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4.0 out of 5 stars
Embedded in Amber, Jul 5 2009
Don't you just hate it when you wake up from a coma and discover that your scheming, murderous siblings are trying to bump you off? That's the problem Corwin has at the start of Robert Zelazny's "Nine Princes in Amber," the tightly-written opener of his ten book Amber series. It's a lean, noir-influenced fantasy tale, and its main problem is that it unexpectedly stops.
A man wakes up in a hospital and strong-arms his way out -- he doesn't know who he is or where he came from. But then he finds a woman, Flora, who says she's his sister, and the reluctant amnesiac starts to piece together his past -- his name is Corwin, he has several siblings (most of whom he has a not-so-pleasant relationship with). And the word "Amber" -- it brings something to mind, but he can't quite remember what.
Corwin gets a bit of help from his brother Random, after he saves Random from a bunch of Shadow creatures. Their cruel elder brother Eric is crowning himself king of Amber after the disappearance of their father, but all the siblings are catfighting for the throne and the power of the one true world of Amber. Corwin and a few of his allied brothers band together with their armies and navies, determined to stop Eric -- but with disastrous results.
The Amber series is more like two long novels than ten short ones, and the big blinking "To Be Continued" at the end of "Nine Princes in Amber" is proof enough of that. It doesn't finish the story, but just stops. Even though that's frustrating, it stops in a fairly satisfying place -- there's no cliffhanger, just the question of what Corwin will do next in his quest against his treacherous brother and his other siblings. And how, of course.
Zelazny is known for having spare, snappy writing. And he's in peak form in "Nine Princes." His descriptions are minimalist, but very vivid (someone's weathered skin is "porous as an orange rind"), and his dialogue is sharp and to the point with nary a wasted word. And he has a good handle on his fantasy world, whipping up mind-bending idea like the Pattern, green-haired merwomen, magical Trump cards, strange shadow-horses and vaguely-human beasts.
Corwin himself is a sort of action-Bogart character -- very tough, seasoned and cynical, but with a mushy core somewhere in there. He's a pretty nice guy, considering his Machievellian family. Most of the characters aren't explored fully, except the Flora, who isn't very bright, and Random, who wants desperately to prove himself. But with all these schemes and secret motives, they all promise more depth in future.
"Nine Princes in Amber" does just what the start of a series should do -- it draws you in and makes you desperate to know what's ahead. Solid, creative family-feud fantasy.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
First and best of the series, Sep 30 2006
Brilliant, elegant, and original novel from one of the fantasy and scifi's best writers. First in a series that became a cult classic, even spawning role playing games.
If you are coming to this series for the first time, I highly recommend both this and the second in the series, Guns of Avalon. The rest you could take or leave.
Zelazny never wrote a boring or unoriginal book, and even at his worst his writing combines the beauty of poetry with the suspence of a thriller. But I found my appreciation of the series dropping off as the backstory got more and more convoluted and, in order to top each time what came before, the stakes raised higher and higher from an individual's fight for his inheritance to that stalwart of the fantasy genre, saving the universe's very existance from the forces of darkness (in this case, Chaos). I got the distinct impression that Zelazny had become a hostage of the popularity of the series, and in spinning out the story changed his own mind several times about the plot, resulting in inconsistencies from the earlier to the later books.
If reading time is limited, my best recommendation is to get the first two in this series, then move on to some of Zelazny's other great books like Jack of Shadows (fantasy) and Doorways in the Sand (sci fi).
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Slim volume leaves questions for later stories to address, Feb 15 2004
Corwin is one of the titular nine princes who vie for the throne of Amber, the one true city, of which the Earth we know and countless other realities are mere reflections. He has been suffering amnesia on our world but recovers his memory and, in uneasy partnership with some of his siblings and outright conflict with others, attempts to wrest Amber from his brother Eric, who has assumed the throne.The main drawback of this imaginative novel is its brevity. Roger Zelazny's story is epic in scope but he relates it in less than two hundred pages, making for a narrative that is extremely sketchy at times, reading more like a synopsis than a finished novel. At one point, Corwin and his brother Bleys travel to a Shadow world, insinuate themselves into the local culture, become worshipped as gods, and forge an army ready to march on Amber and fight with the zeal of Crusaders in a holy war-all in the space of two or three sentences! In addition, I was never quite clear on the nature of Amber and its powerful ruling family. What does it mean for one world to a "shadow" of another? The brothers seem godlike at the times with their abilities to manipulate the environment of shadow worlds through willpower alone and affect change in Amber itself by pronouncing curses. What does this say about the nature of reality? Ultimately, my opinion of Zelazny's series will depend on how well he addresses these concerns. I am sufficiently intrigued that I look forward to reading more.
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