The fastest fantasy in the wild west continues where we left off. Corwin escaped his prison, and armed with newly regrown eyes, is ready for his revenge.
Chronicles of Amber are like nothing I’ve ever read. Mostly because I’ve never been into fantasy, but still. At no point of Guns of Avalon nor of Nine Princes in Amber have I felt that I’m reading a published book. It’s rather what I would imagine as a synopsis of the book that one sends to an agent would look like.
Characters? Screw them, they only serve a purpose. The world? Screw it, let’s create it as we go. Magic system? I am sure not even Zelazny has any idea how it works at this point.
But at the same time, I can’t stop reading it. From outside, those two books I’ve finished sound like pulp. I should hate it. But there is so much going on, and those things happen fast.
Corwin’s goal this time is to buy carbines from the Royal Air Force and retake Amber. Yup - this magical being, from an eternal family, who is able to travel between dimensions1, whose eyes just regrown, is planning to retake a magical land using firearms. And somehow it all makes sense.
Guns serve as a direct continuation of the first book, but the ending paints a different route the series seems to be heading. I am very much invested and I interested what’s going to happen. I should hate this book, but I love it.
Zelazny, you were a strange writer indeed. This series reads like a creation of some D&D infused teen, and yet I can’t put it away.
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or whatever Shadows are ↩︎