/lit/ - Literature

Yesterday I read all 480 pages of King of Dreams by Robert Silverberg. It's 7th of 8 Majipoor novels and the final book of the Prestimion trilogy. The paperback came out in 2002, which is also when I bought it. I had already read the previous six books. It's a mystery how so much time can pass by before getting around to something that one buys.
I had considerable trepidation before I started reading it as I said I would in an Oct 19th post. I had quite enjoyed the previous books that I had read all those years ago and I was concerned that I wouldn't enjoy this now and that it would ruin my memories. I don't like rewatching or rereading anything because past experience has shown me that I almost always enjoy it a lot less the second time and that causes me question why I liked it in the first place and whether it would be the same for everything else.
Fortunately, I enjoyed this well enough, despite its various flaws. I don't remember there being so much unnnescarily detailed exposition along with unneeded side stories all throughout, but it's been closer to 20 years than not. A lot is unclear in general about my reading them.
Majipoor is the planet's name and it was settled by humans and various other aliens about 14,000 years ago. For reasons that are never really addressed, aside from saying the crust is metal poor, it's still mostly medieval technology with random advanced technologies here and there and a functional spaceport that is rarely visited.
I don't know whether this novel is a subversion of expectations or a result of unfortunate circumstances. I'll believe the former despite more evidence for the latter. Plot spoilers follow.
For most of the novel, it seems like it's setting up for a massive war campaign with both sides strongly agitating for war, especially the more powerful side. However, none of that ever happens. The antagonist turns out to be a megalomaniac with delusions of grandeur who is unable to back up anything he does with actual action and has to continually reduce the scope of his ambitions as others withdraw their support from him as they realize he's simply a psychopathic narcissist without self-awareness who wants them to do everything for him. The antagonist also being driven insane by his plot device weapon. The novel ends with the antagonist proposing an in-person parley with the protagonist where the antagonist tries to kill the protagonist thinking that will solve all of the his problems, but they just kill him. The End. Despite that the book was originally published about 7 months before 9/11, it could be read as a response to that and the ensuing consequences of the following years. A story of a superpower wanting a disproportionate and misguided response to a terrorist attack, but cooler heads prevail. The protagonist's solution to prevent further rebellion is to have a global surveillance state.
gtfa