chroniclingamber

The Guns of Avalon: Ch 1

Sun, 18 May 2025 02:57:56 GMT

“The Guns of Avalon” picks up shortly after “Nine Princes in Amber” ends. Corwin shows another little Shadow power that doesn’t come up again, I don’t think – he sends his borrowed boat back home. It’s a boat, not a thinking animal that can travel on its own. It’s a boat. But it can make its way home. He also manages to find his sword, his specific sword and not a similar one, in a hollow tree – a sword he’d left behind in Amber previously.

There’s a really quick recap and explanation of the precis of the book – he has to find a specific place. The place he REALLY wants is gone but there’s an imitation, an alternate version, that he can get to. (How does a whole entire Shadow vanish? What happened, and how? This is never discussed!) While trying to get there he comes across someone he recognizes: a man who’s severely injured, a man who managed to kill six people before sitting himself down to bleed out. Corwin gives him a drink (of water) and then a stronger drink (of whisky), helps him clean out and bandage his largest wound, and then helps him get comfortable and watches over him as he sleeps. He’s got a place to go and things to do but he still takes the time to take care of this guy out of a sense of nostalgia and also because his experiences have changed him and left him far more sympathetic to others (who are humans).

That place he’s going to? It’s called Avalon.

In Arthurian myth, Avalon is the mystical island where Excalibur was forged and where Arthur was taken to recover from his mortal wound – and where he still is, sleeping until he’s needed again. He’s, you know, “the once and future king” – he was king once and will be again. Corwin reveals that Avalon was his place, he ruled there. He was king there once.

He also talks a bit more about Shadow and his attitude toward the inhabitants of same:

I was drawing nearer to my Avalon when I came upon the wounded knight and the six dead men. Had I chosen to walk on by, I could have reached a place where the six men lay dead and the knight stood unwounded — or a place where he lay dead and they stood laughing. Some would say it did not really matter, since all these things are possibilities, and therefore all of them exist somewhere in Shadow.

Any of my brothers and sisters — with the possible exceptions of Gerard and Benedict — would not even have given a second glance. I have become somewhat chickenhearted, however. I was not always that way, but perhaps the shadow Earth, where I spent so many years, mellowed me a bit, and maybe my hitch in the dungeons of Amber reminded me somewhat of the quality of human suffering. I do not know. I only know that I could not pass by the hurt I saw on the form of someone much like someone who had once been a friend. If I were to speak my name in this man’s ear, I might hear myself reviled, I would certainly hear a tale of woe.

Later in the series Vialle asks Corwin why he doesn’t just make a Shadow-Amber and rule there and he points out that he’d know it was a Shadow but that also it would be peopled with folks who LOOK like people he knows but they wouldn’t ACT like them. It’s weird and jarring. And here he is, watching over a man who looks like someone he was once close to.

Corwin commits some mild atrocities against his sword, using it as an axe, and is pissed that Lance doesn’t want to leave his enemies lying about for the ravens and the foxes to eat. He specifically mentions “a decent Christian burial” which Lancelot doesn’t ask for clarification concerning so like… is there a Christ in this land? Are they Christians? As he sets about building a cairn for the dead Lancelot mumbles out a prayer for them so… maybe? He forgets himself and hefts up a 400 pound boulder – and remember this is him STILL SICKLY AND RECOVERING – and nearly gets caught. A few moments later he again shows off his super human strength in a way that I don’t quite understand…

He’s built a stretcher for Lancelot, right? The guy’s got a gut wound, he’s pretty beaten up, he’s lost a lot of blood. He can’t walk. So there’s this whole stretcher arrangement that Corwin assembled. He can drag it along the ground, right? But no, he… he picks the entire thing up?

I scooped the stretcher up in my arms, holding him as you would a baby, cradle and all.

That just sounds incredibly unwieldy? I’ve never understand the logistics of this. It sounds like he’s making things HARDER for himself, as opposed to dragging the stretcher (or travois) along behind him. And, again, how many old men (he’s masquerading as an old man) can carry another full grown men? How many YOUNG men can do that? I remain baffled by this, but I’ve also never had to haul around an injured adult so what do I know. I have only ever BEEN the injured adult being hauled around. I think I’d rather be dragged than cradled stiffly in someone’s arms, especially after an abdominal injury.

A few sentences later and we get to a perfect illustration of why I enjoy the fantasy-language and modern language in the books:

Who are these friends of yours I am taking you to?”

“We are headed for the Keep of Ganelon.”

“That ratfink!” I said, almost dropping him.

Like, that’s just… that’s just funny.

Anyway, this place is not Avalon but it contains someone that Corwin very obviously once knew and has strong feelings about.

“Ganelon” has become, over the centuries, a kind of betrayer archetype. In “The Song of Roland,” Roland sends his stepfather (Ganelon) into active danger. Ganelon assumes that Roland wants him dead, and betrays him. Dante stuck him in “The Inferno.” He’s in a bunch of poems, inscribed on walls, he’s in “Canterbury Tales” and “Don Quixote.”

A “rat fink,” in addition to being a cartoon hotrod character crated by Ed “Big Daddy” Roth, is a traitor. It’s a pretty big insult, or it was once. Corwin’s very emotionally invested in Ganelon.

Lancelot speaks French and picks up on Corwin’s little joke about the devil. The Chronicles of Amber has a very messy cosmology.

As the saying goes, history might not repeat itself but it often rhymes. Ganelon, a traitor, shares a name with another traitor; Corwin punished him with exile the way that Eric later punishes him. We get a little summary of the guy’s character here, though. He’s not great, and was exiled for a reason. But between his presence and Lancelot’s presence and the way Lance keeps almost recognizing him… this place feels weighty.

Corwin brings something up that Flora touches on later – when Amberites dwell in Shadow they make it a bit more real, a bit more solid. They affect other Shadows. And they can cast Shadow versions of themselves as well. When Flora encountered Corwin on Earth he didn’t have his memory. She wasn’t sure if it was him or just a reflection of him, an echo. Corwin isn’t sure if echoes of him persist in this not-Avalon.

But they, ah, don’t seem like they’d be GOOD echoes since he’s so worried about it.

Just what kind of a king WAS he?

It’s also interesting that instead of a “Black Road” we’ve got a black circle that’s some sort of portal. A bunch of dark circles spreading out and overtaking a land is very ominous, in a different way than “black road cutting through Shadow, a pathway for dark beings” is.

Anyway, Corwin hauls ass until he realizes he’s being stalked by giant cats. Giant talking cats. Giant talking cats who discuss him as if he can’t hear them. Which, you know. Rude. Rude, and very cat-like.

If “giant talking cats” isn’t freaky enough, when he slices them with his silver sword… they catch fire. One of them, as it dies, refers to him as “Opener” and asks why he killed them. This is one of those threads that Zelazny wove here and there, contradicting itself. It’s unclear if Corwin is just confused, perhaps ascribing to himself more import than he deserves, or if Zelazny decided on going in another direction. But in the earlier books the black road is entirely the fault of Corwin’s Curse and later… it isn’t.

And here we have the big reveal as to who exactly Corwin has saved, and a great line.

Thus did I bear Sir Lancelot du Lac to the Keep of Ganelon, whom I trusted like a brother. That is to say, not at all.

I mean, it’s not “I enjoy slaughtering beasts and I think of my relatives constantly” but it’s still good.

It turns out that yes, this is the guy Corwin knew. Probably. At any rate, he decides to play it safe and continue acting like an old guy who isn’t THAT strong after all.

Pretty much every where that Corwin goes he’s spoken the language of the people around him. It’s interesting that he encounters someone in a Shadow whose language is the same as Amber’s (Thari) who doesn’t speak that language… or any others that he knows.

We also find the name of Corwin’s sword. There’s a lot of debate about what the name means, where it’s from. In the story he mentions there’s a story behind the name, and that he’ll tell that story some time, but he never does – just like he never reveals the trick to eating underwater. Anyway, he sword fights with a guy who’s very good and Corwin reveals that he once dueled against Random for twenty six hours. Wouldn’t you get bored? I’d get bored. Corwin called it quits first but only because he had a hot date, not because he was, like, tired or anything. This time, though, instead of twenty six hours he fought for half an hour and is beat. He’s very aware of how weak he is compared to how he was before his imprisonment and basically starts doing CrossFit. It leaves him exhausted, which helps out as he continues to feign being old.

Ganelon is THE Ganelon, as he asks about Avalon. Corwin takes the chance to recite a bit of his poetry because of course he does. Ganelon also refers to Corwin as The Sorcerer Lord because we don’t see him doing a LOT of magic, but what he does do is pretty impressive. Ganelon is super down on Corwin, just absolutely hates him. But when Corwin tells him that the evil sorcerer was blinded and cast into a dungeon Ganelon is visibly upset by the news. He goes on to reveal his traitorous past, and the cycle where he is a villain who’s recruited by the king to be a hero. He goes up against a creature from the Black Circle, a creature that changes shape and also sets on fire. King Uther soon dies and Ganelon is thrust into the role. He hates it, he’s selfish, he’s self-centered, but he also sees how important this is and how many people are suffering. He’s dutiful, a theme of the books.

As Corwin and Ganelon talk a bird flies up – it’s the “white bird of his desire” that Corwin summoned and released at the close of “Nine Princes in Amber.” The note promises that he’s coming, signed by his own hand.

References:

A cairn is a pile of stones that’s sometimes erected as a marker or monument, but also is often a burial site. Heaping great big rocks over a body prevents predators from eating the body – maybe this is done because it’s not possible to dig a grave, maybe it’s done as a specific funerary practice. It can vary.

A league is 3 miles on land (slightly longer on the water).

“Don’t you smell the brimstone? And my right hoof is killing me.” is a reference to traditional ways that the devil is portrayed. One thing about certain depictions of satan is that he only has one hoof – the version of the story that I heard is that he was bothering an Irish priest and the priest grabbed the devil, threw him to the ground, took off his leg, and swapped it with the leg of a cow that kicked when being milked. You know. As one does. The cow leg still kicks out, which is how you’ll recognize satan if you meet him on the road and chat for more than a minute or two – his hooved leg will kick out. I guess the cow then had a human/satanic leg? History does not relate. I forget if the myth specified which leg was swapped out. Zelazny’s mom was Irish (American) and Irish mythology very much influenced his writing.

“Doing time” is slang for serving a prison sentence. Or in Corwin’s case being blinded in a dungeon, I guess.

Lancelot du Lac was one of the Knights of the Round Table of Arthurian myth, first recorded (as opposed to being part of the oral tradition) was by French poet Chrétien de Troyes. His origins are pretty unclear – maybe he’s Welsh! Or Irish! Or Hungarian! Or a bunch of stuff wadded up and smashed together! Which is different from the kid that French poets gave him, who is the most perfect to knight to ever perfect knighthood. Lancelot… fucks.

“Laceration by means of the eyeballs” is another way of saying “looking daggers” or “staring daggers” [at someone]. This generally means to glare angrily at someone. Ganelon is a bit suspicious, or maybe Corwin has a guilty conscious. (or both)

As noted, thumb rings are used in some archery techniques. Everyone in this Shadow speaks the same language as Corwin, they apparently have Christianity in some form, but they have different fighting styles.

“Grayswandir” is also a weapon in the video game “NetHack.”

“How Many Miles to Avalon” is most likely a reference to “How Many Miles to Babylon.”

Uther Pendragon was the father of King Arthur. Yes, that Arthur.

“Why number the teeth of a horse you may receive for nothing?” is a reference to “don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” The context of the original saying is that you can tell how old a horse is by looking at its teeth and it’s rude to examine something that’s a gift that way. Just accept it and move on.

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9 Princes in Amber: Ch. 10

Sun, 18 May 2025 02:50:01 GMT

This is it. This is the final chapter in this slim little book published in 1970. Are you prepared for this?

Corwin steps through the Trump, a fire smoldering behind him, onto a beach. The sun’s out. There’s a breeze. It smells like the ocean. There’s some boats bobbing on the water. Remember that he hasn’t regained all of his vision so even if you discount “moving from fire-lit darkness to daylight” his vision isn’t great. He takes his filthy, ragged, lousy, emaciated self to the lighthouse and knocks on the door. Dworkin’s old pal Jopin, the lighthouse keeper, answers it and totally believes the story that this crusty filthy guy was awash in the waves for a long time. He’s drunk, which probably helps.

Jopin helps him to bed, Corwin gets settled, takes his boots off, realizes just how disgusting he is, and quickly puts them back on so Jopin doesn’t see how dirty they are. He’s drunk, but he’s not THAT drunk. Probably. Jopin brings him something to eat. He crashes soon after eating, understandably.

Corwin spends some time with Jopin getting his strength back, recovering. It’s kind of a lovely peaceful domestic situation in many ways – he cleans, he fixes the place up. He’s pretty handy. He helps Jopin update some of his nautical charts and they discuss politics a bit (Jopin thinks everyone sucks). We also find out that Corwin and his family aren’t the only people who live a long time – Jopin commanded a ship for over 100 years and he’s Just Some Guy.

Just as he’s making up his mind to head out someone attempts to contact Corwin via Trump. He resists and… I find this FASCINATING… in his resistance he starts pacing. He realizes after the fact that he’d been pacing out the dimensions of his cell, the place he’d spent so much time in the darkness. The contact helps him make up his mind about leaving and he tells Jopin that he’s heading out. Jopin, who’s known who he actually is for a while now, tells him to check out the Valley of Garnath before he goes – that beautiful place that Eric had burnt down, reduced to nothing but ash and ruin. When Corwin does he doesn’t like what he sees because what he sees is himself.

The Curse he pronounced as the hot irons sizzled against his eyes is manifest as a blight upon the land, a road for all things foul and evil. It’s a road that someone who isn’t of the blood of Oberon can use to walk through Shadow; it’s a road that any malicious person can use to enter Amber, or send dark things out of Shadow to bedevil Amber. It’s something that puts Amber at risk, and needs to be dealt with. Sooner or later Corwin is going to have to face his hate made manifest.

He grabs a quick breakfast hops onto one of Jopin’s boats to sail through Shadow which is pretty cool. He summons two “birds of his desire,” one white and one black, and sends them off with a message. The white one says “I am coming,” and he signs it with his name; the black one says “fuck u Eric lol.” No, just kidding. It says “Eric—I’ll be back,” and it was signed: “Corwin, Lord of Amber.” Lord, not King, which is interesting.

And just as this book opens with a great line, it closes with one too:

A demon wind propelled me east of the sun.

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9 Princes in Amber: Ch. 9 Pt. 2

Sun, 18 May 2025 02:46:31 GMT

Corwin continues trying to dig his way out of his cell via a spoon applied to the very thick wooden door of the cell. It’s extremely slow going, of course, and one wonders if it’s possible the spoon could wear out before the door is scraped through. He’s a stubborn guy with everything to lose, though, so he keeps at it.

At least, until he hears someone laughing… in his cell with him.

I would lose my shit, personally.

It’s a small cell. There’s only one way in/out. It’s pitch black. And suddenly there’s someone there? Someone there and laughing?

I don’t know, I suppose I might just assume I’d lost touch with reason.

He lights a match, a tiny light in the darkness, and makes out Dworkin – the small man who inscribed the Pattern and created the Trumps. And I cannot help it but I always picture Alan Moore when I think of Dworkin, even though Moore is not a 5 foot tall hunchback. He is, however, a wizard who could probably create an entire universe of alternate worlds if he cared to. I presume that he, like W. B. Yeats, could kick a rival wizard out of his house – literally. With his feet. Just winning a battle of magical wiles both with arcane powers and also with mighty thews.

Dworkin is full of deranged giggles, which is not reassuring. He recognizes Corwin, at least, and states that Oberon locked him away. He drops a few really interesting pieces of information:

that he thought of a way to destroy Amber. This story line was reshuffled a bit later in the books, putting the blame on Bleys, Fiona, and Brand. Although I suppose Dworkin may have told them about it first, before telling Oberon.

that Oberon brought in psychologists to treat him which is just… weird. This seems like a very Of Its Time sort of detail, and also feels like Zelazny hadn’t made some important decisions about who and what Dworkin actually is… or made those decisions and then changed them.

that Dworkin is able to turn people into animals. This is not something that really comes up again, even when we get sorcerers infesting everything. Turning people into coat racks, sure. Animals? No.

that he can create Trumps… of things he can’t see.

Dworkin doesn’t seem to understand, or perhaps doesn’t believe, that Oberon is dead. He also doesn’t seem to notice that Corwin is in a dank, foul smelling cell with no furniture, in total darkness. He’s put out that Corwin doesn’t have “pen and parchment” and wants to nip back home to finish the book he’s reading. I can understand that. Corwin, who is extremely charismatic if you remember, sweet talks Dworkin into promising to draw him a Trump of the Lighthouse of Cabra on the wall of his cell.

Dworkin agrees and Corwin hands over “the stylus,” which Dworkin correctly identifies as a sharpened spoon (sharpened from being scraped against the door so often for so long). The little man quickly sketches a lighthouse on the wall, then a little study for himself (complete with a skull on the desk) on the other wall. He goes home and Corwin gets ready to move on to the next step in his sudden new plan when Dworkin pops back in with a very valid question: how can Corwin see the artwork in the dark? Corwin lies, of course, and uses up his second to last match so Dworkin can get back home.

Standing there in the darkness Corwin can feel the power of the Trumps that Dworkin drew on the walls. He can’t see them, but he can feel them. They’re there, ready to be used, waiting to be used, but he needs to be able to see to use them.

He has one match left.

Everything in the cell is kind of damp and by “everything” I mean him, the straw on the floor, and his little mattress stuffed with straw. And the empty match books.

He manages to make a fire with the very last of his matches, though, and the Trump of the lighthouse comes alive and he walks through it and into freedom.

There’s one chapter left.

In a very different story Corwin would have returned with Dworkin to his comfortable cell with books and globe and skull and parchment and pens. He would have discovered some very important things a lot earlier than he actually did. That is not, however, the kind of person that he is.

References:

He used to bring men who showed me splotches of ink and made me tell stories about them. These psychologists administered Rorschach Ink Tests, which were invented by a guy who looks a little bit like Brad Pitt.

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9 Princes in Amber: Ch. 9 Pt. 1

Sun, 18 May 2025 02:41:25 GMT

The next few years pass as the first one did.

Rein comes to visit him more and more frequently which honestly is very, very suspicious and Corwin doesn’t question it because he is very aware that he is A Main Character. His siblings all occupy the same positions they had previously, including Random (and Vialle) in prison. Everything is unchanged except for one very important thing.

What is that thing?

Why, Corwin’s vision is returning, of course!

He has literally regrown literal eyeballs and also the ability to use them, at least a little bit. He can see a patch of light.

This is a big thing.

This is huge.

This is potentially deadly if anyone finds out.

The anniversary of the coronation is coming up.

Corwin suddenly has a deadline to escape – and escape is now a real, albeit distant, possibility.

He comes up with a ridiculous, desperate, “would only work in fiction” plan involving digging his way out (through a very thick door) with a spoon and then beating people up. He’s pretty emaciated, though. How emaciated? He grabs his bicep – his upper arm – and his fingertips touch.

Now, granted, my fingers are both short and fat but when I hold my hand in such a way that my thumb and middle finger meet, like they’re wrapped around something, that’s like… a bone. He would be some skin stretched over a bone. My child has long slender fingers and I asked her to act like she was holding something and that’s a larger area but… it’s not big! It’s not a big arm! That’s not much muscle! That’s scary, in fact! It is delusional to think he can beat some guys up. It’s delusional to think he can beat ONE guy up. He mentioned earlier that he sometimes gets dizzy if he stands up too quickly. And he plans on killing some trained, healthy, armed guards, running off to the Pattern, and walking it? Which he could barely do in Rebma when he was just about at the peak of health?

Desperation, man!

And the worst part is that he KNOWS this is a bad plan that won’t work but it’s all that he has. This HAS to work because the alternative is, what, getting blinded anew every year? Death? Which would be worse, an unending cycle of agony and solitude and starvation and the slow hope of healing and then pain again? Or just being dead? Hard to say! Both suck, actually.

And the whole “then I’ll come back and take my throne because I’m the actualfacts rightful king because I crowned myself” thing? Dude, come ON. Get real. This is how a CHILD thinks. This is how someone who is not rational thinks.

I’m telling you, absolute desperation.

Luckily he has an encounter with a magical madman and that changes everything.

References:

Napoleon is a reference to Napoleon Bonaparte. As established previously, Corwin took part in his disastrous Russia Campaign.

General MacArthur is Douglas MacArthur, famed top commander of the US Army in WWII and the Korean War.

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9 Princes in Amber: Ch. 8

Sun, 18 May 2025 02:37:37 GMT

There’s only 10 chapters in this novel and we’re already on chapter 8.

There are ten books total, 5 per “chronicle.” One’s told from the point of view of Corwin, the second is from the point of view of his son, Merlin.

Each five book cycle is about the size of a modern fantasy doorstopper. We need shorter books, quite frankly. Am I just old? Maybe I’m just old. We were lucky enough to be able to watch “Vampire Hunter D” in theaters recently and that movie is a slim 80 minutes long and that’s a good length for a film. Efficient. No padding, no filler.

Can we get back to that?

Can we get more books the length of “The Hobbit”?

Anyway.

Corwin’s in jail. More than that, he’s in a dungeon. It’s dark, it’s cold, it stinks, he gets some bread and water and a little meat and no cigarettes but has no idea how much time has passed. Underfeeding someone is a great way to control them. A regiment of guards comes and takes Corwin someplace to get cleaned up and dressed in clothing befitting his rank, his colors and his sigil, and he goes along with it because there’s so many of them and he’s not FULLY a fool. Just mostly. He’s taken to a smith and he’s manacled and chained and lead through the great castle. He mentions passing “through rooms where we had played as children.”

Obviously he and at least SOME of his siblings were kids at overlapping time (probably) and they played, possibly with each other. How do you get from kids playing with each other to adults who hate each other and are willing to hurt and kill each other? Not just some reddit low contact/no contact golden child narcissist who’s the asshole/who’s right and why is it me stuff. These are people who hate and despise each other, are fine with killing each other as long as it won’t piss dad off too much. It’s sad! It’s really sad. It’s depressing. I hate thinking about it.

Corwin’s brought into a big dining hall and is seated at the foot of the table, right near Julian… Julian who stood against him! Julian who fought him! Julian, who Eric still hates! Corwin sets about insulting Julian and being obnoxious; when Eric enters he switches his insults to Eric including getting off a zinger about Eric being at the foot of the table (because he, Corwin, is at the head of the table, take that! the table has turned!).

The whole point of having Corwin at Eric’s coronation is to have Corwin debase himself by crowning Eric. It’s pretty humiliating, and also one of the most human things is Corwin just… thinking about their dad wearing that crown. Ultimately Eric is crowned (he crowns himself) and gets his final dig in.

“Your eyes have looked upon the fairest sight they will ever hold… Guards! Take Corwin away to the smithy, and let his eyes be burnt from out his head! Let him remember the sights of this day as the last he might ever see! Then cast him into the darkness of the deepest dungeon beneath Amber, and let his name be forgotten!”

To my immense fury, this line was lifted for some dragon movie decades later.

Corwin’s dragged off and his eyes are burnt out, every bit of them including the tear ducts.

At some point he pronounces a curse on Eric and it’s a really… it’s a slippery thing that Zelazny defines and redefines over the course of the books.

Perhaps it was then that I pronounced the curse, or perhaps it had been at the time that the whitehot irons had descended. I don’t remember. But I knew that Eric would never rest easy upon the throne, for the curse of a prince of Amber, pronounced in a fullness of fury, is always potent.

At one point it’s treated as a thing that happens at death, like a death bed confession but a curse. But here it’s just something you can make happen when you’re angry enough, when you’re furious enough. It’s one of the ways that Zelazny depowered his god-like characters.

Corwin is trapped in the darkness, the filth, the cold. He has no way to clean any part of himself, his toilet is a hole in the ground. He has no way to judge the passing of time, which is extremely disorienting. He isn’t getting enough calories, he’s weak and has reduced stamina. This would affect his ability to escape. But even if he did escape without his vision he can’t walk in Shadow. He’s trapped in several different ways. He’s powerless on multiple levels.

At one point while trapped in darkness someone comes to his door – his old friend Rein pops up to give him food, clean clothing, and cigarettes. He was present at the coronation and avoided Corwin then, but now he’s risking his neck to try to make things a little more comfortable for him. He lets us know how much time has passed, gives a quick update as to what’s going on in Amber, and drops the little bomb that Random is also in a cell.

That little fink walked the Pattern in Rebma (which is physically and mentally difficult) to teleport himself and a crossbow to Eric to try and murder him. That’s my boy. It’s no piranha in a chamber pot but it’ll do.

His Rebman wife, Vialle, requests to join him. This says a lot about Random and the effect he’s had on Vialle. Remember, they were not a love match. Marriage to Vialle was meant to be a temporary thing, a punishment. It’s been something like half a year since he got married.

Corwin muses on Rein and their relationship. It’s a nice little but where Corwin is humanized. He liked to sing and carouse and he fought in defense of Amber. He had friends. He admits that Rein’s better at poetry and lyrics than he is, a pretty big admission. He eats and drinks and smokes and thinks and although he admits that he may have gone a bit mad he also has something to keep him going – a thin strand of hope.

See, he survived bubonic plague. He was temporarily blinded by cannon flashback. Later on he runs down a list of various small body parts he’d lost and regrown. And while he’s imprisoned? He regains the ability to weep.

Two men instead of a regiment of guards come and get him out of his cell. He’s bathed, groomed, deloused, and dressed in clothing that is too large for him. It’s the first anniversary of Eric’s coronation. It’s already been a year; it’s only been a year. Caine is still in favor.

Corwin is there at the coronation and not there. He is a reminder of what happens to those who stand against Eric. He’s defanged, declawed, helpless. This is where he is, and this is what’s become of him. Watch out.

He’s so subdued, so powerless, that they don’t even manacle or chain him. They just shove him in a corner while the festivities range around him. There’s nothing he can do.

He gets drunk and wakes up back in his cell, no doubt brutally hungover.

References:

Ermine, aka stoat, is a weasel-like animal that turns white in the winter. European royalty used to wear white ermine robes because 1) the color white was linked to purity and 2) since ermine are small it takes a lot of them to make a cloak, it’s expensive.

Greensleeves is a song dating from the 1500s and falsely accredited to King Henry VIII. It was kind of standard courtly old-timey music in period films for a while. The song “what child is this” is set to the same tune. It’s a Romantic song, played on a lute.

“A head of cheese” is hard cheese, not to be confused with “head cheese” (which isn’t cheese). I want to say that it’s a specific shape or size but it’s hard to find information about “head of cheese” as opposed to “head cheese” with the current search engines we have. Which, for you young people, is still way better than the search engines we used to have.

A carton of cigarettes typically contains 10 packs of cigarettes for a total, generally, of 200 cigarettes. Some larger cartons contain 20 packs. Corwin’s apparently contains 12 packs, and he somehow knows they are Salems specifically. Salems are filtered and menthol, and perhaps that combination gives it away? They weren’t the only menthol filtered cigarettes at the time, though. Anyway, he’s putting away half a pack of smokes a day while getting inadequate calories and god, the withdrawal he must go through when he runs out… !

Rein, as a name, means advice or counsel. It’s also, you know, the straps used to guide a horse.
“Thee” is used in some versions of the Bible so modern readers assume it’s a formal way of saying “you.” It’s actually a very personal, affectionate, intimate way of saying it. That was the point of using it originally! “You” was more formal. Anyway, Corwin says “thee” because Rein is his buddy. He’s not just lapsing randomly into pseudo-historic Fantasy Speak out of nowhere. Rein risked his life to bring Corwin food, sympathy, and comfort. That’s a big thing.

CARE packages are now just little packages of nice things that you send to someone. Some fluffy socks, cookies, a few bags of a regional potato chip, a book, a nice card, whatever. During WWII, however, it was a program to send food to Europe. That’s where the term comes from and it’s why CARE is all capitalized.

“Voices Together Raised” is a reference to something and I can’t place it, which sucks. There’s a scholarly article which touches on it, I think, but I can’t access it.

“Weirmonken” are… I don’t know… werewolves but monkeys? Weremonkeys? He refers to werewolves as “weir” previously in the novel.

“Durance” means “confinement” or “imprisonment.”

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9 Princes in Amber: A Chapter 7 Spoiler

Sun, 18 May 2025 02:27:18 GMT

Toward the end of chapter 7 Corwin makes a snap decision that decides his fate for him. When Bleys is knocked off the cliff Corwin instinctively tosses his Trumps to Bleys, his ultimate means of escape. Random or Llewella would have taken him in,, Moire would have given him sanctuary in Rebma. Deidre would accept him. Gerard would probably intervene. But he literally throws that away.

Below is a spoiler about his decision. “But your blog is FULL of spoilers!” This is a very specific one that doesn’t pop up until later in the series.

( Read on for more. )

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9 Princes in Amber: Ch. 7

Sun, 18 May 2025 02:11:47 GMT

It is a very demoralizing thing to tramp along and be rained on, a cold rain at that. How I’ve always hated the mud, through which it seems I’ve spent centuries marching!

You knew who drew great mud, in the context of soldiers slogging through mud? Bil Mauldin. He drew comics during about the army experience during WWII. He also drew political cartoons later which generally dealt with politics, fascism, racism, sexism, and the poor treatment of veterans. My default “soldiers slogging through the mud” mental image is WWI, though. The interminable trenches, the often-poisonous fog, the feet rotting in wet boots (“trench foot”), etc.

There’s some good, succinct descriptions of the tribulations that Bleys and Corwin’s army marches through, of how much they’re struggling. Corwin doesn’t realize that the man leading the attack on them in the forest that Julian patrols, using Julian’s men, is Julian or else he’d have tried to pull a mental attack on him which is a shame as he most likely would have won. But after the fighting comes what I, personally, find one of the most horrific things in the series:

Someone had set fire to the Forest of Arden as a war tool.

To burn this ancient wood. as venerable as the Forest of Arden, seemed almost an act of sacrilege to me.

I really have to agree with that sentiment.

In part because it’s a place that Corwin loves, is emotionally invested in.

But more than that it’s destruction for the sake of power. An entire gorgeous ancient forest, a real forest that can’t be easily Shadow Shifted to be like it was, that will never be restored to what it once was, that will take centuries to heal and regrow, is gone because some dillweeds want power. All the creatures of the forest, the deer and rabbits and pheasant and bears and whatever, they’re all suffering and will die because a bunch of jaggoffs are in a political scrap.

I’ve never been in a wildfire but I have been around a lot of bonfires and campfires and was also in a house fire and his descriptions of being in a fire ring as pretty true.

Corwin and Bleys and some of their troops head for the river Oisen to escape the flames and heat. The pair manage to stay relatively close to each other and there’s a beautiful bit of description:

The interlocked branches of the trees overhead had become as the beams in a cathedral of fire.

That’s just so evocative.

The water is cold and while that might in theory be good for their burns it’s also physically difficult to be submerged in cold water. They shiver and cramp and swim and drift. Eventually, of course, there’s archers. Corwin gets injured and separated from the rest and Zelazny has him remove an arrow from his person in the way that arrows actually should be removed. I.E. he doesn’t just yank it out. You love to see it.

Bleys stood there and called things, like Robert E. Lee at Chancellorsville, and we took them.

This is an interesting comparison.

Robert E. Lee was a great tactician.

Robert E. Lee defeated a larger, healthier, better equipped force.

Robert E. Lee and the confederacy were scrappy rebels.

And Also:

Robert E. Lee and his scrappy rebels were fighting for the states’ right to literally own people as slaves.

Zelazny references various tactical geniuses throughout the Amber novels. Sometimes it’s a direct comparison of one Amberite to a specific guy, other times it’s casually mentioning one of them reading a book by a specific guy. It’s interesting that here he specifically picks Lee. There’s other generals that have vanquished larger forces but Lee and Stonewall Jackson, who received a mortal wound on the battlefield, were advocating for the right to own other people like they were property. As they lead big red guys and little furry guys who think they’re gods into battle. Is that intentional on Zelazny’s part, or is that just the first battle he thought of? Or did he want the vibe of “two great war guys, one of whom is killed”? 98% of the troops they dragged along with them died – they died of the cold and they drowned and they burned and they bled all so two dudes can gain a bit of political power. So much futile death.

They reach the foot of the mountain Kolvir and begin climbing the great stair that zigs and zags its way up. Corwin and Bleys stick a bunch of their men in front of them as they can only go single file, and Amber troops wind their way down as well. They’re basically reduced to single combat, one dude against another, the loser falling off the mountain and down, down, down to the rocks below.

The breeze was sharp and cool from off the sea, and birds were collecting at the foot of the mountain.

The carrion birds know what’s up and are feasting well.

The men fight and they die and they fight and they die and then Bleys is at the front of the line and he fights and others die and he fights and others die and Corwin wishes he could spell him for a bit but there’s no way for him to get in front of him, the passage is too narrow and things are moving too quickly. This is another long stretch of fighty bit that would look good and dramatic on screen, up to and including the dramatic falling-to-his-death of Bleys.

Corwin, acting on instinct, chucks his Trumps at Bleys on the slight chance that Bleys can 1) catch them 2) open the box 3) pull out a usable Trump 4) make contact with someone 5) get pulled through. That is a very slight chance, indeed! Minuscule, even. The rest of the book, the outcome of the book, hinges on this scene (aided by Corwin not being able to spell Bleys for a bit).

Now it’s Corwin’s turn to fight and kill and fight and kill and grind himself and his men down. It’s exhausting, physically and emotionally, and of COURSE he regrets tossing his chance at escape to Bleys. He’s reduced to just killing and killing and killing.

But there was no one to surrender to, no one asking for a surrender.

If he’d stuck his hands up and yelled for parlay would the opposing forces have listened to him? Probably not! He’s stuck in a hell he created for himself.

Eric’s people kill everyone but Corwin, and capture him then beat him. He wakes up in a dungeon and, because he’s INCREDIBLY dramatic, his first thought is suicide. He has a pretty good grasp on the situation – torture, suffering, etc. Once again, he’s alone, isolated.

I awakened, and still no one came to me. There was none to buy, none to torture.

Just leaving him alone is a powerful move against him. Even accounting for him talking himself up he still comes across as a pretty charismatic and manipulative man. If there had been guards there would he have been able to strike a deal? Would he have been able to talk Eric around? It doesn’t matter because that’s not the hand he’s been dealt… or dealt himself.

He lays himself down and sleeps.

References:

“Oisen” is another Irish reference – a name more typically spelled “Oisín,” at least now. It’s male name meaning fawn or little deer. Oisín was a pretty important Irish poet, warrior, and of course demi-god. Like Corwin (who could also be described as a poet, warrior, and demi-god if not outright god) he narrates his epic cycles. It’s pronounced kind of like “USH-een.”

“Valley/Vale of Garnath” has been picked up by some RPGs. For instance, “Warstone” uses Garnath as a location. A lot of nerds use Garnath as a handle, too. Bless those nerds.

“Corps-à-corps” or “body to body” is when you’re fencing and a part of your body/hilt touches the other person’s body/hilt. This isn’t permitted in bouts. Bleys is fighting in a two hand sword-and-dagger style.

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9 Princes in Amber: Ch. 6 Pt. 2

Sun, 18 May 2025 02:04:17 GMT

Corwin and his ships manage to ride out the storms. Once over Rebman waters, Corwin pulls out Random’s Trump and has a chat with him. Random drops some pretty important knowledge – namely, that Eric can control the weather, hence the storms. He also passes on tactical advice from Llewella. You know how much the women all suck and are bitches who may or may not deserve death? Llewella apparently has good advice. Random agrees with it. He also states that he could tell what Corwin (and Bleys) was doing, due to “a wavering of Shadow,” which is just cool. This first book has Amber casting much great influence on the Shadows around it than later books do.

Random also tosses out a bit more info that never comes up again, but fits within the context of Rebma-as-currently established: namely, that there’s a second Jewel of Judgement.

“Then you must think you have a chance upon the waters. But listen, Eric has figured a way to control the Jewel of Judgment, I gather, from court gossip about its double.”

Maybe it’s a copy, a minor artifact, a piece of jewelry, a talisman. There’s no way it can come close to matching the actual Jewel of Judgement in terms of power or of history. The idea of there being a duplicate of it, just as there’s a duplicate Pattern, is so interesting though… and also raises the question of there being a ghostly Jewel up in Tir-na Nog’th.

Eric Trumped Random so he could drop some info on him about his plans and what he could do, knowing it would get back to Corwin. The whole “controlling the weather thing” is big. Random, like Llewella, advises Corwin to sit this one out and attack Eric later. It’s a sensible plan. Corwin is not, however, a sensible person and sticks with Bleys’ plan. He improvises a bit, though, and summons up a blizzard, a “Shadow offering.” Eric manages to turn it aside, though.

As his namesake did before him, Caine betrays Corwin. Ok, ok. Not exactly like. Caine didn’t murder Corwin as Cain did Abel, but he absolutely reneges on their deal now that he sees Corwin has no chance of winning. Corwin asks Gerard for help and Gerard declines to take part in killing a sibling, leaving Corwin on his own. Gerard and Benedict are two of the best of the brothers.

I decided then that my centuries on the Shadow Earth had changed me, softened me perhaps, had done something to me which made me unlike my brothers.

One of the things Corwin grapples with throughout the series is how living so long in Shadow, unaware of who and what he is, changed him. But honestly, maybe I’m just too much of a Gerard fan, but I cannot see him acting so coldly toward others, so quick to lead people to their death.

While Corwin is trying to figure out his next step Eric contacts him via Trump in one of my favorite Trump abilities – he captures Corwin mentally and they engage in a dual of wills. They exchange some witty banter and it seems like Eric doesn’t hate Corwin as much as Corwin hates Eric.

“I more than half wish you had stood by me,” he said. “I could have used you more than any of the others. Julian I spit upon. Caine is a coward. Gerard is strong, but stupid.”

Corwin is a potential asset to Eric – or at least that’s the story that Corwin is telling himself/us/his unseen audience. Eric holds Corwin in higher esteem than he holds Caine, Julian, or Gerard… again, according to Corwin. I, for one, reject this base Gerard slander. Corwin also takes the chance to tell a little lie on Random’s behalf:

“Listen,” I said. “I conned Random into coming here with me. He wasn’t hot on the idea. I think he would have supported you, had you asked him.”

The Random we have seen in this book absolutely would not have supported Eric in any way, shape, or form.

Eric, however, knows this:

“That bastard!” he said. “I wouldn’t trust him to empty chamber pots. One day I’d find a piranha in mine.”

I mean… yeah. But it’s interesting to see Corwin trying to intervene on behalf of others – he asks Random to be kind to Vialle, he tries to sweet talk Eric into not claiming some kind of vendetta against Random.

Now, it’s very valid to ask just how unreliable of a narrator Corwin is. Like, is this actually the default state of Amberites – to be cold hearted selfish dicks? To be basically self-centered sociopaths? To be obsessed with ruling over all of reality? Or is Corwin trying to justify his own actions? Is being vaguely decent towards others truly that rare a thing for them? I keep coming back to this point but sometimes it’s hard to tease apart the bits that are “Corwin is an unreliable narrator” and the bits that are “Zelazny changed his mind about stuff.” There’s also the question of just how much the incredible trauma that Corwin goes through changes him.

But even as Corwin grapples with the morality of sending a bunch of big red and small furry creatures to their violent deaths, he still has the mental space for grim observations like:

We slew everyone aboard both boarding ships and opened their hatches and sent them down to Rebma where Random would be amused by the carnage.

Ew. I mean, ew. “amused by the carnage”? He does not have a great opinion of Random, or else “great opinion” means “wow what a dangerous psychopath!”

Anyway, as soon as the battle turns fully against him and Caine comes to take him prisoner personally Corwin nopes out, leaving his men behind. He feels kind of bad about it, though.

As I stood on a hilltop and the evening began around me, it seemed as if I looked out over every camp I had ever stood within, stretching on and on over the miles and the centuries without end. I suddenly felt tears come into my eyes, for the men who are not like the lords of Amber, living but a brief span and passing into dust, that so many of them must meet their ends upon the battlefields of the world.

“It sure sucks that so many mortal men are doomed to die fighting on battlefields.” Look, buddy, this is on you. This is entirely on you. You could change this, directly, absolutely.

References:

“Then you’re crazy, Charlie.” This is a phrase I heard someone stumbling over on a podcast. Why call him Charlie? What does that mean? Eh, “Charlie” is a way of saying “buddy” or “guy” or similar. “You’re crazy, pal.” It can also mean “fool.”

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9 Princes in Amber: Ch. 6 Pt. 1

Sun, 18 May 2025 02:00:08 GMT

The climate was warm and the colors bewildering, and everyone thought we were gods.

Bleys takes Corwin to review his fighting force. His soldiers are fairly demonic looking, lacking only horns and barbed tails. Their clothes are all blue or grey, which is kind of a Star Trek vibe (everyone wearing almost exactly the same thing). The land is called Avernus, which is an actual place in Italy – a site said to be the location of the entrance to the underworld.

Corwin points out a lot of flaws in Bleys’ plan – he doesn’t have enough guys, for one. He expresses some pretty grave misgivings about the whole thing and Bleys lashes out, pointing out accurately that Corwin is bringing nothing to the war table. He suggests finding a Shadow of his Shadow and mustering up some troops there, a suggestion that hurts Corwin’s heart. He refuses and heads off to find his own nonhuman troops.

We get another example of how stiff necked and proud they are, when Bleys offers to apologize for not being nice enough to Corwin.

“Stay with me, please. I will even apologize.”

“That is not necessary,” I said, knowing what this thing means to a prince of Amber. “I’ll stay. I think I can help you.”

Which is pretty extreme, honestly. They are SO grandiose and SO dramatic yet it fits.

Corwin promises to get his own bodies to throw into the sausage grinder and does so – furry little guys with fangs and claws. I always think of them as being blue for some reason; maybe because Bleys’ guys are red. Corwin gathers up his troops to pursue his birthright, musters up these little furry guys who think he’s a god, but he feels kind of bad and guilty about it.

[…] and about as intelligent as a freshman in the high school of your choice-sorry, kids, but what I mean is they were loyal, devoted, honest, and too easily screwed by bastards like me and my brother. I felt like the dee-jay of your choice.

It’s an evocative description, one that I “got” when I myself was a freshman in high school and one that resonates even more now when I, an old person, look at kids in high school and what they have to deal with and how easily betrayed they are. I don’t mean this as a slight against teenagers – I love teens, they’re great. It’s an admission that there’s a lot of adult predators who use teens, manipulate them, to get what they want and then toss them aside. It’s sick and it’s sad.

But I was feeling kind of funny. Most of these troops were destined to die. I was the agent responsible for much of this. I felt some remorse, though I knew the difference between Shadow and Substance. Each death would be a real death; however, I knew that also.

This is the biggest difference between Corwin and his siblings. They’ve never been regular jagoffs. Corwin has lived among regular jagoffs, has thought he was a regular jaggoff, has loved regular jaggoffs. These little furry guys are regular jagoffs int heir own way. and a part of Corwin (the jagoff part) recognizes the jagoff in them. He’s managed, despite the odds, to have grown a conscience (about regular jagoffs). But he’s still able to shove that bit of conscience into a box and ignore it to get what he wants. They’re going to die, it’ll be a real death, but at least it’ll uh be a death with honor and er in service to their god (him).

Corwin deals himself a tarot reading, a thing that largely is not brought up again; although a story written a few decades after this involves a different (and very cool) form of fortune telling. He actually does this a few times, looking for different things. He gets the same result each time – one of his brothers, Caine. He calls Caine up and they gossip, they banter, they work out a deal where Caine will hold his ships back while Corwin and Bleys sneak their own ships through. Caine also requests “a regency” (note again, not a dukedom or earldom or whatever, a regency) and also wants to murder Random which… I can see it. Corwin says no to that last one, though.

He consults with Gerard, who goes along with his ideas. He can’t reach Benedict, though, and when he tries Brand something unpleasant happens – Brand screams and begs for help and things go wild before the connection is severed. This comes up again in the next book.

Having made contact with several people and perhaps feeling a bit maudlin Corwin considers his father’s Trump and attempts to make contact. Amazingly he succeeds – he and Oberon have a quick chat and Oberon doesn’t tell him what happened, claims nobody else consulted him, and gives Corwin his blessing to take the throne – urging him to do it quickly. Corwin does not tell anyone about this or make a second attempt to reach him.

He does, however, check in with Bleys about what would have happened if he hadn’t popped up when he did. What would Bleys have done? Bleys tells him a nice story about his previous plans, including the fact that he purposely went to a Shadow where a brother would help him. Benedict, maybe? A different brother having a sudden change of heart? The story is a thin one, though, and Corwin has doubts about it; but he knows Bleys as such a brilliant tactician that of course he’d have made it work. Of course. He totally didn’t have some other secret plan.

Corwin realizes, happily, that he can still navigate Shadow and can recognize a route to Amber.

Corwin is bringing troops by sea and Bleys by land. It’s not going well, mostly for Bleys, although after 8 days of journey it’s Corwin’s turn to have troubles. Namely, it storms. It pounds them for hours without lightening up; Corwin ties himself to the ship’s steering wheel so he can continue guiding the ship without them getting blown horrifically off course (or getting washed overboard). How bad is it? So bad a leviathan or whatever gets itself gone.

“Storm?” he said.

“You bet your sweet ass. It’s the granddaddy of them all. I think I see a monster off to port. If he has any brains, he’ll aim for the bottom… He just did.”

After the storm, Corwin realizes that he’s lost half the fleet.

He also needs a bit of hot gos and Trumps Random for the latest news. More on that in the next post.

References:

Caine is an alternate spelling of Cain, the first born of Adam and Eve in the Christian mythos. Cain was a farmer, and his brother Abel was a shepherd. Both offered up sacrifices to God and God was not super accepting of Cain’s grains and fruits but he was well pleased with the smoking fat and meat and blood of Abel’s offerings. Cain, jealous, killed his brother Abel, committing the world’s first murder. God then banished Cain, sentencing him to a lifetime of wandering.

The “Russian Campaign” refers to the catastrophic French attempts to invade Russia. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers were killed by starvation, disease, and the cold, accomplishing nothing (other than setting Corwin a few steps further toward Amber).

“Guide and Opener of the Way” sounds like it refers to something – possibly Robert Bloch’s short story collection “The Opener of the Way.” Some of the stories are part of the Cthulian mythos. A god leading a force of young men to their doom in a different world might have some overlap there, you know?

“To die, to sleep—/ To sleep—perchance to dream. Ay, there’s the rub!” This is a bit from Hamlet, which basically means “Damn, it’d be great to die. Wouldn’t that be great? Just lie down and die. It’d be like sleeping. Oh wait no, what if I have dreams when I’m dead? That would sure suck. There’s the rub (problem) indeed!”

“Inches and Hours” might be related to the phrase/aphorism “Repentance is not to be measured by inches and hours,” although I can’t find a source for it.

“Then the winds arose, and-if you’ll excuse the expression-broke-upon the vessel I rode.” “Breaking wind” is another euphemism for “passing gas.” It’s a fart joke. Feel free to correct me if there’s a different reference I’m missing but uh… it’s a fart joke.

“Tempest-tossed” is a Shakespearean turn of phrase. I want to say that “storm-torn” is as well, but it’s so widely used it’s hard to tell the origin. Emma Lazarus used the phrase “tempest-tost” in her poem “The New Colossus.”

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9 Princes in Amber: Ch. 5 Pt. 3

Thu, 15 May 2025 03:40:14 GMT

“9 Princes in Amber” starts out with very fast paced short chapters but soon they get longer… and still fast paced.

Raymond Chandler’s advice to writers was that if you didn’t know what to do next send a guy with a gun through the door. This is advice that Zelazny really took to heart in this book. The guys coming through the door don’t necessarily have guns, but they do keep coming through the door. It’s nonstop.

In this case it’s a guy named Dik who came in to empty the wastebaskets and ashtrays. Amber is a fantasy land with sorcerers and unicorns and also people smoke cigarettes and leave their dirty ashtrays lying around and someone has to come in and clean them up.

I feel bad for Dik.

Can you imagine? You walk into a room, you’re doing your thing, and suddenly some dude jumps up from behind a desk and starts talking at you? You knew him when he was younger, he vanished, you assumed he was dead, now he’s back. He’s back and he’s threatening to kill your boss. And he’s not just saying “I’m gonna kill my damned brother!” No. He’s got a whole speech and he’s making you listen to it and he apparently wants you to pass on the message to your boss that this guy’s going to kill him. That will surely go over well!

Corwin gives his florid little speech and claims that Dik’s all in for him and then another guy with a gun enters the room. Metaphorically. There’s no gun – guns don’t work in Amber.

Instead Eric strolls in, ready to hear the florid little speech. Or perhaps he’s overheard enough to get the gist of it. Or maybe he just knows Corwin well enough that he can predict what Corwin will say. Corwin’s so excited to see his big brother that he starts talking like a jerk – “putting a most obnoxious twang to my voice.” This is such a Little Brother thing to do. It really is. Just think about it. You’ve killed your ridiculous little brother, then found out he wasn’t dead but you manage to keep him prisoner, then he pops up again and starts talking at you in an irritating voice. He hasn’t seen you in hundreds of years, he has no idea what the political situation is, but there he is being irritating and threatening you.

At least it gives Dik a chance to get out.

Eric enters the library and the brothers almost immediately start fencing. And the thing about Zelazny is that he fenced (and did a lot of other martial arts) so there’s actual choreography and terminology and stuff and I can’t really follow what they’re doing but Zelazny knows what he’s about. There’s a reason so many fans are eager to see this on the big screen – or the small screen. There’s a ton of duels.

They duel with swords, yes, but also with their wits. They exchange some taunts, some bragging. Corwin realizes that he’s either improved while in exile or perhaps has always been better than he thought but Eric’s conviction that he was the better of them colored Corwin’s perception. Either way he starts getting the better of Eric as Eric’s people come running. Corwin chooses to make quick his escape and Erik flips him off and cusses him out as Corwin ducks back into his hidey hole to escape.

This story, told from Corwin’s point of view, paints Eric as this unreasonable crazy sadistic selfish madman starved for power. But the brother Corwin trusts most has allied with him, and in this scene Eric expresses regret and that the Crown is a burden. Later books paint him in a much better light, although I don’t know how far ahead Zelazny planned Eric and his motivations… the later books are more complex in general.

An injured Corwin, just a few minutes ahead of an armed force, uses the Trumps he absconded with to contact his brother Bleys, one of the red heads. Bleys accepts his call and pulls him through the Trump to him, the first time we’ve seen that specific use of them. It’s just like… it’s like a videophone teleporter. I really wish I could remember what it was like to read this for the first time, to have a guy raise a piece of colorful pasteboard to his face, gaze into it, and have it come alive and pull him bodily to another location. That’s just so cool, you know? So cool and so portable.

(I also think it’s brilliant how in many ways Trumps are like cellphones long before cellphones existed – people call you at the WORST, most inconvenient times, including when you’re in the middle of something or talking to someone else via Trump. There’s no call waiting, though, and no voicemail. People can pick up an extension and listen in. There’s a party line option. Ok, ok, heading pretty firmly into spoiler territory – of a decades old book.)

Anyway, Bleys zips Corwin through to him and Corwin was hurt worse than he realized and passes out. Bleys could have totally killed or imprisoned him but instead decides to use him to further his shot at the Throne. He, also, hates Erik. After waking up from fainting, Corwin settles in with some hard alcohol and some tobacco, as one does while recovering from blood loss. Bleys commiserates with him about how awful Erik is and how great it’d be to kill him. Just straight up murder him. He doesn’t seem too surprised that Corwin is still alive – most people take it in stride, actually.

They have a late night brotherly gossip session and it’s kind of sad. They all seem to dislike if not outright hate each other, or at least Corwin does.

It is strange, I guess, to have kin and to be without kinship.

That’s just sad, you know? That’s really sad.

Soon after having that little maudlin revelation Corwin decides to fuck Eric up a little more. He Trumps his big brother, who’s tucked into bed, and insults him a little more as a final good-night before taking himself to bed.

An interesting thing as that Corwin claimed to have an army and Bleys does have an army, but Corwin does NOT have an army. At all. We know that werewolves exist in Amber, there’s non-human beings in Amber, and Bleys… seems to have some of them as his personal army.

References:

Uneasy-lies-the-head is a Shakespearean reference – specifically to the play “History of Henry IV, pt II.”

“Wish in one hand and do something else in the other, and squeeze them both and see which comes true.” is a kind of roundabout way of saying “wish in one hand and shit in the other and see which fills up first.”

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9 Princes in Amber: Ch. 5 Pt. 2

Thu, 15 May 2025 03:35:48 GMT

Corwin has set one foot then another upon the lightning traceries of the Pattern and his memories are returning to him. To start:

I saw the paper skins and the knobby, stick-like bones of the dead of Auschwitz. I had been present at Nuremberg, I knew. I heard the voice of Stephen Spender reciting “Vienna,” and I saw Mother Courage cross the stage on the night of a Brecht premiere. I saw the rockets leap up from the stained hard places, Peenemunde, Vandenberg, Kennedy, Kyzyl Kum in Kazakhstan, and I touched with my hands the Wall of China. We were drinking beer and wine, and Shaxpur said he was drunk and went off to puke. I entered the green forests of the Western Reserve and took three scalps one day. I hummed a tune as we marched along and it caught on. It become “Auprès de ma blonde.” I remembered, I remembered … my life within the Shadow place its inhabitants had called the Earth. Three more steps, and I held a bloody blade and saw three dead men and my horse, on which I had fled the revolution in France. And more, so much more, back to—

Auschwitz was a large complex of concentration, labor, and extermination camps that the Nazis built in Poland. While it originally housed Polish prisoners of war and political detainees, Jews, Romani, queer people, and Soviet prisoners of war were soon brought there as well. This is where Josef Mengele tortured people to death under the guise of medical research. Corwin mentions General MacArthur, indicating he was fighting for the Allies.

Nuremberg was a center of Nazi power and influence. Nazi Party conventions/rallies were held there, the Reichstag convened there to pass the Nuremberg Laws which revoked German citizenship for specifically Jews and generally everyone not Aryan. It was the headquarters of Military District XIII, where tank engines, aircraft, and submarines were built. Later, the Nuremberg Trials were held there – Corwin mentions this jokingly in the first few pages of the book. Maybe he was there as witness, maybe he was there to give testimony.

Stephen Spender was an English essayist, poet, and novelist. “Vienna” is a lengthy poem praising the 1934 uprising of Austrian Socialists.

Bertolt Brecht was German poet, playwright, and later screenwriter. “Mother Courage and her Children” is one of his plays. It premiered in Germany in 1941, meaning that Corwin was in Germany in 1941.

The Germans worked on V1 and V2 rockets with, among others, Wernher von Braun at Peenemünde. It’s possible that Corwin was there as a spy for the Allies.

Vandenberg is the Vandenberg Space Force Base in the USA, started in 1941, meant to be a space-launch base.

Kennedy is the Kennedy Space Center, formed in 1962 – just a few years before the book was published.

“Kyzyl Kum in Kazakhstan” is known for its deposits of various precious things including gold, copper, and… uranium. It was once held by the Soviet Union.

The Wall of China is… The Wall of China.

“Shaxpur” is William Shakespeare. Corwin has an affinity for poets and playwrights.

Corwin was in The Western Reserve murdering and mutilating Native Americans. He “took three scalps in one day.” Is it possible he was on the side of the Iroquois and killing white settlers? I don’t know, I guess? But probably not?

Corwin apparently wrote the song Auprès de ma blonde, a French song written in the 1670s.

Roughly 100 years later he was apparently on the wrong side of The French Revolution.

Corwin then goes on to remember how he arrived on Earth.

After Eric beat Corwin up he dropped him off in a Plague-stricken London to die of the plague instead of, like, directly murdering him, which doesn’t really make sense in a rational way but these guys are just… over the top, in every way. They can’t just kill a guy, they have to torture them and let nature take its course to kill them slowly.

Even dying of bubonic plague Corwin manages to splinter peoples’ bones.

He realizes, as he keeps walking, that he was stuck on Earth without a memory since the 1500s… and Flora was there keeping track of him the entire time.

(In a later book, Flora states that it was HER Shadow, she loved it, and that’s part of why nobody questioned why she spent so much time there. Which begs the question of why Eric dropped Corwin there and if it was by design or not.)

We had spent much of our time in wandering in Shadow, or in our own universes. It is an academic, though valid philosophical question, as to whether one with power over Shadow could create his own universe. Whatever the ultimate answer, from a practical point we could.

One question is whether they walk toward worlds of their own creation, or whether they find worlds in their travels that contain what they want. This is never really resolved!

Random bad made it through the Pattern. Even Deirdre had made it. Therefore, I, Corwin, would make it, no matter what the resistance.

Ah, come ON. EVEN Deidre? So gross. He goes on to condescend toward her a bit more as he makes his plans. And what does he plan? Why, he plans to go home, of course!

So he can murder his brother.

Obviously.

He slips into a D&D campaign, lurking in secret passageways so he can break into a library and steal an arcane item. Because this is a non-stop sword and sorcery novel of COURSE someone comes in and Corwin ducks behind cover.

Then he realizes it would be embarrassing to be discovered so he pops back up.

References:

“Black Davy” very possibly refers to one of the Child Ballads, namely “The Raggle-Taggle Gypsy,” “The Black Eyed Gypsy,” and “Black Jack Davy.”

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9 Princes in Amber: Ch. 5 Pt. 1

Thu, 15 May 2025 03:21:57 GMT

Corwin, Deidre, and Random spend two nights skulking through the forest ducking patrols. On the third morning, running on berries and rainwater, they come to the beach – the “pink and sable sands of the great sea.” They need to find the marker on the beach that indicates where the Stairway to Rebma – Faiella-bionin – is located. “Faiella” is an Italian surname that stems from a Sicilian town (Failla) or maybe means “little Fairy.”

I’d assumed it was an Irish name, since so many of the names Zelazny uses in this book are Irish.

It’s apparently named after Oberon’s former one time wife, Faiella, who is the mother of Eric, Corwin and Deidre. She died tragically in childbirth with Deidre. I couldn’t find what “bionin” might be a reference to.

Our ~~heroes~~ protagonists find the marker they need on the beach and start toward it, leaving them very exposed. A hawk, probably Julian’s, circles overhead and hoofbeats pound the earth. They’ve been spotted, they are pursued. They make a run for the ocean and Corwin finds that they’re basically walking down a big staircase into the sea, and then under the sea.

“How are you managing to breathe?” I tried saying, and I heard my own words distantly.

“Relax,” he said quickly. “If you’re holding your breath, let it out and don’t worry. You’ll be able to breathe so long as you don’t venture off the stairway.”

“How can that be?” I asked.

“If we make it, you’ll know,” he said. and his voice had a ringing quality to it, through the cold and passing green.

It, uh, Corwin might know but we don’t.

Zelazny just handwaves big chunks of stuff. How do they breathe underwater? They just do. It’s magic. It’s elegant. Efficient. No wasted words. No turning a slim novel into a weighty tome with explanations of magic systems and the history of magic. Just accept it, the way we accept gravity and magnets. They’re fuckin’ magic. It just is. I love it. I love a complicated in depth detailed magic system too but this? This just IS. You have to take it on faith that it makes sense. You have to trust the story. You have to invest in things other than background details like how the magic works. It just does.

They get down the stairs, there’s a big cinematic fight with murky green light and blooms of drifting blood and maniacal laughter, and then they cross through the gate to Rebma and are safe among people who don’t wear much clothing, and have green nipples. Deidre greets Queen Moire and asks for help against Eric. Moire says she won’t send troops because that will fuck up her city, but also says she hates Eric almost as much as she hates Random.

If he was going to pay-whatever the price-for whatever he had done, I could see that he would pay it like a true prince of Amber-as our three dead brothers had done ages ago, I suddenly recalled. He would pay it, mocking them the while, laughing though his mouth was filled with the blood of his body, and as he died he would pronounce an irrevocable curse which would come to pass.

I just… I just need to point out… that the price he’s paying is to marry a hot chick. I just… seriously. That’s his big sentence. To be married for a year, to a VERY nice lady. Spoiler: they fall in love. Dang, what a horrific punishment. Poor guy.

Deidre does the talking because Corwin doesn’t know what to ask for or why, and Random will be straight up executed if he pushes even the smallest boundary. What does Deidre ask for? Access to power.

“In a place in this building,” she said, “there is a room where few would go. In that room,” she continued, “upon the floor, traced in fiery outline, there lies a duplicate of the thing we call the Pattern. Only a son or daughter of Amber’s late liege may walk this Pattern and live; and it gives to such a person a power over Shadow.” Here Moire blinked several times, and I speculated as to the number of her subjects she had sent upon that path, to gain some control of this power for Rebma. Of course, she had fai!ed. “To walk the Pattern,” Deirdre went on, “should, we feel, restore to Corwin his memory of himself as a prince of Amber. He cannot go to Amber to do it, and this is the only place I know where it is duplicated, other than Tir-na Nog’th, where of course we may not go at this time.”

This is a great introduction to The Pattern, one of the most important things in the series. Among other things it provides power to the people able to navigate it, the power to traverse Shadow, and in this case can heal Corwin’s fractured memory. Moire apparently didn’t know the genetic requirements for the trial, and has sent many of her people to their deaths.

We also discover what Random did to piss off Moire so much: he ran off with her daughter, who returned pregnant and heart broken. She killed herself after giving birth, leaving her son to grow up without any parents. Random didn’t know he had a kid, or else didn’t care. He certainly wasn’t involved in the kid’s life. At all. Because Random is… say it with me… the worst. His poor future wife.

Corwin, meanwhile, has a tête-à-tête with Moire where he mentions he lived in a place that he loved, and a few sentences later mentions that he loves Random as a brother. Moire is pretty shocked to hear this! A lord of Amber capable of LOVE? This is one of the big themes of the series, and something Corwin later touches on explicitly – the idea that he and his siblings are kind of emotionally developmentally arrested and take a long time to mature into adulthood. In this way it makes sense that Random is such an incredible asshole – if he were a human he’d be 15 and listening to Linkin Park and browsing incel forums.

Corwin and Moire fuck, and in addition to having green nipples she also has green pubes. It is VERY important that we know this about her. They go to dinner then and Zelazny continues the whole “Yeah, this is magic, deal with it,” as Corwin continues narrating to his unseen audience including discussing some of the practicalities of living underwave.

After we had eaten-and I had learned the trick of eating under water, which I might detail later on if circumstances really warrant-

“So what was it like visiting this strange and magical realm?”

“Oh, you know, stuff.”

Deidre's no better, though.

“Why is this part of the ocean, within the double of Amber, so different from waters elsewhere?” I asked.

“Because that is the way it is,” said Deirdre, which irritated me.

Like my dude, as you sow so shall you reap. But again, there’s magic! The world is magic! It just is! There’s no long explanations or history!

They start descending a long spiral staircase, but it’s such a long distance that they just… jump off and swim down which is such a great bit of real-world common sense levity.

It’s a nice moment before the Real Shit starts. Corwin sees The Pattern for the first time (in his memory) and it’s impressive. It’s also something that’s never solidly, cohesively described or depicted as Zelazny wanted to leave it up to the reader’s imagination as to what it looks like. Corwin begins walking it after a little instructional pep talk from Random and… the memories start coming.

It’s… a lot.

Corwin’s seen a lot of history.

Corwin’s taken part in a lot of history.

I’m going to go over some of his history in the next entry.

References:

Tir-na Nog’th is “Tír na nÓg” with a “‘th” appended to it. Tír na nÓg is the land of youth or the land of the young, a Celtic other world populated by gods.

Lir is the Irish God of the Sea, and also IS The Sea. God (the ocean) only knows where Benedict is.

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9 Princes in Amber: Ch. 4 Pt. 2

Thu, 15 May 2025 02:51:35 GMT

“What a surprise!” said Julian, in his slow, almost impeded way of speaking and a great hawk that was black and green circled and settled upon his left shoulder.

I always wonder what Zelazny/Corwin means by “impeded.” Gerard isn’t a smart guy and folks just come out and say that, and it’s ok that he isn’t smart. Is Julian just like… intellectually impaired? Trying to hide a stutter? Being made fun of? Does it really matter, in the end? He is, after all, another sociopath.

“I enjoy slaughtering beasts,” he said, “and I think of my relatives constantly.”

This quote is a badass quote. Like, he’s terrifying. This is dark. Brilliant. It also leads directly to Julian letting them go solely so he can chase them again.

Julian, of course, goes down like a punk when Corwin goes after him. He’s all ballsy menace… until he’s flat on his back in the dirt. Corwin takes him prisoner to pump him for information and Julian reveals that he’s siding with Eric just like… as the path of least resistance. Eric’s there? Fine. Might as well support him. Meanwhile Benedict might be dead because… nobody’s heard from him in a few years? Julian really doesn’t seem to care about his family, or his alliances.

He also doesn’t seem surprised to see Corwin. This is a man who takes things as they come.

Now, it’s possible that he’s playing it cool and he has Secret Info as part of a cabal he’s later revealed to be in, that he’s known for a while now that Corwin was still alive. But did Zelazny have that as part of his plan from the start? I don’t think so. The first five books of the series really feel like he was flying by the seat of his pants and making stuff up as he went along without keeping the most careful track of it. He apparently didn’t leave many notes, it just rattled around in his skull. This has lead to a lot of inconsistencies, some of them frustrating.

Corwin declines to kill Julian, showing him mercy. Random refers to it as guile, confessing that he’d have killed Julian himself but that they stood to gain with him being alive. In truth, it’s a demonstration of how living in Shadow for so long, not being Corwin of Amber but rather being Some Guy, has changed him. This is one of the themes of the series, by the way, the story of a man finally growing into adulthood.

“Staring downward through the smoke, I caught my first glimpse of that sea. Beneath the deep blue, almost night-time sky, with that golden sun hanging up there in it, the sea was so rich-thick as paint, textured like a piece of cloth, of royal blue, almost purple-that it troubled me to look upon it.”

One of the big reasons many fans are hype for a tv version of the series is to see the fight scenes play out. Me? I want to see the hell rides and different Shadows and Amber itself. I want to see the monstrous horse constructs and the stippled sky of Chaos.

We learn a bit more about Corwin – information about him dribbles out slowly, unfolds. He’s a poet, a singer, a bard maybe in addition to being a warrior. And we also see that Random has again altered things as they travel – in this case totally changing up their clothing. He even gives himself a hat! Corwin gets a cloak! One with a silver rose-shaped clasp, no less! Just casually magicking up some clothing. And, of course, he managed to summon up Corwin’s magic sword as well as one for himself.

The car finally craps out and they strike out on foot. They eventually leave the road, pride be damned, and night falls. They come across a bunch of men around a fire with a woman tied to a stake and when they realize it’s their sister Random… calls her a bitch. He doesn’t really like her – I assume he doesn’t like anyone. They wade in and kill all the guys and release Deidre and Corwin hugs her a little too much and she catches them up to speed on what’s happening. Eric, she says, is crazy. He wants to keep her a prisoner, or maybe kill her, for some reason. It doesn’t really make sense. And, again, is this Corwin being an unreliable narrator or is this just Zelazny dialing things back later on?

Either way, this is when Corwin realizes that the prize he’s “trying” for is the throne of Amber.

That’s a pretty big thing.

As they crouch in the bushes hiding from various pursuers and dangers Corwin decides it’s a good idea to drop his little “I don’t actually know who I am” bombshell. He seizes the moment to insult Flora a little more. Random goes all in on supporting his attempt at the throne, though.

Enter, at this point, some werewolves.

Raymond Chandler’s big advice to keep a plot moving was to have a guy with a gun come into the room. Zelazny follows a similar strategy in this book, only instead of a guy with a gun we’ve got some werewolves here. It’s another fight scene, and then our trio runs into the bushes again and plan their next big move. This move involves traveling to Rebma, which is the reflection of Amber (“Rebma” is “Amber” spelled backward) including a reflection of The Pattern… and a quick introduction to what that is and what it lets people in their family do. We also get the revelation that Random got up to something in Rebma and isn’t welcome there. He tosses out the phrase “your sister’s sister” and this dude is such a weaselly scumbag.

They travel two more days until they get to “the pink and sable sands of the great sea,” which sounds lovely.

References:

Roman Candles are a type of firework. They’re pretty showy.

“Thari” is the name of two different actual languages – one spoken among Irish Travelers (sometimes referred to as a mystic secret ancient Druidic language) and one spoken in Pakistan. In later books it’s revealed that Thari sounds a little like German to people on Earth.

“The Ballad of the Water-Crossers” isn’t a real thing, as far as I can tell, except for nerds who’ve written their own versions. And there don’t even seem to be that many versions. Where are all the filkers at?

“Dreck” means garbage, or dirt, or poop.

“Ill Met By Moonlight” is a Shakespearean quote – Oberon says “Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania” in act II scene 1 of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”

“Weir” is a reference to “werewolf;” these guys are werewolves or something similar

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9 Princes in Amber: Ch. 4 Pt. 1

Thu, 15 May 2025 02:44:47 GMT

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.

Charles Fort wrote about Weird Shit like rains of frogs, poltergeists, UFOs, etc.

Esso bubble headed gas pumps were produced in the 1940s and 1950s. They were last manufactured in 1956.

The Forest of Arden is referenced a lot in folk lore and fantasy and Shakespeare set plays in it.

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9 Princes in Amber: Ch. 3

Thu, 15 May 2025 01:35:32 GMT

It makes me feel comfortable and secure to have walls of words, beautiful and wise, all around me. I always feel better when I can see that there is something to hold back the shadows.

Corwin wakes up alone, again, but this time he knows where he is for all that he’s still working on who he is. He knows he’s in danger and he’s back to investigating. He heads into the library to take stock of the situation and luckily for him his sister has a big library full of interesting and memory-jogging things. He knows so much about himself without knowing himself, like the fact that he thinks better when occupied with other stuff. Zelazny again delivers information in a sparse, economical way. Corwin knows medical stuff, he knows sword stuff, he knows how to toss a drawer, he knows how to pick a lock.

What he finds in that drawer is a deck of Tarot cards.

Tarot cards are special cards that are sometimes used for playing card games but are also used as a tool of divination. Corwin et al are featured as the Major Arcana, or “Trumps.” Trump is also a card game specific term, where a card that usually has a lower rank is elevated to a higher rank. It’s why we have the expression “to trump something” – to defeat someone/thing or outrank, to win in some way, usually publicly. It’s interesting that Zelazny uses the term “trumps” instead of “major arcana.”

What’s unfortunate is that although Corwin uses the cards as a divination tool, and later we see a few examples of scenes directly referencing Tarot cards (a woman blindfolded and tied to a pole a la the eight of Swords, a youth suspended upside down from his ankle as The Hanged Man) we don’t see the tarot cards actually used as tarot cards much.

The cards give us the first hint that unicorns are important, as there’s one on the backs of the cards and not recognizing the import of it bothers Corwin. He knows that it’s a unicorn, sure, but he doesn’t know what it means… only that it does mean something, mean something incredibly important. They’re COLD which is fascinating, a detail that elevates them. They obviously aren’t just cards. It’s not simply that they were hidden, have a unicorn on them, and have weird super realistic and compelling art. They are cold to the touch. They are unearthly.

This brings us to another bit of info-dumping. There’s a pretty big cast of characters and someone like George R. R. Martin might just include a family tree in the back of his door stopper novels. Instead we get some family photos shuffled in front of us, impressions and observations.

It’s noteworthy that all the women are lumped together in one paragraph. Interestingly, moist and sad Llewella has green hair.

So cocky little Random was in trouble! I had a feeling it shouldn’t have bothered me especially. But now, he was one of the keys to my past, and quite possibly my future also. So I would try to help him, in any way I could, until I’d learned all I wanted from him. I knew that there wasn’t much brotherly love lost between the two of us. But I knew that on the one hand he was nobody’s fool; he was resourceful, shrewd, strangely sentimental over the damnedest things; and on the other hand, his word wasn’t worth the spit behind it, and he’d probably sell my corpse to the medical school of his choice if he could get much for it. I remembered the little fink all right, with only a touch of affection, perhaps for a few pleasant times it seemed we had spent together. But trust him? Never. I decided I wouldn’t tell Flora he was coming until the last possible moment. He might be made to serve as an ace, or at least a knave, in the hole.

Random here sounds like a REAL piece of shit, but don’t worry, he absolutely is. He doesn’t quite live up to his sneaky betrayer nature, but wow does he hate women. He goes through a pretty significant alteration through the books and in many ways it mirrors Corwin’s journey – he matures quite a bit, he grows and changes. But damn he’s a real piece of shit until then. He’s one of the better fleshed-out siblings, maybe because it can be fun to write terrible people.

One thing to note is that Random apparently can take shortcuts through the Shadow. He talks about taking a circuitous route, and avoiding “the wrong shadows.” They can not only travel from one world to another, but take shortcuts from one place to a different place within that world.

Corwin falls asleep (again) and wakes up when Flora gets back home. She’s tried to walk into Amber instead of Trumping there – which narratively allows Corwin to find the cards and also establishes that it’s possible to walk to Amber and that another Amberite can alter the path, throw up obstacles. It doesn’t really make sense. She has Trumps for Amber proper, for Eric, and for several other siblings. Why hoof it, unless she believes nobody would answer her call? She’d still be able to Trump into Amber, though. Zelazny digs into this a bit in a later book, but still.

Amberites being able to affect other peoples’ journey through Shadow, along with a few other things, pops up in the first two books and then not to often after that. In some ways, Zelazny powered-down his Pattern users. A character in a later book refers to Corwin as a sorcerer but he doesn’t really do much magic at all… especially compared to certain of his siblings.

Flora also refers to Corwin as “being in exile TOO.” This infers that she’s in exile, but she’s also keeping watch over Corwin which isn’t an exile-ish thing to do.

Another noteworthy Shadow-Magic thing that pops up like ONCE and never again is when Corwin muses about his age. He looks “thirty-ish” but senses he’s older than that… and that “Shadows would lie for me,” as in he could look a specific wage or what-not. Again, it’s a bit of magic that gets dropped quickly although later we get full-on shapeshifters and Corwin himself is directly descended from shapeshifters.

Corwin also mentions that at one point he and his siblings hung out together, all chill, with “no tension, no friction among them.”

Then Random walks in.

References:

Donner and Blitzen are the names of two of Santa’s reindeer. “Donner” means “thunder” and “blitzen” means “lightning,” as well.

Unicorns are mythical creatures. Now depicted as horses with single long spiral horns emerging from their foreheads, older depictions were more goat-like and the horn often curved or was like a single antler. Unicorns are attracted to purity, able to be tamed by a virginal maiden. Their horns can be used to purify poison and heal infection. While associated with (young, virginal) women they're associated with the masculine.

“Rampant” and “dexter” are heraldric terms. The unicorn is rearing up, hooves raised (“rampant”) and facing to the left (“dexter”).

“The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” a short story published in 1820 by Washington Irving, is a spooky story set in the Hudson Valley, near Westchester County. The locals have a legend about the ghost of a long-dead cavalryman who lost his head to a cannonball and rides at night searching for revenge. Ichabod Crane, the tall skinny arrogant outsider school teacher, sweeps into town and tries to woo a young woman from a wealthy family. The local who’s taken with her pranks the guy unceasingly. Crane finally screws his courage to the sticking place and asks the girl out. When she refuses, he takes off and heads home. While headed home a horseman with no head comes galloping up behind him and hurls his head at Crane. The next day, Crane’s gone from the town. It’s inferred that this was another prank, the “head” was a pumpkin, and Crane ran off like a coward. There’s been a lot of films and tv shows based on and about the story, which is especially popular at Halloween.

A lance is a very specific thing, and that thing is not a spear. If you’ve seen a knight on horseback jousting, that’s what a lance is. They’re about eleven feet long so frankly I don’t know how easy it would be to “lean on” one. Most of the art I’ve seen of this Trump involves a spear or a staff, not a lance.

“… the faint ringing and the ghost voices that indicate long distance.” is a poetic way to describe a real phenomena that once existed and does no longer. It’s something I experienced as a kid, up until the mid-00s with transatlantic phone calls especially. Just the very slight lag, a second or maybe two, and the pressure of a sound that both is and isn’t there behind and between the words of the conversation. It’s eerie and as far as I know it’s gone forever.

A fink is someone who’s unpleasant, someone who betrays people. A fink is also an informant, and “to fink” means “to reveal information.”

Ace and Knave refer to playing cards that have different values. Aces are either the most valuable or least valuable card. “An ace in the hole” is a hidden advantage kept secret until needed. It’s a poker term. A knave as a playing card is also known as the Jack; a “knave” is someone who’s deceitful, dishonest, a trickster.

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9 Princes in Amber: Ch. 2

Wed, 14 May 2025 21:27:23 GMT

Chapter two continues with the curt noir vibe. “Carl Corey” briskly summarizes his trip to town. He’s got a lot of time to kill and needs to replace… everything. He’s got nothing but the shirt on his back and it’s not even HIS shirt. It’s interesting what he feels the need to note – the bacon’s greasy, he enumerates every item he purchases. He doesn’t note anyone around him, or any conversation he might over hear. we don’t know what the diner’s like or how the sales people treat him. He’s very self contained.

He does note that nobody’s looking for him or following him.

Amidst the mundanity of greasy bacon and new shirts we get to see something a little alarming: our guy here has a horrific temper and he’s acted on it before. He doesn’t know much about himself but he knows that; that anger is a foundational aspect of who and what he is. We know he’s quick to protect himself and here he reveals what lengths he’d go to in order to do so – he’s willing to kill, to destroy, and has felt this urge before and possibly given in to it.

He’s not exactly a knight in shining armor.

He gets his mind together as he walks toward his sister’s mansion. It doesn’t look familiar, although SHE does. Zelazny describes her as

“The woman behind the desk wore a wide-collared, V-necked dress of blue-green, had long hair and low bangs, all of a cross between sunset clouds and the outer edge of a candle flame in an otherwise dark room, and natural I somehow knew, and her eyes behind glasses I didn’t think she needed were as blue as Lake Erie at three o’clock on a cloudless summer afternoon; and the color of her compressed smile matched her hair.”

This is “Evelyn Flaumel” although we later learn her name is actually Flora (short for Florimel). Her hair sounds red in this description, which fits with “the color of her compressed smile,” but she isn’t grouped in with “the redheads” later in the books and while sunset clouds can be red the outer edge of candle flames isn’t generally so. If nothing else she’s bright, she shines, she’s beautiful.

More bits of memory come back to “Carl” as he talks to her, and we get the first glimpse of Fantasy as she mentions “Shadows” and the horrors they contain. And it’s been long enough since I first read this book, I was so young when I first read this book, that I no longer remember what it was like to learn that “Shadows” doesn’t mean “darkness caused by an object blocking a light source,” but instead means something else entirely.

Bits of memory start coming faster as they talk. He speaks French, he knows why there’s no wolves left in Ireland, he remembers his brother Eric and that he hates Eric, he remembers that Evelyn’s name isn’t “Evelyn.” And he manages to hide these revelations.

Zelazny pulls a neat trick here, where one character info-dumps but indirectly. We learn more about the family, although indirectly, and learn more about Corwin. His family doesn’t like him and he’s glad of it. He also is an utterly terrible judge of character, as we later see with Bleys (and Brand). He’s an unreliable narrator in general.

He also dismisses Flora through the book as being unintelligent but… she’s not.

References:

“Sport shirts” were an informal style of shirt, often collared and button-down, with a square hem meaning you didn’t generally tuck them into your trousers. You’d wear them while playing golf or entertaining friends in your back yard, but probably not to an office job or religious service. One branch of sport shirt evolution is the polo shirt.

“A Sullivan Violation” refers to the 1911 “Sullivan Act” which required permits to carry a concealed weapon.

“Westchester” is most well known to nerds as the setting for Professor Charles Xavier’s mansion. However, it’s also the stomping grounds of Washington Irving and the setting for detectives Nero Wolfe and Trixie Belden.

“Irish Mist” is an Irish whisky blended with honey and aromatic herbs/spices.

Irish Wolfhounds are utterly massive slightly shaggy dogs. I mean, huge. They’re huge dogs. They also died out in the 1700s but were recreated about a hundred years later in a breeding program that used Deerhounds and Great Danes, which were believed to be descended from the original wolfdogs.

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9 Princes in Amber: Ch. 1

Wed, 14 May 2025 21:17:04 GMT

“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.”

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