LBC White Swan
- Venue: White Swan Leeds
- Date: Sunday 14th of July 2019
- Time: 6:00pm
- Address: Swan Street, Leeds
Discussing: Lord Valentine’s Castle by Robert Silverberg
BLURB
Lord Valentine’s Castle
He is a man with no past— a wanderer without memory of his origins. He calls himself Valentine. As a member of a motley group of entertainers, he travels across the magical planet of Majipoor, always hoping he will meet someone who can give him back what he has lost.
And then, he begins to dream–and to receive messages in those dreams. Messages that tell him that he is far more than a common vagabond—he is a lord, a king turned out of his castle.
Now his travels have a purpose—to return to his home, discover what enemy took his memory, and claim the destiny that awaits him…
BLURB 2
Set in an immense world teeming with alien races and fantastic, almost magical, machinery, Valentine, an itinerant juggler, wakes up one morning with only a vague and troubled idea of who he is.
He gradually discovers, through dreams and portents, that he is in fact his namesake: Lord Valentine, the Coronal, his body and throne stolen by a usurper.
Across the giant world of Majipoor, Valentine sets out on a quest to win back his throne - and discover which of his enemies has the power to vanquish him so utterly from not just his throne, but his very life . . .
I’ve included two blurbs just to give you a sense of what we knew going in.
Because both the above highlight the political intrigue; the journey to a castle, mysterious aliens and a new world setting and a bold quest to reveal the truth behind his portentous dreamings.
Neither highlight just how much of the book is going to be about juggling.
- Learning how to juggle.
- The items that a person can juggle with (spoiler – seems to be just about anything you can lift).
- The zen focused state that juggling induces.
- New techniques about juggling.
- Oh here’s someone new, let’s go back to the start and discussing juggling more.
It’s not horrendous. It’s just a lot is all I’m saying.
And to be fair, at least one of the book clubber quite enjoyed the (interminable) descriptions of juggling. So there you go. Takes all sorts.
Anyway, onto the discussion.
Due to my stellar organisational skills, this week I missed an entire book club – and the book was my choice – and my time management was such that I awoke on Sunday morning to discover that I still had 70% of the book to read. In fact, I was reading this book even while walking into the White Swan. I didn’t manage to finish it until 6:06pm. Shocking behaviour from a book clubber. But finish it I did.
As it turns out, my urgency to complete the book was prescient, as it transpired that roughly half the book club hadn’t finished it – the main seemingly stuck on the first 30% of the book.
So this wouldn’t be a normal book club discussion, this was going to require an involved and detailed breakdown of the plot, world and … juggling.
And as a result of my clear, concise, completely objective description of the plot of the book – or, perhaps more fairly, in spite of it – our meandering conversations did manage to discuss a number of different elements and themes within this epic.
First, it was impossible not to acknowledge the wonderfully self referential nature of science fiction (and to an extent fantasy). Silverberg here weaves a tale that is at once an homage to the epic world building within the fantasy realm – more particularly obvious within the text was Tolkien, CS Lewis and L Frank Baum; while also including elements of science fiction mores and tropes aplenty. As we chatted, we frequently brought up characters from other books and films that were direct correlations to those mentioned in the story ‘oh they formed a fellowship did they? and Sam was the purest of heart was he?’ and the like.
It also wasn’t possible to ignore how much this book was a product of its time – particularly in relation to characters who – outside of the primary protagonist (Jack Grealish/David Beckham) rarely spoke after their introductory chapter. Once the motley band of adventurers were invited into the juggling troop, they became invisible except where they could provide exposition for Valentine. In fact, in many of the action scenes, some characters weren’t acknowledged at all. Almost as though the set pieces were written out of sequence in terms of the plot creation.
And gender certainly influenced elements of the writing significantly. Every female character is physically described in detail, including clothing. All bar one (his mother) are naked at one point or another in the story. Not a single man is described in the same way. Indeed for some of the male characters we have no descriptions of their clothing at all. Which might not sound like a big deal but given that one of them had TENTACLES – it might have been interesting. Oh yeah, and the species with four arms. That could have been a direction of travel to take but as they were blokes, no need. Le sigh.
The first third of this book left many of us behind. The gentle history-less Valentine, learning to juggle* wasn’t quite the thrill fest that the blurb had suggested. From the moment that he realises what a quarter of the supporting case and the entirety of the reading audience had figured out chapters ago – that there might be something hinky about his memory loss especially given the arrival of prophetic dreams – and decides to go on a ‘journey’, I found the reading of the book far more pleasant.
*We all agreed that the author must have recently read Zen and the art of Motorcycle Maintenance or something similar because the state that he frequently described during the juggling sections were flow or zen. Clearly a very meditative state.
Fair to say that Silverberg had been looking for a vehicle for his world building. Nature, place descriptions, fruit shapes and colours – there was little of the outside construction of the back drop that wasn’t included. And some of it was fascinating. Ships for dragon fishing. Primitive races that live in trees. (Sigh) Dragons that live under the sea. Also the quotas that they were allowed fish to – which was unexpected. Ancient cities – that predated even the take over of the planet – were visited and explored. A good third of the book was the intrepid adventurers wandering around their world and interacting with it.
This third turned out not to be hugely relevant to the actual storyline. And had I more time to read the book, I might have found that entertaining but as I was on a very short deadline, it just ended up being a bit infuriating. And I wasn’t alone in that.
The final third is where it all kicks off. But slowly – over a period of months, which is a bit disconcerting. There are deaths within our ‘fellowship’, but only of characters who have been named but never actually spoken. As to grief and bereavement, that is quickly overtaken by the joy of helping Valentine return to power. Like the Lord of the Rings – this is a book that is very keen on restoring authentic noble bloodlines. Similarly the wizard character disappears completely at one point, showing up later when needed but with no explanation as to where he’d been. Armies show up to do battle but Valentine’s innate goodness and nobility win them over.
So, after noticing every leaf and rock on the journey to the castle, the plot happens at quite a lick. Indeed the final showdown between protagonist and interloper happens within the final 5% of the book. And you’ll be unsurprised to hearing that juggling features here. Twice.
Thematically, this book covers a broad range of different perspectives and opinions. Gender politics wasn’t really one of them but it was the 80’s and certainly race; social hierarchies; effects of colonialism; rights of native communities were areas that the author was keen to explore. And I would argue that he was far more forthright as a social commentator in 1980, then many authors are today.
All in all, it was a great fun night, though perhaps more raucous than our usual very intellectual affairs. 🙂
SCORE
5.2/10
*I think this is our 132nd book together as a book club. Golly.
For further details, please email me at leedsbookclub@gmail.com. The Pub can be contacted on @WhiteSwanLeeds And feel free to let us know your thoughts using #LBCWSwan on bluesky and in the comments.
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