Book review: "The Great Book of Amber" by Roger Zelazny

This is one of the best fantasy series I have ever read and I only lament about finding it so late. "The Great Book of Amber" is actually 10 volumes in 1. In order, they are "Nine Princes in Amber", "The Guns of Avalon", "Sign of the Unicorn", "The Hand of Oberon", "The Courts of Chaos" , "Trumps of Doom", "Blood of Amber", "Sign of Chaos", "Knight of Shadows" and finally, "Prince of Chaos". The series can effectively be sliced into 2 parts - each one taking 5 books. The first 5 volumes traces the adventure of Corwin from he woke up and not knowing who he was to his turning down the throne of Amber and creating a second Pattern himself. Volume 6-10 follows Merlin, Corwin's son, from his "education" in shadow Earth to his eventual succession to the throne of Chaos. Both are written from the first person's point of view and I have quite a soft spot for this style. Part 1. I think the story is simply fabulous. It was the creation of a new universe that revolves around Amber as the center (if you ignore the primal pattern). The concepts of shadow, Trumping, etc never cease to amaze. I feel the author milked them for what they were worth and he did it very well. It is also impressive how he managed to come up with so many versions of the story from different characters' points of view as the plot was revealed bit by bit by each prince and princess of Amber. One thing that did not quite go well with me was the way he described the scenery changes as Corwin manipulated shadow when traveling through worlds. He did it too often and spent too much time on it - so much so that I felt it was pointless to try follow through the visualization. I just needed to know the start and end point, and that Corwin was manipulating shadow. This was especially patience-testing in book 5. There was one thing I didn't quite understand. When Oberon repaired the Pattern in the same book, he predicted that a shadow storm will extend from Amber to the Courts of Chaos. That was why he sent Corwin ahead to the battle at the Courts of Chaos and had the Jewel of Judgment delivered to him. If that storm of chaos was indeed coming all the way from Amber to the Courts, how then did Oberon's funeral procession get on with such ease? If the storm was like a traveling entity instead of an enlarging one, then it followed that Oberon must have succeeded in repairing the pattern - otherwise, Amber would have already dissolved into Chaos. The characters were speculating about the outcome of the Pattern repair even after seeing the procession - so this was one thing I don't quite get. Another thing was that when "The Courts of Chaos" ended, hence concluding part 1 of 2, I felt like strangling the author. Though I am not Corwin and Corwin did turn down the throne voluntarily, I still feel cheated (for lack of a better word) somewhat that the unicorn chose Random as the next King eventually. It just screamed "WRONG! WRONG!! WRONG!!!" in my mind. I would still prefer it if the author just made up something and made Corwin the King. Part 2. Given that I hated the author for ending book 5 that way, I was not willing to indulge him for a good part of "Trumps of Doom". The suspense was irritating when I was trying to confirm who the character narrating the story was. Uncles were mentioned so this narrowed down the likely possibilities to be either Martin or Merlin. The latter definitely seemed more likely since Merlin has a dual heritage that could be better exploited for an interesting story. However, I would be lying if I say I like such father-son continuations. I hate it. I prefer the story to stay within the generation. Usually, books written about subsequent generations turn out bad. I have practically fallen in love with Corwin as I followed his character built-up through the first 5 volumes. I still want him; I don't want his son. :P The styles of writing are so similar that if you just look at styles per se, you would have thought it is still Corwin, and not Merlin. That said though, after finishing the entire series, I guess I like Merlin too lol. I love the introduction of the Logrus. Suddenly it seems that being an Amberite is not that cool after all. Without the Jewel of Judgment, ignoring the sorcerous skills Bleys, Fiona or Brand (not to mention Dworkin and Oberon) have, an Amberite can only Trump in and out. Yes, being practically immortal with wolverine-like ability is neat, and manipulating shadows is awesome, but that's that. Comparing the Pattern with the Logrus, the former seems to pale with respect to the magical prowess granted the initiated. In fact, everything that an Amberite can do, a Chaosite can too, and more. Frakir and Ghostwheel are very neat introductions too. Especially Ghostwheel, this machine AI construct is really adorable. I am jealous of Merlin though. He seemed to have everything handed to him on a platter. He was practically born with a silver spoon in his mouth and life really wasn't half bad for him. There are many other interesting characters too but I won't do a character analysis here. One thing that I find hard to accept is how the author "ruined" Corwin who was the hero of part 1. I can't accept that Dara basically imprisoned him ever since the Patternfall war. This is just so wrong. I was even hoping that Corwin would have an at least medium sized role to play in part 2. It is ridiculous that Merlin was the one who ended up rescuing him from his prison near the end. Why suffer Corwin to such indignation? The latter 6 volumes contain a lot of new information and I feel that not enough time was devoted to capitalize on it. I had the impression that the author was tired of writing and just want to quickly get things over with. Particularly, the ending for the last book, and ultimately the Amber Chronicles, is a real loser. Why the rush? If the same effort given to the first 5 volumes was to be given to the last 5, I think it would do the new juice more justice. There are quite a few over-stretched mini-plots in part 2 that make the story less credible - or more sloppy if you want to look at it this way. There are also enough glaring typo and grammatical errors that I am inclined to believe that the person proof-reading the books was not doing his job. In conclusion, the Amber Chronicles are a must-read. If you enjoy the fantasy genre, you *must* read these 10 volumes. In fact, I won't be surprised if you have already read them. Book 1 came out in 1970 - that's even before I was born. :P