- Paperback: 400 pages
- Publisher: Voyager; New edition edition (2 May 2000)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0006483798
- ISBN-13: 978-0006483793
- Product Dimensions: 17.2 x 11 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,190,091 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
The vast populous world of Majipoor with its strange political hierarchies and myriad alien races is one of the more impressive creations of planetary romance; Robert Silverberg brings to its exoticism his sensitive and evocative prose and his sense of story as an end in itself. The Majippor Chronicles is a collection of linked shorts, in which the boy Hissune, a minor character in Lord Valentine's Castle, rummages in archives of recorded memories and acquires an education in the ways of this particular world. A self-willed woman becomes a recluse and befriends a crippled lizard-man; a great navigator discovers the price of crossing a great ocean; a murderer is pursued by dreams and his own demons; a defrauded young woman discovers the rich ironies possible in a complicated civilisation; two brothers receive an ambiguous prophecy that we know will come true. Individually, these are powerful moody stories, full of memorable people whom we come to know intensely even in a few pages, but together they help amplify our sense of the vast reach of Majipoor in history and geography--and the education of Hissune becomes more than a framing narrative, it becomes another tale of Majipoor in its own right. --Roz Kaveney
Review
‘There are two things that abide: absolute awe at Silverberg’s capacity for creating images… he makes you see, believe, be there witnessing… and the overarching compassion that colours every word and all the souls in his enormous world’
Los Angeles Times
‘A grand tale by one of the great storytellers of the century’
Roger Zelazny
On Lord Valentine’s Castle:
‘Silverberg’s invention is prodigious… like a competent juggler, he maintains his rhythm and suspense to the end’
Times Literary Supplement
‘Spectacularly readable’
The Times
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First Sentence
FOR SIX MONTHS now Thesme had lived alone in a hut that she had built with her own hands, in the dense tropical jungle half a dozen miles or so east of Narabal, in a place where the sea breezes did not reach and the heavy humid air clung to everything like a furry shroud. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
FOR SIX MONTHS now Thesme had lived alone in a hut that she had built with her own hands, in the dense tropical jungle half a dozen miles or so east of Narabal, in a place where the sea breezes did not reach and the heavy humid air clung to everything like a furry shroud. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book is a bit hard to describe - basically it is the middle part of the Majipoor Trilogy - but it is fundamentally different from the two other books (Lord Valentine's Castle and Valentine Pontifex).
While the two other books are "normal" novels, with one continuos action, this book is more like a collection of short stories.
The basis of the stories are the archives in the House of Records on the Planet Majipoor, here millions of people has left recordings of the memories.
Each story in the book are one of these recordings.
This leads the reader on a journey through both time and space, which can be read as important background for the other two books in the trilogy or as highly entertaining stories about people, their lives, and the relations between them.
With the Majipoor trilogy Robert Silverberg has created one of the most impressive worlds in modern fantasy.
Especially the society he describes makes it worthwhile to read these books.
In addition to this he has the gift of giving the characters real life - even in this book, where the single stories are quite short, he is able to make them interesting.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
17 reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Majipoor Chronicles is Breathtaking!
29 Aug 2000
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I loved Lord Valentine's Castle, and figured that this installment in the Majipoor series would only be a necessary stepping stone before reading another book about Valentine. Little did I know how incredible and thorough this book would be, or how deeply affected I would be by the wonderful memories of the characters in the Registry of Souls. All of the stories are wonderful, though Inyanna Forlana's and Arioc's are by far my favorites. And the broad view of Majipoor you get through this book is perfect preparation for Valentine Pontifex. Silverberg's story-telling is rich, vivid, and complex, and this book will remain one of my favorites for years to come.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
A Wonderful Way to Learn About Majipoor
15 July 2000
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Here Silverberg offers us the chance to experience first-person vignettes from across the thousands of years of Majipoor's history. Silverberg does an outstanding job of making historical personages come alive in such a way that, when you encounter oblique references to them in later novels you feel as if someone has just mentioned an old friend.
In addition, Silverberg takes you behind the scenes at some of the pivotal moments in Majipoor's past. He crafts those events with insight and cleverness (and throws in a few surprises). The complicated and seductive world of Majipoor is even more so after the glimpses which Silverberg offers.
Every story in this collection would stand alone as an enjoyable and thought-provoking reading experience. Together, they are a must-have for fans and non-fans alike.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Second Majipoor book fills in some gaps left by the 1st...
10 Jan 2003
Format:Mass Market Paperback
A collection of short stories, Silverberg uses this book as a way to fill in or explore some historical gaps left in his first Majipoor novel. As with any collection of short stories, some will delight you, others will leave you flat, and some won't affect you at all. I can't honestly say that I disliked any of the stories contained within, but I definately liked some more than others. I especially enjoyed how the author continually reminded us that things didn't always happen the way the history books say they did. If only we had a Register of Souls here on earth!
Looking at the other reviews, I would say that I am not as enthusiastic about these novels as other people, but I don't hate them either. I have only read the first three so far, but I feel that some of the shortcomings pointed out by others (i.e., poorly developed characters, over simplistic plots, etc.) do have validity, but I feel that the good points of the books far outweigh the bad. In the Majipoor novels Silverberg makes us confront some of the darker aspects of mankind and grapple with our response to them. I liked the second book the most out of the first three. Try it, and see what you think!
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