All Roads Lead to Amber

This short episode covers chapters 7 and 8 of Knight of Shadows. Merlin completes his quest and acquires the Jewel of Judgement, from a secret place in the Royal Suite that may be a throwback to the Corwin books. The rescue of Coral is a low point in the series, in my opinion.

We'll cover chapters 5 and 6 in this episode, which seems Merlin and the ghost of Jurt traveling through the Undershadow, encountering various ghost characters from throughout the series, in a game playing out between the Great Powers. We'll meet Duke Borel again, and explore the confusion around Borel's heritage.

In chapters 3 and 4 of Knight of Shadows, Merlin is dragged into a full-on quest -- a tussle between the Pattern and the Logrus -- during which he is meant to "choose sides". We're introduced to the idea of Pattern Ghosts, and begin the Dickensian parade of ghosts of all our favorite characters from the Corwin books.

This episode covers the first two chapters of Knight of Shadows, largely centered on the dinner between Merlin, Mandor and Jasra. We will discuss the book at large, the general plot concerns, and a few obscure references.

With this fourth episode of Sign of Chaos, we'll cover the remainder of the book. This is mostly an untangling of too-many plot lines, a variety of minor characters, and some moderately fun touch points with classic Amberites. And we'll pose the question of whether Corwin had an affair with the mistress of Napoleon.

This episode covers the remainder of chapter 3 of Sign of Chaos, as well as all of chapters 4, 5 and 6. We'll dive deep into the layout of the City of Amber, discuss the somewhat tired device of "yet another child of Oberon", and try to keep all the various plots and subplots in our heads.

The time has come to address the elephant in the franchise, which is Visual Guide to Castle Amber. We'll cover the first part of chapter 3, and build on Merlin's descriptions of the palace in Amber to go deep on the subject matter of the palace layout. I'll provide context for the publication of Visual Guide, it's authenticity, and my not-so-impressed views of the book.

In this kick-off episode to Sign of Chaos, we'll frame up the conditions under which Zelazny wrote this 8th Amber book, the commercialization of the franchise, and my general take on the book. Then we'll dive in and cover both chapters 1 and 2, including the Alice in Wonderland scene, and the deeper introduction to Mandor.

The final chapter of Blood of Amber. In this short episode, we'll wrap things up for the 2nd book of the 2nd series. A great nod to Alice and Wonderland, a so-so cliffhanger that feels a bit too much like the end of Trumps of Doom, but all in all, we'll talk about the merits of this solid Merlin book.

We cover both chapters 10 and 11 in this episode, as Merlin executes his rescue operation at the Keep of the Four Worlds. The Bill Roth stuff stretches credulity, but we get some nostalgic Amber locations, and some great allusions and references, including more Hamlet, and some 20th century folk songs.