The Guns of Avalon

This book follows directly from the events of Nine Princes in Amber, as Corwin plots his return to Amber, in an attempt to claim the crown. This one had more of a straight up high fantasy sword & sorcery feel to it, compared to Nine Princes, where the early part of the book is set in “our” Earth (which of course in this series is just a shadow of the true realm, Amber). The fanciful conceit underlying Corwin’s plans boils down to this: the laws of chemistry are different in Amber and its shadows, which Corwin will exploit to his advantage. It’s kind of a hokey plot device. Meanwhile the larger story unfolds, as we realize the full scope of Corwin’s curse, which was foreshadowed at the end of the previous book. The writing remains crisp, although this time around Corwin is a little more wink, wink as a narrator, with more asides to his audience along the lines of “I drew my sword, which is called Grayswandir. Maybe someday I will tell you how it became my sword but now is not the time”. There was also less going on in terms of the brothers – less of the complex politics and uncertainties about shifting ambitions and political alliances. Overall I liked it, although not quite as much as “Nine Princes”.

I read this book about 30 years ago I think. I was in a near fatal car wreck 10 years ago with a traumatic brain injury. I thought I remembered it being a good. Book so when I was looking for a new read after reading the Lord Of The Rings again for the sixth time I thought of Zelazny and so here I am. I had no memory of the story so it is like reading it for the first time. Glad I remembered.

I began to re-read the Amber books as an exercise of sort to try and see if the books will speak to me as an adult in the same way that they had when I was a boy. I’m happy to say that the pass the test of time with flying colors and that my only regret is that for some strange reason there is no kindle edition beyond the third book (there are fantastic audible versions of the books, and I enjoy them greatly, but still, it would have been good to have the Kindle option as well). Many people say that literature was better a few decades ago. I don’t agree as some new writers have done some amazing things in the genre and I don’t wish to go back in time to days of yore when only the select few read fantasy books or played role playing games. HOWEVER these books had been, and still are, better then most fantasy literature out there. Maybe it’s the depth of the writing, or the jokes (some I think I failed to catch on to as a child) BUT these books are powerful and good and you won’t regret them.

As with all the other books in this series, Roger Zelazny’s ”

The Guns of Avalon: Book Two (The Chronicles of Amber 2)

” is not stand-alone. They flow one to the next without pause or summary. So, they really can’t be reviewed individually. But, I’ll note that, again, Zelazny’s got a wonderful universe, prose, and characters here. Probably the biggest issue with this particular book is the one hell-ride he describes for pages on end. Since I’ve read these books half a dozen times or so over the decades, I just skip right over that. Otherwise, I love it. So, I’m rating the book at a Very Good 4 stars out of 5.