So, they say that Chronicles of Amber is a classic. A ten-volumes tale about an Amber prince and his son, a tale of alternative realities and parallel worlds, a symbolic tale of conflict between order and chaos.
So they say. And I’ve read the whole thing, and I’m not that impressed.
Maybe I’m based. Or something. But the funny thing is that the main thing baffling me about this series wasn’t even occasional sexism or the absence of people of colour. But we’ll get to that, don’t worry.
The most unimpressive thing about Amber cycle is its worldbuilding. I don’t know how to name it otherwise, but it lacks substance. Descriptions are vague, and there’s no real mood about Amber or Chaos. Even all the worlds and landscapes between, although eerie, captivate the reader only for a moment. And I expected something more substantial. Something more to remember and more to sink into.
I wasn’t given this.
The same is with the plot, epic as it is. It is intended to be on a grand scale, but at some point, those intrigues start looking unimpressive, and you are more lost and bored than curious of what’s going on. Again, maybe if those things happened in a vivid world… But no. It seems that Amber and Chaos are more ideas than places. And sorry, but presenting locations that way usually don’t make readers caught into fantasy. Fantasy is a journey, not a roleplay game.
I have to admit, though, that Zelazny’s characters are quite complicated; complicated in George R. R. Martin’s style, if you know what I mean. They are cynical, selfish, and occasionaly selfless, and if they do something for others or come out to be better than we’ve seen so far, we are to be, of course, surprised. I can see that it must have been a novelty back in the 1970s, but nowadays, in the age of ASoIaF, it is no longer refreshing. Sorry, Mr Zelazny. I have more sympathy for Merlin’s girlfriend or for the disabled sister-in-law of Corvin than for your protagonists. Maybe that’s because they aren’t your cynical male Gary Sues, but human beings. Or maybe I’m biased. Or something. Again.
I mean, it’s a bit strange in the face of the whole premise. Like, Oberon, the ruler of Amber, has left hell bunch of kids, most of them guys. And they are roughly the same, cynical and adventurous. And I really understand that it’s an old book series, but this whole pack of Amberites is straight and white. So many worlds and plains, and, as usual, it comes out that only white folk lives there. Strange. And speaking of characters from our world, it’s all the same. You don’t even get Italian-Americans, Polish-Americans, or other people who aren’t your default WASPs, not to mention people of colour. So, yes, I’m sad with this, and I have full right to be sad, and I don’t care that times were different or whatever. I’m especially sad because Zelazny was a descendant of looked-down immigrnats himself.
I have to admit, though, that his series isn’t a toxic work as for the times’ standards, and that his female characters have been developed over the course of volumes. Still, that isn’t enough. Especially when the worldbuilding isn’t ethereal. The worldbuilding is blank.
Left Hand of Fiction 