Lord Valentine's Castle

A book named Lord Valentine's Castle is not a title I would normally pick up. I read it because of its author, Robert Silverberg, whom I have come to esteem. Silverberg tells an engaging story, an epic adventure-quest fantasy. Silverberg's style seems to differ from novel to novel, but always is good. In this one, he reminded me of Ursula K Le Guin and the story was a little bit like her Rocannon's World, but much longer.

I heard the audio book, read by master narrator Stefan Rudnicki. There are songs in the story, as I imagine minstrel songs of the Elizabethan era. Rudnicki does, I'm sure, a better job at singing them than I could, but singing is clearly not what makes him such a great reader. This is quite a long book - more than nineteen hours of audio. I enjoyed it all the way through and was sorry to see it come to an end. So, it is the first of a trilogy, and I expect there's a good chance I'll read all three.

- An enjoyable, entertaining read.