Valentine Pontifex

In the third novel of this acclaimed sci-fi/fantasy series, the ruler of a vast planet faces a threat of war--and conspiracy within his own court.

Plagued by nightmares of blizzards and earthquakes besieging the planet Majipoor, Lord Valentine believes these dreams signal the coming of war between his people and the Shapeshifters, who once ruled the planet. For centuries they have conspired to regain their stolen world, and recently they were discovered impersonating members of the kingdom’s inner circle.

Since coming to power, Valentine has made peaceful overtures to the Shapeshifters. This has led select members of the royal court to question his loyalties. Now some even want to remove Valentine from his governing role--casting him into the higher, ceremonial office of Pontifex.

But if Valentine accepts the mantle of Pontifex and surrenders his position to his successor-in-waiting, he may be remembered as a leader who evaded his duties--and shattered the peace that has reigned for eight thousand years. . . .

＂[Valentine Pontifex is] a dance of conflicting emotions and political intrigue. Both the world and Lord Valentine have matured, and the trilogy becomes whole in a way that the form rarely achieves.＂ --The Village Voice

Robert Silverberg (b. 1935) sold his first science fiction stories to the lower-grade pulps in the mid-fifties, moved swiftly to the three prestigious magazines (ASTOUNDING, GALAXY and THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION) and as his style deepened and themes expanded in through the next reached the first rank of science fiction writers. He is regarded as the greatest living writer of science fiction, an SFWA Grandmaster, ex-President (in the 1960’ s) of that organization, winner of five Nebulas, four Hugos and many other domestic and foreign awards. Among his famous novels are DYING INSIDE, THE BOOK OF SKULLS, DOWNWARD TO THE EARTH, A TIME OF CHANGES; his novella BORN WITH THE DEAD (1974) is perhaps the finest work of that length published within the genre. Shifting to a predominating fantasy in the late 1970’s (LORD VALENTINE’ S CASTLE and the attendant Majipoor Series), Silverberg continued to write science fiction and won a Nebula in 1986 for the novella SAILING TO BYZANTIUM, and Hugos for the novelettes GILGAMESH IN THE OUTBACK and ENTER A SOLDIER: LATER, ENTER ANOTHER. He was editor of the long-running original anthology series New Dimensions and of important reprint anthologies such as THE SCIENCE FICTION HALL OF FAME, ALPHA and THE ARBOR HOUSE TREASURY OF MODERN SCIENCE FICTION.