Roger Zelazny. "The Chronicles of Amber." Books in order

If we consider the cycle "Chronicles of Amber", all books in order, the first was written back in 1970, after which Roger Zelazny successfully continued to write further, until the last book, published in 1991. In total, 10 books were created, which are combined into 5 pieces in two volumes. The first volume tells about the adventures of Corwin, Prince Amber, and the second - his son Merlin. After that, Zelazny and other authors themselves created many more smaller stories about the events that occurred in the same world, and after the death of the ancestor of the series, five more books of the prequel were written by John Betancourt, allegedly based on the drafts of Zelazny himself.

A little bit about Amber

The whole world is parallel to reality, reflecting the one and only true world - Amber. Between them can travel only those people in which there is blood of the royal family of this world. And not just to travel, but also to choose exactly the place where they want to get to, just imagine it. This is exactly how Zelazny Roger imagined "The Chronicles of Amber." Books are arranged in order in such a way that the reader will learn all this as the story unfolds.

The story of Corwin

The first book, entitled "Nine princes of Amber," tells how the main character, Corwin, one of the hereditary princes of Amber, lost his memory, regained it, tried to take Amber's throne from his brother Eric, was captured, blinded and thrown into prison . Thanks to the fantastic regeneration inherent in all members of the royal family, after a while Corwin restores vision and manages to escape from captivity. Thus ends the first part, which is included in the "Chronicles of Amber."

Books in order continue with the following work "The Guns of Avalon." In this part, the protagonist in the process of escape finds a powder that can play the role of gunpowder in Ambera (the original powder does not work there, since the laws of physics and chemistry in different worlds are somewhat different). Creates an army with firearms and goes to storm the original world. Reaching the destination, Corwin learns that Amber is currently fighting a brutal war with some demons. Having made the hardest choice, he still helps Amber's army to destroy the threat. During the battle, Corwin's main enemy, his brother Eric, who at the moment occupied the throne, dies. In fact, this concludes the second part of the work "The Chronicles of Amber."

In order, the next book is called "Sign of the Unicorn". In this part, the whole family unites to confront the terrible enemy, but the former differences are not forgotten and only slightly shifted in priority.

The fourth book is called "The Hand of Oberon". In this part, many previously unintelligible things are explained, secrets and secrets are revealed. At the end of the book, Corwin decides to independently restore the Amber Labyrinth, damaged in the previous part, with the help of the blood of Randome's son.

The last book of the first volume is called "The Courtyard of Chaos". In it, the father of the Oberon family comes back to the throne, who previously disappeared without knowing where, a war with the Court of Chaos begins and an attempt is made to repair the Labyrinth. At the end of the book, Random becomes king, and Corwin goes to other worlds to think about everything that happened to him.

The story of Merlin

The next volume, also from five books, refers to the cycle "The Chronicles of Amber." Books begin in order with the work of the "Map of Destiny". Here the story is already on behalf of the son of Corwin - Merlin. In Amber, finally, the world, everything is quiet, the protagonist ends his studies at the university and seeks to find his father, passing his own new invention in passing. The second book, which is called "The Blood of Amber," begins with the fact that Merlin is imprisoned in a special cave in which his magic does not work. Nevertheless, he manages to escape from there. Immediately he encounters a new enemy, which is very much in the cycle "Chronicles of Amber." Books are continued in order by the third work "The Sign of Chaos". In it, Merlin comes to life in a surreal world, which is the fruit of the imagination of his brother Luke, who is under the influence of LSD. Successfully escaping from there, he captures the magical stronghold "The Guardian of the Four Worlds." In the fourth book, The Knight of Shadows, many mysteries and secrets are revealed that were not understood by the reader before. In addition, Merlin is faced with a choice - Logrus or Labyrinth. The last book of the second volume, entitled "Prince of Chaos" is the completion of the whole cycle, although it implies the possibility of continuing.

Other works

In addition to those listed above, others in the series "The Chronicles of Amber," in fact, there are no books in order. Some of them are supposedly a prehistory, telling about everything that happened in Amber earlier, others - in general, separate stories that do not have any relation to the main cycle and narrate about various events taking place in the same universe.

Results

In general, it is the cycle that counts only 10 works written by Roger Zelazny himself. The rest is either the work of other authors who liked the general idea, which in fact allows writing anything, since the number of worlds and their kinds are not limited to anything, or the works of Zhelazny himself, co-authored, again not directly related to the events described. The most controversial issue can be considered five books Betancourt, because, despite his own statements that they are written on the drafts of Roger himself, which he just did not have time to lead to a readable version and publish, the widow of Zelazny argues otherwise.