Be wary of some of the Masterworks titles
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I really tried to like this book due to it's many good reviews and it's inclusion in the Fantasy Masterworks series, but I found it quite difficult to understand and not very accessible at all. I don't like books where you have to keep re-reading a page until it makes some kind of sense, a good story should be easy to read. My criticism of the Masterworks series is that the selections are very much a 'critics choice', the sort of books that tick all the boxes amongst the intelligentsia, good for writing an A-level project on, but are not necessarily an entertaining read. Be careful with some Masterworks titles, there are some genuine classics there but there's also plenty of 'for critics only' selections, which is a pity.
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A Fantasy Series to Savour
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If Roger Zelazny had written nothing but this series and 'Lord of Light' he would still be acknowledged as one of the greatest talents in the field. Coming back to Amber recently, in this edition, and reading it from cover to cover, I was struck by the brilliance of the prose. Because this book is written in the first person by a character with experience of many worlds it allows Zelazny to use modern slang and poetic language both in dialogue and description without a single jar that I can detect. Often a single, perfectly chosen word or phrase conjours up the required image - and this book is full of rich images and even richer characterisation. The book - and it is really one book, not a sequence of five - can be read on many levels. When I was first introduced to it, as a teenager, I devoured a wonderful adventure story, and it remains thrill-a-minute stuff, but each time I read it I find more nuances contained in a highly complex plot that never condescends to the reader and never fails to surprise. Even bit-part characters have their own arc, though as they are always seen through Corwin's eyes our understanding of them is limited by his - which also, of course, increases as the book progresses. We are also left to ponder whether, indeed, the conclusion of this story is that, "people change" or whether it is Corwin, or his perceptions, that have changed. So is the book about perception? About change? About immortality? About growing up? Yes, and many other things. There are not many fantasies around so different from Tolkien, so complex, or so well written. Highly recommended, to anyone from 10 to 100.
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Work of art!
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The five first stories, written by Zelazny, of Amber are also the five best! It is compelling and rich with detail and action. The story itself starts simple: a man wakes up and remembers nothing. Then he gets dragged into the world of his past and into his family and into a world of imagination only a few could create! Despite the fact that the story itself bears similarities to P.J. Farmer's World of Tiers story, it has enough class and depth to ensure hours of reading! This is a book that all sci-fi or fantasy readers can enjoy!
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Dissapointment
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Many people believe that this is great book, but in my opinion it is horrible. It's not even a fantasy, but stupid story in the type of cheap comic-books as "X-Men". The characters are on the level of Tv super-heroes. The plot s an absurd. The style is boring, boring.
Don't waste your money to this book.
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A masterwork indeed!
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This is a reprint of the first Chronicles of Amber pentology in a single volume. A second pentology was written, but is by no means as good, and seems to pave the way for more books which the author never lived to write. But this sequence stands on its own. Zelazny's epic work starts simply enough - a man awakes in hospital with amnesia. He discovers he is registered under a false name, and being drugged on the orders of a sister he cannot remember... At this point, Zelazny could have turned this into a simple thriller. But nothing is as it seems in this series. Layer after layer of deception or illusion is peeled back in each book - revealing not only the truth of Corwin's car crash, our perceptions of which are turned on their head 3 times, but of successively deeper layers of reality itself. For as our hero Corwin discovers, true reality casts infinite shadows in which everything exists somewhere. The universe created is infinitely rich, but the story revolves about the machivellian politics of the Royal House of Amber, of which Corwin discovers himself to be a part. These near-immortals can find anything they desire in the infinite Shadows, but are slowly discovering that they are not, after all, omnipotent. At stake in this power-struggle is the fate not just of one world, but all worlds and all realities... Drawing on Jungian psychology, celtic myths, and a lyrical use of language, there is no way any review of mine can do justice to this. It is one of my 3 personal all-time favourite series. Try it, and be lost to the wonder of the One True City - Amber.
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