Product Description

Amber is the one real world, casting infinite reflections of itself -- Shadow worlds, that can be manipulated by those of royal Amberite blood. But the royal family is torn apart by jealousies and suspicion; the disappearance of the Patriach Oberon has intensified the internal conflict by leaving the throne apparently up for grabs. In a hospital on the Shadow Earth, a young man is recovering from a freak car accident; amnesia has robbed him of all his memory, even the fact that he is Corwin, Crown Prince of Amber, rightful heir to the throne -- and he is in deadly peril . . . The five books, Nine Princes in Amber, The Guns of Avalon, Sign of the Unicorn, The Hand of Oberon and The Courts of Chaos, together make up The Chronicles of Amber, Roger Zelazny's finest work of fantasy and an undisputed classic of the genre.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #199032 in Books
• Published on: 2000-06-15
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 784 pages

About the Author
SALES POINTS #7 in the Millennium Fantasy Masterworks series, a library of the most original and influential fantasy ever written Winner of multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards "The compleat New Wave author, so daring he could pen nothing without perturbing some creaky icon' -- David Brin "Zelazny's stories are fabulous! I genuinely envy anyone who has not yet read them and is about to" -- Theodore Sturgeon

Customer Reviews

A masterwork indeed!
This is a reprint of the first Chronicles of Amber pentology in a single volume. A second pentology was written, but is by no means as good, and seems to pave the way for more books which the author never lived to write. But this sequence stands on its own.

Zelazny's epic work starts simply enough - a man awakes in hospital with amnesia. He discovers he is registered under a false name, and being drugged on the orders of a sister he cannot remember...

At this point, Zelazny could have turned this into a simple thriller. But nothing is as it seems in this series. Layer after layer of deception or illusion is peeled back in each book - revealing not only the truth of Corwin's car crash, our perceptions of which are turned on their head 3 times, but of successively deeper layers of reality itself. For as our hero Corwin discovers, true reality casts infinite shadows in which everything exists somewhere.

The universe created is infinitely rich, but the story revolves about the machivellian politics of the Royal House of Amber, of which Corwin discovers himself to be a part. These near-immortals can find anything they desire in the infinite Shadows, but are slowly discovering that they are not, after all, omnipotent. At stake in this power-struggle is the fate not just of one world, but all worlds and all realities...

Drawing on Jungian psychology, celtic myths, and a lyrical use of language, there is no way any review of mine can do justice to this. It is one of my 3 personal all-time favourite series. Try it, and be lost to the wonder of the One True City - Amber.

A Fantasy Series to Savour
If Roger Zelazny had written nothing but this series and 'Lord of Light' he would still be acknowledged as one of the greatest talents in the field.

Coming back to Amber recently, in this edition, and reading it from cover to cover, I was struck by the brilliance of the prose. Because this book is written in the first person by a character with experience of many worlds it allows Zelazny to use modern slang and poetic language both in dialogue and description without a single jar that I can detect. Often a single, perfectly chosen word or phrase conjours up the required image - and this book is full of rich images and even richer characterisation.

The book - and it is really one book, not a sequence of five - can be read on many levels. When I was first introduced to it, as a teenager, I devoured a wonderful adventure story, and it remains thrill-a-minute stuff, but each time I read it I find more nuances contained in a highly complex plot that never condescends to the reader and never fails to surprise. Even bit-part characters have their own arc, though as they are always seen through Corwin's eyes our understanding of them is limited by his - which also, of course, increases as the book progresses. We are also left to ponder whether, indeed, the conclusion of this story is that, "people change" or whether it is Corwin, or his perceptions, that have changed.

So is the book about perception? About change? About immortality? About growing up?

Yes, and many other things.

There are not many fantasies around so different from Tolkien, so complex, or so well written. Highly recommended, to anyone from 10 to 100.

Excellent book - don't hesitate to get it!
The chronicles of Amber is an outstanding book. It centres around a royal family contending for the throne - and Zelazny takes advantages of the number of people involved to develop many fascinating characters.

Zelazny does not patronise the reader by pointing out every hidden detail, nor do you find that you are able to second guess the next piece of action (unlike, for example, the constant series of betrayals in Terry Goodkind's "Stone of Tears"). You are left to notice or root out these hidden gems in your own time so that the story takes on added dimensions when you re-read it. Additionally, the names of the characters are distinguishable (Eric, Julian, Fiona...), unlike many other fantasies who go to extremes to give the main characters bizarre names (e.g. Karigan G'ladheon in "Green Rider").

This is a very fulfilling fantasy and something you'll want to return to, again and again.