The magisterial Valentine Pontifex crowns the first trilogy in Silverberg's Majipoor series. The author, like fellow master Roger Zelazny, is fascinatThe magisterial Valentine Pontifex crowns the first trilogy in Silverberg's Majipoor series. The author, like fellow master Roger Zelazny, is fascinated by religion; this trilogy has at its heart the values and mysticism within the Christian faith. The trilogy itself appears modeled on the Trinity. The first book, Lord Valentine's Castle, is as the Son: gentle, kind, and without judgment, casting no stones; a dreamer and a wanderer and a peacemaker and a friend to all, turning its cheek and offering forgiveness at any offence; a sacrifice and a murder victim, reborn into glory. The second book, Majipoor Chronicles, is as the Holy Spirit: visiting all, seeing each individual, rejecting none; a guide to the world of Majipoor and a guide for each of the souls on that world; a teacher for the uninitiated who would learn of this world and its ideals; it bears witness about and for the Son. And so this third book is as the Father: the Son has been reborn, transformed; the rock of ages becomes the holy mountain, a strength absolute; the powers of love and understanding and forgiveness become tidal, an irresistible force. Valentine Pontifex is not the journey nor the lessons learned, it is the kingdom come. And thus the Son, Lord Valentine, held by the Spirit and its understanding of Majipoor, enters the kingdom of the Father, and all three are united: a Trinity, three that may differ in aspect but are of the same essence.
Readers who aren't particularly interested in Christianity need not fear: the book does not proselytize! I doubt that Silverberg himself identified as Christian; I'm not sure if he even considered himself a man of faith. This is not Narnia, which wears its Christianity as a proud banner, happy to be identified. The trilogy is a contemplation of Christian ideals, offered in the form of an epic story. But a story that is dreamy, soulful - as all who are interested in faith must dream and must lay bare their souls - and an epic that has the quiet values of forgiveness and compassion at its heart.
Having to be the sum of all of that means that this third book does not have the adventure or the lightness of spirit of the first book, nor does it have the wide-ranging deep dives into individual consciousness of the second book. But it was still an amazing experience for me. Silverberg's prose is dignified, often sublime, offering a God's-eye view of the various cities and cultures of this world. His hero carries a simple but holy message: love will conquer all. The scenes of Valentine overwhelming those who would oppose him with the power of his loving spirit were awesome - I don't think I've read any such scenes outside of the Bible, when much younger. There is a grandeur to Valentine Pontifex; the lightness of prior books may be gone but there is a majesty in its place. The journeys as a youth may be over, the panorama of life no longer centralized; all that came before are encompassed within the goal of creating something lasting. Threats are dispensed with by turning those threats into friends, welcoming them as fellow believers in the dream of what Majipoor could and should be. Sinners and sinned against are but two sides of the whole. Redemption and love are offered to all: the happiest of endings.
4.5 stars for the book, 5 stars for the trilogy as a whole....more
exceedingly minor outing from Silverberg, alas! the time-traveling premise is fun and he definitely makes ancient Egypt come alive. his descriptions aexceedingly minor outing from Silverberg, alas! the time-traveling premise is fun and he definitely makes ancient Egypt come alive. his descriptions are wonderful. unfortunately, when the masks are removed and the time travelers are revealed, the dialogue becomes rather lame and dated.
in the end this is one of those rare novels where the brevity actually works against it. the briefness cut off what could have been an absorbing immersion into a fascinating culture.
and now I'm going to tart up my review for no reason because that's how I do.
fuck the world and fuck the people in it. right? fuck 'em. you spend your life trying to do things, accomplish things, putting yourself out
fuck the world and fuck the people in it. right? fuck 'em. you spend your life trying to do things, accomplish things, putting yourself out there. do people even remember those things? does the universe even care? you are just a cog in the great world-machine that doesn't even want to know you, that doesn't recognize the things you've done. who could ever want you, you are a useless part now that you are
you have many accomplishments, many great deeds. so why was that done to you, why are your insides on the outside, why are all the base emotions and fears and petty little anguishes out there on the surface, a formless cloud of contamination, making people sick to be around you. why should they fear those things? they have such things inside them too, a wounded and wounding toxic sickness of the soul. the hypocrites, they are all like you, full of
flee to your new home. a maze and a death-trap. just let those who drove you away come and try to get you, now that they need you. feh! let them try! let them come to your world-maze. let them come and let them die.
it is a book about a maze and the man in it. it is a book about three men. one bitter man on the inside. two men on the outside: one old and cynical and the other young and idealistic. it is a book about being a certain kind of man. different versions, different stages of the same sort of man: an explorer a change agent a man who makes things happen. it is about men who don't need women, or things, or ideas. it is a book about men who need to move forward and make their mark, maybe many marks. men whose accomplishments - and only their accomplishments - define them. what is a maze to such men? simply a place to go.
it is a stark book and it is a melancholy book and it is a thrilling book and it is a surprisingly affecting book. it is beautifully written; it is a pulpy adventure as well. philosophies and perilous missions; rage and sadness and idealism and cynicism; transformation and alienation. alien beings; alien humans. so many things. project your own ideas onto the book; its body is pleasingly formed and ready to be clothed with your own perspective. the man in the maze made the maze his home; he made of himself a maze as well.
severely damaged man and moderately damaged woman meet-cute within a futuristic sorta-kinda reality show produced by an aberrant emotional vampire.
Thoseverely damaged man and moderately damaged woman meet-cute within a futuristic sorta-kinda reality show produced by an aberrant emotional vampire.
Thorns reads like a retro version of modern day obsessions in its depiction of a quasi-celebrity couple forced into romance and despair by a repulsive producer catering to a greedy public. that the producer is a predatory being who feeds off of emotional pain created a special frisson for me, mainly because that's exactly how I imagine producers of various reality tv romances like The Bachelor to be. I admire how Silverberg avoids infodumping and instead turns up the jazzy Sci Fi New Wave stylings of his prose in the first section of the novel - it made figuring out the narrative a fun little challenge. and I love Thorns' thematic connectivity with the many other books by the author that explore alienation and transformation.
I did not particularly like how Silverberg envisioned his female protagonist. there wasn't parity between man and woman; it was particularly annoying when I realized that the woman was genuinely stupid and shallow. this shouldn't have surprised me because Silverberg has been rightfully accused of sexism in his many novels. he has a specifically 60s-70s version of sexism, one which does recognize women as independent sexual beings - and yay for that, of course - but still sidelines them in favor of more dynamic and interesting male characters. I get the feeling that Silverberg has positive feelings towards women - he's a chauvinist, not a misogynist - but that didn't make it any easier going down. angry and brilliant Minner is damaged due to being physically transformed into a monstrous being - and he's in terrible, ongoing pain because of that transformation; virginal wallflower Lona is damaged because she's unhappy that a hundred or so eggs were removed from her (consensually - and lucratively) and she'll never get to raise any of those children. it felt queasily reductive when I compared her problems to his.
anyway, I still liked Thorns. quite a bit. after the enjoyably bizarre first third, the novel settles down with our b-list celebrity couple touring various romantic spots on Earth and throughout the solar system. the various locales are drolly fascinating and Silverberg's evocative, almost Jack Vance-like descriptive powers are always a joy to experience. a bizarre and posh restaurant featuring unusual dishes; an arctic tour; a fairground on the Moon; a trip to Titan: all are superbly realized. just as enjoyable - in a squirmier way - was the descent of this fragile relationship into resentment, bitterness, and emotional warfare. plus the ending features sweet revenge, and I'm always a fan of that....more
imagine a future world with many towering worlds within it! Urbmon 116 is one such world within a world; it thrusts from the earth with its 800 floorsimagine a future world with many towering worlds within it! Urbmon 116 is one such world within a world; it thrusts from the earth with its 800 floors, engorged with over 800,000 residents. Urbmon 116 has everything a person could desire besides privacy. its residents never leave this world inside!
imagine a utopian future! a world that is orderly but not truly conformist. communal and neighborly and all about sharing and learning and responsibility and definitely not about being a maladjusted malcontent because then down the reclamation chute you will go. it's a utopian world of total openness! who needs privacy? nudity is no big thing. and why get hung up on sex; everyone does it starting from a fairly early age and it's happening everywhere - both for recreation and procreation - and all the time, in the one-room family homes and in the teenage couples' dorms and during social gatherings; in fact it's illegal to refuse your body to someone who wants it. no more sexual hang-ups! copulate all you want and have as many kids as possible, it is all a part of God's plan! God wants you to fuck!
imagine a book written by a somewhat chauvinistic male author! sorry to go there because I love this author and I hate sounding like a broken record by even bringing up his sexism. I give him points for including female perspectives within the many voices - and they are rendered just as expertly as the male voices - but per usual, the women in this novel have very little agency and are not a part of leadership. and this inequity is just never addressed. plus the whole sexual culture within The World Inside seems very much based on standard straight male fantasy templates. ah well.
imagine a reader who felt all of those things in the above paragraph and still loved this novel! that reader is me! Silverberg is a compelling author and he turns this story into a haunting masterpiece. his prose is smart and elegant and memorable. his descriptions of the busy, mechanized tower world put you right there in the middle of this buzzing hive; the same goes for the pastoral outside world, full of eerie ambiguity and unknowable traditions. he's even-handed in his detailing of tower culture: the rural culture outside these towers is shown to be just as problematic and both cultures do have some positive values. this felt less like a portrait of a dystopia and rather more like a novel about a utopia that may be perfect for certain sorts of people. imagine that!
imagine a wide range of voices, telling you all about their lives in Urbmon 116, their dreams and goals and challenges and all the little things that define them and all the big things that they can only barely grasp! The World Inside is a medley of such voices. there is no single protagonist - although there is a central character criss-crossing throughout the stories - and POV characters reappear as supporting characters elsewhere. each of these characters are rendered beautifully. they are complex, sympathetic, and all too fallible.
imagine a 14-year old boy named Siegmond Kluver! he's rapidly rising up the corporate ladder, full of ideas and ambitions, the go-to guy for all the corporate honchos, the most popular boy in the building, and he's quite the expert cocksman as well - with a distinct preference for the older ladies. we watch him over the course of a year as he bounces around and jumps into various beds and climbs that ladder; we watch him as he begins to question himself and his world. we watch him as he has a mid-life crisis at the tender age of 15! what's a boy to do when he's succeeded at everything, when he's reached the pinnacle - the very top floor? there's only one direction left to go!...more
three travelers on the road to the city once called Rome: the Flier unfurls her dainty wings at night, then soars; the Watcher scans the galaxy, searcthree travelers on the road to the city once called Rome: the Flier unfurls her dainty wings at night, then soars; the Watcher scans the galaxy, searching for invasion; the Changeling grins and plots - there is more to him than meets the eye. the world is in its Third Cycle: the barbaric First Cycle is where the reader lives; in the glorious Second Cycle we reached our heights and then crashed, due to hubris; and now the Third Cycle, a time of guilds and decadence, the Earth reduced to a tourist trap for aliens. a Fourth Cycle approaches! but first, an invasion: those we once caged have come in full force, to deliver their long-delayed reckoning. the Watcher's watch is now finished; his life shall begin again, and again, and finally again.
Silverberg is a spiritual author, mapping the rebirth of a man, a people, and a planet, looking beyond the mortal frame and this mortal coil. not for him, despair or closed circles, despite the dying earth society on display. he creates layers of history, of a transformed earth, of new forms and structures for humanity, and then puts those layers together so carefully that none of them can dominate, all are a part of this sweet, rich confection, an airy and delicate construction: this is a napoleon of a novel. the story is wise in its understanding of human foibles and cruelties, but it is always looking forward and up, away from ignorance and into understanding, into transcendence. a hopeful book....more
Majipoor Chronicles is a collection of stories experienced by young Hissune from age 14 to 18. "Experienced" in that they are not really stories beingMajipoor Chronicles is a collection of stories experienced by young Hissune from age 14 to 18. "Experienced" in that they are not really stories being told to him; he lives in these stories via their various protagonists' minds and memories. Science fiction!
"Fourteen, were you? I think that's what they told me. I've had you watched, you know. It was three or four years ago that they sent word to me that you had bluffed your way into the Register. Fourteen, pretending to be a scholar. I imagine you saw a great many things that boys of fourteen don't ordinarily see."
gentle elephant things in the jungle; furry man-shaped things in the mist. our hero, former colonial station chief, returns to this strange planet mucgentle elephant things in the jungle; furry man-shaped things in the mist. our hero, former colonial station chief, returns to this strange planet much changed. the planet itself has changed: its residents no longer considered mere animals, beasts of burden to be used as humans see fit... they are people. a surprisingly liberal future-Earth now recognizes these beings as sentient, as does our hero. he returns to this place, full of regret for past actions, craving understanding and redemption, yearning for the intangible. he will seek to provide recompense and he will know change, a great and terrible change.
this marvelous little classic gets everything right: a beautifully detailed yet still mysterious world... a flawed protagonist striving to accomplish ambiguous yet still understandable goals... intriguing mysteries and a strange quest... aliens that feel genuinely alien... and a powerful theme running through it all: to truly understand others is to truly understand yourself; one cannot be accomplished without the other.
there are shades of Heart of Darkness here (even including a character named "Kurtz"), except turned inside-out: the darkness within man made almost inconsequential; darkness made light. i was also reminded of tales of colonial India (even including an alien character named "Srin'gahar"), the misdeeds and the culture clash and the ugliness and the beauty. looking forward, i was also reminded of Tepper's Grass, a book published many years after this one that takes one of this novel's central ideas and runs with it, in a much more horrific direction.
Silverberg usually writes about the need to understand ourselves and the yearning to transcend who we are or who we are supposed to be. physical travel that parallels inner change. and such is Downward to the Earth.
Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?
ECCLESIASTES 3:21
__________
this review is a part of a longer article on Robert Silverberg posted on ....more
Valentine finds himself outside the city of Pidruid one afternoon, completely bereft of memory, as the city makes ready for the arrival of Lord ValentValentine finds himself outside the city of Pidruid one afternoon, completely bereft of memory, as the city makes ready for the arrival of Lord Valentine - one of the four great Powers of the mega-world of Majipoor. what's a man to do in such a situation? why, join a traveling band of jugglers, of course. travel a lot, meets lots of new people and see lots of new things, have a bunch of trippy dreams, and eventually reclaim a fabulous destiny. that's what i'd do too.
i reread this due to a group read. i first read it when living in Virginia Beach, sometime in junior high. it is an often dense novel and certainly a surreal one at times, but there is a purity to it that made me realize i must have been able to fully grasp it when first reading it age 14 or so. it became one of my favorite things. rereading it, it remains one of my favorite things. maybe not 5 stars worth of gold, but it is still pretty precious.
when i first bought the book - and this whole paragraph will just be a rambly recollection that has nothing to do with the book whatsoever, so you may as well just skip this part and move on to the next paragraph - the demented old woman who sold it to me thought i was buying a biography of St. Valentine of Valentine's Day. she proceeded to tell me the "true story" of St. Valentine. apparently he was not simply a saint for lovers. according to the bookseller, St. Valentine was a fiery sort who was captured by malevolent anti-christian forces and tortured for his christian beliefs. nothing would break Valentine. finally, his torturers sent an evil harlot to tempt Valentine. since he was chained down, there was little he could do to stop this nasty temptress from laying her hands all over his precious christian body. so he bit off his own tongue and spat it at her. hello sainthood! i just want you all to remember this the next time you are celebrating Valentine's Day with your loved one. anyway, the odd senior told me to report back to her after reading this novel and let her know if the author got the story right. i think i was too scared to return to that bookstore.
so this book has nothing to do with St. Valentine, whew.
although it is ostensibly about Finding Your True Self and What Makes A Good Leader, i found the novel was equally concerned with two other things: World Building and Silverberg's Vision of a (Semi) Perfect World.
haters of world building need to give this novel a pass. but for those who appreciate the intensely detailed visions of otherworlds created by various scifi and fantasy authors, this is the book for you. "intensely detailed" is a good phrase for this but it should be qualified. not intensely detailed like George RR Martin (you won't always know what color sash a person is wearing and if it matches their brocade jacket) but intensely detailed in that we visit so many different places across the grand world of Majipoor and they are all so beautifully described and so well-differentiated from each other. at times i was reminded of how easily Jack Vance rolls out cities & countries & worlds, one after the other, with such style and skill that he makes world-building look like a lark. however Silverberg does not have Vance's economy of language or spartan stylishness. this is world building in the classic sense in that the reader gets to enjoy sentence after sentence and paragraph after paragraph of gorgeous description. boring for some; entrancing for me. reading this really made me feel like a romantic (also in the classic sense of the word) young nerd again. the language is beautiful and Majipoor really came alive.
this is also in many ways a near-perfect world. it does not know war or famine or cruel leaders or reality tv. its species and races live in relative harmony. personalities are either sunny & open or, if not, at least genuinely amusing in their grouchiness or arrogance. cold-eyed justice and professional emotional support are both given by far off dream-senders, so no need for pesky police or helpful therapists to get up in your face - they'll see you in your dreams, whether you've been good or bad or inbetween. Majipoor is a liberal, generous, and usually cheerful society. its people respect the natural wonders of the world and various preserves are specifically set aside for keeping those wonders sacrosanct. reading Lord Valentine's Castle made me realize that this was all the author's version of his own ideal world. good for you, Silverberg. your dreams are wonderful and i would like to live in them, please.
Silverberg is known to be a sometimes challenging and often provacative author of the New Wave Science Fiction genre. Lord Valentine's Castle was a step in an entirely different direction: epic science fantasy. but such a curious version of an epic! writing that makes you slow down and enjoy things instead of rushing forward to the next conflict. a narrative that is full of dreams and dream battles and dream epiphanies. characters who are mainly undramatic and often trying to do right. an emphasis on the environment as a precious thing. turning the other cheek and not automatically drawing your sword when someone gets in your way. and writing that is charming and sometimes eerie and brightened by a lacquer of pleasantly vivid psychedelia. splendid writing.
look, one sentence:
"He saw himself standing rooted at Zimroel's edge with the sea behind him and a continent unrolling before him, and the Inner Sea punctuated by the Isle of Sleep, and Alhanroel beyond, rising on its nether side to the great swollen bulge of Castle Mount, and the sun overhead, yellow with a bronze-green tint, sending blistering rays down on dusty Suvrael and into the tropics, and warming everything else, and the worlds from which the Skandars came and the Hjorts and the Liimen and all the rest, even the world from which his own folk had emigrated, Old Earth, fourteen thousand years ago, a small blue world absurdly tiny when compared to Majipoor, far away, half forgotten in some other corner of the universe, and he journeyed back down across the stars to this world, this continent, this city, this inn, this courtyard, this small plot of moist yielding soil in which his boots were rooted, and told Sleet he was ready."
cool!
a version of this review is a part of a longer article on Robert Silverberg posted on ....more
Dying Inside is a sterling example of 70s New Wave science fiction. it is about a telepath whose powers are fading. dude is a miserable, depressive asDying Inside is a sterling example of 70s New Wave science fiction. it is about a telepath whose powers are fading. dude is a miserable, depressive asshole who whines endlessly about his life. the end.
wait a sec, maybe that sounds like a bad read to you? well my friend, let me tell you... throw that impression away! this is a marvelous book from beginning to end. it is thought-provoking, often delightful, often hard-edged, completely enjoyable. Silverberg is such a masterful writer and many times i had to stop and reread different passages to better enjoy the beauty of his prose and the intelligence of his ideas. that sharp wit! the story is never monotonous and always resonant. LOVED IT.
it is an episodic novel, moving freely from past to present and back again. we meet our not-so-loveable narrator David Selig, his child psychologist, his girlfriends, his sister and the rest of his family, and a fellow telepath. our loser-ish hero makes his marginal living ghost-writing papers for college students, so there are several anecdotes where we see inside a couple students' minds. our hero is an unrepentant jerkoff, so we also get to read his often excruciating views on women and blacks (his thoughts on black empowerment were particularly troubling). we are shown a couple of his essays, one on Kafka and the other on the Electra complex, and they are fairly interesting - as standalones and as commentary on the narrative itself. each chapter is its own separate, challenging, wonderful little experience. my favorite parts include: a dry and rather evil session with our child protagonist as he toys with an overly-literal child psychologist; an exceedingly creepy and effective 'bad trip' (i think we can safely assume that telepathy does not improve LSD); and best of all, a brilliant flashback to our lonely telepath's youth, as he relaxes in a field, moving through the perspectives of a bee, a fish, two kids getting laid in a forest, and a surprisingly spiritual old farmer.
of particular interest is the the novel's other telepath - the confident, capable, cheerfully guilt-free Nyquist. the chapters about the relationship between the two are particularly illuminating in illustrating how Selig's main problem is not so much his telepathy but his fear of openness, of genuine human connection. Selig's problems do not come from his gifts, but rather from his own neuroses. and so the narrative is basically an accounting of how Selig grows to understand his own issues and then tries to move past them.
in his many other fantasy & scifi novels, Silverberg has proven himself a visionary master of often hallucinatory prose. his ideas can be sublimely poetic, so ambiguous as to be almost intangible, so far-reaching that they can be a real challenge to digest. one of the really fun things about Dying Inside is seeing how Silverberg harnesses his talents for what is basically the prosaic, diary-like musings of a not-that-special guy with some very special powers. Dying Inside is bursting with creativity - as if the author is illustrating how stories can be told in ways that are new, fresh, effervescent. Selig is mordant, jumpy, neurotic and highly sexual, by turns cynical and empathetic, and... hilarious! his narration is often a real treat and the free-flowing, occasionally stream-of-conscious thoughts have a chatty, relaxed, loose-limbed kind of appeal that makes the novel smooth yet tangy going down. and it's not just the distinctive, nakedly honest narrative voice that makes this novel so appealing; many chapters practically overflow with playful, jazzy approaches to style and structure and there are plenty of sophisticated insights, delivered both broadly and in deadpan. Silverberg's generous imagination busts the seams of the narrative; the result is a refreshing tonic.
"Nyquist, pausing a moment to detect and isolate Selig's sense of uneasiness, mocked it gently... I think what really scares you is contact, any sort of contact. Right? Wrong, Selig said, but he had felt the point hit home. For five minutes more they monitored each other's minds..."
a version of this review is a part of a longer article on Robert Silverberg posted on ....more
i have a soft spot for The Book of Skulls. it is a thoughtful tale of college students on a road trip slash quest slash metaphysical odyssey, their dei have a soft spot for The Book of Skulls. it is a thoughtful tale of college students on a road trip slash quest slash metaphysical odyssey, their destination a secret to immortality. the only problem with obtaining this secret is that major bummer, The Grim Reaper. one of the group has to be sacrificed (i.e. murdered) and another must die by his own hand. the cast of 4 are stereotypes: the studly poor guy, the studly rich guy, the queer, the jew. although on friendly terms, they are decidedly not a group of close lifelong mates. i was absorbed by Book of Skulls' depiction of how social inclusion & exclusion, ability to dominate, class background, and various other differences all cause the characters to continually shift allegiances. unfortunately, near the end, much of the metaphysical stuff started to sorta bore me, like the last 2 or 3 hours of an acid trip.
the characters felt both on-target much of the time and, at other times, oddly alien - too sharply differentiated from each other, if that makes sense. i saw much that was familiar as far as the lifestyle and behavior of these guys' lives goes, but found no one that i specifically connected to in terms of actual characterization. but still, there is something about reading the story of college guys thinking they know it all, while also trying to figure things out about themselves, while in college thinking i knew it all, while also trying to figure things out about myself, that made it an intriguing and enjoyable experience. many parts really spoke to me on a personal level. and i did see a little of myself in each of the characters. except for the studly rich guy - what an asshole.
a version of this review is a part of a longer article on Robert Silverberg posted on ....more
the world is an ocean; humanity has come and cannot go. humanity lives on a chain of artificial islands and is perhaps now doomed, due to typical humathe world is an ocean; humanity has come and cannot go. humanity lives on a chain of artificial islands and is perhaps now doomed, due to typical human stupidity & cupidity. where to flee? to an uncharted place on this uncharted planet, to The Face of the Waters. to find death or transcendence, or both?
our hero is a doctor, alienated from his tiny society and alienated from himself. he yearns for something, something more, something else... Earth? connection to his fellows? a deeper meaning for his life or something to explain the meaning of the life he has lived so far? he yearns and breaks himself upon the wheel of that yearning. broken and then remade? he is a classic Silverberg protagonist.
this is less of a science fantasy adventure and more of an extended & dreamlike existential crisis. mournful and hopeful in equal measures. with, truth be told, some monotony thrown in. but much melancholic beauty as well. the central character is multi-faceted and drawn with depth and clarity... the author's self-portrait?
some good monsters.
this review is a part of a longer article on Robert Silverberg posted on ....more
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