Nine Princes in Amber [Unabridged, Audiobook] [Audio Cassette]

Roger Zelazny (Author, Narrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1998

Here is the first novel in Zelazny's classic "Amber" series. From Arden to the blood-slippery stairway into the sea, the air is electrified with the powers of Eric, Random, Bleys, Caine and all the princes of Amber whom Corwin must overcome. Yet his savage path is blocked and guarded by eerie structures beyond imagining, impossible realities forged by demonic assassins, and staggering horrors to challenge the might of Corwin's superhuman fury.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Some fans of Zelazny's dense, brilliant writings from the '60s have been dismayed at the time and effort he has invested in his Amber series during the past 16 years. If these fantasy adventures are simple and formulaic compared with his best work, they have earned him a whole new audience by virtue of their elegance, humor, literacy, vivid action and lightly applied but complex background of tarot, alternate worlds, Olympian gods, and a magic so neat and clear that computers can learn it. In this seventh installment, the sorcerer Merlin of Amber -- aka Merle Corey of San Francisco -- learns the identities of two would-be assassins but makes a truce with one to pursue the greater, more dangerous power beyond them. Once again, the limited plot is enlivened by Zelazny's irony, his bravura sequences (particularly a harbor visit that turns nasty in Death Alley) and his laconic sense of the incongruous (are magicians the ultimate surrealist artists?). Paperback rights to Avon; Science Fiction Book Club main selection. (September 25) --Publishers Weekly --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

Roger Zelazny HUGO & NEBULA AWARD-WINNING author Roger burst onto the SF scene in the early 1960s with a series of dazzling and groundbreaking short stories. He won his first of six Hugo Awards for Lord of Light, and soon after produced the first book of his enormously popular Amber series, Nine Princes in Amber. In addition to his Hugos, he went on to win three Nebula Awards over the course of a long and distinguished career. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: Sunset Productions; Unabridged edition (June 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1564312402
• ISBN-13: 978-1564312402
• Product Dimensions: 7 x 4.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (96 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,833,786 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Captured my imagination and never let go, January 13, 2005

By 

T. Bolenbaugh (Oxford, OH United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Nine Princes In Amber (Mass Market Paperback)

Nine Princes in Amber is the first of the original five books in the Amber series. I have reread this series several times and each time it recaptures my imagination like few stories ever have. The unique nature of the universe Zelazny created, the twisting plots, the engaging noir/fantasy characters and the sweeping scope are guaranteed to impress any fan of fantasy or Sci-Fi.

You will come to know the members of the royal family of Amber in great detail and you will love and hate them. The story will keep you guessing and the action is well paced. Zelazny is a tight writer and keeps things moving.

These days I hear the Amber series described as a ten book series. This isn't accurate, it is composed of two five book series and the less said about the later five books the better. The first five books dealing with Corwin are a complete story that simply must be read.

You owe it to yourself to read the five books of the original Amber series.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Once Again, from the Top, March 22, 2005

By 

Marc Ruby™ "The Noh Hare™" (Warren, MI USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Nine Princes In Amber (Mass Market Paperback)

Every series has to start somewhere, but I doubt that Roger Zelazny anticipated that the Amber series would run to 10 volumes when he sent Nine Princes In Amber to print. But for us readers, it was clear that Zelazny's story of Amber, the reality that lies behind all the phantom worlds we inhabit, had something special in the way of plot, concept, and characters. Examined carefully, there is nothing here that is deafeningly original but, as usual, Zelazny's magic is in taking a fresh look at the possibilities and making the result fascinating to the reader.

Corwin is a typical Zelazny main character. Long lived (possibly eternal), provided with special powers, and a wry outlook that keeps the drama from becoming maudlin. Corwin awakes in a hospital with almost no clue of his identity, spends the first half of the book working out the details of his identity, and the second half trying to get even. He is a prince one of an almost countless number of Oberon's children who have a penchant for plotting, backstabbing, and power plays. With Oberon gone missing, brother Eric has moved on the throne and after 400 years of exile Corwin feels compelled to become the opposition.

Zelazny has an instinctive feel for the dynamics of a story based on the ability to navigate, and perhaps create unreal worlds by 'remembering' where you want to be, step by step. The effects on character attitudes and activities like war waging is significant, and Zelazny avoids the feel of magic spell work, instead treating what Oberon's children can do as just another talent, for all its fantastic nature. In fact, one of Zelazny's traits is his matter of fact approach to what most of us would consider miracle working. As a result we never feel like we are suspending out disbelief.

Corwin's worst challenge is his family, of courts. Countless brothers and sisters in unspecified relationships with seemingly little loyalty to each other. It is typical that it was an accident intended to end his life that triggered the end of his memory loss instead. And typical that relatives have become so used to baroque plots that Corwin's first fumbling efforts are taken as brilliance giving the rebel prince an opportunity to establish a foothold and join in the struggle against Eric.

Zelazny isn't prone to excessive writing, but is a past master at conjuring up characters and landscapes with rapid brushstrokes. The dialog is always crisp as well. Even reading this story again after a gap of years, I could remember the details of the story and still found that the magic persisted and the Amber really was a throne worth pursuing.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good but overhyped, January 27, 2008

By 

Philip R. Robinson (Colorado) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Nine Princes In Amber (Mass Market Paperback)

I tend to be relatively easy to please when it comes to books, and I heard a lot of good stuff about this one. But this book has been overhyped, plain and simple. Overall, I enjoyed it and I think it is a fine start for a series (I haven't read any of the other books yet), but it's just not 5-star material.
First of all, the writing is stiff, especially dialogue. At first I thought that maybe they were just being overly formal because they're royalty or something like that. No. And it's not snappy. It's just stiff dialogue.
But worse than stiff dialogue is a boring middle. Not the whole middle, mind you, but a good bit is devoted to describing the progress of an army marching toward Amber. And it's BORING.
Then the hero is saved in the end by something you don't hear about in the rest of the book. That sets it up great for the rest of the series, but it's still kind of cheap.
So if you read a lot and like fantasy, give it a try. It's a short read (and so are the rest of the books in the series). It has a cool premise and the series as a whole must be pretty good since most people really like. But if you're short on time and every page you read is precious, you might want to look elsewhere.