I can't say I'm a huge Silverberg fan. I've read many of his books and short stories, and I've enjoyed them. But I've never made an effort to seek out those of his works I've not read - as I have done with some other writers. To be fair, Silverberg is one of the stalwarts of the genre. He's had - and still has, of course - a fifty-four year writing career, and has mostly produced good books and stories. During that more-than-half-a-century, he has won four Hugo Awards and five Nebula Awards.

Silverberg's most well-known creation is, arguably, the world of Majipoor, on which he has set seven novels, two novellas and a short story. The first of these is Lord Valentine's Castle, published in 1980.

Majipoor is a big planet - in fact, it was inspired by Jack Vance's novel, Big Planet - with four enormous continents. The world has been settled for thousands of years and has a population of some sixty billion; but it is now something of a backwater, and rarely visited by people from other planets. It is home to several races - humans, Skandars, Ghayrogs, Vroons, Su-Suheris, Liimen, and Hjorts. There are also the native Metamorphs, from whom the humans took the world, and they now live in a reservation. Majipoor is ruled by four potentates - the Coronal, who is the executive arm of government and rules from his castle atop the thirty-mile-high Castle Mount; the Pontifex, the legislative arm, who lives in the Labyrinth; the Lady of the Isle of Sleep, who through dreams provides the world's moral framework; and the King of Dreams, who punishes wrongdoers, also through dreams.

For the rest of the review see http://justhastobeplausible.blogspot.... ( )

Pretty fun read with an imaginative world and fascinating descriptions of cities. However, the plot is very predictable and the writing is a bit too geared towards children (which it is entirely possible the book/series was written for). ( )

More good fun. Well-realised world, lots of juggling. Odd that none of the other races (except the aboriginals) seemed to mind that all the rulers - 3 or 4 of them - were always human. But good that Valentine at least recognized that some injustice had been done to the aboriginals and that the shape-shifters had a reason for their act... And planned to negotiate rather than attacking them. *sigh* Everything sounds like terrorism and politics, these days. ( )

Having just finished this book, I am very much looking forward to continuing on in the series. I found this book to be very enjoyable, and to me it has more fantasy elements than sci-fi elements. This book is a little older and can be somewhat hard to find, but it is worth it if you can.

The only thing I felt this novel was lacking was a little more description of history. Humans have been on the planet of Majipoor for 14.000 years or so, and there didn't seem to be many ruins, or descriptions of history other than former Coronals. But I still immensely enjoyed the story and would recommend it to any fantasy reader. The pace set by Silverberg is very good, I never felt bored during any of Valentine's adventures through Majipoor.

This book would be great for adults and young adults alike. Enjoy! ( )

On the planet Majipoor several races coexist with humans. The plot has to do with political manipulation and skullduggery, and alien plots. The main character is an amnesiac man named Valentine, who joins a troupe of wandering jugglers and learns their trade.

He realises something is wrong with the government, and the mythological ruling figure, and sets out to do something about it.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2006/12/lord-valentines-castle-robert.html ( )