![Image](http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m57/danlo60/banner.gif)
I was inspired by Prince of Amber (who would have guessed!?) to start a Roger Zelazny forum, so I hope he will help me/us in filling in any gaps about the Amber series. Technically it's called The Chronicles of Amber and it's main character, but not always, is a Prince named Corwin. I met Roger Zelazny (shortly before he died) in '92 when I was canvassing for the environment. When he found out I had made 3 attempts to reach him that day he "blessed me with the will of Corwin". His house is on a very hilly section of Santa Fe NM and I think I hiked about 6 miles to get there, continue on to other houses to get contributions, finish my loop and go back there again and again. That's what Corwin is like: very obstinant, very sarcastic and doesn't take no guff from no one. Like Ursula K. LeGuinn, and others, it is very hard to classify whether Zelazny is a Fantasy of Sci-Fi writer. The answer would probably be both. He is usually found in the Sci-Fi category, his best books in that genre are, imo, Lord of Light and The Lamps of His Eyes, The Doors of His Mouth. He is a very prolific writer and has won a number of Hugo and Nebula awards. Amber would definitely be classified as Fantasy. I haven't read Trumps of Doom, Blood of Amber or (and as most of my Amber reading friends tell me "missing THE best book!") Sign of Chaos. Here is a list of all the Amber books:
The First Chronicles:
Nine Princes in Amber
Guns of Avalon
Sign of the Unicorn
Hand of Oberon
The Courts of Chaos
The Second Chronicles:
Trumps of Doom
Blood of Amber
Sign of Chaos
Knight of Shadows
Prince of Chaos
My two favs are Hand of Oberon & Prince of Chaos and, sadly--and I'm probably not being fair, my least is Jack of Shadows.
Covenant fans will like the fact that, like The Worm Ouroborus and John Carter on Mars, the characters kinda come and go from earth to Amber and other dimensions. All sorts of stuff happens in the Amber series, The Princes work to anilleate each other, they communicate through tarot cards, jump through drawings, summon up armies from other worlds, walk a "pentangle" called "The Pattern" and fight on battlefields that seem to, and may, entirely dissolve around them. It's wild stuff--maybe not as "heady" as Donaldson, McCaffrey or Tolkien but wildly entertaining--never a dull moment! Fall Far and Well Pilots!<i>Edited by: danlo60 at: 1/14/06 11:26 pm
</i>