Majipoor Chronicles

Majipoor Chronicles is the second volume in the Marjipoor series by Robert Silverberg.

Took me a bit of time to verify that this is the second book in the Majipoor series. It seems that the reason why this isn't widely discussed is that it doesn't really matter when you read this one. The story takes place after Lord Valentines Castle, so that's the natural place to read it, except almost everything in it is taking place long before Valentine was a twinkle in his fathers eye. So like I said - it doesn't matter.

My dictionary defines Chronicle as "a continuous and detailed historical account of events arranged in chronologically without analysis or interpretation" and that is pretty much what this book is. Well, detailed is stretching it a bit, when we are talking about 10.000 years of Majipoor history and a book of a bit under four hundred pages.

The young Hissune (which we briefly meet in Lord Valentines Castle) has gotten a clerical job in the labyrinth of the Pontifex and is getting bored silly. So he sneaks of to the "House of Records" where the memories and experiences of millions of citizens are stored. The rest of the book tells ten different stories from different times and from different places on Majipoor, as Hissune returns again and again to the archive of souls. There's no real connection between the stories, except for Hissune, but all of them are wonderful and interesting. They tell us a lot about the history of Majipoor and they are some of the best writing the Silverberg has ever done. The short form, while sticking to a know universe really suits him.