The King of Dreams: A novel in the Majipoor Cycle - Softcover

Silverberg, Robert

3.66

297 ratings by Goodreads

9780002247450: The King of Dreams: A novel in the Majipoor Cycle

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0002247453 ISBN 13: 9780002247450

Publisher: Voyager, 2001

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A new novel in the magnificent Majipoor series and a sequel to Lord Prestimion.

Fifteen years have elapsed since the events recounted in Lord Prestimion. At last Prestimion prepares to take his place in the subterranean Laybyrinth where the Pontifex must dwell. He has named Prince Dekkeret to succeed him as Coronal. Once a commoner, Dekkeret brings new blood to the aristocratic Starburst Throne, and a popular wisdom. Another prosperous joint reign should begin.

But the diabolical Mandralisca is the �minence grise behind a declaration of independence from distant Zimroel. Coolly proclaiming the five debauched nephews of the treacherous Dantirya Sambail to be the Five Lords of Zimroel, Mandralisca is preparing to destroy the unity and peace of Majipoor.

The soothsayer Su-Suheris predicts that a new power is loose in the world, a power equal to any other, but Dekkeret has no faith in omens. Only when Mandralisca avails himself of a sinister device that destroys the mind of Dekkeret’s own High Counsellor does the new Coronal begin to see a threat. By then THE KING OF DREAMS is loose in the world. Lord of a far greater kingdom than Zimroel, Mandralisca is his name...

The complex, intriguing transformation of that sinister power into a feature of a unified Majipoor involves bitter conflict between Pontifex and Coronal. Here is good storytelling, a magnificent setting, and grand political vision.

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Review:

‘When one contemplates Robert Silverberg it can only be with awe. In terms of excellence he has few peers, if any.’
Locus

‘Spectacularly readable’
The Times

‘A master of his craft and imagination’
Los Angeles Times

‘Silverberg’s invention is prodigious...’
TLS

Synopsis:

The reader of earlier Majipoor books will thrill to this title: the Prestimion trilogy is set many years before the Valentine books, and the King of Dreams is an established, terrifying figure in those. Now eponymous, this is the story of his origins. Fifteen years have elapsed since the events recounted in Lord Prestimion. Prestimion has become Pontifex, and named Prince Dekkeret to succeed him as Coronal. As he prepares to take his place in the subterranean Laybyrinth where the Pontifex must dwell, the diabolical Mandralisca manipulates a declaration of independence for Zimroel from the five nephews of the treacherous Dantirya Sambail (see Majipoor Chronicles). Out of Zimroel comes a devastating mental broadcast that strikes randomly all over the world, inflicting terrible psychological pain. Prestimion's brother Teotas commits suicide. His wife Varail and their daughter are damaged. The complex, intriguing transformation of that sinister power in to a feature of a unified Majipoor involves bitter conflict between Pontifex and Coronel, and the unveiling to the world at large of Prestimion's secret hold over the memories of the everyone alive.

We know from the Valentine books that Prestimion's reign will initiate a Golden Age of prosperity and peace, but until the end of THE KING OF DREAMS, it is difficult to see how this comes about. Good storytelling, a magnificent setting, grand political vision.

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