Lord Prestimion [Mass Market Paperback]

Robert Silverberg has been one of SF's most prolific and popular writers since the mid-1950s. His science-fantasy stories set on the huge, exotic world called Majipoor began with Lord Valentine's Castle (1980), which the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction calls "polished but rather languid." In Lord Prestimion, the hero Prestimion takes the throne as Coronal, coruler of Majipoor, a millennium before Lord Valentine's reign. His crowning follows the long, ruinous civil war to overthrow a usurping Coronal, a war now literally forgotten: Prestimion's sorcerers have imposed amnesia on the people of Majipoor in hope of preventing any further uprising. Such a memory wipe reeks of wrongness and seems to have caused the infectious plague of insanity. Meanwhile, one very bad man, who is a leading rebel and warmonger, recovers his memories and escapes to make new mischief. After various colorful, almost dream-like travelogues, the situation is saved--a little too easily?--by telepathic gadgetry. (The device in question and several crossover characters appear in the 1982 story-cycle Majipoor Chronicles.) Smoothly written but somewhat short on real suspense, even in the swashbuckling comic sequence when Prestimion's Regent fights and kills at least 21 would-be assassins during one morning's office paperwork. It's just another day in the life of a Majipoor civil servant. --David Langford, Amazon.co.uk --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The latest volume of Silverberg's colossal Majipoor cycle (Sorcerers of Majipoor, etc.) makes a respectable addition to the series of fantasy tales set in a far-future, far-distant human-settled world. Just after he is crowned Coronal, and thus ruler, of Majipoor, Prestimion faces a number of problems. The treacherous rebel leader Procurator Dantirya Sambail has escaped from the royal dungeons, and Prestimion must pursue him across the vast face of Majipoor. A plague of madness has spread through his subjects, with more gruesome incidents cropping up every week, and Prestimion must struggle to contain it while he wonders if he himself caused the trouble when he cast a spell to make everyone forget the bloody civil war that brought him to power. At the same time, the Coronal is recovering from the death of his last love and growing increasingly interested in the graceful daughter of a boorish merchant. Eventually all the quandaries are resolved in a climax so fast and so furious that it is over before it can build up any proper emotional impact. Silverberg gives over much space to travelogues on Majipoor, a vividly described setting that is as captivating as any of the people who inhabit it, but he fails to spend the same amount of care developing Prestimion's character. In contrast, he does a fine job on minor playersAthe precocious Lord Dekkeret; brave Prince Akbalik; the two-headed sorcerer, Maundigan-Klimd; and Prestimion's brother, Abrigant. These personalities keep the novel lively enough to please Majipoor's many dedicated followers. (Aug.) FYI: Silverberg has published more than 100 books of SF, fantasy and nonfiction.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

To heal the scars of civil war from his land, Coronal Lord Prestimion decrees the casting of a great spell to erase the war's memory from everyone on Majipoor, with the exception of himself and his two most trusted advisors. When sudden outbreaks of violence and inexplicable disturbances rack the land and a new enemy arises to threaten the peace, Prestimion must face the consequences of his act of compassion. This sequel to Sorcerers of Majipoor revisits the author's richly diverse world of sorcery and science to tell the story of a man catapulted by destiny into the position of lord of his world. Silverberg excels at balancing strong characters and complex plotting to achieve a rare example of epic fantasy told with a scientist's eye for detail. A superb choice for most libraries.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Addition to Silverberg's fantasy series set on the giant planet Majipoor, this a direct sequel to Sorcerers of Majipoor (1997). Prestimion, the new Coronal, has defeated the usurper Korsibar in a war so dreadful that he ordered his sorcerers to invoke the Spell of Oblivion; now only Prestimion and his two companions in arms, Septach Melayn and Gialaurys, remember that the war ever happened. But things are more complicated than that. How to explain the deaths and destruction, when nobody recalls what happened? How can Prestimion condemn and justly execute his kinsman, the rebel Dantirya Sambailhe fought with and nearly killed Prestimionwhen neither Sambail nor anyone else remembers what crimes he committed? More problematic yet, how can Prestimion grapple with the war's most terrible legacy, an epidemic of violent madness that threatens to engulf the world? If you've ever wondered where lingering fantasies go when all their vitality's trickled away, look no further. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

"A brilliant concept of the imagination." -- -- Chicago Sun-Times

"A grand picaresque tale by one of the great storytellers of the century." -- -- Roger Zelazny

"Silverberg has created a big planet, chock-ablock with life and potetial stories." -- -- Washngton Post

"There are two things that abide: absolute awe at Silverberg's capacity for creating images... and [the] overarching compassion..." -- -- Los Angeles Times

Robert Silverberg has won five Nebula Awards, four Hugo Awards, and the prestigious Prix Apollo. He is the author of more than one hundred science fiction and fantasy novels -- including the best-selling Lord Valentine trilogy and the classics Dying Inside and A Time of Changes -- and more than sixty nonfiction works. Among the sixty-plus anthologies he has edited are Legends and Far Horizons, which contain original short stories set in the most popular universe of Robert Jordan, Stephen King, Ursula K. Le Guin, Gregory Benford, Greg Bear, Orson Scott Card, and virtually every other bestselling fantasy and SF writer today. Mr. Silverberg's Majipoor Cycle, set on perhaps the grandest and greatest world ever imagined, is considered one of the jewels in the crown of speculative fiction.