This is the third book of the Chronicles of Amber which feature Corwin as the hero. It was excellent. The Amber universe is further revealed, mysteries abound & deepen. The book does end on a cliff hanger. If you get this far into the 5 book series, you simply have to finish it out now.The writing style is still the same & Corwin is still a most likable hero. He's not perfect, but he is tough & pragmatic. He's facing a lot of tough decisions, but takes them in stride. Can't wait to read the next! ( )

Good story, but lacking in clarity: Roger Zelazny is a confusing and frustrating writer. He is tinkering with a gold mine here. He has a great foundation for a story. But what he does with it is frustrating.

I love the concept of a god-like family in charge of everything, and I love the idea of introducing all of these characters to us. The part that troubles me is that the writing is so unclear. We really don't know what in the hell is going on half the time.

What is all this about reality shifting? What is all this about a ghost place? I feel like grabbing him by the arm and shouting hey! come down to earth for a moment and tell me just exactly what in the hell you are talking about.

The parts of this story I felt the most comfortable with were the parts where we get an explanation of the relationships between the siblings, who is who's full sibling, which ones had this or that mother, who came first, who came next. This categorization, this overall organization, this explanation of the cast of characters, should have come a lot sooner than it did. We should have been given a family tree right up front.

When someone is just riding down a road, and suddenly the trees are thicker than they are supposed to be, and the sun is larger than it is supposed to be, and one of the characters says "hey look at that sunset!", and we realize they are now on another world, that's about the time I'm saying hold it, where's the space ship and what in the hell is going on here. What are the laws of this universe?

The law seems to be that the author can do whatever he damn pleases whenever he damn pleases, and can confuse us with ghost scenes and shadows any time he has a whim to do so. I want to know what his reality is, and he is not telling. I consider that a major flaw.

It has been written that good sci fi fantasy changes just one thing, and makes the rest believable, and concrete. Well, that sure isn't happening here. This series takes us for a ride anywhere it has a mind to go, and I'd like the ride a lot better if I knew what the rules were.

Oh, there's a magic unicorn. That's nice. Oh, there's another Amber, a real one this time, oh that's nice. Whatever.

And please stop getting poetic on me! Stop writing in your ghost style. It sucks. Write English. That will do just fine. Write clearly. Tell us a story, and tell us what in the hell is going on. Don't get too cute.

Sign of the Unicorn is a very different read to the previous two books in the Amber series. The two previous volumes were filled to the brim with action and politics, where as the third takes the emphasis off the action. The story almost becomes a whodunnit? style murder mystery.

The tale begins a week into Corwin's reign as regent of Amber, and one of his brothers has been found dead. Furthermore it is clear that someone has tried to frame him for it, and suspicion becomes rife as to who has set him up. This leads Corwin to demand the tale as to how Random came to end up in his company at the start of the first book, and further revelations are unveiled as the story moves on, including the discovery of the fate of one of the missing brothers; Brand. We also get to know a lot more about the characterizations and motivations of the princes of amber, and the princesses to a lesser extent.

I found this a nice change of scenery, an unexpected direction but not an unwelcome one. It felt slightly weaker in some aspects, possibly because all of the intrigue sometimes got a bit too much. It does however set up the final two books quite nicely, so I suppose it serves its purpose fairly well. The ending confused the hell out of me, but I suspect it was somewhat supposed to. Now onwards to the fourth.... ( )

See Nine Princes in Amber. ( )

http://home.comcast.net/~ktoonen/summ... ( )