9 Princes in Amber: Ch. 1

[chroniclingamber]

“It was starting to end, after what seemed most of eternity to me.”

This is a line that’s stuck with me for well over thirty years. I initially read Roger Zelazny’s “Nine Princes in Amber” so long ago that I don’t really remember reading it for the first time. I probably snagged it surreptitiously off my parents’ book shelf, possibly because the cover looked cool. I was an avid reader, my habits encouraged by being allowed to graze through the many many books in our household, and the library, at will. My parents were strict about tv, movies, and music but books? As long as they weren’t comic books we were free to read.



“Nine Princes in Amber” starts off with a bang. A man wakes up. It’s a cliche now, a tired trope. But it’s fresh here, still, over fifty years after the book was first published. This is a fantasy novel that straddles genres – the first few chapters are a detective noir tinged mystery as the protagonist tries to find out who he is. This will be echoed in the sixth book of the series, which opens with his son Merlin trying to find out who’s trying to kill him.



Our protagonist doesn’t know who he is, where he’s from, or what he’s doing but he knows how to lie and act smart. The first chapter establishes very clearly that he’s a sneaky guy, a conman even, or someone you might describe as a great tactician. It also establishes that he heals incredibly quickly – both of his legs were broken, one in two places, two weeks ago and he’s already up and walking around and beating up orderlies. He’s operating on instinct and that instinct says bluff and blackmail your way to safety.



He’s tired and he’s injured, but he ends the chapter in a better place than he began it – on the road to freedom, with cash in his pocket.



References:

• “Visions of Sugar Plums, etc…” references a line from Clement Moore’s 1823 poem “The Night Before Christmas.” “The children were nestled all snug in their beds/while visions of sugar plums danced through their heads.” The narrator is exhausted and trying not to fall asleep or even pass out.
  



• “In the State of Denmark there was the odor of decay…” is a reference or rephrasing of the line “something is rotten in the State of Denmark” from the play “Hamlet.” A guard says it soon after the ghost of the king shows up on the palace walls. It’s a great way of stating that something is corrupted or wrong. Something is rotten. Something stinks.




• “I’m afraid I have my orders.”
  
  “So did Eichmann and look what happened to him,” and I shook my head slowly.
  

  
  
  Otto Adolf Eichmann, an Austrian-German, was an official of the Nazi Party and officer of the Schutzstaffel (SS), and a key organizer of the Holocaust. When put on trial for his war crimes, Eichmann claimed that there was a difference between leaders and people following orders and that he was just following orders. It’s kind of crass to compare a nurse told to keep an obviously injured and ill person sedated with someone who actively planned and perpetuated the genocides of multiple marginalized groups but it’s also a good zinger.
  



• “Four inches below the belt buckle” is the groin. Our protagonist just nailed someone in the junk.
  



• “The color of Moby Dick and vanilla ice cream” Moby Dick is the infamous white whale from the novel “Moby Dick.” He gets dressed in white scrubs.
  



• “Laughing Boy” is a sardonic way of calling someone morose or a downer. It was already dated by the time the book was published, but fits in well with the hard boiled detective noir tone.
  


• “The Old Moon with the New Moon in her arms” is a reference to “The Ballad of Sir Patrick Spens,” although in the ballad it’s the new moon with the old moon in her arms.
  


• “Mrs. Evelyn Flaumel” might be inspired by the surname Flamel, as in Nicolas Flamel. Born in the mid 1300s, he was a man of letters – literally. He drafted documents and contracts and the like and taught others to do the same. After his death he gained the reputation of an alchemist and was credited with writing a bunch of alchemical works. “Flaumel” most likely is be a reference to her real name, “Florimel.”
  


• Speaking of "Florimel," Edmund Spenser used the name in his poem "the Fairy Queen." It's a combination of the Latin word for flower and the Greek word for honey.
  


• “Not of it’s cash-and-carry, Charlie.” “Cash and carry” was a way for the US Government to sell military supplies to European nations during WWII. The various nations offered cash, and shipped (carried) the stuff home themselves instead of having it shipped to them. “Charlie” is just slang for “my guy.” “It’s cash and carry, dude.” “it’s cash and carry, buddy.”