© 1992 by Robert Silverberg
Minor
spoilers up to “MAJOR SPOILERS” point …
I wanted to like it, I really did. Really, really,
really did.
And I kinda, sorta, did. Like it, that is. But
ultimately it fell into that Dangerfieldian category “Even a mediocre book by
Author X is better than 90 percent of the books out there.”
So I’m not disappointed I spent six or seven hours
reading it. The pages turned, me glued to ’em. There was some interesting
speculative dialogue, bits of horror, neat confrontational characterization,
even an M. Night Shyamalan twist towards the ending. Kingdoms of the Wall is a good read. I think the problem is I’m
rapidly getting used to supra-phenomenal Silverberg stories and went in full-force
with greater expectations than I should have.
I mean, the novel’s set up holds lots of promise:
Every year forty villagers on an alien world compete
from among thousands to make a pilgrimage up a towering, forbidden mountain, an
Everest atop a chain of Everests. Few return, and those who do are changed in a
kind of “attained-Zen-Satori” way. Most, however, are never seen again. The
goal is to reach the summit and commune with the gods.
A lot can be done with that. And Silverberg does do a
lot. As the pilgrims – very cleverly written as “shape shifters” – climb the
mountain, various “kingdoms” are encountered. Some straight from Lovecraft (a
deserted town populated with ghosts – prior climbers infested and controlled by
fungus; a cave with a plant-thing parasite telepathically siren-calling its
victims), some straight from witchcraft (an idyllic kingdom in a nook where
bodies never age and no one need ever die). All signature stamped Silverberg. I
enjoyed it …
… up to a point. Somewhere between the two-thirds to three-quarter
mark I realized I didn’t like where the novel was heading. But I couldn’t put
my finger on it, and still can’t. It’s a disconcerting feeling. Was it the
sudden, never-explained disappearance of the protagonist’s main antagonist? Was
it the sudden appearance of a mysterious stranger whose main function is to be
a very vocal Debbie Downer? Was it the Shyamalan twist (revealed a chapter or
two too early, by the way)? Or was it what happened at the summit?
Not sure, but I definitely didn’t like what happened
at the summit at all.
Excuse me a moment:
MAJOR SPOILERS!
OK, the warning’s been issued.
Our hero and the surviving pilgrims find a spaceship
with a handful of Earthmen inside besieged by apelike savages. It’s discovered
that the savages are descendants of a lost colony from Earth who’ve reverted
over the generations due to the extreme radiation of the planet’s sun. The
pilgrims butcher the entire group of savages and mercilessly hurl them from the
mountaintop – including women and children. The Earthlings are grateful and
promise never to return.
It was this out-of-character “purifying” of the
mountaintop that turned me off. Expecting an audience with an alien Buddha but rewarded
with small-scale ethnic cleansing. Also, the encounter with the Earthmen – a
First Contact situation from the other side of the mirror – imparted no wisdom,
no awe, no insight. I felt the ending sabotaged everything that came before.
And what came before, I really enjoyed.
Oh well. Even a great tale with a weak ending from
Robert Silverberg is greater than 95 percent of the SF out there.
Kingdoms
of the Wall is a 370-page paperback divided into 25
chapters. It’s tough to give it a single grade; a single grade won’t reflect my
reading experience, my own pilgrimage up the wall. So I’d rather do something
like this:
Approximately …
Chapters 1-2 ... B+
Chapters 3-16 ... A
Chapters 17-22 ... C
Chapters 23-25 ... D
And that rounds out to a high B. Not quite a B+, but a
strong B.
But that won’t deter me – more Silverberg on deck …
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