Nine Princes in Amber

I grew up reading Nine Princes in Amber alongside my brothers, sister and parents. As soon as we graduated from Narnia and The Book of Three, we were reading Zelazny with the grown ups.
In some ways, Nine Princes is a template of the amnesiac protagonist who experiences the facets of a sci-di world through the eyes of a newbie and then reclaims his memories and the true struggle begins. The Artifical Kid and Matrix are echoes of this work. Really looking forward to collecting all of the Amber series on Kindle. Only request would be to have access to the original 70’s artwork. I like the new cover but it would be cool if I could replace the icon with the original paperback format cover.

I give five stars for Zelazny’s novel (which might be my favorite of his novels) but two stars for the Kindle edition. Why? Because the Kindle edition has the worst kind of typos: Insidious typos that won’t be caught by a spell checker but that screw up the author’s prose. The example that was so bad I noticed, in Chapter 4:

I was afraid to confide in him as to the condition of my memory. I was also afraid to tell him, so I didn’t.

(Kindle locations 905-906). This makes no sense, and I couldn’t believe that this came from a writer as careful as Zelazny. So I checked it against my old paper version (and the wonderful Audible version narrated by Alessandro Juliani). Both have this as

I was afraid to confide in him as to the condition of my memory. I was also afraid to trust him, so I didn’t.

This makes much more sense, and is completely in Zelazny’s style. Once I saw this, I pretty much gave up on the Kindle edition and switched full-time to the wonderful Audible edition.

(Why didn’t I give the Kindle edition 1 star? I live in hope that the typos get fixed someday.)

I first read the books as a young boy in school. As I was raised in Israel, I read them in the Hebrew translation. I remember loving the books greatly but can’t recall if I ever read all of them in a row. Now when I’m an adult and have a kindle I had the choice of either going back and reading my childhood classics in a paper format (in Hebrew) or try out for the Kindle version in English. The cheaper price and the simple fact that with kindle there is no waiting time tipped the scale and I decided to give up on the emotional value in favor of price and simplicity. Imagine my surprise when I found out that it made no diference! The books are just as enjoybale, just as much fun to read, as they were when I was a boy. (I must admit that I pick up on things that as a young boy I must have not understood or paid much attention to). A great read and at the Kindle price a great bargin! Read this book or buy it for your own son or daughter, you won’t regret it!

I’ve been a fan of Zelazny for years, and I first read this book when I was a teenager. I’ve reread the whole series more than once, and recently started another reread. The protagonist, Corwin, is typical of Zelazny’s stories. Smart, brave, often fighting his way out of one predicament after another. The universe he begins to create in this book, a blend of fantasy and scifi, continues to grow across the whole series, creating something that was rather unique at the time it was written. It was a great loss to the world of speculative fiction when the author died, but we still have this and his other books to enjoy.

Nine Princes of Amber is one of the very few series type stories I actually enjoy. Mr. Zelazny created a world and universe showing us an unending series of possibilities and peopled it with honest believable characters. I have waited a long time for the Amber series to become available for my Kindle Fire. I look forward to the rest of the series. Admittedly for me the Amber saga ends with the crowning of the new ruler (no spoiler alert necessary as I will not reveal the identity of Oberon’s eventual successor). But I will eagerly seek the remainder. Hopefully the Zelazny Estate will begin to release his other books soon. Jack of Shadows, The Lord of Light and Legion are stories of a master craftsman at the zenith of his powers. Read Nine Princes of Amber and find his other works and prepare to become a lifelong fan.

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