Finally on audio!!

“I’d get what I needed and take what I wanted and I’d remember those who helped me and step on the rest. For this, I knew, was the law by which our family lived, and I was a true son of my father.”

When Corwin wakes up in a private hospital after driving his car over a cliff, he has no idea who he is. When he realizes that he has healed too fast and that he’s being drugged so he’ll stay unconscious, he decides that he better find out what’s going on.
The truth is strange: Corwin is one of the nine princes of Amber, the one true world, but for centuries he’s been exiled in the Shadowland we call Earth. The accident has actually dislodged the spell that his brother Eric was using to keep him out of Amber because Corwin is the biggest threat to Eric’s sovereignty there.

Nine Princes in Amber is the first (rather short) installment in a long epic that describes, from Corwin’s perspective and later his son’s, the struggle of his family to deal with both their internal treacheries and the evil forces that assail them from the forces of Chaos. In Nine Princes in Amber, Corwin must figure out who he is, assess his resources, gather some allies, wonder whether his father is dead or alive, and make a move on the throne of Amber. Here we learn what Corwin has been doing for centuries on Earth, meet several of his siblings, discover the way in and out of Amber, meet a race of people who live under the sea, and discover some of the special powers of Corwin’s family.

Ah… Corwin’s family… if you can call them a “family.” Corwin’s own description for them is “Machiavellian,” and that about covers 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 kind of charming. These are people who plan to live forever, have the ability to design their own worlds to plunder, are incapable of trust, and have no reason to think about anyone other than themselves. In the end, Corwin rages against his brother and makes a rash decision that will negatively affect Amber’s future.

THE CHRONICLES OF AMBER was highly imaginative when it was published in the 1970s and it remains fresh and original today. The magic system is creative, Zelazny’s writing style is solid, the story is fast-paced, exciting, and mature. Plot twists and cliffhangers make it hard to stop reading. You’ll definitely want to have The Guns of Avalon, the second book in the series, ready to go as soon as you finish Nine Princes in Amber.

Nine Princes in Amber is a re-read for me because Audible Frontiers has recently produced THE CHRONICLES OF AMBER on audio — something I have been waiting years for. They’ve chosen one of their best narrators for Zelazny’s most famous work: Alessandro Juliani. He’s got the perfect voice and style to play Corwin, so I’m really pleased with this production. If you’re an audio reader, you’ll definitely want to download this classic!
Originally Posted at FanLit.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 52 personas

I Loved Amber in High School, But Now. . .

The first person narrator of Roger Zelazny's Nine Princes in Amber (1970) wakes up in a hospital without knowing who he is or how he came to be there. He does know that he's been being kept in a drugged sleep, so he feigns unconsciousness, takes out a thuggish orderly, threatens the doctor in charge, and, finally learning from him that his "sister" checked him into the hospital, heads off in a taxi for her home in NY. Thus begins his quest for identity and memory, which occupies the first half of the novel. By concealing his amnesia, acting as if he's considering his next move in some game of power, and examining every clue, he soon learns that his name is Corwin, that he is a prince of a place called Amber ("the key to everything"), and that his Machiavellian kin (eight brothers and at least four sisters) feel little kinship for each other: "I'd get what I needed and take what I wanted, and I'd remember those who helped me and step on the rest. For this, I knew, was the law by which our family lived." But how can he return to Amber, and what is the family game that stranded him memoryless on earth?

I remembering loving the first Amber cycle when I was in high school, painfully waiting for the fifth book to be published in 1978 so I could find out how Corwin's saga ends. Revisiting Nine Princes of Amber thirty-five years later, I still find good things in it. Zelazny's conception of Amber as the only real place, the one true substance from which all other cities and worlds, including earth, are "but a reflection of a shadow," is intriguing, as is his depiction of traveling through the Shadow worlds by mentally adding and subtracting features till you arrive at Amber. He tells a page-turning story. His strategy of having Corwin reveal early on that he's telling his tale as he is about to die somehow somewhere in the future is neat. There are some nice lines, like "As I sailed into Shadow, a white bird of my desire came and sat upon my right shoulder." And as he exploits the internecine machinations of a dysfunctional super-powered family, Zelazny explores the ways in which hatred shapes the world, partly through the filter of the Vietnam War: "I walked among Shadows, and found a race of furry creatures, dark and clawed and fanged, reasonably man-like, and about as intelligent as a freshman in the high school of your choice--sorry, kids, but what I mean is they were loyal, devoted, honest, and too easily screwed by bastards like me and my brother."

Alas, today I can also see many warts on the novel. For example, despite loving the soldiers fighting and dying for him, despite invoking the horror of napalm and mushroom clouds, despite having participated in appalling campaigns like Napoleon's march on Moscow, and despite having come to care for other lives during his centuries of exile on earth, Corwin (and Zelazny) really do treat the quarter of a million plus casualties of the Amber game as anonymous, "custom-made cannon fodder," when a truly caring prince might try first to mentally dominate his nemesis so as to avoid war via one of the nifty tarot-like cards that serve the royalty of Amber as combination telephones and teleporters. Corwin's "guilt" feels crocodilian.

Another: Despite Amber being the only real realm, Corwin's allusions to people, events, and works from our "Shadow earth" (like "I suddenly realized that I had known the mad, sad, bad Vincent Van Gogh") so outnumber those from Amber's history that Zelazny evokes our own world more than he develops Amber. This is especially so when Corwin uses American slang and sexism from 1970. He refers to a nurse as "a hippy broad," says that he can or can't "dig" certain things, decides to "play it cool," invites a friend to "make the scene," and so on. Zelazny is grounding his fantasy with an "authentic" language and manner, but it causes some cringes.

As for gender, early on Corwin devotes a paragraph each to describe his brothers and himself, but only a single paragraph for his sisters, and he often wonders what happened to his father but not to his mother. Only men are fit to rule Amber, and the royal sisters are basically concubines of the fittest. Corwin even gets to indulge in a Captain Kirk-like interlude with a suitably bare-breasted and green-nippled undersea queen.

Finally, Zelazny's depiction of Corwin as a macho, sensitive warrior-bard, expert at martial and liberal arts, fluent in hip slang and Shakespearean English, possessed of superhuman strength and regenerative powers (no wonder he can chain smoke without getting cancer!), starts feeling like a nerdy adolescent's ultimate cool guy power fantasy (no wonder I loved these books in high school!). With the possible exception of Random, Corwin's siblings appear flat next to him.

The reader Allesandro Juliani, excellent with Solaris, is good here, but his light and casual voice make Corwin seem less substantial and charismatic than he could be, and his attempts to vocally distinguish the other eight brothers from each other begin to sound strained. He also tends to make female voices too high and weak.

Later entries in the Amber cycle may correct my kvetches, but to find out I'll dust off my high school days' Avon paperbacks rather than pay Audible for each of the four remaining five-hour novels (when a single 25-hour omnibus audiobook would have been nice).

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 12 personas

Great story but very unfortunate narration.

What did you like best about Nine Princes in Amber? What did you like least?

After a couple of decades (and more) I decided to revisit the great land of Amber. Unfortunately the regal persona of Corwin has been reduced to sounding like a 100 lbs. teenager who just discovered coffee. Narration is terribly rushed and simply does not match what I think a prince of Amber would sound like...maybe it's just me. The voice acting is not that great...the characters seem to take on almost a comic tone.

The story is of course wonderful which is why I will try and suffer through at least the next book in the series.

What didn’t you like about Alessandro Juliani’s performance?

Boy...to be honest just about everything. I would still encourage folks to give it a try since it's a wonderful tale.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 4 personas

An inspired rendition of a truly great series

Would you consider the audio edition of Nine Princes in Amber to be better than the print version?

Having read the Amber series as each book was published, I have read them all many times, each time seeing something new. This rendition is better than reading the book myself.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Corwin has always been one of my literary heroes, in a similar vein to the reluctant heroes of Moorcock's work and to Howard's Conan. But Corwin's time on earth and his suffering takes us through a journey of his desire for the throne and his jealousy of his siblings becoming one man's development of compassion and duty.

What about Alessandro Juliani’s performance did you like?

Mr Juliani's performance gives the listener a variety of voices to suit the characters, always an important point for me. He brings to life not just the characters but the settings not matter how mundane or exoticv they are.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 2 personas

Finally, AMBER!

Would you listen to Nine Princes in Amber again? Why?

Most certainly I would like to listen again. This series is one of my very favorite stories of all time, and this new reading is beautiful, full of life and personality. Each character feels vibrant with Alessandro's reading. I had the Roger Zelazny reading, and while the man was a genius, he lacked the flair to really bring his characters to life in the reading. I am glad to own this!

What other book might you compare Nine Princes in Amber to and why?

This book, and this story is incomparable to most other stories and you quickly can tell why through Corwin's eyes as he rediscovers his incredible powers. This series is undefinable as far as genre goes, because it's sci-fi AND high fantasy. It has cunning political intrigue, epic battles, swashbuckling mixed with the twin 'magics' of high technology and deep ritual magick.

Which scene was your favorite?

The opening scene struck me as most memorable and is what originally drew me into the rest of the series when I was a boy. Waking up in a hospital bed, who am I? What has happened to me? And more importantly, who is chasing me and why?

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Don't make this a film. Please no. It would be ruined, I'm sure.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Great stuff!

Would you consider the audio edition of Nine Princes in Amber to be better than the print version?

Alessandro Juliani, who narrated the first half of the series, from Corwin's pov, did a really good job of capturing the tone and attitude of Zelazny's writing.

Wil Wheaton, narrating the books from the pov of Merlin, son of Corwin, pick that up and also does a great job. I never have trouble distinguishing which character is speaking at any given moment, he remembers inflections and accents that he gives bit parts and keeps them consistent.

Zelzany's writing is always an interesting mix of whimsical, edgy, and inventive. Sometimes the descriptions of landscapes go on and on, but by and large this is a very enjoyable and original series.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Doesn't hold up to nostalgia

I have very fond memories of this book and this series. Amber is a beautifully conceived and engaging world, with a cast of characters that play well off of each other, promising brilliant intrigue and adventure.

But,... it's a promise only partially fulfilled. Zelazny has a typical arc - intriguing beginning, building excitement and interest, and a fizzle at the end. The Amber books are the same, ending in not only a convoluted and unsatisfying conclusion, but a follow-up series that unravels even more quickly. One has the feeling that Zelazny was making it up as he went, and forgetting important details along the way. Out of the series, this and the next two books are the best, but your own guesses about the ending of the cycle will be better than Zelazny's.

The reader was jarring to me, until I realized how bad the dialogue was in the book, and therefore how little the reader had to work with. His rendition is not great, but it would take big name talent to polish the story and characters more, I would think.

It pains me to be negative about this book, since it was one of my favorites in my teens. I read the book so many times, I could say the dialogue along with the reader. But it has been many years, and this book did not age well. I find myself wishing that the newer, more polished writers of today could take this book and shine it up. There is so much good in the characters and setting that I can't give a blanket condemnation. I still think anyone who hasn't read it should. It may be a real treat if you do. I just can't find myself throwing the word "classic" around.

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

A favorite finally available on Audible

What made the experience of listening to Nine Princes in Amber the most enjoyable?

This is probably my all time favorite fantasy series that I read in book form previously. Nine Princes is the perfect first book for the series. The narrator did a good job but would have like to had Wil Wheaton to all 10 books of Amber. The story shines through though. Loved it.

What did you like best about this story?

Zelazny crafted a very orginal take on the Fantasy genre and the dialogue is great

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I loved the ending of the story and the promise it holds for more

Any additional comments?

Get this, it's definitely worth the credit

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

my favorite sci fi series comes to Audible!!!

What did you love best about Nine Princes in Amber?

beautifully written and read!

Who was your favorite character and why?

Corwin...the master of his own domain

What does Alessandro Juliani bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

an undertone of credence to a wonderful story

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

i loved the time in the dungeon when Corwin has lost his sight

Any additional comments?

so excited that the Amber/Courts of Chaos series has come to life in a new format

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña

esto le resultó útil a 1 persona

Great introduction to a series

Would you try another book from Roger Zelazny and/or Alessandro Juliani?

Yes the story was interesting but Alessandro really brought the characters to life and gave them personality.

Would you recommend Nine Princes in Amber to your friends? Why or why not?

Yes its a fast paced introduction to a series of fantasy novels that sound like fun.

Which scene was your favorite?

The road to Amber and walking the pattern

If this book were a movie would you go see it?

yep

Has calificado esta reseña.

Reportaste esta reseña