Review by Booklist Review
Silverberg returns to what is now his best-known creation, the sprawling, complex, exotic world of Majipoor. It is now a thousand years after the time of Lord Valentine, hero of the earlier Majipoor books, and one of his descendants, young Harpirias, accidentally kills a rare and valuable animal belonging to another nobleman. By way of punishment, Harpirias is sent to the snow-covered mountains to ransom an archaeological expedition from the local inhabitants. He is accompanied by a shape-shifting interpreter whose kind is not the most exotic that we encounter in the course of the yarn. This is a modest story, but the marvelously well realized world of Majipoor and Silverberg's graceful prose carry it along in a fashion that most lovers of Majipoor will find highly satisfying. ~--Roland Green
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Silverberg's fourth Majipoor bookhis first in over 10 yearsis, like the second novel in this popular fantasy series, Majipoor Chronicles, a bildungsroman. Set five centuries after the events in book three, Valentine Pontifex, it details the adventures of Prince Harpirias, a young bureaucrat exiled from Castle Mount when he commits an unintentional indiscretion during a hunting expedition. The prince is given a chance to redeem himself by rescuing a group of scientists who have been taken captive by a previously undiscovered, less technologically advanced people whom Harpirias considers ``savages.'' Aided by a Shapeshifter and several others, Harpirias makes several discoveries that startle him much more than they will the reader. While there are moments here that recall the glorious descriptive passages displayed earlier in the series, these are infrequent, and sadder still is the author's apparent lack of interest in his characters. Hissune in Majipoor Chronicles and Valentine himself were living creations, but Harpirias and the Shapeshifter seem less full-fledged characters than elements tailored to further the plot. While fans may be grateful for any return to Majipoor, this shadow of a novel doesn't provide the journey they might have hoped for. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Exiled to Majipoor's forsaken borderlands for an act of youthful folly, Prince Harpirias accepts-with considerable misgivings-a final chance to redeem his past disgrace by accepting a mission to rescue a group of hostages from the hostile barbarians who inhabit the icy mountains at Majipoor's end. Returning to the world of Lord Valentine's Castle (LJ 4/15/80) and its sequels, Silverberg transforms an otherwise standard coming-of-age story into an allegorical rite of passage. Fans of the author's other Majipoor novels will welcome this graceful coda to a popular series. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
After a considerable absence, Silverberg again takes up his Majipoor chronicles (Lord Valentine's Castle, 1980, etc.). In the far future, the huge and beautiful planet Majipoor is home to a diverse array of humans and aliens in various stages of civilization. Now, 500 years after the time of Valentine Pontifex, the massive, blustering, yet good-hearted Toikella, king of the isolated, mountain-dwelling Othinor, takes hostage a trespassing group of paleontologists--so someone noble must be dispatched to negotiate for their release. The task devolves upon young Prince Harpirias, an exile from the ruling Castle Mount, who by making a success of the mission hopes to put his career back on track; his guide and translator will be Korinaam the Shapeshifter. The Othinor turn out to be as barbaric as Harpirias had feared: arrogant, filthy, clad in stinking furs, and dwelling in a frigid city hewn from the ice. And when King Toikella makes it clear that he expects Harpirias to sleep with his daughter (outsider genes being prized among the isolated Othinor), Harpirias balks, to Toikella's great displeasure. Meanwhile, causing the king embarrassment, the Othinor are taunted and threatened by another barbarian tribe who appear to be Shapeshifters. At last, Harpirias thaws: He sleeps with the king's daughter, participates in a royal hunt where he is obliged to gulp down raw meat, and prevails upon Korinaam to terrify and drive off his distant relatives, so helping Toikella avert a protracted and pointless tussle. Thin, but polished and agreeable and familiar.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Review by Library Journal Review
Review by Kirkus Book Review
