Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny Nine Princes in Amber. Corwin (not that he knows that's his name) wakes up with amnesia in a private hospital after some sort of accident. He's completely unsure what's going on, but he seems healthy enough to not be in a hospital and the staff are trying to drug him, so he steals a doctor's uniform, confronts the apparent administrator, and discovers he was apparently checked in by his sister. So he goes to see his sister, bluffing and pretending knowledge every step of the way. He, and the reader, slowly piece together some understanding of his very unusual family, one entangled with a land named Amber that's reached by an unusual road. The Amber series as a whole (or at least the first five books of it), of which this is the first, is a classic. That's probably unfortunate, since I came to it with relatively high expectations, even knowing that it's one of those series that doesn't always survive an adult reading. I've always liked the technique of using amnesia to put the reader and the protagonist at the same level in understanding the world, as long as it's not overused and the world in question is worth the suspense. I also like Corwin's audacious bluffing; it's a good way to show the protagonist as competent. Unfortunately, the more I learned about the world background, the less I liked either this book or the characters. Corwin's at his best at the start of the book, where his motives make sense: figure out who he is, figure out what all these family members are to him, get his memories back, and try to make sense of the internecine family war that he's walked into the middle of. The problem is that the answers to most of these questions are much less believable than the questions. Amber is, itself, a great idea, although one that's since been used enough that it doesn't have quite the punch it did originally. Amber is a city in the true world, the only fully real world, and the rest are all Shadows of it. Corwin, and others, can walk the Shadows, move between worlds, in a nicely understated way that involves moving through variations and alternate realities. There are also a few other touches of world-building I liked: the reflection of Amber become real, the Pattern (although I had a very hard time not imagining a giant Game of Life), and the deck of Trumps and how their magic works. Some spoilers for the second half of the book here, since it's impossible to talk about the basic flaw of this book without disclosing the apparent point of the plot. Unfortunately, all of that is put to use in a struggle for the rulership of Amber. Everyone wants to rule in Amber because. well, just because. It seems to make absolutely no difference who actually does rule, everyone seemed relatively happy with leaving Corwin alone until he decides to try for this (without even quite knowing what he's doing), and nowhere in this book is there any indication of why anyone would want to rule Amber other than that it's shiny. To that end, the protagonist proceeds to engage in mass murder. Yes, this is epic fantasy, and some degree of tolerance for high body counts and foot soldiers is to be expected. But Nine Princes in Amber takes this to a degree that I'd think was parody if there were any sign of self-awareness in the story at all. Tens of thousands are killed off-camera and on, often with a contemptuous flip of a word. Most of them seem to have been gathered up by a few off-hand lies by Corwin and his brother, and despite being clearly sentient, their opinions of this are dismissed with more complete indifference than I've ever seen in a novel of this sort. I realize this is part of the atmosphere, and there are plenty of hints that we're not dealing with a family that's going to be particularly bound to human morality. But, still, the reader hopefully has some contact with human morality, and given the complete and utter lack of any understandable motivation for the war whatsoever, one is left with little to do other than ponder the meaningless butchery of hundreds of thousands of people. This is really unpleasant stuff, largely because in the text it isn't unpleasant at all. It's presented with about as much emotional engagement as one would mention one's remaining lives in a video game. My suspension of disbelief foundered and died on that, long before we get to the single combat scenes that read like the novelization of a hack and slash game. Now, after reading the second book after reading this one, I can say that this is explained better in later books. I also talked to some friends who like the series and heard some of the explanations and reasons why Corwin reacts the way that he does. It's related to the world-building that Zelazny is doing and the direction from which he's looking at morality. But none of this is shown very well in this first book, which is therefore startlingly bad given its reputation. (I haven't even mentioned the pointlessly gruesome torture bits.) It's like the climax of an epic fantasy war with all of the motivations, reasons, justifications, and point stripped out, and knowing that those motivations and justifications will show up in later volumes doesn't exactly help. Zelazny has, as in all of his books, a gift for the occasional turn of phrase, and while the mix of archaic and modern language occasionally grated, it makes for some beautiful passages. There are a few nicely memorable set pieces (the bits with the Trumps were particularly cool) and a few great ideas. But so far this isn't worth reading. Hopefully it will improve quickly. [PDF] Nine Princes in Amber Book by Roger Zelazny Free Download (175 pages) Free download or read online Nine Princes in Amber pdf (ePUB) book. The first edition of the novel was published in 1970, and was written by Roger Zelazny. The book was published in multiple languages including English, consists of 175 pages and is available in Mass Market Paperback format. The main characters of this fantasy, fiction story are Random of Amber, Brand of Amber. The book has been awarded with Mythopoeic Fantasy Award Nominee (1971), and many others. Nine Princes in Amber PDF Details. Author: Roger Zelazny Original Title: Nine Princes in Amber Book Format: Mass Market Paperback Number Of Pages: 175 pages First Published in: 1970 Latest Edition: March 1986 Series: The Chronicles of Amber #1 Language: English Awards: Mythopoeic Fantasy Award Nominee (1971) Main Characters: Random of Amber, Brand of Amber, Corwin of Amber, Eric of Amber, Benedict of Amber category: fantasy, fiction, science fiction, science fiction fantasy Formats: ePUB(Android), audible mp3, audiobook and kindle. The translated version of this book is available in Spanish, English, Chinese, Russian, Hindi, Bengali, Arabic, Portuguese, Indonesian / Malaysian, French, Japanese, German and many others for free download. Please note that the tricks or techniques listed in this pdf are either fictional or claimed to work by its creator. We do not guarantee that these techniques will work for you. Some of the techniques listed in Nine Princes in Amber may require a sound knowledge of Hypnosis, users are advised to either leave those sections or must have a basic understanding of the subject before practicing them. DMCA and Copyright : The book is not hosted on our servers, to remove the file please contact the source url. If you see a Google Drive link instead of source url, means that the file witch you will get after approval is just a summary of original book or the file has been already removed. Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny. Imagine the ultimate city, the greatest one that could ever exist: a city so awesome, that every other city on every other plane of existence is nothing but a shadow in comparison. Imagine that being king of this city is a very big deal and that this position is contested by nine brothers, all of whom are essentially playing the most titanic game of Diplomacy in the history of the multi-verse as they vie for it. All of them have the power to travel to other universes, all of them could effectively even create their own parallel universe that is almost exactly like the one that contains this perfect city, but none of them would settle for that. They all have powers ranging from weather control to healing factors, and they can all recruit vast armies gathered from any conceivable reality. Their warriors could have almost any attribute imaginable and are hand picked because their respective cultures idolize these nine princes in their mythologies and believe that fighting in their wars is their ultimate destiny. Now… imagine that you are one of these brothers, you’ve formed your alliances as best as you can, the odds are completely stacked against you, but you’ve chosen to fight for control of this utterly fantastic city. Your men have died in droves and you’ve fought one incredible sword fight after another and you come close, so very close to victory, but in the end you are beaten, your eyes are put out, and you are thrown into prison deep in the dungeons beneath city which you desired to rule. And in that dungeon, a friend of yours remembers you and secretly brings to you a care package of food and wine and… something more. Something precious beyond all imaginings: the only thing that could possibly make your plight at all bearable. Your friend, you see, has brought you… a carton of Salems. And that pretty well sums up how this novel completely captures the zeitgeist of the year of its release, 1970. The characters drink and chain- smoke their way through practically every scene. The protagonist uses the word “dig” as a synonym for either understanding or finding something to be agreeable. And the princes and princesses of Amber all sound so wonderfully good looking, they could all be models for the sort of cigarette advertisements that don’t exist anymore. When they take a meal together, I can only assume they do so without the knowledge that salt, butter, and eggs pose some sort of mortal threat to their health. I feel vaguely guilty just reading it. That this book presents what were essentially gods and goddesses charting their destinies across a staggering array of parallel universes that cascade in a mind-blowing psychedelic manner as they traverse between them is one thing. In this day and age, it’s probably more startling that they can eat, drink, and smoke without someone hectoring them about it. Though I’m being somewhat hard on it, I actually quite enjoyed the book. It’s dated, sure, but I did not want to stop reading this series in order to write this post. Over at Tor.com, Michael R. Underwood has recently asserted that “we cannot keep pointing people at Heinlein, Asimov, Brooks, and Tolkien forever and expect those works to resonate as strongly with people born fifty years after the books were written.” I disagree completely as Starship Troopers , The Foundation Trilogy , and The Lord of the Rings were all quite old when they first captured my imagination. They aren’t going to stop being landmark works anytime soon. Similarly, Zelazny’s Amber stories are as compulsively readable today as when they were first published. Although they were written at a time when every conceivable rule was being challenged in the name of high artistry, these short novels still had to meet the same sort of editorial standards that Jack Vance’s work had to meet just a few years before. But there’s something else to it as well, some dim reflection the earlier pulp heroes still manifest in it. The characters are just so darned pretty, after all. Try as I might, I just can’t find any sort of heavy handed message in Zelazny’s kickoff to his magnum opus. In comparison, I recently had to set aside the much more recent Game of Thrones after gradually figuring out that the superstars of the book consist of a bastard, a dwarf, a cripple, and a carbon copy that girl from Disney’s Brave. (It’s gripping enough that I might have gone on anyway– the writing is solid after all– but when a thoroughly repugnant character like “The Hound” had to be given a rather touching origin story that explains why he turned out to be such rough guy, I was done. Ugh.) No, I don’t see how anything but a freak show can result if you turn a bunch of people loose in some sort of Dung Age world, each of them with the equivalent of a hundred points or more in GURPS disadvantages. If I wanted to see a freak show, all I have to do is look out my window. If I’m reading fantasy, I’d rather read about a bunch of people with a particularly interesting world jumping ability who are set loose to fight a war across countless alternate realities. That’s just cool: Now, it is written that only a prince of Amber may walk among Shadows, though of course he may lead or direct as many as he chooses along such courses. We led our troops and saw them die, but of Shadow I have this to say: there is Shadow and there is Substance, and this is the root of all things. Of Substance, there is only Amber, the real city, upon the real Earth, which contains everything. Of Shadow, there is an infinitude of things. Every possibility exists somewhere as a Shadow of the real. Amber, by its very existence, has cast such in all directions. And what may one say of it beyond? Shadow extends from Amber to Chaos, and all things are possible within it. There are only three ways of traversing it, and each of them is difficult. If one is a prince of princess of the blood, then one may walk, crossing through Shadows, forcing one’s environment to change as one passes, until it is finally in precisely the shape one desires it, and there stop. That Shadow world is then one’s own save for family intrusions, to do with as one would. In such a place had I dwelled for centuries. (page 99-100) Dig it. It would take a long time before games could catch up to this level of epic fantasy: Tom Moldvay’s Lords of Creation, for instance, and the GURPS Infinite Worlds setting from Steve Jackson Games. (1991 saw the release of an innovative diceless role playing game set in Zelazny’s Amber universe.) Although the original edition of AD&D included strange planes of existence as a core part of its default milieu, it really doesn’t contain anything quite like this . The closest you could get to this sort of tone would be if you attack all of hell with an army of Modrons in an attempt to depose Beezelbub and take his throne for yourself. This book is a wonderful example of just how diverse the books of Gary Gygax’s Appendix N list are from one another. For anyone that is only familiar with the watered down Tolkien ripoffs of the eighties, this book and others like it will be an engaging surprise. One odd corner of classic AD&D that this book sheds light on is how for some classes, there is only a limited number of high-level positions available for the players. There are only nine ninth-level druids in the default campaign setting, nine tenth-level druids, and at eleventh level, there can be only one Great Druid . (Shades of Highlander !) Now, I’m not saying that this book necessarily inspired this sort of thing directly, but I will say that it can provide some pretty good inspiration for how to actually run with it. Here’s one particularly involved example from the Monk class: There can be only a limited number of monks above 7th level (Superior Master). There are three 8th level (Master of Dragons) and but one of each higher level. When a player character monk gains sufficient experience points to qualify him or her for 8th level, the commensurate abilities are attained only temporarily. The monk must find and defeat in single combat, hand-to-hand, without weapons or magic items, one of the 8th level monks – the White, the Green, or the Red. The same must be done at the ninth and higher levels. The loser of these combats loses enough experience points to place him or her at the lowest number possible to attain the level just beneath the new level. The monk character will know where to locate the higher level monks; and he or she must proceed immediately to do combat or else lose experience points equal to the number which will place him or her at the lowest number possible to have attained the level just beneath that of the monk he or she should have sought out but did not. That is, the player character drops to 7th level in the above case and must then work upwards once again. This stuff is crazy for a lot of reasons. In the first place, few adventuring groups are going to play long enough to get to this stage of the game, so why bother laying all of this stuff out in such careful detail? Secondly, it may even be unreasonable to assume that there are that many high level characters in the campaign setting at all.¹ Third, while other players are setting up their domains or running off the enemy thieves guild of some decadent metropolis, these other classes are assumed to be spending their end game competing for slots in some sort of oddball fantasy bureaucracy. Honestly, is that really what epic, “immortal level” gaming should look like? Finally, if there’s one thing that players of these sorts of games would tend to expect, it’s that if they bust their tails to earn experience points session after session then they are just entitled to level up when the time comes. Okay, they might go along with training costs that have to be paid, sure, but for someone to be demoted a level because they failed to win some kind of hokey staged single combat? If they lose, I can’t imagine any other outcome but for the player to flip the table over, storm away, and never come back. But hey, maybe gamers were made of sterner stuff back in the seventies when these rules were being composed. Or maybe the game masters were well-read enough that they would have instinctively known how to make this awesome anyway. Books like Nine Princes in Amber and Game of Thrones indicate that that whoever takes charge of these sorts of limited high level positions would be a very big deal. People that are not in the running at all will have a vested interest in backing a particular candidate. This will of course be done in return for favors and titles and cushy political offices that will presumably be doled out later on. The side-effects of this sort of this sort of endgame should be felt and observed long before the players themselves reach the upper levels of power. When someone reflects sunlight into your character’s eyes during a pivotal moment of his duel, it’s not going to be a huge surprise as to who is behind it. But why would those powerful non player characters wait until then to act? It’s not like they don’t have an interest in seeing potential rivals fail to come back when they go off adventuring to gain enough experience points to be able to challenge them…. There’s something inherently “busy” and cosmopolitan about this type of situation that may not be for everyone, and in that case, Nine Princes in Amber again provides a clue for campaign designers. You don’t have to muddy up the mundane world with these sorts of rivalries and political maneuvers, but these sorts of design elements might be the perfect fit for explaining what all is going on at the god-like level of play. Those gold boxed “Immortals Rules” sets for the Frank Mentzer iteration of D&D were a must-have item that ultimately saw very little actual play by its purchasers. Indeed, the concept of a wide open wilderness sandbox would have been quite enough for the typical preteen Dungeon Master of the time, but who knows what sort of epic games might have happened had more of them been familiar with this highly entertaining fantasy classic. ¹ See Lewis Pulsipher’s classic article, “Fantasy Demography” in The Space Gamer 44: “These figures should astonish those referees who customarily sprinkle across the landscape characters of double figure levels. Even at the most favorable rate, high level adventurers are extremely rare birds.” Tor.com. Science fiction. Fantasy. The universe. And related subjects. Hard-Boiled Fantasy: Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny. In this bi-weekly series reviewing classic science fiction and fantasy books, Alan Brown looks at the front lines and frontiers of the field; books about soldiers and spacers, scientists and engineers, explorers and adventurers. Stories full of what Shakespeare used to refer to as “alarums and excursions”: battles, chases, clashes, and the stuff of excitement. If you’re a reader who likes the work of John Scalzi because of his snarky narrators, or if you’re a fan of the gritty fantasy found in George R. R. Martin’s Westeros, then I have a recommendation for you… Years before these authors started their careers, Roger Zelazny was bringing his own unique approach to science fiction and fantasy. His tales appeared unsentimental…but if you looked closer, his heart was very much on his sleeve. His work is deeply resonant with myths, religions, and legends drawn from cultures from around the world. And while his prose often echoes the hardboiled staccato rhythms of a detective novel, it also had a poetry all its own. Among the finest work he ever produced is the first book of what became known as the Chronicles of Amber, Nine Princes in Amber . I will never forget when I first started reading the Amber series, which should give some indication of the impact the work had on me. I found Nine Princes of Amber in the Base Exchange at the Coast Guard Academy, where I was attending school. I was immediately drawn in by the paperback’s cover illustration—the first time I had seen the incomparable work of Jeffrey Catherine Jones. The painting, of a mounted knight in black and silver, evoked a classic illustration style, rooted in the work of Maxfield Parrish and N. C. Wyeth. I was already familiar with Roger Zelazny, another reason I decided to give the book a try. I enjoyed it immensely, although I was disturbed by the lack of a definitive ending. This was before trilogies, or long series of books, were a regular part of the publishing landscape. Over the following years, I eagerly hunted down sequels: The Guns of Avalon , Sign of the Unicorn , and The Hand of Oberon . I also remember when I encountered the last book of the first series, The Courts of Chaos . The Coast Guard cutter I served on was fueling in Homer, Alaska; during a walk, I saw a library, and went in. I immediately spotted the book on a shelf of recently published works, picked it up and started reading. I knew I couldn’t finish before the library closed, but decided to do my best. By the time the librarian told me she was closing, I was hooked. I begged her to loan me the book, promising to return it before we sailed. I appealed to her as a fellow book lover, but did not hold a library card, and she would not relent. So I swore “on my honor as an officer and a gentleman” that she would find the book in the night deposit slot the next day (I think the only time in my life I ever used that old pledge). She finally relented, and sometime in the wee hours of the morning, I finished, walked the book back and slipped it through the door. It took me a few days to catch up on my sleep, but it was well worth it. This is not the first time the Amber series has been mentioned on Tor.com. There was a re-read of the entire series by Rajan Khanna back in 2013, which you can find here. For a less complimentary review, you can look here at an article by Tim Callahan, part of a series he did with Mordicai Knode revisiting books listed in Annex N of the original Dungeons and Dragons manual. And the series was mentioned as an influence by author Howard Andrew Jones in a recent article you can find here. About the Author. Roger Zelazny (1937-1995), was a popular American science fiction and fantasy author often associated with the “American New Wave” of authors who entered the scene in 1960s. These authors were often less concerned with hard sciences, like physics and astronomy, and more interested in exploring the human condition using science fictional settings as backdrops. Zelazny worked for the Social Security Administration, but was able to leave this position in 1969 to pursue writing full time. He lived in the Baltimore area, where he was involved in local fandom, and eventually moved to Santa Fe, where he spent his final years. Zelazny focused on the craft of writing, using different viewpoints and structures for his tales, often to great effect. His language could be quite evocative, and he wrote poetry in addition to prose. He wove themes involving myth and legend into both his science fiction and fantasy. This included not only European myths, but also those from a variety of different regions and cultures. His characters were often cynical and even unsympathetic, and he sometimes used a narrative voice that would not be out of place in a detective novel of the era. His works were also marked by close attention to detail in the fight scenes, for which Zelazny drew upon his lifelong studies in the martial arts. Zelazny was already an established science fiction author before he began writing the work he is most widely known for; The Chronicles of Amber . I encountered his fiction frequently in the various “best of” anthologies that were common in that era. Two of his stories in particular stand out in my memory: A Rose for Ecclesiastes , set on Mars, and The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth , set on Venus. These are among the last science fiction stories written before probes confirmed that conditions on those planets were not even remotely Earth-like, marking Zelazny as not only a member of a new generation of science fiction authors, but also one of the last authors of the classic planetary romance era. His work appeared in a variety of magazines, including Amazing , Fantastic , and Fantasy and Science Fiction , and eventually Analog , Asimov’s and Omni as well. Two of his best-known novels that fall outside the Amber series are This Immortal and Lord of Light , with the second being one of my all- time personal favorites. Zelazny received numerous awards in his career, including six Hugo Awards and three Nebula Awards. He was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2010. Many contemporary writers mention Zelazny as a major influence, including notables like George R. R. Martin and Neil Gaiman. Nine Princes in Amber. Before I start my recap, I’m going to issue a rare early spoiler alert . Usually, I give information on the setting of the story, and in my recap, focus on the early chapters of a book without revealing its ending. But Nine Princes in Amber is a first-person narrative, which begins with an amnesiac protagonist. You are introduced to the world of the story as the protagonist learns more about who he is and where he is from. And having that world slowly revealed is a big part of what I loved about this book. So, if you want to experience the book in all its glory, stop reading here, pick up a copy, and come back when you are done. And instead of talking about the setting of the story first, I will talk about the larger world of Amber after my story recap. The story opens as our protagonist awakens in a hospital room with no memory and his legs in casts, a noir-ish beginning through which Zelazny evokes the detective stories of writers such as Raymond Chandler. The protagonist refuses sedation from a very insistent nurse. He breaks off his casts to find his legs feeling pretty good. He vaguely remembers an accident, but figures he must be a fast healer. A large, brusque orderly shows up, and the protagonist knocks him out and steals his clothes. He is, apparently, a man who knows how to fight. He finds a man in an office who tries to pull a pistol on him, but disarms him, and gets the name of the woman who committed him: his sister. He demands the cash in the office safe as a “settlement” for the private hospital’s “malpractice,” and heads out to pay his sister a visit. His sister, Flora, is surprised to see him, as the hospital had been ordered to keep him sedated and confined. He plays a dangerous game, trying to draw information from her without revealing his amnesia. She calls him Corwin, and mentions his brother Eric, which evokes a strong reaction. She mentions other brothers as well, and he feels himself react each time, often without knowing why. And then she mentions Amber, a place Corwin does not remember, but knows is home. Here I must point out a feature of the book that has become more obvious in passing years. Corwin has sisters, but as you can guess from the title ( Nine Princes… ), the women all play supporting roles. While this focus on male characters was typical of the time when the book was written, it has not aged well (nor has the fact that the characters are constantly smoking). Corwin sleeps, and when he awakens, Flora is gone. He searches her office for clues, and discovers a deck of strange tarot cards, with trumps depicting his family members. And then the phone rings. Corwin answers it and hears the voice of his brother Random, who is in trouble. Corwin says he will help, and Random arrives with ruffians on his heels. The ruffians are not human, with grey skin and an abundance of sharp teeth, but are quickly and violently dispatched. Corwin and Random decide to head to Amber, taking one of Flora’s cars. As they drive, Corwin notices reality mutating around them as Random gives him directions. Their inhuman attackers, and this surreal process of moving through the “Shadows,” are fantastic, but Zelazny’s blunt narration makes everything feel very real and grounded even as it becomes stranger and stranger. They are pursued and harassed, and finally captured by their brother Julian, but Corwin overcomes him and wins their freedom. They use Random’s Trumps to contact their sister Dierdre. Corwin admits he does not remember who he is, and Random and Dierdre suggest they make their way to Rebma, an undersea replica of Amber, where Corwin can walk the “Pattern,” regain his power to travel among the Shadow worlds, and restore his memory. They run into some scrapes along the way, but Corwin walks the Pattern, and finally remembers everything. Their father, King Oberon, is missing, and Corwin’s brother Eric plans to take the throne—a throne Corwin wants for his own. The rest of the book moves in a headlong rush toward an epic confrontation in the capital city of Amber, which sits atop the mountain of Kolvir. Corwin cuts a deal with his brother Bleys, who also wants the throne. They decide to make common cause, and if both survive, they will then figure out who should rule. Gunpowder does not work in Amber, so this conflict will be decided with blades and bows. They gather allies, make deals, and build mighty armies and navies. But they are confronting a brother who is in the seat of power, leads massive forces, has other brothers supporting him, and even controls the weather. There are battles, epic in scope, that cost thousands of lives among the forces they raised. Finally, Corwin and Bleys, their troops decimated, are reduced to forcing their way up a long stairway, rough-hewn into the rocky slopes of Kolvir, in one of the most gripping battle scenes I have ever read. And since I already warned you about spoilers, I’ll reveal the ending (so stop reading here, if you don’t want to know…) Corwin loses, is blinded, and thrown into a dungeon. He slowly regains his sight, and is visited by another prisoner, Dworkin—the wizard who created the family’s magical tarot decks. Dworkin can draw pictures that have the power of Trumps, and use that power to pass through walls, something that should only be possible in the Shadow worlds, not in Amber itself. Corwin tricks him into drawing a picture of a nearby lighthouse where the keeper is friendly to him. And like everything Dworkin draws, that picture acts like a Trump, allowing Corwin to step through it to the lighthouse. He regains his strength, and in the book’s final scene, sails out to pursue his destiny. That ending, as I mentioned, was jarring when I first read it, and strikes me as jarring still, even though I knew what was coming. Zelazny drastically subverts the tropes of epic fantasy, here: Corwin is the protagonist who we identify with, but there are no heroes or villains in this tale of familial conflict. And there is no happy ending, with evil vanquished and good triumphant. The Amber Universe. The Amber stories are set in a universe with a seemingly infinite number of parallel worlds (an article on this theme can be found here, in the online Encyclopedia of Science Fiction). They fit into a sub-genre called portal fantasies, where the characters travel to alternate worlds through some sort of doorway. In the Amber stories, however, the characters themselves (and their tarot decks) are the portals. In Nine Princes of Amber , through the eyes of the amnesiac Corwin, Zelazny seamlessly introduces us to a whole host of worlds, and to a royal family characterized by extraordinary powers and split into factions by competition and conflict. He reveals the true world of Amber, and its underwater mirror image Rebma, with all other worlds being Shadows. The book is full of ambitious worldbuilding, and many other authors would be content for that world to serve as the setting for the rest of a series. But Zelazny has other things in mind, and the series is all the richer for it. The scene at the end of Nine Princes of Amber , when Dworkin walks through a dungeon wall, hints that there is more to the world of Amber than might first be apparent. And as the series unfolds, we find another version of the Pattern in the ghostly city of Tir-na Nog’th, which floats in the air above Amber. Moreover, the royals of Amber find that conflict within their family is not the only problem they face—the Courts of Chaos, with a version of the Pattern called the Logrus, stand at the other end of reality, and its royal family has designs on overthrowing Amber, and ruling all of Shadow. Before the first five-book series is over, the very foundations of reality will be shaken. The Chronicles of Amber became widely popular, with each new volume eagerly awaited by fans, and when the original series was completed, fans still wanted more. So Zelazny started another series of five additional books that follow Corwin’s son Merlin as he searches for his missing father. Thus, in both series, an absent father looms large in the narrative. Despite some similarities, however, the second series has a different feel than the first. While Corwin was a powerful and long-lived character, young Merlin’s tale describes his coming of age. Merlin has trained as a computer programmer in the Shadow world of Earth, and has ideas about merging computer technologies with the magic of the Trumps. And with Merlin’s mother being from the Courts of Chaos, his journey takes readers even further into different unexplored lands. In addition to the novels, an visual guide to Castle Amber was published in 1988, and Zelazny also wrote a handful of short works set in the universe. After his death, a prequel series was commissioned, but publishing problems prevented its completion. According to Tor.com’s periodic update of SF-related television and movie projects, The Chronicles of Amber has been optioned for television by Skybound Entertainment. In an update issued in July 2019, the company promised more information “soon.” Final Thoughts. The books of the Amber series, especially the first five that feature Corwin, number among the best books I have ever read. Zelazny has a way of drawing you into the story and making even the most improbable situations feel visceral and real. And the stories are full of mystery—like Russian nesting dolls, with each reveal leading to yet another puzzle. And now its time for everyone else to chime in: Have you read Nine Princes in Amber , or the other tales from the Amber series, and if so, what did you think? Alan Brown has been a science fiction fan for over five decades, especially fiction that deals with science, military matters, exploration and adventure. I Can't Possibly Be Wrong All the Time. What I’m (Re)Reading: Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny. George RR Martin’s next installment in the A Song of Ice and Fire saga, The Winds of Winter , won’t be out this year. Maybe it’ll be out next year. Maybe. In the meantime, I felt the need to read some compelling fantasy that would be similar in many ways. There are tons of great fantasy books available and there is no end of lists of suggested reading while waiting for the next GRRM epic. Although I should be reading something new, I had a yen to re-read something something great, that I knew would hit the spot. It was high time to re-read Roger Zelazny’s Amber Chronicles. Why the Amber books in particular? Well if you like these elements from A Song of Ice and Fire : treachery torture bad things happening to our hero bad things happening to our hero’s opponents mystical visions amputee swordsmen poor decisions regarding lovers murder sieges guys in white armor who aren’t necessarily “good” guys dangerous canines characters trying to make amends for the past characters trying to burn down the old world to rule over the wreckage magic trees magical messenger birds red headed witches the walking dead morally gray characters greatly exaggerated rumors of demise prolific kings who happen to be crappy fathers sea battles dragons. … then you’ll like them in the Amber books as well. (I’m not saying Martin is ripping off Zelazny. I’m sure I could create a big list of similar features from the corpus of Edgar Rice Burrough’s Tarzan books. Not exactly the same list, probably.) You’ve never read Nine Princes in Amber, by the Big Z? I really recommend it. It was published in 1970, but it doesn’t necessarily feel dated (unless you notice that everyone is chain-smoking, all the time.) At a slim 169 pages, it’s easy to power through. But then you’ll be wanting to read The Guns of Avalon , the second Amber book. Go read Nine Princes in Amber and if you’re not willing to keep reading the series, let me know. The gauntlet has been thrown. If you have read the Amber chronicles, right on! The rest of this post is going to be some broad observations on the Amber chronicles and why I think it’s a good series to read while waiting on more Westeros action. (Other than the big list of similarities I spouted above.) So, if you’ve not read the Amber books, this is your SPOILER warning. There will be comparisons to A Song of Ice and Fire , so if you’re not up on the books or HBO’s Game of Thrones adapation, this is also your SPOILER warning for that. Many, Many Characters. Okay, maybe not as many characters in total as in any of the Game of Thrones books. But with nine princes and four princesses (that we know of), the ruling family of Amber would pose a threat in an impromptu backyard softball game with the Starks or the Lannisters. (The Baratheons would show up with all of Robert’s bastards, and would therefore be able to properly field a team.) There are many royal Amberites, they mostly all hate each other, and they’re willing to raise armies against their siblings in a bid to seize the crown. This creates a situation a bit more complicated than the Lannister-Stark conflict or even Stannis vs. Renly. (It’d be more in line if Renly conspired with Stannis to overthrow Robert, but Renly was actually in league with the supernatural Others north of the Wall, and planned on poisoning Stannis the moment the Red Keep was taken.) There’s That Conflict, and Then That OTHER Conflict. So I mentioned the Others (aka the White Walkers to you Show Watchers)… Similar to the theme found in the Westeros big storyline, where the various houses are squabbling over the Iron Throne but Winter (aka the White Walker supernatural menace) is Coming, Corwin and his relatives are myopically fighting over a weakening Amber while a tremendous, ancient, and distinctly Not-Friendly-At-All-To-Amber enemy has been building up, causing issues, and is poised to strike. The Courts of Chaos (hey, that’s the name of the last book!) provide an intriguing opponent to Amber, not only as an overt threat but as a personal foe tied to the magical origin of Amber itself. And it’s a threat that’s largely going unrecognized by our narrative protagonist. Magic and Poetry. Not So Much Food. For those who find A Song of Ice and Fire books only slightly magical and wish it was ramped up a bit, the Amber chronicles are rich in magic. It’s a straightforward, systematic style of magic, not flashy or random like Harry Potter miracles. Although, depending on the environment an Amberite might find themselves, one might encounter brief moments of flashy, zappy magic. But that’s rare. Hey, I’m going to talk some specifics. If you’re wandering here and haven’t read the books, skip a few paragraphs. Amber is a significant place, because it’s real. Realer than real. So real that Amber casts its influence through a universe of possibilities. Those who possess the royal blood of Amber can attune themselves to this reality, and gain influence and control over the quasi-reality that exists as a shadow of Amber. All of the Amberites who have been initiated through the Pattern (which is totally a big deal but I’m not going to go into details) will unlock abilities powered by probability and the imagination. Because the first enemy of any Amberite is going to be an equally powered sibling, there’s an immediate check and balance, toolboxing this reality-bending ability without having it be overpowered or falling into the Deus Ex Machina category. The result is a logical set of powers and their applicability and usage ends up being mythic and poetic. Mythic poetry is a description I’d apply to a lot of Zelazny’s writings. Particularly Creatures of Light and Darkness , possibly my favorite of his books. But CoL&D isn’t in the Amber series, so I’ll stop talking about it (other than to say you should read that too.) Zelazny and Martin both tell good stories, but I’ve read complaints that Martin’s books are a bit too descriptive when it comes to food. If characters are setting down to a feast (and there are several in the books), one might expect to finish the chapter very hungry from the vivid descriptions of the many courses. Zelazny’s approach is a bit different. Characters do eat, but such an activity usually sounds like this: We paused for dinner. The steak was prepared just the way I like it. Zelazny presents sex scenes in similar fashion. If relations were imminent between two characters, a chapter might have this entry: I’m not saying one way of writing is superior to another, but since this is Prince Corwin telling a story, I appreciate his observations without his going into excessive detail. It’s of interest to the story, for example, that Corwin and various characters in the books were lovers, but I probably don’t need to know exactly what presses their buttons. Hero With a Thousand Faces? More Like a Thousand Heroes with the Same Face. Although I appreciate Zelazny’s terse approach to food descriptions over the gustatorial essays on Westeros dining, GRRM has the Big Z beat in the characterization department. Martin’s use of POV chapters from a horde of different characters really exercises his ability to provide different narrative voices. A Jaime chapter is very different from a Jon Snow chapter, an Arya chapter is different from a Daenerys chapter. Corwin is our narrator in Nine Princes in Amber , and so we only see the story through his words. At one point in Sign of the Unicorn (the third book), Corwin is dictating a story told to him by Random, his excellent Tyrion-esque brother. The first time I read the book I didn’t realize the subtlety, and I thought Random’s adventures were happening to Corwin. Sure, that might just indicate I’m an idiot (never a dangerous assumption, yo) but Corwin’s narrative voice and Random’s narrative voice were pretty much the same. You might defend that aspect by rationalizing that Corwin’s the one telling Random’s story, and might be relaying the story in his own personal style. I’d accept that. But in general all of Zelazny’s characters sound the same. There’s very little difference in feeling or tone between Corwin of Amber, or Conrad, or Shadowjack, or Mahasamatman (he tended to drop the Maha and Atman and just went by Sam), or even Jack the Ripper’s dog Fang. I don’t mind so much, because the Zelazny-style hero story is always a pretty good read. I’m not saying Zelazny had his own heroic archetype the way Hemingway had an archetype that inhabited his stories. But to be fair, the only reason I’m not saying this is because I’m afraid the ghost of my High School English teacher might take notice and decide to haunt me, and High School English was hellish enough for me. On a related note, Zelazny’s stories aren’t particularly feminist. I’m not saying Corwin is a misogynist, it’s just that women in the Amber chronicles (at least in the first five books, which are the only ones I’m interested in re-reading) are relegated to secondary roles in general, and serve more as plot complications or resources for Corwin than individuals with primary stakes in the narrative conflict. (I’m happy to be debated on this, I could totally be wrong. I’d be pleased to be wrong in my interpretation.) An Almost Unbelievable Success. The first Amber chronicles are an amazing piece of work, because they were written without necessarily an overarching goal in mind. I’ve heard Zelazny relate this story (he was the guest of honor at the first Science Fiction convention I ever attended, he was the reason I went in the first place) and he explained the process of writing the series. Apparently, he had the idea for the story told in Nine Princes in Amber and Guns of Avalon , originally conceived as one book. He had a deadline to deliver a couple of books, so he tweaked his draft and submitted the first half of the story, and while polishing up the sequel, decided that the story wasn’t done. I’ve heard other writers talk about a book taking on a life of its own. I don’t particular get invested in the romantic notion of a story doing its own writing, but I understand this element of the process. When writing a story, you need to open up possibilities, and then you need to close them down to get to a satisfactory end. Sometimes, it’s hard to close things down. But in the case of the first five Amber books, Zelazny succeeded. Elements put in early on and particularly through the middle books really pay off near the end. Once the smoke has cleared in The Courts of Chaos , it was hard for me not to immediately re-read the series. In fact, I think I did just that. Allegedly, Martin has an end goal in mind to be resolved a few books from now in A Dream of Spring . I’m hoping he gets there with equal success. Images are mostly from various paperbacks of the Amber books. The beautiful image in the Magic and Poetry section was taken from the cover of the Amber Diceless Role Playing Game. The Amber Trumps of the family and the anime style image of Corwin were found online, I wish I could credit the original artists. Image of Jeff Goldblum’s chaotician character is from Jurassic Park, baby. I make no claim to any of the artwork obviously, but I do make some claim to the text of this posting. So there. What is presented as Zelazny quotes on steaks and sex were paraphrasings from the top of my head.