Knight of Shadows

Flair, fantasy, humor: Bias alert. I should start this review by saying that I am not sure that Zelazny could write a bad book. Non-Zelazny fans may disagree.

Merlin is very clearly the son of Corwin. He is irreverent about the holy ghosts of Amber and Chaos. He hits his head against the rules (and sometimes even wins). Despite an overly-long sequence in a strange testing ground between shadows, Zelzany still infuses this book with the manic strangeness and humor that are part of what make him such a wonderful writer. As noted, virtually none of the Amber novels can be read stand-alone or out of sequence. You are going to have to read the books before this one to get the background. And you are going to have to read the ones after this show more to get an explanation. An enjoyable task, luckily. show less

It is increasingly difficult to drag my way through this dull, meandering, shaggy dog story of a book cycle. It hurts, because Zelazny is one of my favorite authors of all time, but what is the point of these books? To the extent I know what is supposed to be significant about what's happening, I don't care. I feel like the Amber premise is completely wasted in the Merlin cycle. Too bad Zelazny refused to hand it off to anybody else who might have wanted to explore the original core concept better.

Zelazny delights in blindsiding his characters [and readers] with all sorts of father issues, family issues and friend issues. Turns out the Pattern and the Logrus are sentient powers and that Chaos and Amber may simply exist to give them place to battle. Merlin is in the position that Corwin was, in the first 5 books, ie, confused and with a bad case of a dad doing something that nobody else knows about.

Better in many ways - more progress and an interesting story. But still an awful lot of loose ends and distractions, and a semi-cliffhanger ending. What the heck is that ring? And all the rest - the black-and-white world, a lot of surrealism... Bah - read the next one when I can. I'm glad I didn't bother to get the whole set - I'll be getting rid of the ones I have now.

Merlin confronts a reincarnated Julia, his archenemy Mask, navigates the rival powers of Amber's Pattern and Chaos's Logrus, searches for his father Corwin, and deals with the repercussions of Coral's disappearance, while fighting to maintain his free will and identity amidst powerful forces pulling him to choose sides, leading to confrontations and revelations about the broken Pattern and his own mixed heritage.

Though you will not put the book down because of Mr. Zelazny's writing style. Do not expect the normal skilled plotting and crafted characterizations of the original Amber books. This book cannot stand alone...it leaves you hanging.

Merlin, son of Corwin, who was the hero of the original series, narrates this sequence, and here continued to accidentlly make his way through encounters with new powers that are completely incompatible with the original mythos. Those who are allied with each other will not speak with each other. While their enemies somehow know everything. Most of the important action happens offstage, and promised explanations never materialize.

So I would suggest you only read this book if you are a fan of the Amber show more series and have read the others that come before it. show less

Ik kon me nu wel wat beter inleven in de personen, hoewel nog niet zoveel als ik zou willen. Maar door de cliffhanger ben ik wel al meteen verder gegaan in boek 10.