Sam Sykes, on his magnanimous twitter, introduced me to the idea of a 'treading water' book. An installment of a series where no actual new plot developments happen, but just continuation and fulfillment of old ones. He said that while he can appreciate it, more than one in a row can get a little boring.


That's my opinion on this book.

Sam Sykes, on his magnanimous twitter, introduced me to the idea of a 'treading water' book. An installment of a series where no actual new plot developments happen, but just continuation and fulfillment of old ones. He said that while he can appreciate it, more than one in a row can get a little boring.


That's my opinion on this book.

Gave up on this. Can't be bothered. It is too boring.

I'm not quite sure what happened with this story, it wasn't quite the same as the first two Amber books.

სადღაც 100 გვერდამდე ძლივს მივაღწიე, მერე საინტერესო გახდა
თუმცა წინებზე ნაკლებად მომეწონა

Another very good novel. I love the whole Amber setup with it's idea of changing the world around you and living in shadow worlds and so forth. All the talk of family politics and infighting over who is going to get the throne is all a little much for me. To be quite honest I'm one of those people who couldn't give a monkey's who attains the throne. I'm far more interested in shadow and chaos and so forth than pretty infighting amongst the family. I was also expecting a little more in the way of direct confrontation with the darker, more chaotic forces than I actually got though, so a little disappointed there.

Very good.

"...inside stories seldom live up to one’s expectations. Usually they are grubby little things, reducing down to the basest of motives when all is known. Conjectures and illusions are often the better possessions.”
― Roger Zelazny, Sign of the Unicorn



Another solid Zalzny fanasy novel (they are practically novellas). It is 3/10 in the Chronicles of Amber decalog, or 3/5 in the Corwin pentalogy. The family drama of finding the King/Father and understanding the Pattern, the darkness that is invading Amber. A bulk of the novel centers on a family meeting (a meeting of siblings) in Amber. It allows for stories to get told, and more of the background of what is going on to gradually unfold.

Again, like the previous novel in the series, I'm still kinda luke warm towads it. It is good enough for a diversion, but I'm not seeing anything here that is either hyper-literary or revolutionary. It is B+ escapist fare (so far). Good enough that I have no issue coming back to it between other reads, but I'll have to decide if I want to just read the pentalogy or if I'll actually read the entire decalog. We will see.