Zelazny plays around with Corwin’s amnesia by having him bluff his way forward while he has no idea about the people and stakes involved. It’s a very effective approach to make us feel involved and to explain a conceptually outlandish fantasy world at the same time. He is a ballsy protagonist and his narration sounds like an investigator from some noir film. Narrated in first person, we follow the amnesiac Corwin as he wakes up in a hospital, discovering step by step who he is as he collects clues about his situation. Nine Princes in Amber (1970) starts out with an exciting pace and an electric sense of mystery. In short, the Amber series perfectly messes up all my ideas about what exactly is a novel. However, all ten novels can be regarded separately but then it must be said that nowadays they would be regarded as novellas because they are only 150 pages each in length. The reason there is also a five-book compilation is because the first five have a different protagonist than the latter five and therefore have a natural point of separation. However, there is another compilation of all ten novels, called The Great Book of Amber. This book has the first five of ten Amber novels, published as The Chronicles of Amber. I’m confused on how to regard this series.
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