Notes
The Mountains of Majipoor, a Majipoor novel by Robert Silverberg.

Publisher's Blurb – Jacket Flaps
Five centuries after the troubles Prince Harpirias leads a life of ease, surrounded by splendour. A member of one of the great pontifical families, a Prestimon of Muldemar, he moves amongst the knights and princes of the Coronal's court on Castle Mount. Until, on his twenty-fifth birthday, one of his greatest pleasures leads to ruin.

Hunting a majestic, scarlet-antlered sinileese on a friend's estate, his party unwittingly stray onto a neighbour's land. Charged with poaching a prize animal, Harpirias is transferred to an obscure diplomatic post in the huge city of Ni-moya thousands of miles away on Majipoor's subsidiary continent, Zimroel. Exiled by the Coronal.

The months of his exile stretch into a year, then beyond; his pleas to be returned to the Castle go unanswered. Then one day an envelope arrives bearing the seal of Prince Salteir, High Councillor to the Coronal. But it is not an invitation to return: Harpirias is being sent even further away.

A scientific expedition, searching the frozen wastes of Zimroel's far northland for evidence of the legendary land-dragons, has been captured by a savage lost tribe. Harpirias is to lead a mission beyond the mountain range known as the Nine Sisters to negotiate with the barbarians for the party's release. They have no inkling of Majipoor's vastness and expect to treaty with the Coronal himself.

And Harpirias, at the head of his tiny party, facing months of freezing hardship and a suicidal task, is no Coronal.

Born in New York and now resident in the San Francisco Bay area Robert Siiverberg is one of the most respected writers of science fiction. He has won four Hugo and five Nebula awards and has been the President of the Science Fiction Writers of America.