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 Nine Princes in Amber (1970), book 1 of the series. | |
| |
| Author | Roger Zelazny |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy |
| Publisher | Doubleday |
| Published | 1970–1991 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover andpaperback),audiobook,e-book |
| Followed by | The Dawn of Amber |
The Chronicles of Amber is aseries offantasy novels by American writerRoger Zelazny. The main series consists of twostory arcs, each five novels in length. Additionally, there are a number of Ambershort stories and other works. While Zelazny's will expressly forbadesequels by other authors, four posthumous prequels authorized by Zelazny's family were authored byJohn Gregory Betancourt.
In the prologue to theDC Comics adaptation ofNine Princes in Amber, Zelazny describes how the initial inspiration for the Amber series came from two abstract sources: the surreal, shifting sensation of an experience he had walking throughBaltimore, and his longstanding fascination with decks of cards, particularlyTarot.
As he wandered Baltimore's unfamiliar streets, each turn seemed to reveal a different place, mood, or time — this experience became the seed of the concept of "walking through Shadow," a central mechanism in the Amber universe by which characters move through infinite alternate realities. At the same time, Zelazny had been intrigued by the symbolic and narrative possibilities of cards — an interest that evolved into the powerful, mystical Trump deck used by the royal family of Amber to communicate and travel across realms.
Zelazny likened the writing of the first novel to a Shadow walk itself: he discovered the world of Amber bit by bit, not inventing it wholesale but uncovering it as if it already existed, hidden just beyond the veil of ordinary perception.[1]
The Amber stories take place in two contrasting "true" worlds, Amber and Chaos, and in shadow worlds (Shadows) that lie between the two. These shadows, including Earth, are parallel worlds that exist in — and were created from — the tension between the opposing magical forces of Amber and Chaos. The Courts of Chaos are situated at the very edge of an abyss. Members of the royal family of Amber, after walking in aPattern that is central to Amber, can travel freely through the Shadows. While traveling (shifting) between Shadows, they can alter reality or create a new reality by choosing which elements of which Shadows to keep or add, and which to subtract, eventually arriving at their chosen destination. Nobles of the Courts of Chaos who have traversed theLogrus are similarly able to travel through Shadows.An alternate method of travel is via sets of cards, patterned after a Tarot deck. Known as Trumps, the Major Arcana are depictions of the royal family and they can contact, and travel to, another family member instantly if the other party is willing. Trumps can also depict specific places.
Ten Amber novels were written by Roger Zelazny. The series of books was published over the years from 1970 to 1991. Portions of the first novel,Nine Princes in Amber, had previously been published inKallikanzaros (No. 1, June 1967, and No. 3, December 1967).[citation needed] The novelsSign of the Unicorn,The Hand of Oberon, andThe Courts of Chaos first appeared in abridged, serialized versions inGalaxy Science Fiction.The Guns of Avalon and five later "Merlin Cycle" Amber novels were not serialized or excerpted.
SeveralChronicles of Amberomnibus volumes have also been published, collecting the five novels of the original "Corwin Cycle" in one volume, the five novels of the "Merlin Cycle" in another volume, and later (inThe Great Book of Amber) all ten novels in a single volume.
The first five novels are narrated in the first person byCorwin, a prince of Amber, as he describes his adventures and life upon re-encountering his family after a loss of memory and an absence of centuries.
The next five novels focus onMerlin, Corwin's son. These stories are held by some fans to be less of a fantasy classic than the first five due to the difference in writing style, direction and setting. One criticism of the sequence is that it revolved around the dealing with and acquisition of ever more powerful artifacts and entities, in a kind of technological/magical arms race.[2]
Trumps of Doom won the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 1985.[3]
Blood of Amber was nominated for the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 1987.[4]
Sign of Chaos was nominated for the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 1988.[5]
For the limited 1985 edition ofTrumps of Doom, Zelazny wrote a prologue that details Merlin's passage through the Logrus. After completing the Merlin Cycle, Zelazny wrote five Amber short stories, in which he began to tease the threads of the story into a new configuration. Zelazny died shortly after completing the last of these short stories, which were collected inManna from Heaven (2003), along with theTrumps of Doom prologue and sixteen unrelated stories.
An unfinished sixth story, "A Secret of Amber", was an informal collaboration co-written in alternating sections by Zelazny andEd Greenwood over a period of years. It was published inAmberzine in 2005, then included inThe Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny, Volume 6: The Road to Amber, published by NESFA Press in 2009.
Readers have speculated about the correct internal order of the stories. Zelazny has said that the correct order for the stories is the order in which they were written:[6][7]
The latter five stories tell a linked tale from several viewpoints. Zelazny had planned to write more, and to eventually publish a collection of Amber short stories.[6]
In 2020 Amber Limited released the short stories as a collection, titled "Seven Tales in Amber", with an introduction written by Warren Lapine.
Several years after Zelazny's death, his estate authorized a new series of Amber novels, andJohn Gregory Betancourt was selected as the writer. Betancourt'sDawn of Amber series, which took its name from the title of the first volume, is a prequel to Zelazny's work, taking place centuries or millennia beforeNine Princes in Amber. It is told from the point of view of Corwin's father Oberon, and like Zelazny's novels, the series was narrated in first person.
Four novels, out of five that had been planned, were published byibooks:
Having ended the fourth book on a cliffhanger, Betancourt never wrote the planned and scheduled fifth volume,Sword of Chaos. AfterByron Preiss, the owner of ibooks, died, the publishing company filed forbankruptcy,[8] and Betancourt announced in February 2006 that the series had been canceled.[9] After a meeting with the publisher's new owner, Betancourt had brief hopes of renewed interest in the series from ibooks, but in August 2007 he announced his conclusion that the project was dead.[10]
Betancourt stated that one of his primary motivations for agreeing to write the new books was to keep Zelazny's books and stories alive and in print, and to prevent them from fading into obscurity. He citedRobert E. Howard'sConan,Edgar Rice Burroughs'sTarzan, and SirArthur Conan Doyle'sSherlock Holmes as examples of how later authors had successfully continued and extended the stories of iconic characters long after their creators had died.[11] In response to concerns that theDawn of Amber series seemed to contradict some ideas or rules of the Amber universe as stated in Zelazny's original ten books, Betancourt stated in an interview that some of those contradictions would not prove valid by the end of his series.[11]
The decision by Zelazny's literary executor to authorize a continuation of the Amber series was criticized by several acquaintances of Zelazny, including writersGeorge R. R. Martin,Walter Jon Williams, andNeil Gaiman. They asserted that Zelazny had been quite averse to the idea of a "shared" Amber setting, and that he had clearly stated he did not want any others writing Amber stories.[12] Gaiman wrote:
Well, I remember Roger talking to me andSteve Brust. We'd just suggested that if he did an anthology of other-people-write-Amber-stories that we'd be up for it (understatement) and he puffed on his pipe, and said — extremely firmly — that he didn't want anyone else to write Amber stories but him. I don't believe he ever changed his mind on that. When Roger knew he was dying, though, he did nothing to rewrite his will, which means that his literary executor is a family member from whom he was somewhat estranged — not someone who would have kept Roger's wishes paramount. Which is a pity. Would I love to write an Amber story? God, yes. Would Steve Brust? Absolutely. Will we? Nope because Roger told us he explicitly didn't want it to happen.[13]
The series received a critical response from some Zelazny fans,[who?] who responded negatively to Betancourt's writing style and perceived lack of characterization, and considered his work to befan fiction. The focus on Oberon also disappointed those who, after reading Zelazny's Merlin cycle and Amber short stories, believed that Zelazny had instead been planning another series of books to wrap up matters that he had left hanging. Zelazny's short stories, while tying up some of the loose ends, at the same time had opened doors to potential new stories going forward in the Amber universe, rather than a prequel.
Sunset Productions did audio versions of Roger Zelazny reading the novels (except where noted), and produced them with sound effects. Sunset was bought out by Americana Publishing in 2002.[14]
TheNational Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped also created unabridged recorded versions ofThe Chronicles of Amber novels, including a 1979 recording ofNine Princes in Amber, read by Michael Moodie, and a later recording ofPrince of Chaos, read by John Stratton.
Unabridged recordings created for theCanadian National Institute for the Blind included a 2001 recording ofNine Princes in Amber read by Richard Nazarewich.
In 2012,Audible released brand new recordings ofThe Chronicles of Amber, withAlessandro Juliani reading the first five books (the Corwin cycle) andWil Wheaton reading the last five books (the Merlin cycle).[16]
The first two Amber books,Nine Princes in Amber andThe Guns of Avalon, were adapted by writerTerry Bisson and various illustrators intocomic books. Produced byByron Priess Visual Productions, they were published byDC Comics in 1996, each in three parts.
There are two published guides to Amber:
In 1985,Telarium published theinteractive fictioncomputer gameNine Princes in Amber, based on the first two books of the series.
Two authorized adventure books based on Amber, similar in concept to theChoose Your Own Adventure series, were written by Neil Randall and published in 1988:
Erick Wujcik created theAmber Diceless Roleplaying Game, with two authorized publications:
The online multiplayerrole-playing gameAmberMUSH was based in the Amber universe.[17]
Lost Souls is a multiplayermedieval fantasyMUD in which Amber is the center of the cosmos and the Courts of Chaos is the outermost of the outer planes; Amberite and Chaosborn are among the playable races.
Zangband is a single-playerroguelike computer game with a setting, magic system, and race options that are loosely derived from Zelazny's Amber multiverse, with the Serpent of Chaos as its final adversary.
The series is based on the concept of parallel worlds, domination over them being fought between the kingdoms at the extreme ends of Shadow—Amber, the one true world of Order, and the Courts of Chaos. Amberites of royal blood are able to "walk in Shadow", mentally willing changes to occur around them. These changes are, in effect, representative of the Shadow-walker passing through different realities. Zelazny deals with some philosophical concepts about the nature of existence, compares and contrasts the ideas of Order and Chaos, and plays with the laws of physics—they can differ from Shadow to Shadow. Gunpowder for example does not ignite in Amber, which is why the characters all carry swords. There are apparently infinite realities, and the characters in the novels are not sure if these different universes are created as one walks through Shadow, or if they already exist and a Shadow-walker is able to slip from one to another. The series references theWheeler–Everett interpretation of quantum-mechanics, and the Ghostwheel created by Merlin is said to "shuffle" through Shadows, seemingly suggesting that the multiverse exists independently of those who walk in Shadow.
The word "Trump" is used as both a noun and a verb. As a noun, it properly refers to a specialized type of hand-drawntarot card depicting a person or a place. As a verb, it refers to using such a card for teleportation. The original tarot decks used by Amberites had some or all of theirMajor Arcana cards augmented with images of the royal family, and of at least one location, Castle Amber. A deck was given to each family member after they first walked the Pattern. The Trumps have the magical attribute of facilitating a psychic link to the person or place depicted on the card, enabling instant communication, travel, and even attack. If the card depicts a location, the user is able to teleport to that location. If the card depicts a person, the user concentrates on the image and attempts to reach out to the person to initiate contact. The recipient of a Trump contact does not need to have a card in their possession. An attempted contact may be blocked or declined by the receiving party, by an act of concentration. ASpikard is a type of magical object with hyperdimensional "lines of power" which connect it to sorcerous power caches in various universes. In the Amber novels and short stories, two shapes of Spikards are explicitly cited: rings and swords. Benedict's metal arm is never explicitly listed as a Spikard, but it does share with Corwin's Spikard sword Grayswandir the rare magical ability to bypass an existential barrier of intangibility.
The 1946 short novelThe Dark World byHenry Kuttner andC.L. Moore[18] was acknowledged by Zelazny as one inspiration. Similarities appear in the theme and in specific instances: some character names are common to both works, and they share the fantasy literary device of moving a present day, realistic character from the familiar world into a fantastical, alternate reality world, exposing the character to this shift as the reader experiences it. Zelazny is quoted as saying:
... the Kuttner story which most impressed me in those most impressionable days was his short novelThe Dark World. I returned to it time and time, reading it over and over again, drawn by its colorful, semi-mythic characters and strong action ... looking back, Kuttner and [C. L.]Moore — and, specifically,The Dark World — were doubtless a general influence on my development as a writer. As for their specific influences—particularly on my Amber series—I never thought about it until Jane Lindskold started digging around and began pointing things out to me.[19]
Zelazny admitted that the series was also inspired byPhilip José Farmer'sWorld of Tiers series, specifically the concepts of a powerful family in rivalry over the fate of multiple universes.[20]
Given Zelazny's academic interest in the Medieval European period, it is not a stretch to see a possible influence inHenry Adams' 1905 workMont Saint-Michel and Chartres, wherein he discusses the building of Chartres Cathedral, and the tidal-islet ofMont Saint-Michel, on the Normandy coast of France. However, these possible influences are not supported by Zelazny's own commentary about the origins of the Pattern. He indicated that he loosely based the Pattern in part on theTree of Life orSephiroth of Kaballah, and preferred to allow the reader to imagine what the actual Pattern looked like.[20]
More generally, the series draws from many mythological sources as inspirations, especiallyCeltic (seeTír na nÓg),Norse mythology, and Arthurian legend. Zelazny cited Jessie L. Weston's 1921 bookFrom Ritual to Romance as a key influence: it examined the pagan and Christian roots of the legends of King Arthur, the Wasteland myths, and the Holy Grail. For example, the Celtic Wasteland myth ties the barrenness of a land to a curse that a hero must lift; Corwin's curse is in part responsible for the Black Road.[20]
Philosophical texts have influenced the series as well: many similarities exist between Amber andPlato's Republic (see theAllegory of the cave) and the classical problems ofmetaphysics, virtuality,solipsism,logic,possible worlds,probability,doubles andessences are also repeatedly reflected on.
The references made by Zelazny could be considered foreshadowing. For example, the nameGanelon was taken from theMatter of France, a body of classic French legends and literature that includes theSong of Roland. Throughout the Matter of France, Ganelon was often called "Ganelon the Traitor"; thus, for readers familiar with the original Ganelon, Zelazny's use of the name foreshadowed events inThe Hand of Oberon where Ganelon purposefully loses a battle to spiteCorwin. In theSong of Roland, Ganelon was also the stepfather of the protagonistRoland, which Zelazny may have used to foreshadow the relationship between Corwin and Ganelon at the conclusion ofThe Hand of Oberon.
Throughout the Chronicles, Zelazny alludes extensively to plays byWilliam Shakespeare. It is not stated in the series whether the characters (who are usually well-read) are merely paraphrasing the bard for their own amusement, or if Shakespeare himself was telling stories that are reflections of Amber's history and future. It is implied that both variants are true simultaneously. The allusions include:
In July 2016,Skybound Entertainment announced that it was developingThe Chronicles of Amber as a television project underDisney-ABC Domestic Television withWalking Dead creator and producerRobert Kirkman as an executive producer.[21] Kirkman stated that "Chronicles of Amber is one of my favorite book series of all time, and one of my main inspirations for working in film and television. Getting to produce this project is the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. I can't wait to share this amazing story with a new generation of fans".[22]
In August 2017, Kirkman and Skybound announced an agreement withAmazon to develop television projects to debut exclusively onPrime Video with distribution under Disney-ABC Domestic Television, without identifying any specific project as part of the deal.[23] In January 2023, The Hollywood Reporter announced that the production company Spartina had joined Skybound Entertainment and Vincent Newman Entertainment’s existing partnership to develop the works into a drama series.[24]
ibooks has had to cancel the final Amber book (they didn't have the money to pay the licensing fee – or the money to pay me to write it). The death of ibooks' publisher has really hurt the company. ibooks is still in business, but it's not a healthy company by any means. Sigh. Sorry for the bad news!
I ran into the new owner of ibooks, Inc (John Colby) at BookExpo. We had a pleasant meeting. He said he was going to release SHADOWS OF AMBER in paperback and wanted me to write the fifth book. He even had a [photocopied] catalog showing the paperback cover for SHADOWS. But when I called his office and left a message for him, he never got back to me. And the paperback hasn't made its scheduled appearance, nor is it listed as forthcoming on Amazon. So – nothing happening. My assumption that the project is dead continues.
