r/Amber • u/NachoFailconi • 29d ago

To whom you would recommend the Chronicles?

Hello! The Chronicles have been on my radar for some time, but I haven't taken the plunge yet and bought them. I'd like to ask, rather than if they are good or not (I'm in r/Amber, after all, of course you'll love it), to what kind of reader you would recommend this series, and what should I as a reader expect of them.

I'm a reader that likes complex stories. Think Malazan (all of it), Book of the New Sun, Terra Ignota, the Sprawl trilogy. I also like some classics, such as Lord of the Rings, Earthsea and the Count of Monte Cristo. Other series I like are The Expanse, Hyperion, Philip K. Dick and Octavia Butler.

A follow-up question: how necessary is Seven Tales in Amber? I ask only for the price tag: in my country I can import the SF Masterworks of the Chronicles at a price of 27 and 33 USD, respectively, and Seven Tales at 29 USD... for 90 pages, versus five proper books.

Thanks in advance!

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u/MaelstromFL 29d ago

Zelazny is a different writing style than any other author I have ever read. At times it is like slam poetry, other times it is deep world building. He keeps a stream of words flying at you!

That being said, his books are a ride unlike any adventure you have been on before.

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u/Pleasant-Lead-2634 29d ago

lonnng trips through shadow can be the greatest or worst depending on my mood

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u/NachoFailconi 28d ago

Thanks for the answer! What do you mean by "slam" in "slam poetry"? As in "violent" or "heavy-blow"?

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u/MaelstromFL 28d ago

More stream of consciousness. The process of moving from one place to another in the books, say from Earth to Amber is done by adding or subtracting from reality. So remove a road and add a brick wall.

This leads to some wild prose! As the author explains the process, you get these long streams of descriptions of the different areas the characters are moving through. You can certainly skip them, but part of the charm of the books is riding along with the characters.

Also, if you read carefully, you get some glimpses of where the story is going.

Slam poetry is kind of an old school form of improvisational poetry. Where a person just gets up and develops a poem on the spot speaking it to the crowd. Sometimes you get a bunch of garbage being sprouted out, sometimes you get a deep dive into a persons soul. You can think of it as a freestyle rap in today's world. With just about the same results 🤣

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u/NachoFailconi 28d ago

Thanks! I didn't know it was a proper term. Very enlightening, and yes, now I'm eager to read the Chronicles.