chroniclingamber

Corwin throws the door open dramatically and Random staggers in, tired and dirty but fashionable. He reveals that he’s being pursued. He talks about “moving the plane around” as he flew, “trying to subtract them.” Again, he has a power over Shadow that we don’t see in later books. He reveals that there’s four to six people, and that he’d feel comfortable taking on two to three of them but six is too many. He’s just a little guy, 5’6″ and 135 pounds. Corwin’s surprised that a wiry short dude like Random would feel so comfortable getting physical with multiple people, and it opens the suggestion that he’s stronger than he thinks. Again, it’s a pretty good way of sharing information about how inhuman Corwin and his family are. He’s not just narrating thinky thoughts, he’s reacting to what’s around him and learning.

There comes a knock at the door, Random’s pursuers, and Random laughs, pulls off his tie, and grabs the previously mentioned saber from the wall. It’s not just decorative – Flora had a fully functional if slightly rusty sharp saber chilling on her wall within easy access. Random’s actions are pretty action-hero, got to say.

As they studiously ignore the knocking, debating what to do, Corwin asks if the maid Carmella might open the door. Flora states that she has “decided that is improbable.” In other words, she’s worked her will upon the likelihood, in that shadow, of a person doing something. Again, this is a remarkable power that doesn’t show up in later books – or else Flora is far more skilled in Shadow Work than she lets on. Random objects, stating “you don’t know what you’re up against.” The creatures following him are able to work their own influence on that Shadow – influence that allegedly was the sole domain of Corwin and his family.

Corwin does the utterly classic thing of opening the door, taking stock, and then closing it again. It’s both dramatic and darkly humorous. Again, this is cinematic stuff. The fight takes place and it’s an exciting one with huge dogs, gunfire, swordplay, and a little light strangling. Corwin and Random both show off how strong they are.

And then there’s the reveal about their assailants: they aren’t human.

They aren’t human at all.

Random, like Corwin, hates Eric – or else he does in the story that Corwin is relating to his as-yet unrevealed audience. He has the devastating line “of all my relations I like sex the best and Eric the least,” which I’ve seen attributed to Corwin more than once.

“You’re thinking,” he said while I thought, “’How far can I trust Random this time? He is sneaky and mean and just like his name, and he will doubtless sell me out If someone offers him a better deal. ‘ True?”

I nodded.

Zelazny REALLY wants to hammer it home that Random is terrible, and also the best ally that Corwin can scrape together.

And again, we see an Amberite- Random this time – directly control a Shadow that they are in and remain in. The dead bodies are gone, the blood stains are cleaned up, the window is fixed. They don’t travel to a different Shadow where this is the case. He just… does it.

The next day the brothers take Flora’s car for a drive and have the same cagey conversation Corwin keeps having, where he repeats lines he’s heard people say with a bit of conviction to his voice. Random’s a gambler, a card shark, but Corwin apparently has the better poker face. Corwin agrees that he wants to Do The Thing even though he still doesn’t know what The Thing is. He just knows that he hates Eric and something inside him wants The Thing It’s instinct – as strong an instinct as not trusting either of the siblings he’s recently met. Corwin makes small talk and mentions that Flora had tried to walk to Amber but had problems. Random is, uh, not… his response isn’t great.

“She’s a dumb bitch. She doesn’t really deserve to live, but that’s not for me to say, yet.”

Like that’s just… that’s just nasty.

And we come to find out that Corwin is a really unreliable narrator. So did Random really say this? Is Corwin portraying him poorly? Is Random trying to act tough and impress him? It’s out of character for future depictions of him but also there’s quite a bit of authorial retconning of the first book. And then there’s also the fact that Zelazny’s attitude toward women in his stories changed quite a bit over his writing career. It never became GREAT but it improved.

Corwin tricks Random into starting to move them through Shadow, revealing that one person can be physically propelling a group forward while another member of the group is focused on changing the Shadow. We also see that the person Shaping Shadow can alter the vehicle they’re in. This, again, doesn’t come up later in the series. Corwin knows something’s up, and it quickly gets WEIRD, but he pretty much takes it in stride. He’s still figuring out how things work, what things are, and he’s still afraid to say anything or ask any questions.

“Well, I’d heard him speak of “adding” and “subtracting,” as though the universe in which he moved were a big equation.

“I decided-with a sudden certainty– that he was somehow adding and subtracting items to and from the world that was visible about us to bring us into closer and closer alignment with that strange place, Amber, for which he was solving.”

Seeing this kind of magic as an equation, as adding and subtracting things to create reality, really does pave the way for Merlin and his computer magic down the line.

It’s interesting that Corwin looks to see if Random is doing something with his hands, as thought hang gestures or movement or whatever would somehow explain what’s going on. “He must be USING HIS MIND.”

They encounter some problems, of course, because they’re on the literal journey part of The Hero’s Journey, and that includes encountering some horrific stuff and also being run off the road. Random continues to be a fucking sociopath as he tries to murder the guy they nearly vehicularly manslaughtered. But it’s ok, because Corwin is a weirdo sociopath comfortable with murdering people over points of honor too. They lapse into a formal-ish High Fantasy way of speaking and cap it off with “well, whatever,” which I love.

We also once again see just how strong Corwin is. He’s not just strong enough to throw men around, he’s strong enough to pick up (half of) a car and carry it across the road. So is skinny little Random.

They stop to get gas and we once again see that Random is able to alter items that they have in their possession. Specifically, he changes their Earth money for whatever the Shadow currency is. Later, we see Merlin actively using the Logrus to make this sort of change. Random’s doing the bulk of the work here and Corwin acknowledges his efforts, praises him… which really throws Random for a loop. He’s very much The Youngest Kid, eager for attention, unused to praise. He’s quick to ask for payment, though: “A Regency.”

A regency can have one very specific meaning – the person who holds the throne until the person with the actual rights to the throne can rule. The position often involves an adult governing the country until the ruler comes of age, or a trusted advisor/family member holding the position while the ruler is away at war. However, a Regent can also be someone who governs a specific area of a larger kingdom. In those cases you’ll have several Regents who gather together to rule the larger area. It’s interesting that Random asks for a Regency and not, like, a duchy or something.

“Our parents had tried to discipline him in the past, I knew, never very successfully. And I realized. with that, that we had shared common parents, which I suddenly knew was not the case with me and Eric, me and Flora, me and Caine and Bleys and Fiona. And probably others, but these I’d recalled, I knew for sure.”

Either Corwin is remembering wrong or else Zelazny just… straight up changed this later. Or both! Random does not have any full-blooded sibling in canon (a sister is mentioned in “The Visual Guide to Castle Amber,” but that wasn’t written by Zelazny), while Eric and Corwin are actually full siblings – as is Deidre.

Again, we get a little more information about Shadow – We find out that The Forest of Arden is closer to Earth than it is to Amber, which doesn’t feel quite right to me. We also find out that an Amberite can track another Amberite through Shadow, so they can’t just run from the brother Julian because he’d be hot on their heels… or maybe an echo of him, a Shadow of him, would pursue them.

Let’s talk about Julian’s amazing horse-creature Morgenstern! “Morgenstern” is a German, generally Jewish, surname that means “Morning Star.” “Morningstar” is sometimes used to refer to angels, and sometimes specifically to Lucifer/Satan. Morgenstern is basically a horse version of a hellhound.

Horse height is measured in “hands,” where each hand is four inches. If Morgenstern is “six hands higher than any other horse” that means it’s TWO FEET TALLER than other horses. The average horse size is about 15 hands, so Morgenstern is… really big. That’s a big horse.

I don’t understand “his eyes were the dead color of a Weimaraner dog’s” because from photos I’ve seen they tend to just have… dog eyes. Very light colored eyes generally but… they’re eyes.

“He did create Morgenstern, out of Shadows, fusing into the beast the strength and speed of a hurricane and a pile driver.”

is lovely. This is lovely.

It’s also FASCINATING that Julian was able to create a creature, a living creature, a magical creature. And he’s created others! Morgenstern is “the fastest horse he has ever created,” implying that he’s created other less-fast horses. That’s just so cool! And also not brought up again!

Julian smiling and waving jauntily is just so perfect.

References:

Gabardine is a tightly knit, waterproof wool used to make outerwear.

Mercedes, or Mercedes-Benz, is a luxury automobile. Flora isn’t rich, she’s wealthy.

“All Roads Lead to Amber” is a play on “All Roads Lead to Rome.” Per https://italianstudies.nd.edu/news-events/news/all-roads-lead-to-rome-new-acquisitions-relating-to-the-eternal-city/ The proverb “All roads lead to Rome” derives from medieval Latin. It was first recorded in writing in 1175 by Alain de Lille, a French theologian and poet, whose Liber Parabolarum renders it as ‘mille viae ducunt homines per saecula Romam’ (a thousand roads lead men forever to Rome). The first documented English use of the proverb occurs more than two hundred years later, in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Astrolabe of 1391, where it appears as ‘right as diverse pathes leden diverse folk the righte way to Rome.’

The proverb’s origins may relate to the Roman monument known as the Milliarium Aureum, or golden milestone, erected by Emperor Caesar Augustus in the central forum of ancient Rome. All distances in the Roman Empire were measured from this point and it was regarded as the site from which all principle roads diverged. As such, artists such as Giacomo Lauro, whose rendition of the Milliarium Aureum appears in this exhibit, often used it as a metaphor for the intensely cosmopolitan culture that has long been present in Rome.

Zunoco is possibly a reference to Sunoco. This is kind of just… a vibes/gut check thing though.

“Wee covir the werld” is possibly a reference to an old Sherwin-Williams ad, a globe with red paint dropping down it and the slogan “cover the Earth.” Again, this is just a hunch.