All Roads Lead to Amber

With this episode, we kick off "Season 2", the second book in the series: The Guns of Avalon. We'll discuss Zelazny's mindset heading in, what sets this novel apart from Nine Princes, and the parallels with the Arthurian Legends. And in the second half of this episode, we'll talk about the troubles of time differential. Book two, let's go!

In this episode, we delve into Corwin's "days of darkness", his solitude, and the visits from Rein. We'll go deep into Corwin's timeline on Shadow Earth. And then we turn to Corwin's (chance?) meeting with Dworkin. We ask, what were Dworkin and Oberon cooking up at this point in the timeline? And of course, Corwin makes his escape.

Here we dive deep into Chapter 7 and the first half of Chapter 8. These are incredible action sequences -- the march toward, and the assault on, the city of Amber atop Kolvir. We will follow Corwin and Bleys, step by step, bloodbath by bloodbath, and consider what might be going on with Bleys' cabal and Eric's cabal, around this time -- things of which Corwin is completely ignorant. What were Eric's motivations at this point? Did Corwin write Greensleeves? And of course we'll cover the coronation, and the blinding.

Corwin leads a failed attack by sea, Bleys marches on Amber by land. Corwin shows empathy as their soldiers are slaughtered by the thousands, in this Vietnam-era fantasy book. We'll learn more about Shadow, Substance, the Trumps, Dworkin... and we'll get introduced to the Jewel of Judgment.

With the middle and end sections of Chapter 5, and the walking of the Pattern, we get an intense amount of references to Corwin's life on Shadow Earth. We'll ask, was Corwin a nazi? Then he goes to Amber proper and fights his brother Eric, and we finally meet the elusive character of Bleys.

We will dive into the geographical map of Amber, as Corwin journeys to the undersea kingdom of Rebma. Then, this first part of chapter 5 doles out a spectacular amount of lore and references to mythology, as Zelazny plants a whole field of seeds for future plot twists.

In this segment, we dive deep into the second half of chapter 4, as Random and Corwin encounter their siblings Julian and Deirdre. We'll dive into the lore behind the horse Morgenstern, the possible meaning of Corwin's silver rose, and the source for the name "Deirdre". We'll ask why guns and gasoline work in the Forest of Arden? And then, Corwin makes his confession.