Roger Zelazny
Completed 9/7/2020, Reviewed 9/7/2020
4 stars
I really like Roger Zelazny. Even when I don’t care for a book of his, I
still like the writing and the imagination that went into it. So it was high time I started the Amber
series, his magnum opus. This is his
first book of the series and I wasn’t disappointed. As I’ve come to expect, it features a main
character who is heroic, or maybe a little anti-heroic, who may have great
powers but also has an average person sensibility to him. It also has the beginnings of great
world-building. The edition I have was
only about 155 pages, and there are ten books in the series, so I realize that
a lot more world-building will go on. The
writing, as always, is tight, and is generally dialogue driven.
Corwin is a Prince of Amber, one
of nine surviving sons and four surviving daughters of the last King of
Amber. The story begins in our world,
though. He wakes up to find himself with
in a hospital with amnesia, though he remembers a terrible car wreck. He’s told he has many broken bones and other
internal injuries, but he finds he can walk around. He forces his way out, with clothes, money, and
a gun he’s stolen from the hospital accountant.
He also got from him the name and location of the person who admitted
him into the hospital, a sister. He goes
to the house of his sister, Florimel, playing as if he knows who he is and
tries to piece together his memory. Then
a brother, Random, shows up, and he gets more memory back. He realizes he is a Prince, and in opposition
to his brother Eric who will be ascending the throne of Amber. As he remembers more, he realizes he must
return to Amber to overthrow Eric. But
the question is how to do that.
Corwin is that every man but with
special powers that Zelazny writes so well.
He’s a well-developed character that I empathize with, even though he’s
not so squeaky clean. He’s rather
self-absorbed, smokes and drinks too much, and wants control of Amber as much
as any other of his conniving brothers. Yet
he’s likeable and relatable. I really
liked the plot device of the amnesia, giving backstory on him without it
feeling like exposition. Random is pretty
well-developed as well, I think because Corwin begins his journey to Amber with
him. Florimel on the other hand is
rather one-dimensional. Even though she is
Corwin’s first family contact after the hospital, I didn’t feel like she was very
real.
Published in 1970, this book is a
typical sausage-fest of the era, focusing on Corwin’s brothers. They’re the ones who seem to have power. We only meet two of his sisters, Florimel and
another, Deirdre, I think, who had such a small role in this book, I didn’t
even remember if that’s her name. There
is another female character, Moire, who is the Queen of the underwater
realm. She has a major role in getting
Corwin back to Amber, but has only a short appearance in the book. It will be interesting to see if any of the
sisters or Moire comes back later in the series.
The world of Amber is pretty
imaginative. Amber is the real world,
while the Earth we know is just a shadow, one of many. Corwin and his brothers and sisters can
travel between Amber and the Shadow worlds.
In fact, several of the siblings are on our plane of Earth, where the
story begins, a few like Eric are in Amber, but the whereabouts of the others
is unknown. They are able to communicate
with each other through decks of Tarot-like cards with pictures of the siblings
as the major Arcana (I think I’m using that term right in this context). And the Shadow worlds Zelazny creates are great. I particularly liked the travel sequence through
some of these worlds with Corwin and Random as they try to get to Amber via a
Mercedes.
I give this book four stars out of
five. I really enjoyed it, despite
wincing over the female characters. I’m going
to jump right into the next book. The
books in this series are short, as are many of Zelazny’s works, so I don’t feel
like I need time away from the world he built, but rather, I need to read more
to get more of it.
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