Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

Nine Princes of Amber: It was an ok story. Not great, but not bad. I sort of got annoyed with the faux-medieval language towards the end, and I didn't care that much about the characters, but the cliff-hanger ending did leave me curious and wanting to read the next in the series.

I was a bit annoyed that none of the sisters are relevant characters.


The Guns of Avalon: I just finished this yesterday, and had to think a minute to recall what happened. It was anti-climactic in itself, and generally set up for the rest of the story.

Hand of Oberon: Didn't expect that particular twist, though I did think there was something fishy about "him".

1/15/10

The Corwin Arc

So last night I finished book 5, completing the Corwin Arc of the story.

First off let me state that this is one of those series/arcs which is really one story which is split into parts, and not a series where each book is self-contained. I don't mind this in the least, but I think it's good for people to know so they don't think they can just jump in anywhere. Though each book does have a sort of "reminiscence" of past events, it is something you really need to read in order.

I would say that, overall, this is a story whose whole is better than the sum of its parts. The first two books were a bit slow, books 3 and 4 were rather good, and book 5 and its ups and downs - but since it really is one story, it's best, I think, to take it as a total and not as parts, which is why I aborted my above attempt at per book commentaries.

That said, I give it 3 1/2 stars.

There are two major downfalls to the story. 1) Secondary characters aren't really developed, and it's hard to get a real feel for them. Above I'd mentioned this mostly with the sisters, but, really, it's all of them with few exceptions. But, even those exceptions are scatter-shot. 2) The descriptions of the journies through Shadows were rather dull and hard to follow. I sort of started zoning in these places, and would perk up again once we got somewhere and something of interest started happening.

Actually, I'll add a third, which is related to the first, but also simply a by-product of it's first person narration - there's a lot of exposition. There's a lot of stuff that happens off-stage because it doesn't happen to Corwin directly, and so we find out about it in dialogue as it's being related to Corwin. This adds to the mystery and intrigue aspect, but also smacks of telling instead of showing. Of course, conversely, this added greatly to the brevity of the story, because if we 'saw' all of the events, the book would probably be at least twice as long. So that's sort of a pro and a con.

There were parts, such as with Corwin and Random, and Corwin and Hugi, where I truly felt for Corwin - where I felt for his plight, empathized with is pain, or was amused by conversations. There were other parts where I felt distanced from the story, such as when a major character died who he loved, but whom you never really see much of in the story, and so are left able to sympathize, but not empathize. It's hard to care about the fate of a character you hardly see, even if the narrator has some ununderstood affection for them.

The parts that worked, as I said, were mostly the intrigue. I was often as confused as Corwin, and as equally desirous of learning what, exactly, was going on and who, precisely, was betraying whom. Also some of the action sequences were quite good. Some of the best parts, though, were being inside Corwin when we truly felt his pain or pleasure, his triumphs or despair. It didn't always work, but, when it did, it worked well.

3.5 - 4 stars

I am now putting this book aside, and will return to Merlin's arc after I've finished off some other stuff I want to get to.

So, I finished the Merlin arc last night. Overall, I didn't think it was as good as the Corwin arc. I think the biggest drawback, for me, was that there wasn't as much as an empathic connection with Merlin as there was with Corwin.

While we're following Corwin's story, we get a lot of insight into him as a person and how things are affecting him. With Merlin, while there's a little bit of this, it's mostly just one thing after another thing after another. So much happens, with so many different people and things wanting a piece of him, that we don't get a lot of time for real in-depth character stuff.

I mean, I liked Merlin, but I only felt I knew him superficially. And what we do know of him we learn mostly through his actions.

At times I really felt for Corwin. I only remember one time where my heart went out to Merlin.

Going back to so much happening, at times the story was confusing and hard to follow. There was an odd jerkiness to it in places, again, and I would flip back a page to see if I skipped something. It was hard keeping people and motives straight, and some of it didn't really make a lot of sense (like most of the Julia thing.)

Other parts were slogging. I think most of book three and about 1/2 of book 4 were just painfully slow. I had to sort of force my way through.

It picked up a lot at the end, which was good, and things were moving along at a good pace - and then things just ended. It's a very open-ended ending, and there are a lot of loose threads which could be picked up, which could be fine, except this is all there is. (Well, there were sohrt stories written, but I don't think they're collected anywhere, and Zelazny died before it was all completed.)

Overall, I liked the Merlin arc well enough, just not as much as the first cycle.

3 starts