Customer Reviews

Sign of the Unicorn (Amber Novels)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I read the first two books, and I thought they were pretty good, but this book is by far the best! The plot becomes so much more complex and interesting, (Not that it wasn't good before) and the characters become so much more interesting. I hope the next two are more like this!

The main theme of book three is the family reuniting to try to find Brand. The whole way through the book you'll be wondering who imprisoned him, all of the siblings add their own pontification and each has very valid points. You'll never guess who it was.

Also, new shadows are introduced (the world of the clouds has to be my favorite so far), and some great new Questions arise. The main one being: is Amber itself a shadow? And are Corwinn and his siblings princes' of the true Amber?

If you read the first two I'm not sure why you would even be reading this, but if you haven't I would recommend the first two highly and trust me they only get better and better.

The third installment of Zelazny's Amber series is by far his best--providing you prefer talk to action, that is. It starts out with an action packed flashback, filling in some information gaps from earlier novels, but its most fascinating moments occur when the venom starts spewing from the gathered Royal Family. Best of all, it would seem some of the questions plaguing poor Corwin through the two previous books are finally answered--only to provide him with more headaches, and a stabbing pain in his side. Of especial note is our introduction to Princess Fiona, one more enigma for Corwin and for us.

Sign of the Unicorn marks the initial phases of Prince Corwin's actions as the regent of Amber. A beginning full of ill omens and worse. Corwin's first task is the investigation of Caine's murder by creatures from some unknown place in the shadows. The same creatures that once chased Random into Fiona's lair. Corwin's brother tells the story of his attempt to rescue Brand, and Corwin's own efforts nearly becoms another disaster. Things do not improve from there, either.

Corwin is trying to unravel the source of the black road, the reason for the mysterious attacks on Amber, and identify the guilty parties. Needless to say his brothers and sisters, all seeking their own ends are rarely as helpful as they could be. A few, no doubt, are guilt of carrying on their on plots for control, and Corwin quickly discovers that there's no such thing as a safe house.

Politics in Amber grow increasingly complicated and deadly. Corwin first has to narrow down the options and then face the uncomfortable decision of who really did want him dead. Zelazny wraps the story up by raising even more questions and confusion. Enough for a whole handful of sequels.

Sign of the Unicorn is a return to Zelazny's usually fluid prose. While Random's narrative dragged a bit, the rest of the story is full of dark moments and surprise twists. This time we get to meet the rest of the family, and they prove to be a unique and worrisome bunch. Don't know if Oberon's children are the first dysfunctional family in science fiction, but not one is really safe enough to close you eyes around.

If you are reading this review you are probably already hooked, and don't need to be told to keep reading. If you're new, go back and read Nine Princes in Amber and look forward to one of fantasy's most vital series.

Corwin decides to see if it's possible to rescue Brother Brand, and gets the rest of his siblings involved in the action. What becomes unfortunately apparent is that one of them wants him dead, and that family politics are always a lot more complicated than they look when it comes to the Amber royal house.

A lot of great information about the family dynamics comes to light here. A readable, fascinating installment in a readable, fascinating series.

Sign of the Unicorn is the the third installment in Roger Zelazny's The Chronicles of Amber The hero of the first five books finds himself thrust suddenly into familial intrigue when a royal brother of the first family of Amber is murdered and another is stabbed. The book reads like an Agatha Christie novel, as we spend lots of time locked in a room, with several murder suspects, each a sibling, and each with the motive to destroy the Royal family, capture the throne, and possibly destroy Amber itself.
Corwin suddenly finds himself in his cabin, on old Shadow Earth, wounded, and is offered a healthy dose of information from an old friend.
I've noticed that Zelazny, at least in this series, relies heavily on visual input, and makes very slight use of any other of the senses in his descriptive passages. We often know what Corwin sees, but seldom what he smells, tastes, or hears. Thus, when the cast is moving through the Shadow worlds, it becomes vaguely sight-heavy, like reading a description of a late-era Monet. This happens especially when Zelazny describes the uglier passages among the shadows, called hellrides. Passages like the following paragraph:

"Silence and silver... Walking away from the rail, leaning on my stick, passing through the fog-spun,mist-woven, moonlight-brushed fabric of vision within the troubling city... ghosts... Shadows of shadows... Images of probability... Might-bes and might-have-beens... Probability lost... Probability regained."

Huh?

I found his use of ellipses tiresome, and the passages visually ugly and thus difficult to focus on his words.

Lots of this writing occurs in the last 40 pages of the novel, when Zelazny wraps up this installment of the tale with a three-man horseback ride through Tir-na Nog'th, the world of ghosts, might-bes, and might-have beens. Corwin is experiencing the deepening mystery of Amber's gradual crumbling.

The story is compelling, though; probably the best of the three novels so far. Three of the hero's brothers--Random, Brand, and Gérard--are fleshed out during the telling of the story, as well as a few of the sisters we'd yet to encounter. This was the first novel of the series I have liked. Zelazny is a gifted storyteller; so far into the series, he hasn't adequately proven himself as a gifted character-builder. Maybe the lead character is too single-faceted for my mind. I'll let you know what I think when I've read the fourth book in the series.

** Some SPOILERS ahead, if you haven't read the earlier books **

And if you haven't, what are you doing reading this review? As I mentioned in my review of Nine Princes in Amber, the first book in the series - and as any review ought to note, the first AMBER series is really just one novel broken up into five short convenient chunks - one narrative. So if you've come across this review by chance but haven't read the first two books, STOP NOW!

With that out of the way, SIGN OF THE UNICORN seques easily into being a book almost entirely concerned with the past intrigues of the various brothers and sisters, and how they may involve the danger now besetting the One True World. As The Guns of Avalon ended with the death of Eric - narrator Corwin's major rival for the throne left by departed or dead father Oberon, UNICORN begins with another brother dead - and Corwin believed responsible for it. But there's no proof of anything, and it mostly serves to make all the siblings even more uneasy about the mysterious and deadly goings-on. Corwin is allowed to use the Jewel of Judgement - the mystical weather-controlling talisman wielded by the ruler - and both he and others spend the book trying to find answers.

Much of the narrative is broken up by back story information filled in by three of Corwin's siblings, the longest by Random - who can be seen by a careful reader by this point as much more serious and important than he first seemed. The narrative just spans a couple of days (Amber time) and is set almost entirely within the Eternal City - just a brief (unexpected) jaunt to the shadow Earth, and memories of other places break the closed-in feeling, which helps to increase the paranoid attitude on display. Amber is clearly beset from both within and without - but what the interior and exterior forces have to do with each other remains unclear, even after the return and revival of yet another long-lost brother halfway through the book.

Being the centerpiece of the whole novel-structure, SIGN OF THE UNICORN actually asks more questions than it answers. It's claustrophobic in some ways, filled with tension, and so the short forays outside the hermetic world of Amber come as a relief from the problems at hand. And while Zelazny's talent for plotting remains supreme, there are some (slight) shortcomings in his characterizations when he has people other than Corwin narrating - they don't sound all that distinct, necessarily. Still, Random's shadow journey is one of the more memorable scenes in the whole series, and in general UNICORN lives up to the standards of the earlier books.

Well, the author sure has a knack for ending books on cliffhangers! The mystery and intrigue is certainly deepening as this saga progresses. The plots have twists and turns and the characters are strong. As each one progresses, I am more and more interested in this unique story.

With Sign of the Unicorn, the third entry in the Amber series, Zelazny's creation truly begins to get off the ground. I thought that the first book was mediocre, and the second held more promise but still wasn't compelling. Finally, here, Zelazny writes with authority and a sense of clarity about the characters he portrays. We have a lot of people to keep track of, with Corwin and his brothers and sisters involved in an intricate series of shifting alliances, schemes, and deceptions. We must rely on Corwin, our protagonist, to filter what is happening into something that makes sense. And, with patience, this does happen.

I'm very bad at reading stories with a large number of characters who come and go. I tend to forget what I've read about someone by the time they reappear later on. Somewhere along the line as I read this book, I lost track of exactly who was allied with whom, and when I reached the end of the book I had only a vague notion of what was going on. I considered giving up on the series, but I'd honestly begun to enjoy Zelazny's writing -- so instead, I went back and reread a couple of key chapters, forcing myself to pay closer attention to the various motivations, suspicious and confessions of the characters. And this time, I finished the book looking forward to the next one, wanting to know what will happen next.

After the death of Eric, Corwin loses yet another brother, and gains an ally in his brother, Random. He is beginning to get to the heart of the plot, and starting to use the weaponry at this disposal, such as the Pattern, and his sword, Grayswandir.

He also makes an important discovery about their Pattern.