After Lord Valentine's Castle, epic science fantasy novel, Silverberg wrote a follow-up called the Majipoor Chronicles. Why not pursuing the serie even longer? Valentine Pontifex describes the reign of Valentine once he recovers his Coronal title.To some extent this novel focuses on the right themes and could have been a very strong add-on to the serie. The decadence of Majipoor's society were presented in a quite naive way in the first volume. Here Silverberg uses the weak spot undermining the social model while the almost apocalyptic tone of teh story is very appropriate in my view.However with a weak storyline lacking rythm the result is not as good as expected. The end is also pretty easy to guess. I actually understand the ones saying Silverberg should have stopped writing after the first volume of the serie.Après un Le Château de Lord Valentin, roman de science fantasy épique qui aurait pu se suffire à lui-même, Silverberg donnait une suite avec Chroniques de Majipoor. Pourquoi s’arrêter en si bon chemin ? On remet le couvert avec Valentin de Majipoor, qui décrit le règne de Valentin après qu’il ait récupéré son titre de Coronal.D’une certaine manière, ce troisième tome aborde les bonnes thématiques et donne (ou aurait pu donner) une suite extrêmement jouissive. L’immobilisme et la décadence de la société de Majipoor étaient mis en scène de manière assez naïve et folklorique dans le premier tome. Ici Silverberg exploite au mieux les fissures du modèle social et le ton quasi-apocalyptique du récit est très approprié de mon point de vue. Cependant, avec une histoire malheureusement assez plate et qui manque de rythme le résultat n’est pas à la hauteur des espérances. On aurait voulu voir du grandiose, du tragique, mais tout cela laisse un arrière-goût assez fade en bouche. On devine la fin assez vite d’ailleurs ce qui ne pousse pas à tourner les pages à vrai dire. Que les nombreuses suites de la série soient le résultat d’une démarche commerciale de la part de l’auteur ou pas, je commence à mieux comprendre l’avis de ceux qui jugent que Silverberg aurait dû s’arrêter au premier tome.
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 described two books ago is thrown into civil unrest. The marginalized Shapeshifter population is in revolt and disrupting every aspect of human society. A comatose Pontifex provides no support for the relatively new Coronal, whose support staff fights amongst itself. This in itself is a fine backdrop for the story; after all, Majipoor has had it good for millennia, so a little disruption of the established order makes for a good plot conflict. The problem is that Valentine in this book a moping, wistful, and largely ineffectual character. He spends most of the book blaming himself and/or the Divine for current events, and only towards the very end kicks into a kind of active mode. It's far too long to wait, and the experience is frustrating to a reader who enjoyed his idealistic heroism in LVC.Hissune, a minor character from the first novel and the framing device for the second, comes into his own as a secondary protagonist. Seeing him take decisive and bold action is far more satisfying than watching Valentine mope. But Hissune ultimately doesn't get enough spotlight to carry the novel.Valentine Pontifex does deliver a somewhat satisfying ending, even if it takes way too long to get there. It's recommended for big fans of the earlier Majipoor books - with a caution to keep expectations in check.
What do You think about Valentine Pontifex (1996)?
My main complaint about this book was the slow start. It took a good 100 pages from many POV's to lay the groundwork for the story. This seemed to be a bit disjointed to me and was not that easy to make sense of early on. Once the plot was set, things moved along nicely.Obviously not as good as Lord Valentine's Castle, but still not that bad as sequels go. I really enjoy the world of Majipoor that Silverberg created for these books and will be looking out for the other books and stories set there.
—AndrewP
In Lord Valentine's Castle, Valentine, the Coronal of Majipoor, faced a long, hard road to regain his usurped throne. In this sequel, Valentine now finds himself facing some unpleasant duties of his office. One is the threat of war with the native race of Shapeshifters. A Shapeshifter plot is causing havoc in the far reaches of Majipoor and threatening the well being of the realm. Must Valentine, a man of peace, shed blood to save his people? The other duty is that of tradition. It has always been that upon the death of the Pontifex, the Coronal of Majipoor would leave the Castle Mount and take his predecessor's place in the depths of Labyrinth. The Pontifex Tyeveras is ancient, kept alive by machines. With a word, Valentine can release Tyeveras and continue the cycle of things. But he is reluctant to so quickly abandon the world of light and take his role below. Like most sequels, Valentine Pontifex is not as good as the original, but it is a great read.
—The other John
I did not feel as if I disliked this book. It was more like I enjoyed it in spite of itself. It kept hopping between several loosely-connected plot threads, which were all stories in their own right but could be confusing to follow all at the same time, and it was loaded down with long, unwieldy character and place names. I would pity anyone who tried to produce an audiobook of this. At the same time, while I was reading it I felt as if I really was in a different world, earth-like enough for analogies but still radically alien. The glimpses of other cultures, and wondering how the author was going to reconcile all of his wandering threads, were much of what kept me reading.
—Anita
