Plot: 5/9. The plot is so tedious that I would never read any more books of this series, even if this book ends in a cliffhanger! But I understand why some males would favour this kind of work, for they either didn’t comprehend the actual running of warfare—let alone intricate politics in reality—or just didn’t mind these distorted elements, as long as the writer could sketch a temporarily satisfying plot involved with blood, women, glory and power.

The protagonist woke up with amnesia and a deep sense of danger. Therefore he robbed his doctor of money and headed for his supposed sister Florimel. He deduced from her words, though, that she had been sent to surveil him by their brother Eric, who had previously injured him and left him in the hospital. But the protagonist decided to stay there so as to dig more information.

Another brother named Random came to seek help, and accordingly all of them had to fight following monsters in Florimel’s house. After that, Random led him to Amber, where the protagonist was informed of the world view, defeated Julian—another brother also worked for Eric—and saved a sister from the hands of Eric.

He then felt obliged to confess his amnesia, which could be treated by walking into a labyrinth according to Julian. He regained the memory back there and directly used it to assassinate Eric. He failed and fled to another brother called Bleys. Together, both of them assembled armies and prepare a war to overthrow Eric.

Eric, fully aware of the assault, thwarted their forces constantly on their way to Amber. Finally, Bleys fell from the mountains and the protagonist was captured and humiliated by Eric. Eric destroyed the protagonist’s eyes and imprisoned him. But the protagonist regrew his eyes and managed to escape from the prison and Amber with the help of Dworkin, his father’s artificer and Jopin, a ward of the lighthouse.

Core: 3/9. After Zelazny was able to write full-time, he still seemed to indulge in a series of old and bad habits like:

  • reducing women to the minimum roles,
    • For example, princesses were not entitled to the throne.
    • The protagonist claimed all his sisters were bitch unreasonably just when he thought they couldn’t help him out of trouble.
  • as usual, equipping the age-old protagonist with such amazing brute strength that would bland out most of the fighting scenes,
  • and constructing plots in the style of superficial video games.
  • Worst of all, the warfare in this book was so childish that it appalled me to the extent of almost abandoning this book:
  1. The protagonist initiated the war without proper premeditation including the meaning of an excruciatingly enormous siege warfare, enemies’ means of obtruding on them and corresponding solutions, possible routes of their emergency retreat, and last but not least, the crucial replenishment!
  2. The protagonist enlisted a large number of soldiers willing to fight till death in a totally alien world, for a cause not extremely related to them!
  3. The protagonist tried to bride Eric’s subordinates, yet never doubted if they indeed wanted to betray Eric or just feigned their intention for more information from the gullible protagonist! And I’m extremely curious about what kind of price the protagonist promised them that Eric couldn’t afford.

By the way, why was Florimel unable to contact Eric when the protagonist could find Florimel’s card with Eric’s portrait in her library?

Why did not the protagonist rescue the brother and his father in need just through his card? Or why didn’t he investigate his father’s disappearance that might have involved Eric’s conspiracy?

Why did Eric let the protagonist survive thrice? After the first failed homicide, why did Eric put the protagonist in the hospital?

Why did the protagonist could curse effectively while alive and why couldn’t the others?

In addition, given the longevity of the Royal, didn’t the protagonist have other living relatives, such as sisters of his father?

Character: 4/9.

Frankly speaking, I didn’t like any member of this cold-blooded royal family in this book, especially the king encouraging his sons to kill each other, and the protagonist who did not hold a grudge about this. Julian claimed Florimel deserved the death rightly after she provided him with the haven and accommodation… In short, they were all Machiavellian, uninteresting, unlovely, and disgusting.

The only character impressing me was the minion who risked his life to tend to the imprisoned protagonist occasionally—simply because he received the protagonist’s favour in the past.

World and Others: 3/9. The Platonic setting that all worlds were just the shadows of the template would have been a good idea if Zelazny had implemented it better.

I had originally anticipated that the protagonist would change worlds deeply both politically and historically so as to secure victory of the template world. But all things the protagonist did was just to recruit hot-headed alien teenagers from shadows to the template.

Besides, given the presence of magic within the story, why didn’t Zelazny create more exciting or splendid fighting systems rather than relying on the tedious fencing and shooting?

Thanks to Zelazny, I would never read any fantasy fiction without clear rules about magic any more.