Sign of Chaos Book

The Alice in Wonderland episode in itself is worth five stars. That has to be one of my favourite scenes, not just in this book series, but of all times. It's so brilliantly written. As typical of Zelazny, Blood of Amber ended practically mid sentence. Sign of Chaos takes up from where Blood of Amber ended beautifully. The previous sequel was quite eventful, and this one is no different. I like how things just keep on getting more complicated. In the Amber family things are never peaceful, and when you add the shadows and the Courts of Chaos to the mix, you can see why our protagonist has his work cut out for him. Magic can't help him much, he will need more than magical powers (and an awesome AI as a sidekick) to stay alive. Merlin also grows as a person in this one, I feel. He is starting to see how some of his earlier actions can have serious consequences.

The more I read into the sequels, the more I liked how different Merlin is from Corwin. Zelazny's writing is always poetic, but linguistically speaking Merlin hasn't got anything in common with Corwin. Merlin narrative voice is quite different and his approach to things as well. Corwin was an old soul (and quite literately so), whereas Merlin is distinctly a young person. Despite his magical powers, his double identity as a noble of both Amber and Chaos, and his shadow walking creation, Merlin is sometimes quite naive in a young person sort of way. However, it makes perfect sense. Merlin being more trusting and less prideful in general, he is willing to stand out for his friend Luke, despite the risks. At the same time, Merlin is certainly intelligent. He is able to see the bigger picture, although not all of it obviously- where would be the fun in that? All in all, this is a great novel. Zelanzny at his best. Enough said.