March to Other Worlds Day 5: The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny

Day 5 The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny

I doubt that there is any other character in fiction that does as much marching as Corwin, Prince of Amber. I first discovered him when I was in ninth grade and joined the Science Fiction Book Club. The club offered five-books-for-a-dollar to lure new members. I picked The Chronicles of Amber because it had a cool cover and the two volume set counted as one book. At the time I had never heard of Roger Zelazny, but after racing through the two-volume set, I would try and get my hands on everything he’d ever written. Yet even as I devoured his other works, I kept coming back to Amber. I’ve read the books a dozen times, listened to the audio version narrated by Zelazny, himself, played the RPG both in person and in an extended email version, composed my own stories imagining what would come next, and finally happily bought the e-book versions so I can continue to enjoy them again and again. This is one of the greatest adventure stories in science fiction and fantasy and if you haven’t yet read it you should stop reading this review right now and go get yourself a copy.

 

Like J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, Amber is really one novel broken into many parts, but unlike Tolkien’s masterpiece, Roger Zelazny took advantage of the publisher’s decision to present the work as five separate books to tell five different types of stories. Nine Princes in Amber is a Who Am I? tale. The Guns of Avalon is a straight adventure piece. The Sign of the Unicorn is about politics and intrigue. The Hand of Oberon is a story of manipulation. And finally The Courts of Chaos wraps up the adventure with an epic journey which completes the hero’s growth while simultaneously providing an exciting and highly satisfying ending.

 

So take a visit to Amber, or, if you’ve already read it, return as if you’re seeking out an old friend. In honor of March to Other Worlds, the Written Gems group on Goodreads has decided to discuss Nine Princes in Amber in early April. We’d love to have you drop in and join us.

 

You can find the discussion of Nine Princes in Amber at Written Gems: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/...

In the meantime, why not pop over to my Facebook page and join in the discussion there: https://www.facebook.com/GilbertStack...