Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I have read a number of Zelazny’s novels with great pleasure, but had somehow not gotten around to this major fantasy series. This is book one in a ten book series, and it gets off to a great start. The protagonist, Corwin, starts off as an amnesiac, but gradually gets some memory back and discovers that he is one of the 9 Princes of Amber. Amber is the true world, and our Earth is just a shadow of Amber. Corwin has to get back to Amber and contend for the throne, but as you might guess from the fact that this is the first book of ten, he doesn’t make it this time. Zelazny developes some interesting ideas, such as the magical Trumps that let the members of the royal family communicate with each other. The family dynamics are tons of fun as half the family wants to kill the other half, but the alliances constantly shift. And there is a tantalizing but unresolved issue involving the King of Amber, who is not dead, but may be near to it. He is of course the father of these nine princes, but so far no mention of the mother. And there is an opposite counterpart to Amber called Chaos, but little has been revealed about that yet. But it is a good read, and I plan to move on to the next book. If you like fantasy, this is a good book, and Zelazny is one of the best.



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