Of Shadows and Magic

A classic fantasy series that doesn’t get the attention it deserves

The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny (1970-91) – The children of Oberon have the power to move through, change, and even create worlds in Shadow. Amber, the city that Shadow reflects, contains the Pattern, an ancient labyrinth that gives them their powers. But with physical strengths and lifetimes that are profoundly greater than a human’s, the ruling family has many years to fill with intrigues, alliances and betrayals.

Why I Liked It – Compelling characters in a universe that draws on ideas from high fantasy and science fiction.

This is one of the first fantasy series I read after “Lord of the Rings”. While there are similarities, the two series are seriously different. As I noted above, this one feels like it splits the difference between LOTR and “Dune”. Dune has elements of fantasy in a science fiction environment, while Tolkien’s classic is pure sword and sorcery fantasy. There are neither elves nor space ships here. There are “parallel worlds”, each a reflection of the city of Amber. The farther away in Shadow you travel, the greater the differences between Amber and that shadow. This gives the royal family lots of places to explore, play and, as desired, avoid each other. That desire can be strong among Oberon’s children.

At the beginning of the story, Oberon has been gone longer than usual. This brings the question of succession to the table. The king has never named an heir, which complicates family relations more than usual. Everything that follows stems from that lack of clarity.

The series is two different “cycles”. The first focuses on Corwin, one of the youngest among the offspring. While living in his favorite shadow, someone tries to kill him. He survives the attempt, but suffers from amnesia. Among the memories lost are his identity as a member of Amber’s royals. He slowly regains his memory and sinks deeper into conflict that threatens the existence of Amber and Shadow.

The second cycle centers on Corwin’s son Merlin. He is the product of a union between his father and a princess from the Courts of Chaos. The Courts are the balancing structure to the order of Amber. All of Shadow exists in tension between the two. While the primary issues of the first five novels (there are five in each cycle) have been resolved, out of them spring a new range of problems that draw the son into the conflicts in much the same way as his father’s story. The second cycle of books is more magic oriented than the first. Merlin is a much younger man with problems that reflect his limited depth of experience.

There is a third partial cycle (the fifth book was never written) by John Gregory Betancourt. Fan reaction to it was poor, and Zelazny himself made clear that he did not want others writing stories in Amber. While I’d LOVE more stories, I respect his decision, and have never sought out the others.

The style in both original cycles is in a first person/conversational style. There’s none of the high blown language of high fantasy. The characters feel very real, and I connected to both Corwin and Merlin. That doesn’t mean you don’t get a full plate of magical characters and items. The tarot deck of the royal family called the “Trumps”, Dworkin the insane creator of the Trumps, the ghost city of Tir-na Nogth with the perfect copy of the Pattern, and Rebma, the mirror version of Amber. The Pattern stands as the center of order while the Logrus embodies chaos. There are legendary swords, and Pattern demons, and secret passageways awaiting the reader as well.

This was my first visit to the books in almost a decade, and I still enjoyed them immensely.

Rating – ***** Highest Recommendation