From Amazon.com
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.
From Publishers Weekly
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.
