Nostalgic Re-read

Years ago I stumbled upon the intriguing world of Majipoor at my local library. I read all the novels & short stories I could find. It has been a pleasure to reacquaint myself with this world, it's inhabitants & it's system of governance. I also note many lessons I did not in my first reading: the potential results of confiscating land from aboriginal people's, how resentment can bubble beneath the surface for centuries, that attempts to placate or ameliorate wrongs can backfire & that ultimately there must be an accounting. But then, maybe I'm reading too much into what are entertaining tales of a distant world.

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Non-science fiction

Humans are living on a beautiful planet far from the Earth. Presumably they needed some pretty awesome technology to get there. But the technology represented in these stories is pre-industrial. No telecommunications, computers, cars, planes--nothing. What is equally weird is that the stories herein supposedly span thousands of years, but the technology never changes. Always the same Medieval technology. I think the author would have done better to make this historical fiction. Locate it in the Middle Ages or some other pre-industrial era.

Technology aside the stories are moderately interesting psychological portraits of various male characters.

Happily, there's no violence, no battles with aliens. Just quiet psychological sketches.

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Majipoor

At first, it was difficult to get into this story due to a lack of knowledge of the history of Majipoor, and the author's dedication to jargon and creative naming. But the author is also poetic, and that poetry, read by such a great storyteller, eventually grabbed my attention so that I was forced to accept that there were just some things I would not understand in this collection of stories. I also wondered how humanity could travel the stars and then seemingly lose technology (cars, planes, etc.), but also retain technology (scanners, recorders, the existence of Castle Mount), but perhaps this explanation is another part of the series. Two stories stuck out as beautiful; the story of how Aethan writes The Book of Changes, and the story of about the love between a wizard and her student. Forgive me, as I cannot remember the chapter titles. In any case, I highly recommend this book.

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6 people found this helpful

Well done

Interesting stories. Well executed. One of the best sci fi books included with audible. Rudnicki is so good.

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4 people found this helpful

,

easy on the ear, occasional recording stuttering. otherwise a five.
interesting short stories with interesting twist

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Psychological Historical SF on a Sublime Planet

Tales of Majipoor (2013) consists of seven novellas and novelettes published originally between 1998 and 2011. It may be the last book of Majipoor Robert Silverberg will write. There are several earlier ones, starting with the picaresque Lord Valentine’s Castle (1980). I really liked that novel and Chronicles of Majipoor (1982) for their big sf imagination, absorbing character psychology, and lack of typical space operatic violent action scenes.

Majipoor is an enormous planet with a population of over 20 billion people living in varied mega-cities amid sublime geographical features and exotic flora and fauna. It gives Silverberg an unlimited source of places, people, and plots for his stories. In them, he ranges through the vast history of Majipoor (humans go back 12,000 years, indigenous Metamorphs well over 20,000) and among different genres and moods and modes.

In "The End of the Line" (2011), a young, ineffectual prince councilor for the Coronal of Majipoor tries to learn about the indigenous Metamorphs so as to find a way for humans to live in peace with them and uncovers a terrible secret about his Lord and a terrible truth about race relations. 4 stars

In "The Book of Changes" (2003), a princely poet of superficial verse travels into the hinterlands on a quest for a new life path only to be captured by a bandit lord who happens to be a passionate but undiscriminating aficionado of poetry. Could Furvain ever write a profound, great work encompassing the vast history of human settlement on Majipoor? And if so, would it derive from his trivial self or from divine inspiration? Whatever you write, you need to tell a tale in a way that illuminates its inner meaning (like Silverberg and Tales of Majipoor?). 4.5 stars

"The Tomb of the Pontifex Dvorn" (2011) depicts a pair of young academic friends (a romantic historian and a phlegmatic archeologist) getting sent to the supposed hometown of the legendary founder of Majipoor’s 12,000-year-old human governmental system, the first Pontifex Dvorn, to curate his supposed tomb. Sublime discovery and crushing disappointment ensue amid questions of integrity, scholarship, tourism, and truth. And a roman a clef appearance by Egypt’s controversial antiquities “expert” promoter Zahi Hawass, “played” here by Hawid Zayayil, the four-armed Skandar Superintendent of Antiquities. 4.5 stars

In "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" (2004), a callow failure at various trades becomes the apprentice of a stern and sexy female fifth-level adept. Against expectation, he finds himself thirstily absorbing magical knowledge while trying to divert his enflaming lust for his teacher into house cleaning. Do the numerous sand roaches under foot imply that she’s a Circe? The wizardly rom com feels a little out of place in such a hitherto science fictional world. 3.5 stars

In "Dark Times at the Midnight Market" (2010), a diminutive, tentacled Vroon (who dominates his sensible two-headed Su-Suheris business partner and scorns his hulking four-armed furry-smelly Skandar cleaning woman) tries to save his formerly thriving magical item shop by making a love potion for a scoundrel, wastrel, and idler of a human Marquis. Will the Vroon learn “the great peril in meddling in the romantic affairs of the aristocracy”? 3.5 stars

"The Way They Wove the Spells in Sippulgar" (2009) is told by the collection’s only first-person narrator, a “practical man of business” who, scorning the current boom in religions and paranormal belief, travels to Sippulgar, famed for “its abundance of superstitious creeds and cults,” to investigate the mysterious disappearance of his brother-in-law, who apparently had tried to start a new religion there. Will the “plain worldly man” learn that there are more things in heaven and earth than dreamt of in his mercantile worldview? 4 stars

In "The Seventh Shrine" (1998), Pontifex Valentine (the protagonist of the first Majipoor novel) visits a 20,000-year-old cursed and ruined (“parched and broken”) Metamorph city where a Metamorph archeologist has been ritually murdered. Valentine must solve the mystery in order to have any hope of integrating Metamorphs into mainstream Majipoor society. Can aliens and aliens ever understand one another or live in peace together? 4 stars

The stories may be read individually in any order without having read the other Majipoor works, but would benefit from familiarity with the others. The stories feature different protagonists, some of whom are referred to as historical figures in other stories. He organizes this collection such that the first story reveals the origin of Stiamot, the Coronal who started the war with the Metamoprhs resulting in their banishment to a reservation, while the last story features Valentine Pontifex trying to resolve the Metamorph-Human conflict 8000 years later.

Like his other Majipoor stories, these climax with the protagonist learning something that rocks his world.

Like his other Majipoor stories, these are marked by vivid sf descriptions and moments, like “The air was parched and crisp with a brittle quality to it, as though it could be torn in one’s hands like dry paper and crumbled to dust in one’s fingers,” and “His vision wavered; his tentacles trembled.”

Like his other Majipoor stories, these feature some Jack Vance-like dry wit, like “The logic did not seem entirely impeccable,” and “He finally mistook diminished indifference for actual warmth.”

There is much to like here for fans of SF set on other worlds, but it should be noted that there are very few (almost no) large- or small-scale violent action scenes.

Stefan Rudnicki reads the audiobook with his usual professional manner and resonant voice.

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Best to have prior knowledge of Majipoor

of which i had but little. Nonetheless, even without such context, I enjoyed the tales (more accurately, the Tale) very much. I'm sure I'd be giving it all 5's had I read more Silverberg first. Which I shall now endeavor to do!

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2 people found this helpful

truly transported me to another place

Narrator was exceptional would listen to it again! Author Silverberg writes so well I feel like I can see the colors in the words

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It was great to come home to Marjipoor

Great book, great narration. I love the entire series of books about Lord Valentine and the wonders of Marjipoor.

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2 people found this helpful

Wow much more depth than expected

I will definitely need to listen to this book again to put all the puzzle pieces together. Wonderful subtle world building

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