The Hand of Oberon, chapter 13

Spoiler alert: This post is part of an in-depth discussion of The Hand of Oberon by Roger Zelazny, which will inevitably reveal key plot points. I recommend you support your local bookseller or public library, and read the book first.

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Brand disappeared from Amber and made a play to steal the Jewel of Judgment from Corwin, beating him to Earth and retrieving it from the compost pile where it had been stashed. Knowing that Brand wanted to attune himself to the Jewel and access its powers, Corwin warned the Amberites to guard the Patterns in Amber and Rebma. Brand went directly to the primal Pattern instead. Corwin pursued him there and prevented him from completing the Pattern, but he escaped, taking the Jewel with him.

Meanwhile, Random found his son Martin, who confirmed that Brand had stabbed him and marred the primal Pattern with his blood. Brand's plan is to destroy the primal Pattern, and thereby the entire universe (multiverse?) of Shadow, in order to remake it to his own whims.

With Brand now unable to access the other Patterns, Corwin, Benedict, and Ganelon made plans to confront him in the floating city of Tir-na Nog'th.

Corwin waits at the base of the stairs to Tir-na Nog'th, until the ghostly city forms in the skies. Benedict, who is waiting at the centre of the Amber Pattern, transports himself there to wait for Brand. Corwin stays in contact with him via Trump.

Before long, Brand appears. Rather than swordfight—Brand recognizing he is no match for Benedict—they banter, as Brand advances along the Pattern, moving closer to Benedict at the centre. However, the banter is merely a distraction: Brand's attempt to walk the primal Pattern has partially attuned him to the Jewel of Judgment, and he is using it to impair Benedict's motor function. Meanwhile, clouds are forming that threaten to obscure the moon and make Tir-na Nog'th fade.

With Benedict immobilized, Brand draws a dagger. Corwin tries to draw Benedict to himself through his Trump, but cannot. As Brand moves to stab him, Benedict's mechanical arm, seemingly on its own, grabs him by the throat and the Jewel by the chain. As Tir-na Nog'th fades away around them, Corwin drags Benedict and the Jewel back to Kolvir. Brand falls.

On solid ground, Benedict and Corwin realize that Benedict's new arm and the other "unusual circumstances" leading to this night are too remarkable to be purely coincidental. Someone is orchestrating events. Corwin believes the long-missing Oberon is the one responsible. He pulls out Oberon's Trump and tries to contact him.

He is answered by Ganelon.

Some of my favourite thriller films of the late 90s and early 2000s were M. Night Shyamalan's early features, particularly The Sixth Sense and Signs. He was famous for his Hitchcockesque twist endings. But he also made the viewer realize that the ending was foreshadowed all along: the signs (no pun intended) were hidden in plain sight.

I felt somewhat the same reading the closing paragraph of this novel. The revelation that Corwin's companion Ganelon is actually Oberon in disguise seems to come right out of left field. But the book is called The Hand of Oberon, so I should have expected him to turn up somehow. The chapter in which Corwin speaks to Dworkin established that he and Oberon have shape-shifting ability, so it stands to reason that Oberon appearance might be in someone else's form. And Ganelon was unusually knowledgeable about Shadow and the use of the Trumps, for someone who didn't even know such things existed not long ago. Dworkin is an Amberite posing as a mad genius from Shadow who figured out how the Amberites' power worked. Similarly, Ganelon, it turns out, is an Amberite posing as a human from Shadow gifted enough to figure out how to use the Trumps on his own.

The book's title has a double meaning: The Hand of Oberon can mean Oberon is orchestrating these events. Alternatively, Benedict is literally wearing a "hand of Oberon" on his right shoulder. Either way, that makes The Hand of Oberon the second novel in which the real significance of the title is revealed only at the very end. In the final chapter of The Sign of the Unicorn, the titular unicorn leads Corwin to the revelation that the Amber he knew was not the ultimate reality.

[Brand] was mad, leave it at that. Too bad, but that’s the way it was. Heredity or environment? I wondered wryly. We were all of us, to some degree, mad after his fashion. To be honest, it had to be a form of madness, to have so much and to strive so bitterly for just a little more, for a bit of an edge over the others.

Maybe all the Amberites are mad; but Corwin, Eric, and Julian, at their worst, had boundaries. Brand—being, as I suspected, insane—has none. Dworkin is also described as mad. He and Brand, have the knowledge to destroy everything and the will to do it. And so it just occurs to me now: Are they working together? Corwin hasn't yet drawn that connection.

As Brand prepares to stab Benedict, he says, "Good night, sweet Prince." This is, of course, an allusion to Shakespeare's Hamlet, spoken by Horatio upon Hamlet's death:

Now cracks a noble heart. Good night, sweet prince,
And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest. (V.ii.397-98)

There are parallels between Hamlet and The Chronicles of Amber beyond a few throwaway allusions. Hamlet is about a king being murdered by his usurper brother, and the son of the king, the legitimate heir to the throne, plotting his revenge. Amber is, in part, about a king that has disappeared and is presumed dead, whose throne is usurped by his son, while the legitimate heir also plots his revenge. Despite Oberon being dead (as it is believed), Corwin has brief contact with him, much like Hamlet encountering the ghost of his father.

Final thoughts on The Hand of Oberon

The Hand of Oberon is, thus far, the best of the original Chronicles of Amber. It hits what I feel is the right balance between character development, action, and exposition.

Roger Zelazny has created a lot of loose ends in this series, and in this novel, he is starting to tie some of them up: the reason for Corwin's "accident," the fate of Bleys, the whereabouts of Oberon, and others. After months of unanswered questions, I get the definite sense now that Zelazny wasn't making it up as he went along and got lost in all the details; it's clear enough that the cycle was planned out from the start.

Which is not to say there aren't still questions needing answers:

1. When did Oberon assume Ganelon's identity? What happened to the real one?
2. What happened to Dworkin in his cell after he went mad and transformed?
3. Dworkin and Brand both wanted to destroy the Pattern, thereby destroying Amber and all Shadow. Are they working together? Is Dworkin also allied with the Courts of Chaos?
4. By contrast, what does Oberon want to achieve?
5. Did Brand survive the fall when Tir-na Nog'th disappeared?
6. What is the agenda of Chaos, and what part does Dara play in it?
7. Isn't the murder of Caine still unsolved? It was completely overshadowed by the rescue and subsequent attempted murder of Brand.

As usual, I'm going to take a few weeks' break, before getting back into Amber and The Courts of Chaos in mid- to late August. We're on the home stretch.