to create that magical realm of talking animals.
Digory is a young boy temporarily living with his
aunt and uncle, the Ketterleys, when he meets
Polly Plumber, a neighbor girl. Digory’s uncle is de-
scended from Morgan Lefay, and he has inherited
from her some rudimentary magical knowledge
that enables him to create colored rings that have
the power to carry their bearer between realities.
Polly is sent off on an experimental mission, and
Digory follows to rescue her.
The children recover from a brief period of
amnesia to find themselves in a magical wood that
is a kind of way station among realities. Their ex-
plorations unfortunately bring them to the realm of
Jadis, who later becomes the White Witch of Nar-
nia, an inhuman creature who tricks them into
taking her back to London with them. There she
terrorizes the uncle and threatens more mayhem,
some of it rather comical, before the children trick
her into traveling to an unformed reality that will
eventually, with Aslan’s intercession, become the
land of Narnia. Digory’s uncle comes with them,
but Digory proves to be his match when their wills
clash, and Aslan’s appearance at least temporarily
frightens off Jadis.
Aslan brings Narnia to life all around them,
creating the talking animals and intelligent trees.
What follows is a modified version of the story of
the creation of Paradise, complete with the apple.
A monarch is established, the White Witch driven
off at least for a time, and Lewis takes a few jabs at
politics in our own world before sending the chil-
dren back home. Although the first half of the
novel is a quite entertaining children’s fantasy ad-
venture, the waning chapters grow increasingly
talkative and philosophical, and it is likely that
many readers will be disappointed by the lack of a
rousing finish.
Majipoor Series Robert Silverberg
(1980–2001)
Although Robert Silverberg has long been recog-
nized as a major science fiction writer, it has only
been late in his career that he has made a serious
effort to write fantasy, primarily with the Majipoor
novels. Silverberg launched the series with Lord
Valentine’s Castle(1980), which initially appears to
be straightforward science fiction. The planet Ma-
jipoor has long been conquered by humans, who
find themselves ruling a variety of distinct races,
one of which has the ability to change shape. As
the story progresses, Silverberg strays progressively
further from its scientific underpinnings. The pro-
tagonist is an amnesiac in search of his past who
supports himself on his journey by learning to jug-
gle. The second volume, The Majipoor Chronicles
(1981), consists of a series of interwoven short sto-
ries all set against the same background, clearly in-
dicating that the author had more to say about this
unique world. Valentine Pontifex (1983) moves
squarely into fantasy, with sea dragons revealed as
having nearly godlike powers. The cast of varied
characters pursue their individual quests while agi-
tation grows to exterminate the shape-changers.
This brought what was originally expected to be a
trilogy to an end, but Silverberg was not done with
Majipoor.
After a gap of more than 10 years, Silverberg
revived his fantasy series with The Mountains of
Majipoor(1995), set 1,000 years later. Although
less ambitious than the earlier books, the story of
an exiled bureaucrat’s efforts to redeem himself is
amusing and entertaining. More significant is Sor-
cerers of Majipoor(1996), the first of three volumes
set earlier in the planet’s history. Magic is much
more overt in this story of an unlikely prince cho-
sen to inherit the throne and his fulfillment of an
ancient prophecy. In Lord Prestimion(1996) the
throne is secured following a civil war, and sorcery
is employed to alter the memories of the populace.
The second trilogy concludes with King of Dreams
(2001), wherein Prestimion in turn must pass on
his authority to his successor. Although some read-
ers may find the frequent and lengthy digressions
into side issues distracting, others will enjoy the
author’s efforts to give greater depth to his imagi-
nary world. Silverberg has written occasional other
fantasy, but none even close to the stature of the
Majipoor cycle.“The Man Who Sold Rope to the Gnoles”
Margaret St. Clair(1979)
Margaret St. Clair’s quirky short stories often glee-
fully disregard reality and assume the extraordinary228 Majipoor Series