The Chronicles of Amber - Roger Zelazny *****

By Brian Clegg

I first came across Roger Zelazny’s Amber books back in the 1970s, rushing to buy the next instalment as each became available. For me, they remain some of the most original fantasy novels, as they combine a small element of urban fantasy with swords and sorcery, without having any feeling of being Tolkien clones.

At the heart of the series is a place called Amber, which is the original city from which a whole host of alternate worlds (known as Shadows) are spawned. Zelazny doesn’t offer a reason for this, though there is a passing reference to Wheeler and Everett, suggesting that he was linking the idea to the Many Worlds hypothesis. The royal family of Amber have the ability to travel between Shadows, and can also use a special pack of cards (Trumps) either to communicate with each other or to travel directly to a different location. At the heart of all this is the Pattern – it is by walking this magic mizmaze (an ordeal in itself) that those of royal blood are able to travel between Shadows.

The title of the first book in the series, Nine Princes in Amber, tells us where Zelazny got the name for his location – and also that this is playful fantasy not the entirely grim variety. What is particularly effective is that most of the royal family spend their time scheming against each other, and working out who has caused a particular catastrophe can be complex. The whole thing starts with central character Corwin on our Earth (one of the Shadows), having lost his memory. He learns about Amber and his abilities from the point of view of normal human – which is very effective.

The ten books split into two sets – the first five with Corwin as the first person narrator, and the second five with his son Merlin setting out a story that has become considerably more complex, both because we now encounter in a lot more depth the Courts of Chaos, the other end of Shadow from Amber and the source of its power, and also because Merlin had worked in IT on Earth and somehow manages to combine magic and tech in a sentient computer. If anything, the second set gets a little too complex, and droops a bit with the penultimate title Knight of Shadows, but it is still effective. Altogether, the series is big, bold and hugely impressive with one major proviso and two small ones.

One small issue is that Earth is the only Shadow that is ever described as a full world – even Amber only seems to be a city with surrounding countryside and sea. Presumably it is a planet, but its trade seems to be with neighbouring Shadows, not the rest of its world. The other is inconsistent use of Trumps. We learn early on that a full pack includes a Trump for Amber, and over time we discover several others that portray a place. But the Amberites often either go through the huge effort of ‘hell riding’ through the Shadows, or only get to Amber by contacting someone via their Trump and asking to be brought through – sometimes even when having to do this under extreme time pressure.

The big issue is that Zelazny’s writing style can be prolix. I am quite happy to skip read excessive description, but if you aren’t, there are parts of many of the books that would really drag. In the first in the series there are two obvious examples. One is Corwin’s initial hell ride (or, in fact, drive, as they take a car) with his brother Random, travelling from Earth to Amber’s underwater mirror image Rebma. We get about three pages of stream-of-consciousness description of the experience, which gets boring if you don’t skip. Similarly, later on there is a siege of Amber that goes on for page after page of unnecessary description. The five star rating only applies if you are prepared to skip read where necessary.

The ten books were written between 1970 and 1991, and have some of the tendencies of the period – many of the characters smoke, and though there are princesses as well as princes, it’s the males that get most of the storylines. My copy (which replaced the individual books I bought earlier), known as the Great Book of Amber (still available in the US), fits all ten novels into a single, wrist-breaking 1258 page monster. Now it is more sensibly broken into two chunks, the first featuring the Corwin novels and the second the Merlin set.

You can buy The Chronicles of Amber from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com or Bookshop.org

And The Second Chronicles of Amber from Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com or Bookshop.org

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Now Appearing is the blog of science writer Brian Clegg (www.brianclegg.net), author of Inflight Science, Before the Big Bang and The God Effect.