varied and loyal audience of readers in the science
fiction community, but his success with fantasy
fans has not as yet been proportionately large. The
Alvin series is the best of his fantasy, however, and
the clarity and intensity of its continuing core story
is likely to ensure its continued popularity. The
short episode “Hatrack River” (1987) won the
World Fantasy Award.
The Amber Series Roger Zelazny
(1970–1991)
Although Roger ZELAZNYwas well established as a
science fiction writer by 1970, it was obvious even
in that genre that he was fascinated with myths
and legends, with larger-than-life characters placed
in situations where they affected the future on a
dramatic scale. It was not a great surprise when he
announced that he was working on an extended
series of fantasy novels, originally envisioned as a
set of nine. The first five were published between
1970 and 1978 and seemed to tie things up, but
Zelazny returned to provide a further set of five be-
tween 1985 and 1991.
The premise of the Amber stories is that there
are a vast number of different realities, all suppos-
edly revolving around a central one known as
Amber, of which the others are all flawed reflec-
tions, including our own, one of the few in which
magic does not work. The premise is modified as
the series progresses, or more properly speaking,
the characters—chiefly Corwin, one of the princes
of Amber—realize that they are not after all the
center of the universe, that Amber is balanced by
Chaos, another reality, and that this dichotomy
leads to violence, although more yin and yang than
good versus evil. In the opening volume, Nine
Princes in Amber(1970), Corwin’s memories have
been suppressed, and he has been exiled to our
universe, but trouble follows. His father is believed
to have died, and a large cast of siblings are en-
gaged in inventive and often brutal projects to re-
place him.
Corwin returns to Amber to claim the throne
himself in The Guns of Avalon(1972), but there is
considerable opposition, both straightforward and
covert. The conflict worsens in Sign of the Unicorn
(1975), with some of his siblings openly challeng-
ing his right to rule, and the rivalry becomes still
more dangerous in The Hand of Oberon(1976),
during which Corwin’s brothers and sisters are
forced to rally behind him in order to help deter-
mine who is responsible for a series of assassination
attempts directed at their family, possibly by one of
their own number. The various conflicts are re-
solved in The Courts of Chaos(1978), the traitor’s
identified, a group of shape-shifting assassins are
defeated, and Corwin’s primacy is established, al-
though still perhaps somewhat uneasily.
The rich texture of the original sequence was
not as evident in the second set of five novels,
which follows the adventures of Corwin’s son,
Merle or Merlin. Trumps of Doom(1985) intro-
duces him in much the same fashion as was his fa-
ther. After surviving a murder attempt while
visiting our reality, he returns to Amber to find out
who is responsible. He forges an uneasy alliance
with a shapeshifter in Blood of Amber(1986) and
sets out to identify the secret forces working
against him in Sign of Chaos(1988). His loyalty to
Amber is put to the test in Knight of Shadows
(1989), but he discovers the true nature of the plot
against him in Prince of Amber(1991) and finally
establishes a peace between that realm and Chaos.
Dynastic fantasies with conflicts spanning
multiple worlds were not original with Zelazny, and
they have become more common in recent years,
but the Amber series was quite remarkable when it
first appeared. The earlier sequence in particular is
rich in symbolism and complexity. John Betancourt
has begun a new sequence with Dawn of Amber
(2001) that does a moderately successful job of
capturing the tone of the original books. Zelazny
also wrote a few short stories against that setting,
which can be found collected in Manna from
Heaven(2003), and also produced a companion
volume, Roger Zelazny’s Visual Guide to Castle
Amber(1988).The Amber SpyglassPhilip Pullman(2000)
Philip PULLMAN’s His Dark Materials trilogy came
to a conclusion with this volume, following THE
GOLDEN COMPASSand THE SUBTLE KNIFE.The se-
ries, which is loosely based on Paradise Lostby John
Milton, is effectively a single novel in three volumesThe Amber Spyglass 5