Huge book. Didn't seem to be keeping my interest through the different 'books', so I took a break. A long break.

Started the book October 20, 2008.

This large tome contains all 10 volumes of the Amber Chronicles. The series is divided into two major story arcs, each consisting of five books. The first story arc is excellent. Zelazny weaves a compelling story. I found the opening particularly good. The way Zelazny starts the story, it does not even seem like fantasy. Just as you start to wonder whether or not he is ever going to get around it, he brings the fantasy element into the story with a bang.

The second story arc is mediocre. The story contains many good elements, but overall it comes across as a bit too... chaotic. The main character of that story arc seems to get pulled from event to event, each of which generates new threads. I would say less than half of those threads are resolved in the end, and many of those that were resolved were not resolved fully. That said, I have heard that the Zelazny meant to write more but did not have a chance to do so before he died. The dangers of building large, complex stories.

Overall though, it is definitely worth a read. Especially the first half.

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(This review is for the first book in the collection, Nine Princes in Amber. There's no inducing me to read any more of them, I'm afraid.)
Corwin is suffering from amnesia, which he thinks is a result of a near-fatal car accident, which he also thinks was not exactly an accident at all. As he fakes his way through conversations with one sister and a brother, he slowly puts together a backstory for himself, and it doesn't always feature Earth as the setting.

Hoo boy. This 1970s first-in-a-series fantasy has some issues. Honestly, I think Zelazny couldn't quite decide what he wanted his book to be: it starts out as High Fantasy suffering from memory loss and thinking it's a noir detective novel, and from there the inconsistencies pile up, including a waffling between 'normal' vernacular and the thees and thous of fantafancy speak. It's...grating. It also seems to fall (probably via one of the many plot holes) into the pit of writers who've read and loved Tolkien and decide that, "Hey, I can write a massive world-building epic series, too!" and who, tragically, can't. The plot just seems to be one part tagged onto another tagged onto another, with no real flow or logic between the episodes: "and THEN...and THEN...AND THEN..." with each scene more comically cartoonish than the last. Overall story-arcs matter, folks, and should be more than a flimsy excuse to attach weird worlds and underwater mirror cities and sex with green-haired ladies to the plot. Yoicks. ( )

I was still new to fantasy, having been a hardcore horror and sci-fi fan, then going through all of Zelazny's other works, when I decided to sit down to these stories.
Seriously, I was impressed with the easy progression into a multi-universe view delineated between ultimate order and ultimate chaos. Gorgeous magic system where you follow mandalas, epic battles, and the almost requisite tripe of amnesia. (Oh, sorry, i meant trope.) I loved the first 5 books better than the second 5, but Merlin's story did have a more epic feel, in my opinion.
It's still hard to find fantasy as good as what he wrote, although I'm still willing to keep looking. :) ( )

I wanna be a Prince of Amber! (Suddenly have unrelated Queen song flashes!)
The way I fell in love with Zelazny, especially in the ballsy way he wrote the thing, 'let's just see what happens, shall we?'
Effortless. Stylish. The kind of poetic fantasy that mooshes every world religion and kitchen appliance together and *works!* --What DC and Marvel super Us wish they could achieve! ( )