The Chronicles Of Amber

“The Chronicles Of Amber” also known as the “Corwin Cycle” consists of the first five books of the “Great book of Amber”. The next five books are called the “Merlin Cycle”. The Corwin cycle is complete and wholesome by itself, while the follow-up Merlin Cycle is incomplete and dragging. Unfortunately, Zelazny didn't live long to come up with a sequel for Merlin’s Cycle.

The Chronicles of Amber doesn't give away the central theme very easily. We have to earn it by reading through the series, page by page without skipping any. Only after reading one-fifth of the first book “Nine Princes In Amber” do we even get a slight inkling of the fact that this is a fantasy series. With having this in mind, I have attempted to write a review for this series without giving away much of the story.

The story is told through the eyes of Corwin, who has lost his memory and pieces them together from the day he wakes-up on a hospital bed. As we go on to see in the book, choosing Corwin as the narrator and plaguing him with Amnesia is not a random beginning. The story unfolds from this central point and weaves a magnificent web. Every strand of the web is well connected with each other and is very much a part of the central theme. The plot is not a mere sequence of events starting with the description of place and characters. The location of the story and character names are very much part of the web evolving around Corwin. I found it interesting to note that the structure of the series is very similar to the story of the book. There is a reality and our earth is only a shadow or an impression among infinite other shadows cast around this reality.  All of these impression/shadows are connected to each other like a hug misshapen web, making it possible to traverse across them. Slowly the book reveals that there isn’t one reality, but other realities and hints on the possibility to create several other realities.

While the series tells a story, it also builds on a philosophy and the philosophy of the book on Absolute and Reality is very beautifully written as a discussion by a bird and Corwin. This complex piece is probably one of the few well-written pieces in the entire series. The book has several complicated parts and the writing certainly doesn’t help us to pass through these complicated parts. At these complex areas, the writing becomes very verbose and I had half a mind to put down the book.

While the structure of the story and the story line are excellently woven, the series “The Chronicles Of Amber” falls short in becoming an excellent classic because of its writing.