Join today and start reading your favorite books for Free!
Rate this book!
Write a review?
I think this is going to be my favorite book of the series.It's difficult to imagine the world of Majipoor getting such an important change again.Valentine is a wonderful character who struggles between his eventual descent to the Labyrinth as the Emperor of this world, and his duty as its King. But he moves forward and allows his protégé to ascend to kingship partially in order to save the world from a cancer that has grown because of all of his progenitors. The sea dragons are among the most w...
A lovely piece of science fantasy, well-paced and engaging. I didn't like it quite as much as the lush world of Majipoor Chronicles, but it was a fun and interesting fantasy treatment of colonialism and reparation and forgiveness. The struggle with the Metamorphs has come to a head in Valentine Pontifex; they have begun to act in an attempt to take back their world form the humans and other aliens that came to Majipoor thousands of years ago. The crops are failing, new and dangerous beasts have
3.75/5: definitely the best in the trilogy, it flows like a book should. In my opinion it's worth reading the long winded 1st Valentine & the unexpected deviation of the 2nd Valentine just to be able to enjoy the 3rd & final Valentine. But if one chose to just read the 3rd Valentine it is my opinion that since it is repeated more than once in this book just the highlights of the first two books one would not be missing out on anything but a decent adventure, all be it a long winded one.
Full review forthcoming.
Another fantastic read from this author. I know there are some who feel this third installment in the series isn't as good as the first two, but I find I disagree with them. This was an excellent read in its own right, and a fantastic continuation of the series, with a satisfying ending.
This review is for all three primary books in the Lord Valentine series. Reading the Valentine trilogy was a trip down nostalgia lane. I read the series in early high school and remembered it being one of my favorites. And honestly, i wasn’t disappointed.Book one, Lord Valentine’s Castle is easily the best. It has such a delightful vibrant aura to it. The tone is just right for discovering a strange new world with new species. It’s also one of the earliest blends of fantasy with science fiction,...
This is the third in a series known as the The Majipoor Cycle. Unlike LeGuin's Hainish Cycle, The Majipoor Cycle is a regular series and should be read in sequence, though it wouldn't hurt if the second were read before the first. I had read the first two books, Lord Valentine's Castle and Majipoor Chronicles in the previous 14 months. I wish I had read the series more closely together, so that the previous books had been fresher in my memory. The earlier books establish the history that lead to...
The 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 offe...
I also read this one in high school. It was a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy despite the characters being quite political.It is hard to give Silverberg anything less than 3 stars because he is such a good writer whose prose moves along quite effortlessly. 3.5 stars
This was a very Frank Herbert kind of book.Not that one Grandmaster must adopt the style and tone of another, but I could most definitely see many similarities between this end of a trilogy book and Herbert’s Dune.Silverberg’s Majipoor, like the Dune universe created by Frank Herbert, is thousands of years old and the distant, almost mythical origins of “Old Earth” are shrouded in remote collective memory. Silverberg’s “water kings” the enormous and mysterious sea dragons are also mindful of Her...
Rather than continuing the bright and active story of the first book, this book, essentially the second and continuance of the story, is dreary and depressing. The bright and happy king is now mopey and constantly despondent about everything.And then it ends and everything is fine.This book isn't needed to support the first. Just read the first book in the series and consider it done.
The first Majipoor novel was so good that its readers will likely feel emotional attachment to just about any followup set in the same world. That said, Valentine Pontifex is a bit of a letdown. While the book provides a much-welcome reunion with Valentine and friends, his companions are relegated to supporting roles, and Valentine himself becomes annoyingly passive. Gone is the adventurous optimism of the first novel. Majipoor is beset by a crisis, and the "young, happy world" so lovingly descr...
I wish the contents of this novel was contained in about four short stories or novellas to wrap up what we learned in Majipoor Chronicles. But oh well.Full review on my podcast, SFBRP episode #484.Luke caught up with Majipoor and talked to Juliane about Majipoor Chronicles and Valentine Pontifex by Robert Silverberg.https://www.sfbrp.com/archives/1973
Valentine is still a bit like Hamlet, indecisive. Hissune is learning how to be a prince. The shapeshifters are attacking yet again. It's not a bad adventure, but it's just ok. Still, the series is a classic. I last read them 15 years ago, and they'll probably still stay on my shelves for longer.
Mmmh. I loved the first two books in the series for the world-building, for the exploring of exotic places with exuberant flora, fauna, and architecture, which made up for weak plots and characterisation. In Valentine Pontifex, however, there's a lot less world-building and more political plot, and it doesn't work well, imo. Most of the world-building is reduced to name-dropping, which there's lots of and which requires that the reader remembers those places well from the previous books, otherwi...
I got half way through this and got stuck. I was too worried about what the bad guys were up to and not invested enough in the good guys to keep reading.I recently read a review that said while this was a solid book, it didn't have the magic of the previous two. I decided to take that, along with the fact I haven't read any of the book for the better part of a year, as good reason to make this officially a DNF.
I enjoyed this final return to the world of Majipoor. The names alone are worth it - I'm considering naming my next child Voriax if it's a boy, Aximaan Threysz if it's a girl. The story in many ways reminds me of a folk tale or a fairy tale, but with a lot of the edges blunted off. It is not particularly realistic in regards to the nature of government or war or human relations (or, I would assume interspecies relations), but if you are willing to suspend belief on those things, it's a somewhat
Science Fiction series - The third book in the Majipoor Chronicles. Life goes to heck in a handbasket on the huge planet as the Metamorphs try to take back what is theirs. More of Silverberg's "typing at random" place and animal names. And now there is a fourth book (a prequel)No Canadian or pharmacy references.
It wasn't a bad finish to the Valentines Castle series, however, it was in the end highly predictable. Most of the adventure sequences in this novel I have encountered before. All in all I think with the understanding that it isn't original it is a valuable read.