The Majipoor series is a series of novels and stories by American writer Robert Silverberg, set on the planet Majipoor. The setting is a mixture of science fiction and fantasy elements.

The series

Books in the series: The works in the series are as follows, in internal chronological order.

Planet Majipoor

Majipoor is a planet much larger than Earth, though far less dense, so that its surface gravity is almost the same as on Earth. It has been settled by humans, Ghayrogs, Skandars, Vroons, Liimen, Hjorts and other alien races for many thousands of years. The aboriginal inhabitants of the planet, the Piurivar, were conquered by humans many thousands of years ago and are now confined to a reservation. The planet is ruled by an unusual tetrarchy of Powers: an adoptive Coronal rules in a highly visible and symbolic manner from his palace atop Castle Mount; the previous Coronal retires to become the Pontifex, the head of the bureaucracy in an underground Labyrinth; the Coronal's mother becomes the Lady of the Isle of Sleep, promoting the morals of Majipoor by sending dreams to its inhabitants; while a hereditary King of Dreams on the distant continent of Suvrael punishes wrongdoers by visiting them with nightmares. The post of King of Dreams is created at the end of King of Dreams, while Valentine Pontifex ends with the creation of a fifth Power, representing the Piurivar. Majipoor receives the occasional starship, but is generally considered a backwater planet. Metals of all sorts are scarce, since the planet has a very light crust. Technology is pervasive but often of ancient origin and no longer fully understood. For example, draft animals called "mounts" are used for farming and transport, but the animals were artificially created in the distant past by genetic manipulation, and the technologies involved have been forgotten. Many great engineering works are described, but these were also usually created long ago. Many modern technologies, such as TV and radio, seem to be nonexistent or of very limited use. The average Majipooran lives a peasant lifestyle, and agriculture is a common occupation.

Races

There are several races which inhabit Majipoor in the millions, along with various aliens visiting from off-world. Ancient laws dictate that no race may exclusively occupy a given district, so most races can be found in some numbers virtually anywhere. On the village level, there are monocultures, however. Some areas also have a small number of other intelligent beings visiting from off-world. There are also indigenous sea dragons, discovered to be highly intelligent.

Geography

The characters of any given book often travel vast distances across the face of Majipoor. The planet itself has three main continents, a major island, several smaller islands of note, and one hemisphere which is the Great Sea (entirely water).