Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny with special guest Grammaticus

[@BookChatWithPat8668]

Well, this was absolutely delightful! How wonderful to see you together. Thank you, gentlemen.

[@salty-walt]

This is a lot of fun.

[@StevenEverett7]

Two of my favorite SF/F people. Great video guys. Thanks so much for doing this. I look forward to another! Needless to say, I also greatly enjoy Zelazny.

[@vintagesf]

Thanks!

[@GrammaticusBooks]

Thank you for setting this up Richard! I had a blast and we'll have to do it again sometime!

[@vintagesf]

It was a lot of fun. Definitely needs a sequel.

[@waltera13]

Thanks for that!

[@vilstef6988]

Thanks gentlemen! I read the ten novels as they came out. I need to re-read a bunch of Zelazny's novels.

[@josephd5879]

Great conversation. The Chronicles of Amber is very underrated and Roger Zelazny should be in the hall of fame. I'm not sure if you both planned this or if it's a coincidence but Zelazny, Martin and The Twilight Zone all have a connection. Zelazny wrote a fantasy short story called The Last Defender of Camelot which I highly recommend. The story was featured in an episode of the twilight Zone adapted by George R. R. Martin.

[@vintagesf]

@@josephd5879 Total coincidence but Zelazny and Martin were good friends.

[@MysteryandMayhem-gr7nn]

Great chat! Good to see Grammaticus on a live stream. He's got a great channel!

[@vintagesf]

@@MysteryandMayhem-gr7nn Love Grammaticus’ channel. He asks the questions we didn’t know we needed to know! (Hope that made sense.)

[@MysteryandMayhem-gr7nn]

It certainly does. 😃

[@staceycoates1418]

I love the Chronicles of Amber. I wish it was still in print.

[@vintagesf]

@@staceycoates1418 SF Masterworks (UK) just reprinted ‘Chronicles of Amber’. Not sure about US publishers.

[@erichammer2751]

It is still in print. Amazon has a paperback omnibus edition for 15 bucks. To say nothing of used editions floating around.

[@paull9115]

So interesting. Great chat. Hope you both do more

[@vintagesf]

I'd love to have further chats.

[@secretfirebooks7894]

Grammaticus is hard at work spreading the good word of Zelazny, I see! Picking up Guns of Avalon soon. So excited to read it!

[@GrammaticusBooks]

I think you’ll like it Tim!

[@unstopitable]

Rod Serling, Zelazny, and David Lynch--it seems like they were all done in by some complication from smoking. Anyway, it's great that you guys are keeping Z. alive. In my opinion, he was one of the few who could be both literary (poetic) and popular. That first Amber book reads so effortlessly. Cheers.

[@CptSamelsSigils]

Grammaticus Books seems like such a polite & thoughtful guy, I'm going to subscribe to him too! I loved both of your scifi origin stories. I had those same Illustrated Classics books as a kid too, and especially enjoyed The Time Machine. I just gave a copy of it to my daughter for Christmas, along with Journey to the Center of the Earth and Invisible Man. She's been enjoying them so far too. Also, I think you gents would enjoy The World of Tiers by Philip Jose Farmer. It has similar themes & premises as the Nine Princes books you discussed.

[@vintagesf]

@@CptSamelsSigils Lot of great content at Grammaticus’ channel. Love that you’re introducing your daughter to some SF classics!

[@CasperHulshof]

Great conversation. I bought the omnibus edition of Amber some time ago. It's absolutely huge and unwieldly, but I will start on the reading journey probably in a while. Let's see who finishes all ten books first.

[@vintagesf]

@@CasperHulshof You are right about unwieldy. Not ready to race through but I certainly want to get through the first five.

[@TheBookGraveyard]

This was such a great conversation. 100 percent agree with everything Grammaticus said about certain "news" outlets and how it's a much better choice to spend your time on something uplifting. With how much many of my fellow vintage book folks speak highly of Amber it is the only time where I have questioned my own take on a book. I picked up the second one last week and intend on carrying on with the series even though I wasn't into the first one.

[@GrammaticusBooks]

Thanks BG! And I’d love to hear your thoughts on The Guns of Avalon. Even if you don’t like it!

[@TheBookGraveyard]

@@GrammaticusBooks Oh yeah, there will absolutely be a review of it. Also! I didn't realize you are in Columbus. I'm in Dayton. Not sure if you ever come down here but we have a few great book stores that carry old paperbacks etc. Are there any shops besides Karen Wickliff Books in Cbus?

[@GrammaticusBooks]

@ Bell Book and Comic is a good one I've visited out your way. And the Bookery as well. Some good places out there. Karen Wickliffes is definitely a unique store as well. We have Half Price Books here and some other smaller places too.

[@paulcooper3611]

Well, I actually picked up 'Nine Princes in Amber' in 1970, when it was published while I was waiting to be drafted. (Incidentally, that was also when I discovered 'The Left Hand of Darkness' by Ursula K. Le Guin, 'Rite of Passage' by Alexei Panshin, and 'Ringworld' by Larry Niven. 69 and 79 were very good years for F&SF.) I read 'The Guns of Avalon' while I was in the navy. The fact that I had to wait a year or two between books, I think, made me appreciate the series more than if I had been able to binge on them. I enjoyed the first five books, the "Corwyn Cycle" quite a bit. The "Merlin Cycle", on the other hand, seems to be the work of a writer who has a best selling series, churning out potboilers for a buck. Note, that is strictly my opinion; other people love it.

[@vintagesf]

@@paulcooper3611 In total agreement about 1969. What were the works of 1979?

[@paulcooper3611]

@@vintagesf "What were the works of 1979?" The famous finger slip, where the typist meant to hit a 0 and hit the 9 next to it, instead. That said, 1979 did give us 'The Fountains of Paradise' by Arthur C. Clarke, 'Harpist in the Wind' by Patricia A. McKillip, “Enemy Mine” by Barry B. Longyear, “Ker-Plop” and “Can These Bones Live?” by Ted Reynolds, and “Daisy, in the Sun” by Connie Willis.

[@erichammer2751]

The Merlin cycle had potential, IMO, but Roger was busy dying at the time, so that probably affected it.

[@vintagesf]

@@erichammer2751 I knew that Zelazny passed away in 1995. Did he know he was sick in the 1980s?

[@erichammer2751]

@@vintagesf He knew he was sick before he finished the Merlin cycle, but how long before I don't know. IIRC, he rushed to complete the latter so as not to cheat his fans (and to provide a nest egg for Lindskog and his son).

[@raggedyman511]

Two influences for the amber series , the World of Tiers series by Philip Jose farmer and The Dark World by Henry Kuttner and C. l. Moore.

[@vintagesf]

Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore will be coming up this year on my channel.

[@User_Un_Friendly]

I had no idea Heinlein's Red Planet had been so heavily edited. I knew about the heavy handed editing done on Stranger in a Strange Land (and found the restored version too hard to read) but I had no idea that Heinlein's editor had done such a job with Red Planet. I now know which book to read next. Richard, do check out the NESFA collection of short stories by Zelazny. They're...incredible. His short stories say so much more about him than his major works, such as Amber and Lord of Light. I'm thinking of rereading Creatures of Light and Darkness. Many Zelazny fans find it unreadable, I loved it. It's impossible to describe, just reading the Wikipedia page about it will make you cross your eyes. But I consider it one of his two best novels, on par with (obviously) Lord of Light. Have fun, and you're going to really like the Guns of Avalon. I loved it, and still think it's the best in the Amber series. Though I'm obviously prejudiced because it's the first Amber book I read...🐶

[@vintagesf]

@@User_Un_Friendly The NESFA collection of Zelazny stories is definitely on my radar, perhaps the most expensive books I’m looking at purchasing. I’ve had some success at finding NESFA books at used bookstores but I have yet to find a single volume of Zelazny’s.

[@User_Un_Friendly]

@ they are available,(and expensive) on Kindle. 🙄😱

[@OmnivorousReader]

Great chat about one of my eternally favourite authors and a strong contender for my favourite Fantasy Series. Don't feel bad about not getting 'Rebma' right away Richard, Grammaticus, I think I had been ew-reading the series for over a decade before that clicked for me...

[@jerrypritchett283]

If I remember correctly, I read The Nine Princes in Amber in the early 1970s. I still have the series on my bookshelf, which is very ragged from use. It is on my "A" list along with the Lensman series from Doc Smith, Foundation Trilogy - Asimov, and others.

[@vintagesf]

@@jerrypritchett283 Read Foundation but still to start Lensman.

[@erichammer2751]

There are some interesting parallels between the opening of "Nine Princes in Amber" and what happens to Travis McGee in John D. MacDonald's novel "Nightmare in Pink." Speaking of great and prolific literary craftsmen.

[@vintagesf]

Not familiar with 'Nightmare in Pink'. Does it deal with amnesia and finding out who you are?

[@erichammer2751]

@@vintagesf No, but the part I'm speaking of deals with waking up in an asylum and having to get out. Roger was familiar with MacDonald and probably a fan, as he references him in the Merlin cycle. And their styles are quite similar. MacDonald concerns himself with social commentary, while Zelazny is more interested in the philosophical/religious side of things. You indicate in the video that you're just starting to familiarize yourself with Roger's novels. "Lord of Light" is absolutely brilliant, as is "... and Call Me Conrad" (aka "This Immortal"). You will find that the theme of the ramifications of immortality intrigue him, and many of his novels (including the Amber cycles) reflect this interest.

[@vilstef6988]

Neglected is a better word. His son Trent and the SO at the end of his life, Jane Lindskold are his literary executors. With virtually everything by Roger out of print, Trent and Jane have unfortunately really dropped the ball!

[@vintagesf]

Hmmm. Source?

[@vilstef6988]

An interview on KZbin with Trent Zelazny.

[@vintagesf]

@ Just read that Trent Zelazny passed away November 28, 2024.

[@erichammer2751]

Roger was brilliant, absolutely one of my top five authors. But oh, he was sloppy (or lazy). The continuity problems in the Amber series are many, but the series is still one of the best. Alas, not long enough. One wonders how the second set would have differed if he hadn't been knowingly racing against time to finish it.