Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Just the start of a great series, 8 Feb 1999
By A Customer
On first impressions this book does not appear to be much - the characters seem fairly limited, the events generally go unexplained and the plot the kind of thing you might have written in the back of your English book at school.Don't be fooled. This series is one of the hidden gems of the Science fiction / fantasy genre. The story gets progressively better through each volume, and you find yourself drawn in closer and closer as each new event brings you nearer to finding out what's "really" going on. You come to realise that the characters are far deeper than you thought, the plot simply too Macchiavellian to tie up quickly, and the slimness of the books to be a sign of concise vivid decription, rather than a lack of creativity. It's the kind of series you can spend as long thinking about after you put it down as you did when you were reading it - so don't expect to be spoon fed. The plot is very complex, intricate, and tinted by the fact that the narrator could at any point be lying. I would still have to give this book 4 out of five, however, as it is the weakest of the series (5 in total, plus a follow up series of 5 more). However, don't let this dissuade you - it is an absoulte classic, and if you stick with it for all 5 it pays off with interest. The only down side is that many of the books are out of print, so it can take a lot of internet browsing to find second hand copies! Just read them for yourself. It's well worth the effort involved.
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1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the true originals, 28 Mar 2003
This is the first book in Zelazny's first Amber-series, introducing fantasy's number one hero; Corwin of Amber. It has a flavour of Western all' Italiana in the sardonic language of the Malteser Falcon, with very believable personas and a fast-moving unpredictable plot. If you like heroes, you'll love this book and this series (that is, the five first books - the second series does not cut it). Zelasny's 'Weltforming' is sine qua non, the world(s) stretching from the Courts of Chaos to Amber, the perfect kingdom, truly original. A must have (well, if you're a social democrat or worse, and hate say Ayn Rand you might just as well pass on this).
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Embedded in Amber, 6 Jul 2009
Don't you just hate it when you wake up from a coma and discover that your scheming, murderous siblings are trying to bump you off? That's the problem Corwin has at the start of Robert Zelazny's "Nine Princes in Amber," the tightly-written opener of his ten book Amber series. It's a lean, noir-influenced fantasy tale, and its main problem is that it unexpectedly stops.
A man wakes up in a hospital and strong-arms his way out -- he doesn't know who he is or where he came from. But then he finds a woman, Flora, who says she's his sister, and the reluctant amnesiac starts to piece together his past -- his name is Corwin, he has several siblings (most of whom he has a not-so-pleasant relationship with). And the word "Amber" -- it brings something to mind, but he can't quite remember what.
Corwin gets a bit of help from his brother Random, after he saves Random from a bunch of Shadow creatures. Their cruel elder brother Eric is crowning himself king of Amber after the disappearance of their father, but all the siblings are catfighting for the throne and the power of the one true world of Amber. Corwin and a few of his allied brothers band together with their armies and navies, determined to stop Eric -- but with disastrous results.
The Amber series is more like two long novels than ten short ones, and the big blinking "To Be Continued" at the end of "Nine Princes in Amber" is proof enough of that. It doesn't finish the story, but just stops. Even though that's frustrating, it stops in a fairly satisfying place -- there's no cliffhanger, just the question of what Corwin will do next in his quest against his treacherous brother and his other siblings. And how, of course.
Zelazny is known for having spare, snappy writing. And he's in peak form in "Nine Princes." His descriptions are minimalist, but very vivid (someone's weathered skin is "porous as an orange rind"), and his dialogue is sharp and to the point with nary a wasted word. And he has a good handle on his fantasy world, whipping up mind-bending idea like the Pattern, green-haired merwomen, magical Trump cards, strange shadow-horses and vaguely-human beasts.
Corwin himself is a sort of action-Bogart character -- very tough, seasoned and cynical, but with a mushy core somewhere in there. He's a pretty nice guy, considering his Machievellian family. Most of the characters aren't explored fully, except the Flora, who isn't very bright, and Random, who wants desperately to prove himself. But with all these schemes and secret motives, they all promise more depth in future.
"Nine Princes in Amber" does just what the start of a series should do -- it draws you in and makes you desperate to know what's ahead. Solid, creative family-feud fantasy.
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