A while back TomD gave me an SF&F book recommendation. He said that Silverberg\u2019s Majipoor series was a combination of science fiction and fantasy.\u00a0 At the time I couldn\u2019t think of anything I\u2019d read that fell into that category.\u00a0 Well, my brain is old so I\u2019ll plead that because after thinking about it awhile I remembered that Zelazny\u2019s Lord of Light had aspects that fit both mythology and science fiction.\u00a0 So I sent away to Bezos\u2019s megamonopoly and received the three volumes in the series.\u00a0 And of course it was interesting to see that on the cover of the first book (Lord Valentine\u2019s Castle) that Zelazny had provided a positive blurb.\u00a0 He said it was a picaresque tale.\u00a0 And as it turned out, he was exactly right.\u00a0 I\u2019ll cut to the chase with the verdict.\u00a0 I liked the story.\u00a0 Now you\u2019ll get the ponderous literary review.<\/p>\n
So how can it be both a fantasy and science fiction? The story takes place on a planet called Majipoor. \u00a0It was a world colonized by humans via space travel more than ten thousand years before the story unfolds.\u00a0 So there\u2019s the science fiction.\u00a0 And the humans seemed to have also brought along a number of sentient species to live on Majipoor from other planets.\u00a0 These various species and the humans interact as good neighbors, for the most part, in a civilization of twenty to thirty billion souls that comfortably fits on the giant world of Majipoor.\u00a0 Now here comes the fantasy.\u00a0 This world is ruled by four beings designated, the Coronal, the Pontifex, The Lady of the Isle of Sleep and the King of Dreams.\u00a0 The first two of these individuals performed much as the Augustus and Caesar of the later Roman Empire did, being a senior and junior king appointed to rule a gigantic state.\u00a0 But the second two, the Lady and the King intervened in Majipoor by sending dreams to the inhabitants.\u00a0 It is this dream life that lends a fantasy element to the story.\u00a0 And just to lend a fantasy aspect to the surroundings most of the technology is more or less of a pre-industrial vintage.\u00a0 But there are exceptions.\u00a0 Beasts of burden pull the carts and wagons of the inhabitants but the wagons are actually placed on anti-gravity modules.\u00a0 So, whatever power provides anti-gravity doesn\u2019t also produce forward locomotion. \u00a0Very odd.<\/p>\n
So this is the background. The narrative follows a very engaging fellow named Valentine who ends up on a journey to discover his past and his destiny.\u00a0 He meets many interesting and amusing characters and even learns an interesting skill, juggling.\u00a0 It sounds odd and doesn\u2019t seem to have anything to do with either science fiction or fantasy but it makes for an interesting and entertaining read.\u00a0 And that is the definition of a picaresque story.<\/p>\n
Silverberg has invested a substantial amount of effort building up the background and scenery of Majipoor. He has given us the canvas.\u00a0 There are several other volumes in the series and I like it enough to continue on to the next volume.\u00a0 But I want to clarify a couple of things.\u00a0 This isn\u2019t the Lord of the Rings.\u00a0 There is no solemn morality play underlying Majipoor.\u00a0 It is a sunny world where the good guy gets the girl and the crown and juggling and wine are their own reward.\u00a0 Read it for the inventiveness and the story.\u00a0 No profundity impinged on my reading but it was fun.\u00a0 Recommended for folks who like their fiction fun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A while back TomD gave me an SF&F book recommendation. He said that Silverberg\u2019s Majipoor series was a combination of science fiction and fantasy.\u00a0 At<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[241,237,4,242],"tags":[68,918,38,917,44,265],"class_list":["post-2527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-reviews","category-sff","category-sff-book-reviews","tag-book-review","tag-majipoor","tag-review","tag-robert-silverberg","tag-sci-fi","tag-science-fiction"],"yoast_head":"\n