It’s interesting that this is one of the Amber books that’s stayed in my mind the most, but that I don’t actually remember very well. I’m mostly confident of this because I remember… none of it.
In my recollection of reading these stories as a teenager, I can at least remember that there’s a final battle between the Amberites and the forces of Chaos, but the specifics of that are so different. They’re also not very impressive, though this may be unfair because the Ice and Fire series is so much more recent in my memory, and the influences Zelazny had on GRRM are many. The battles in A Song of Ice and Fire are tense and brutal, the stakes are human and punishing, and by comparison, Corwin watching a battle from a bird’s eye view and speculating on which of his relatives are doing what is just kinda weird.
Another issue with this book and how it aged is the continued psychedelic nature of just about everything that happens. I think this must be endemic of the writers who lived in New Mexico in this era, as psilocybin seems to have been a big part of their process. Everything Corwin does seems to revolve around fancy colors and abstract shapes, and then in the latest installment as Corwin [SPOILER REDACTED]s there’s a trip down memory lane and into his deepest feelings that seems an awful lot like ego death during an acid trip.
There’s every chance I’m being unfair with an assertion like that, it’s just what struck me on my most recent read through, and first read since my first time with this series back as a middle schooler. I’d still recommend it wholeheartedly, if for no other reason than this is work that influenced a ton of big name current sci-fi and fantasy writers. It’s always good to know your roots!
