as my reward. One word for that ending, horrificly pathetic. All right, that was two.

Back to the characters. Poorly developed, and if I hadn't known them before, I think I would have rooted for the antagonists to kill them off, just for the excitement. Its what Silverberg should have done, or something like it. This book was duller than lectures. It was like, almost reading a very unrealistic history noevl, where the you strangely get to experience the hourly introspectives of the characters that NO ONE CARES ABOUT.

Personally, I would have rather done my homework, but my own pride in the fact that I've never not finished a book kept me from that. And while the first two books only took me a week or so to read, this one took twice that, despite the fact its shorter. (If there wouldn't have been the boring introspectives and side stories, I might have finished it in a minute.)

So, if you are a fan of the other books, you don'thave to get this book. Have someone just tell you how it ends, and spare yourself three hundred some odd other pages. If you haven't read the other two books, read them, its worth it, and then decide for yourself wether you want to bore yourself to death. My advice, find it in the library, for five bucks are better spent elsewhere.

I can't see how anyone who read the first two books would expect fireworks from Valentine or Silverberg. This book is perfect to me because it stays true to everything that we've previously learned about Majipoor and its inhabitants. To see how someone behaves under pressure is to understand who they are. Here is Valentine acting not only as leader, but as a man, a human being who isn't ready to be "buried alive," a person who finds it difficult to release the reins of power even if he isn't sure what to do with them. I loved the process of learning more about him. This book is more about the character than the plot and that is why the ending might seem unsatisfying to some, because it isn't about politics or power or even logical plausibility, it's about closing an emotional circle.

I've been enthusiastically rereading this series during the last year or two after deciding that Silverberg was one of the favorite authors of my youth who I still actually enjoy. I actually did not remember much about this conclusion to the trilogy-- particularly compared to the first two books which stayed quite vividly in my head.

There's a reason for that, I think. Valentine Pontifex is the weakest of the three first books. Although I can see how Silverberg needed it to create an ending, it doesn't function very well as a novel on its own. The major problem, as far as I can see, is the span of time covered by the book. It dilutes the action and makes it quite difficult to care about the characters in an immediate way. It's a tricky thing to pull off in the best of situations, but here it does not really work at all. I think that this is because the first two books were much more about characters as they function in discrete moments in time. Too much water flowing under the bridge here.

There are definitely good moments. The stories of the people on the land are pure Silverberg. I was also delighted to see the rise of Hissune as a character. I am not sure that Silverberg has it in him to write a really bad book. Just a shame compared to the first two from the Majipoor sequence.

Worth reading if you've made it this far, but limit your expectations.

Valentine is still a nice guy, but not all that keen on the whole ruling thing, even those he has to. He has to try and deal with the shapeshifting metamorph plot to take over, their guerilla tactics, and other problems of government.

He has drifted from his friends, and the metamorphs are not the only strange beings he has to come to understand. Certainly not as good as the first book.

I really enjoyed this book, actually thought that it was better than the first two in the series. Hissune and the other princes on Castle Mount were realistic and cool, Faraataa was a really good (crazy as hell) bad guy, and the sea-dragons were finally revealed as the all-knowing god-like creatures that Silverberg intended for them to be the whole time. Like everybody else, I was disapointed that Valentine didn't toughen up a bit, but it would have changed his character too much and Silverberg's whole message was to promote the power of love, not hate, man! The descriptions and the detail of the world of Majipoor were excellent (and didn't drone on as much as the first book) and the immediate impact of the pestilences and plagues on society was realistically horrible. Something similar would not be out of the question of happening in our world and, unfortunately, I believe that the impact it would have on us would be similar. I look forward to reading the next installment of the Majipoor Saga, the Mountains of Majipoor.

The war between Valentine and the shapeshifters continues to mount throughout the book, until it comes to a silly ending.

Did Silverberg just get tired of writing? Complex problems seldom have such simple solutions.