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Rating: Summary: Not too good... but not too bad either. Review: I agree with previous reviewers, who say that this book seems to be all about Prestimion's well nigh endless travelling over the globe and about describing every wonderful thing he sees, which is boring. Downright boring. But still, this was a pretty entertaining book in between those endless descriptions, which is more than can be said of many modern novels... So I still give this three stars. I'd give it four, if it didn't show quite so many similarities to Valentine Pontifex (including the "battle" of minds in the end of the book which also ends the war). All in all I recommend that you read this book if you like the Majipoor books, but I wouldn't try this as your first Majipoor-book.
Rating: Summary: A splendid trip into Majipoor's history. Review: I love this book! The events that take place on Majipoor are at least on a scale with Tolkien's Middle Earth (almost). In this wonderfully told story of intrigue and strife, Lord Prestimion certainly proves himself worthy to be Coronal. After all the struggles and heartache, he at last sits on the throne and takes charge (as if he didn't all along). I thoroughly enjoyed seeing Septach Melayn again. I adore that guy!! I was once again captivated by Majipoor. I'm re-reading The Majipoor Chronicles, just to explore that huge jewel all over again. After all, I believe Majipoor is a world that you can visit again and again and learn something new every time. Obviously, Mr. Silverberg has "caught the bug", so to speak. I know Majipoor and all its people, lands, seas, and animals will live on for ages to come.
Rating: Summary: Disappointment Review: Robert Silverberg is usually one of my favorite authors and the original Majipoor chronicles was one of the first and best trilogies that I have ever read. Thats why this latest chapter continuing the rather disappointing Sorcerers of Majipoor was also, well disappointing I guess. Silverbergs main strength has always been that his stories have always been character driven as opposed to action driven including Lord Valentines Castle, but the characters of this novel are remarkably dull. Prestimion the main character seems well intentioned, but frankly I wouldn't trust him to be dogcatcher let alone co-ruler of a planet of billions. Some of the supporting characters are marginally interesting, but we really never learn what makes them tick. And frankly the vast sequences discribing the "wonders" of Majipoor got to be quite distracting as they have nothing to do with the story, are never expanded upon, and make this book unnecesarily long. I will probably check out the concluding volume of this trilogy to see if a great master like Silverberg can clear up this mess. He is certainly capable, but I wish he hadn't gone for the easy money and left a great trilogy alone and written other great books like he has and hopefully will!
Rating: Summary: A Diaappointment Review: The book goes on and on with little excitement, suspense, or character development. Suspicions turn out to be meaningless as potential plot twists vanish without a trace (or an explanation); the characters are simple, straightforward, and ultimately--boring.
Rating: Summary: Time for Silverberg to move on Review: the sequel story to "sorceres of mjipoor" starts right where the previous story ended. it describes the first years of lord prestimion as a coronel of majipoor, while he is dealling with the consequences of the civil war. well, it looks like there is too litle to tell about it in 450 pages, so the story drugs and drugs and finally comes to it's happy end. the book is focus on "lord prestimion" character while it neglects all the rest, i personly didn't like him in the previous book - prestimion is always the "mr right guy" always try to go in the right way. and so not much realy happens, it takes like 350 pages to prestimion to understand the cause of the plague, while the readers understand it right from the first 50 pages (they get very big hints). sorry, but this book is realy about peace, no bloody buttles are being held in this book, and so pertisimion travels here, travels there, get married - almost nothing unusuall. i give this book 2 stars .
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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