I just finished reading (for the first time in more than a decade) The Chronicles of Amber, a fantasy series written by Roger Zelazny. The first book, Nine Princes in Amber, was written in 1970, and the tenth and final, Prince of Chaos, in 1991. In the books, Amber is a real place and everything else (including the earth we know) is a “shadow” of Amber, of which there are an infinite number and variety. The royal family of Amber is able to travel through these shadows. The royal family is also largely dysfunctional, conniving, and murderous.

The first five books are told from the point of view of Corwin, who awakens in a hospital in England, realizes he’s being unnecessarily drugged, escapes, but doesn’t know who he is. This is a gem of a series - very clever and inventive, with satisfying character growth and lots of intrigue. Very enjoyable and highly recommended.

The second five books are told from the point of view of Merlin, Corwin’s son. These are much more flawed. The main issues I had with them are:

  • The magic in the Corwin books is pretty limited (though really interesting), and so Corwin has to solve his problems by figuring out clever solutions and working with people. In the Merlin books, all sorts of magic is available, and Merlin uses it liberally, which often feels contrived.

  • Corwin is a seasoned veteran, suspicious of most everyone, and that’s reasonably satisfying in a main character. Merlin is significantly younger, and so it makes sense that Zelazny draws him as much more naive and easily manipulated, but those are frustrating qualities in a main character.

  • It almost felt like Zelazny just wanted to get through the story. There are characters who pop up to move the plot along, and then are never heard from again. Characters who spent their lives doing one thing suddenly have a change of heart.

The books are all fairly short - just barely long enough to qualify as novels, not novellas - so the time investment for each is small. If you read the first five and enjoy them, it’s worth reading the rest to see how things turn out. They’re honestly entertaining enough, just not to the level of the first five.

  • EntheoNaut@lemmy.mlEnglish
    3·
    9 days ago

    I haven’t read the books since the 80s and these and Lord of the Rings were my foundation of reading, I loved them both dearly. I’ve been considering reading them again soon, of course only first five were written when I was a fan, OPs review has me hesitant and may be best just to leave the books as a memory.

    Last year I read Lord of Light for the fist time and holy WOW, that book is top tier and the fact that it was written over 50 years ago is mind-blowing, highly recommend.

    • AFK BRB Chocolate (CA version)@lemmy.caOPEnglish
      3·
      9 days ago

      The first five books (apparently referred to as “the Corwin cycle”) are still a treasure, and if you have an inclination to reread them, I wouldn’t hesitate. I don’t regret rereading the last five (Merlin cycle), they’re just clearly inferior.

      I never paid attention to other people’s reviews back in the day (* caveat below), but now that I keep my own notes on what I read I like to poke around and see if my opinion differs wildly from others. It was interesting to see that the Merlin cycle was widely panned at the time, with some of the same complaints I made above.

      • Caveat: I had a good friend who was a reviewer for Locus Magazine who would go to the book store with me and say “You’d probably like this one, that one of popular but might not be your tastes, this one is a classic” etc. So I guess I sort of paid attention to reviews.
            • AFK BRB Chocolate (CA version)@lemmy.caOPEnglish
              2·
              9 days ago

              I just checked and almost none of Zelazny’s stuff is available in ebook format, which is mostly what I read. My son gave me a cool leatherbound version of The Great Book of Amber, which is how I read those. I read so much that I mostly go through the library for my books, and do it digital. I’ll see though. It’s even possible I have the paperback in the garage.

              • EntheoNaut@lemmy.mlEnglish
                2·
                9 days ago

                I hear that…I started using the library last year and read over 50 books in 2025. I was searching for a new career and took full advantage of my time. Started a new gig a few months ago and went from a book a week to one every few months.

                Just finished Perdido Street Station by China Mielville who’s my new favorite contemporary author, right up there w Adrian Tchaikovsky and JSAC. Just starting Children of Strife today and have Faith of Beasts on deck.

                I much prefer old school analog printed books, e-books are okay and audiobooks don’t work for me.

                • AFK BRB Chocolate (CA version)@lemmy.caOPEnglish
                  2·
                  9 days ago

                  Yeah, I was at 71 or 72 books in 2025. 16 books so far this year.

                  I like the Mielville books, but I have to space them out because they’re often kind of soul crushing. Tchaikovsky is my favorite contemporary for sure. I made a post about him a while back. I haven’t read Strife yet, but I’ve read an awful lot of his other works. He’s honestly brilliant, though some of his books seem like he spent a lot more energy on them than others.

                  I used to prefer physical books, but started with ebooks when I was traveling for work and didn’t want to deal with the weight and mass. Two things have made me a convert. One is that I love, love, love being able to long-press on a word and have the dictionary come up. The other is that I like reading in bed before sleeping with the lights off and the screen in dark mode. With physical books I have to have a light on, and it’s much less conducive to sleeping.