Rating: 
Summary: Just a travelogue...
Review: This sequel to "Sorcerers of Majipoor" has to rank as one of Silverberg's weakest efforts. "Sorcerers" was a simple enough story but it was reasonably compelling; however, in "Lord Prestimion" not much happens. The Coronal and his lieutenants traipse about the globe for several hundred pages unitl it's time to wrap things up. Even Silverberg's luminous prose can't make up for the fact that there isn't much of a story to be told. Fundamentally, Majipoor makes no sense. The larger a planet, the less unified it would be and the more unstable the politics. On Majipoor, we are asked to believe, not only is there one language and culture but the same political system has existed without change for thousands of years. With a sufficiently vigorous plot, one can overlook this and suspend one's disbelief, but there's not enough going on here to distract you from the man behind the curtain (so to speak). Jack Vance's Big Planet, by contrast, depicts a giant-size world as it probably would be --- a thousand contentious cultures, no central political control of any kind, technology limited only by the lack of metals. Surely Silverberg is familiar with this venerable work (in many ways, one of Vance's best); but Majipoor is fantasy, not SF. Still, we know Silverberg can do much better.
Rating:
Summary: Just a travelogue...
Review: This sequel to "Sorcerers of Majipoor" has to rank as one of Silverberg's weakest efforts. "Sorcerers" was a simple enough story but it was reasonably compelling; however, in "Lord Prestimion" not much happens. The Coronal and his lieutenants traipse about the globe for several hundred pages unitl it's time to wrap things up. Even Silverberg's luminous prose can't make up for the fact that there isn't much of a story to be told. Fundamentally, Majipoor makes no sense. The larger a planet, the less unified it would be and the more unstable the politics. On Majipoor, we are asked to believe, not only is there one language and culture but the same political system has existed without change for thousands of years. With a sufficiently vigorous plot, one can overlook this and suspend one's disbelief, but there's not enough going on here to distract you from the man behind the curtain (so to speak). Jack Vance's Big Planet, by contrast, depicts a giant-size world as it probably would be --- a thousand contentious cultures, no central political control of any kind, technology limited only by the lack of metals. Surely Silverberg is familiar with this venerable work (in many ways, one of Vance's best); but Majipoor is fantasy, not SF. Still, we know Silverberg can do much better.
Rating:
Summary: YAWN... Very boring.. the worst of the series thus far.
Review: Well, even though this book was quite long, not much actually happened in it. The storyline at the end of this one hasn't really changed much at all since the last book. Basically this whole novel was centered around the Procurator of Nimoya's escape from Prestimion and the Coronal's efforts to locate him.. The spreading madness on Majipoor was emphasized but nothing was ever done about it be Prestimion.. Most of the book was taken up by descriptions of the landscape and fauna of the places that Prestimion journeyed through.. Nothing really exciting or surprising happened at all. Yawn.. Wouldn't reccomend this one. I guess I'll go ahead and read the last of the series since I've already come this far, but I don't really have high hopes for it..
Rating: 
Summary: Colorful, beautifully-written but thin planetary romance.
Review: ____________________________________________ This is Silverberg's sixth Majipoor book, and it's a bit thin.
I've read and liked the previous five -- this is Jack Vance "Big
Planet" country: big, colorful landscapes, strange flora & fauna,
teeming cities, richly-caparisoned nobility, exotic aliens, bits of
higher-tech in a metal-poor, basically nineteenth-century
civilisation. Good thick light escape-reading, which is just what I
was in the mood for. I noticed the Vancian rodomontade more this
time, because there's very little plot here, maybe a novella's worth:
Prestimion is crowned as Coronal after winning a disastrous civil
war (in Sorcerors of Majipoor). He's decided to heal the scars of war
by -- removing (by sorcery, offstage) all memories of the war.
Naturally, this has unforeseen consequences, not the least of which
is one of the rebel leaders trying to start a new civil war. And he
meets a girl and makes her his Queen. Well, that's about it until
Prestimion #3. Mind you, this is by no means a bad book, but, thinking back, I found
Sorcerers to be the weakest Majipoor book up until now, so I suspect
the well is running dry. Unless you're a diehard Majipoor fan, I'd
wait for the paperback or a library copy. And I believe I'll let
someone else be the guinea-pig for Prestimion #3. Cheers -- Pete Tillman
Rating:
Summary: Colorful, beautifully-written but thin planetary romance.
Review: ____________________________________________ This is Silverberg's sixth Majipoor book, and it's a bit thin.
I've read and liked the previous five -- this is Jack Vance "Big
Planet" country: big, colorful landscapes, strange flora & fauna,
teeming cities, richly-caparisoned nobility, exotic aliens, bits of
higher-tech in a metal-poor, basically nineteenth-century
civilisation. Good thick light escape-reading, which is just what I
was in the mood for. I noticed the Vancian rodomontade more this
time, because there's very little plot here, maybe a novella's worth:
Prestimion is crowned as Coronal after winning a disastrous civil
war (in Sorcerors of Majipoor). He's decided to heal the scars of war
by -- removing (by sorcery, offstage) all memories of the war.
Naturally, this has unforeseen consequences, not the least of which
is one of the rebel leaders trying to start a new civil war. And he
meets a girl and makes her his Queen. Well, that's about it until
Prestimion #3. Mind you, this is by no means a bad book, but, thinking back, I found
Sorcerers to be the weakest Majipoor book up until now, so I suspect
the well is running dry. Unless you're a diehard Majipoor fan, I'd
wait for the paperback or a library copy. And I believe I'll let
someone else be the guinea-pig for Prestimion #3. Cheers -- Pete Tillman
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