The Great Book of Amber

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

Roger Zelazny's Amber series is one of the best sci-fi/fantasy epics ever written. Not only was it highly imaginative and original when it was published (in the 70s and 80s), but it remains so – there's nothing else like it.

Corwin and his brothers and sisters are clever, sophisticated, sarcastic, and extremely ambitious. They constantly scheme and plot to outmaneuver each other as they vie for political power. If you knew these people in real life, you'd probably hate them, but in Zelazny's hands they're charming (especially Corwin). Zelazny's writing style is solid: fast-paced, exciting, and witty. Plot twists and cliff-hangers make it hard to stop reading.

With all that praise, I must mention two little problems:
1. The Merlin Cycle is not as good as The Corwin Cycle. Corwin is just more interesting than his son.
2. The story never quite wraps up because Zelazny died before finishing it.

Bottom Line: Read The Corwin Cycle (the first half). If you're hooked, keep going.

Read this review in context at Fantasy Literature

Books 1-5 are awesome. Books 6-10 are... less awesome. The series kind of goes off the rails after the first half.

didn't finish. The first 30 pages were fantastic - a man wakes up in a hospital bed with hostile nurses and no memory of who he is. He has to think his way out, gaining information little by little while never letting on that he knows nothing. That part was great. Everything after his memory loss seemed super boring.