/lit/ - Literature

I read Lord Valentine's Castle by Robert Silverberg (1981), the Locus Award winner for best fantasy novel. This is a long and leisurely paced novel about an usurped ruler of a very large kingdom on a remote planet. The protag finds himself in a provincial city with no memory of his true identity, and falls in with a troupe of traveling jugglers in order to make a living. As the novel progresses he travels the land, makes acquaintances, recovers his memories, and takes back the throne.

The story is cliched and predictable, but the novel is all about the setting. It's a travelogue with a lot of different cities, cultures, races, landscapes, geological features, plants and animals, all vividly described; full, also, of good-natured camaraderie, gentle romance, and reflections on identity, responsibility, and memories, rather than high drama and lurid violence. It seems to me this would be an ideal book to read in a prison, mental hospital, yacht, long flight, or other confined environment, because the worldbuilding is so fully realised and potentially immersive. I reiterate, however, that the story is unremarkable, but there are enough pleasant character moments to see it through - the grumpy and parsimonious troupe leader, an enigmatic wizard, and sword wielding giantess among others. Would I read the other books? Not in a hurry, and this seems a satisfying conclusion in itself. I rate it 3/5 and recommend it for those who want to read a gentle travelogue with a lot of different races.