Reading through The Chronicles of Amber

I first heard of the late Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber in high school. I worked at the public library for three years, and saw many of the volumes on the paperback rack.

On a Saturday in 1989 or 1990, needing some reading material for a bus trip, I came across a two-volume set of The Chronicles of Amber (Nelson Doubleday, 1978) at a used bookshop a few blocks from the Kitchener bus terminal, and I decided to give it a try.^[1] In those days, I was decidedly not a fantasy reader. I hadn't even read The Lord of the Rings yet (and when I tried that, the next summer, I didn't get too far). So Amber was my first fantasy. It was like nothing I had read previously.

This fall, Matt at Runalong the Shelves did a 9-week readthrough of LOTR. It wasn't his first reading, though it had been many years. I felt inspired to try my hand at blogging a similar readthrough. Not with LOTR, though: I read it about every six years (and just read it last year). It's too familiar for my purposes. But I'm in the same situation as Matt vis-à-vis the Amber series. I last read it when I was 19, but now I'm 53. I remember it making a favourable impression, but I've forgotten the story completely. I remember, perhaps not even accurately, that the protagonist wakes up with amnesia after an accident, learns he's some kind of prince, and can travel between this world and the magical world of Amber by walking a labyrinth. That's all. I'm essentially starting fresh. (I even made a point of not reading the blurb on the dust-jacket flaps).

Zelazny wrote ten novels in the series constituting two cycles of five novels each. My Doubleday set has only the earlier "Corwin" cycle:

1. Nine Princes in Amber (1970)
2. The Guns of Avalon (1972)
3. The Sign of the Unicorn (1975)
4. The Hand of Oberon (1976)
5. The Courts of Chaos (1978)

These five novels comprise 57 chapters, so a readthrough should be doable within a year, assuming I do a chapter or two per week. I'm in no rush, though, so I'm not against going overtime.

The later "Merlin" cycle was published between 1985 and 1991. I've never read them. If this readthrough goes well, I might consider a followup, assuming I can buy a more recent omnibus.

Other than Amber, I've read two of Zelazny's other books: This Immortal (aka …And Call Me Conrad) and Lord of Light. He was big on incorporating world mythology and legend into his stories, and if Amber is the same, then this English graduate will hopefully be kept busy playing Spot the Allusion. This ought to be fun.

Chapter 1 of Nine Princes in Amber will drop in a few days.

Footnotes

[1] Here's looking at you, footnote: I bought a lot of good books and records at Casablanca Books over my years in university, including also my omnibus edition of Isaac Asimov's original Foundation trilogy. The store closed a decade ago, which is too bad, even though I'm no longer in K-W. For many years, it was my favourite bookshop.