Lord Prestimion | ||||||||
Robert Silverberg | ||||||||
HarperPrism Books, 415 pages | ||||||||
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A review by Victoria Strauss
Now Prestimion is where he was always meant to be, at the
beginning of what will surely be a glorious reign. But he's haunted
by guilt for his part in the war, and by grief for the many friends
and companions who died. He also has a problem. He has arrested
Dantirya Sambail, one of the most devious and formidable of his
wartime enemies, reasoning that a man so evil can't be left free.
But how can Dantirya Sambail be brought to justice, since no one
now remembers his treachery?
Before Prestimion can decide, Dantirya Sambail escapes. Prestimion
and his advisers set off in search of him. As they travel through
Majipoor, they discover that a terrible plague of madness is
spreading across the world. Prestimion begins to suspect that his
spell of oblivion is to blame, aided by some sorcery of Dantirya
Sambail's. Dantirya Sambail and the rebel army he's recruiting
must be found and destroyed, before the madness overwhelms the
world. But Dantirya Sambail seems to have vanished into thin air.
Like Sorcerers of Majipoor, Lord Prestimion is a
complex epic, with a large cast of characters, a strong central
storyline, and a multitude of subplots. Yet it's not as integrated
a work as its predecessor (one of the most impressive books I read
last year). The beginning is fascinating, as is the exploration of
the ambiguous aftermath of Prestimion's decision to tamper with the
world's memory (too often, fantasy books fail to address the human
consequences of the great magics they describe). The ending brings
the story to a self-contained, if slightly abrupt, conclusion. But
the middle, structured around the search for Dantirya Sambail,
sacrifices tension for atmosphere. Significant things happen:
Prestimion begins to understand the scope of the madness epidemic,
falls in love and marries, discovers the man who may become his
successor. Yet the numerous descriptions of bizarre and colorful
Majipoori places and creatures and events -- many of which bear only
peripherally on the plot -- give this portion of the narrative a
dreamy, episodic quality, more like a series of mood pieces than an
urgent quest.
There's a reason for this. Majipoor, as much as Prestimion
himself, is the novel's protagonist, and Prestimion's mystical bond
with this amazing world, his care of it and his love for it, is a
major theme. And so Majipoor is revealed, over and over, in all
its wonder. From a region of golden sand where even the rivers run
yellow, to an oppressive jungle where the rain never stops, to the
savage terrain where the final battle is fought -- a land in which
everything is deadly, from the poisonous crustaceans to the trees
whose leaves are edged with razor-sharp crystals -- it's a tour de
force of imagination, a marvel of inventive detail. In many ways
these descriptive passages are the most gripping portions of the
book, with a deeper and more completed feel than the somewhat
perfunctory action sequences that draw the main storyline to a
close. It's hard not to suspect, at times, that Silverberg is less
interested in most of his human characters than in the giant planet
they inhabit. I can't help wondering what the novel might have
been like if it had been less constrained by the plot conventions
of heroic fantasy.
Ultimately, despite its many strong elements, Lord
Prestimion doesn't quite combine into a unified whole. Even
so, I'd recommend it: for the continuation of a subtle story, for
the complex and sympathetic character of Prestimion -- and for
Majipoor, brought so lovingly and unforgettably to life.
Victoria Strauss is a novelist, and a lifelong reader of fantasy and science fiction. Her most recent fantasy novel, The Arm of the Stone, is currently available from Avon Eos. For an excerpt, visit her website. |
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