The Guns of Avalon by Roger Zelazny
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Gave myself a few days “rest” (read other books) and jumped back into the Chronicles with book two, eagerly, a rainy morning fit for nothing else but reading. Finished a few hours later.
In book one (Nine Princes in Amber) Zelazney begins with amnesia, establishes conflict, allows the reader to discover just as the main character recovers his memories. Here in book two, there’s a new mystery, and now the reader is the main character’s partner, along for the ride to figure out what’s going on.
And what’s going on is that the very fabric with which these tales are told is threatened. The first half of the book is simple fantasy-warfare, fought in a realm of little (seeming) consequence. But the hero’s journey needs this land to persevere, if his soul is to be as noble as his blood. He can’t claim a birth right if he’s not worthy of it. And when he wins, his reward is the tools he needs to fight the real fight…
Although it’s not the fight he thinks it is. Which means, when he wins, he hasn’t won what he thought he’d won. To the victor the spoils? Yes, things have spoiled. By the victor’s own hand. What now, Corwin? How will you keep your victory from being merely pyrrhic?
I’ll be deep inside book three in a few days to find out. If I seem a little more cautious than I was at the end of book one, that’s only because there’s a lot more at stake here than some swashbuckling through a few hours of reading. The entire series is at risk.