Introduction
You wake up in a sterile hospital room with bandages wrapped around your head and no memory of who you are. This sudden amnesia leaves you vulnerable to mysterious enemies who want you dead before you can piece together your past.
Roger Zelazny presents a sprawling dark fantasy where our Earth is merely a reflection of the one true city, Amber. You discover that you belong to an immortal royal family of shapechangers and world-walkers locked in a vicious civil war for the ultimate throne.
The book follows your desperate journey across alternate realities called Shadows to recover your identity, master forgotten magic, and overthrow your treacherous siblings.
You will find answers to several crucial questions as you read:
- How do you survive when everyone in your family is trying to kill you?
- What is the true nature of Amber and its infinite reflections?
- How do you navigate between worlds using only your mind and the Trump cards?
- What secrets lie hidden beneath the ocean in the mirror city of Rebma?
1. Awakening and Family Hostility
Severe trauma and amnesia can mask an individual's true identity, physical resilience, and past capabilities while forcing them into constant vigilance against treacherous relatives.
You wake up in a hospital with no memory of your past. Your bones heal with unnatural speed, and your body retains an innate combat readiness. You deduce that your memory loss was artificially prolonged by over-narcotization administered by order of your sister.
Carl Corey breaks out of Greenwood Private Hospital after two weeks of recovery. He escapes after knocking out an orderly and extorting $430 in cash from the doctor.
You find yourself looking in a mirror at a thirtyish physical age. The watch on your wrist shows five forty-four as you leave the hospital ward.
Memory Loss and Escape
You confront your nominal sister Flora at her Westchester estate. You realize she is allied with your enemies and has previously attempted to keep you incapacitated. Instead of fleeing, you use her desire for self-preservation and leverage against rival factions to secure a temporary sanctuary.
Flora keeps an ultrasonic dog whistle to command her trained Irish wolfhounds, Donner and Blitzen. She admits she would report his movements to their brother Eric.
You wait thirty seconds at the front door before Flora's maid answers. You then sleep for eleven hours of deep sleep after arriving at Flora's house.
The Relatives and Greater Trumps
Magical playing cards known as Greater Trumps serve as potent memory catalysts and mystical communication links among members of a royal bloodline. Hidden in a secret drawer in Flora's library, a specialized deck of tarot-like cards depicts you and your siblings. Handling these cards instantly triggers vivid memories, emotional recognition, and deep-seated associations with your past identity.
The protagonist uncovers a packet of playing cards bearing a white unicorn rampant. He recognizes portraits of himself, Random, Julian, Caine, Eric, Benedict, Gerard, Bleys, Brand, Flora, Deirdre, Fiona, and Llewella.
Mentioning or thinking of the word Amber triggers intense physical and emotional reactions. It represents a forsaken domain of grand achievement and the ultimate source of tension among the siblings.
Flora cries and mentions Amber, sending a bolt of lightning down the protagonist's spine and unlocking a deep-seated realization of his true origins.
Desperate members of a treacherous family will cross long distances to seek protection from rivals while remaining entirely untrustworthy. Random calls Flora's residence from California while fleeing unknown pursuers. He begs you for sanctuary and promises to navigate dangerous shadows to reach New York.
Random contacts the protagonist over the phone in a panicked state, asking for protection against threats related to the family war.
The royal siblings operate under a ruthless code of ambition, exile, and opportunistic alliance where alliances shift based on perceived strength. Characters like Eric, Bleys, and Corwin compete for supremacy, utilizing manipulation, exile, and proxy conflicts while expecting constant treachery from one another.
Flora discusses how Eric, Bleys, and Corwin are the only brothers with enough brains and guts to contend for ultimate power. She weighs which one will eventually triumph.
2. Shadow Navigation and Rebma
Space and reality can be navigated by shifting through alternative versions of reality known as Shadows, while walking the Pattern in Rebma restores lost memories.
Random manipulates the environment by adding and subtracting elements from the visible world, functioning like a large equation to bridge the distance toward Amber.
Random and Corwin drive a car through a series of rapidly changing landscapes, deserts, silicon plains, and weird cities while changing the car's steering wheel and features automatically. Six attackers with bloodshot eyes, extra finger joints, forward-curving hand spurs, and forty-four teeth assault Flora's home and are fought off by Corwin, Random, and Flora's hounds.
Julian patrols the Forest of Arden riding his gigantic horse Morgenstern and accompanied by lethal Storm Hounds to hunt down Corwin and Random. Corwin admits to Random and Deirdre that he does not know who he really is, what Shadows are, or how Amber operates despite having played along during the journey. Corwin and Random ambush four guards sitting around a campfire in the woods and rescue Deirdre, who was bound to a stake.
Traveling Through Shadows
Random proposes that Corwin and Deirdre travel south to Rebma so Corwin can walk the Pattern and recover his lost memory.
You should follow these steps to reach the destination:
- Head south toward the sea to reach the stairway leading to Rebma.
- Speak fairly to Llewella's people and hint at the mission to gain entry.
- Walk the Pattern of Rebma to restore memory and gain the power to walk among Shadows.
Corwin, Random, and Deirdre descend the fifty-foot-wide marble stairway called Faiella-bionin while being pursued by four horsemen, whom Corwin and Random successfully defeat in underwater combat before reaching the golden gates of Rebma. Queen Moire sentences Random to marry the blind woman Vialle and stay in Rebma for a year, citing the past tragedy of her daughter Morganthe and the birth of their son Martin.
The Pattern of Rebma
Walking the duplicate Pattern in Rebma restores a lost prince of Amber his full memory and grants him control over Shadow.
Corwin walks the Pattern in Rebma, enduring intense pain and mental resistance while recovering memories of the Earth plague, his life in London, and his true identity as an immortal prince of Amber.
You must follow these directions carefully while walking:
- Take it very slowly and do not let yourself be distracted.
- Do not be alarmed by the shower of sparks that arise with each step.
- Keep concentrating and keep walking without stopping.
- Do not stray from the path, or it will probably kill you.
Corwin remembers his time on Shadow Earth, including witnessing historical tragedies, living through a plague year in London, and realizing Flora stayed on Earth mainly to keep tabs on his amnesia.
3. Confrontation and Military Buildup
Princes of Amber use magical Trumps to forge alliances across Shadow worlds, recruit massive armies, and wage brutal wars for the throne.
Infiltrating Amber
Using the Pattern's power of instantaneous transportation, you enter Amber, steal a family deck of Trumps from a crystal case, and confront Eric in the library. Although Eric is a master swordsman, you wound him and successfully escape back into Shadow using a card.
Corwin battles Eric in the Amber library, nicking his wrist and shoulder before dropping the heavy door bar to buy time, then escaping through a secret panel.
The display case involves specific preparations:
- four decks - the number of family card decks in the crystal display case
- ten minutes - the time spent gimmicking the proper crystal case
Princes of Amber can use Trumps to instantly contact and teleport to family members across vast distances in Shadow. Concentrating on a family card allows you to establish a cold, mental contact that bridges space, turning the two-dimensional portrait into a living portal for physical transport and tactical alliances.
You can use the cards through specific steps:
- Shuffle and spread the family cards out in the proper manner.
- Read the cards to assess the current state and future of the family.
- Concentrate on a specific card until the figure comes to life and establishes contact.
Corwin uses the card depicting his brother Bleys to establish contact, teleport across dimensions to Bleys's fortress, and negotiate an alliance to lay siege to Amber.
The Invasion of Avernus
Reality consists of only one true Substance, Amber, surrounded by an infinitude of possible Shadows. Every possibility exists somewhere as a Shadow cast by Amber, extending from Amber to Chaos, and can be traversed by walking, using Dworkin's cards, or walking the Pattern. Corwin leads his fleet through storm-tossed Shadow oceans while Bleys marches his troops across various hostile worlds.
Bleys recruits an army in the world of Avernus by utilizing a local religion centered on brother-gods and an Apocalypse myth, allowing them to gather around fifty thousand red-skinned troopers who view the princes as gods.
The military force expands through distinct phases:
- seven feet in height for the Avernus troopers
- around fifty thousand troops initially in Avernus
- a quarter of a million Shadow troops gathered over two months
In Avernus, Corwin asks a seven-foot-tall red-skinned trooper if he knows Eric, to which the trooper replies that Eric is the Lord of Evil.
Corwin contacts Caine via a Trump card and negotiates an agreement where Caine opens the northern seaways to Bleys's fleets in exchange for future power, while rejecting Caine's demand for Random's head. Corwin successfully negotiates with Caine, who agrees to let the phantom fleets pass and promises to serve whichever brother wins the throne.
By concentrating on Oberon's card, you reach your distant father, who confirms he is beyond help, urges you to take the throne quickly, and gives you his blessing. Corwin uses Oberon's Trump card to establish a faint connection, and Oberon instructs him to oppose the others and take the throne.
Eric utilizes a double of the Jewel of Judgment to control the weather near Amber, generating severe storms, blizzards, and electrified tempests that destroy a large portion of the invading fleet. When Corwin tries to conjure a horrible blizzard over Amber as a counter-test, Eric successfully stops it within half an hour.
The battle causes severe destruction:
- three hours of fierce storm
- half of the fleet lost in the storm
- forty of the crew of one hundred and twenty lost on the flagship
Princes of Amber can engage in direct mental combat and psychological dominance through Trump contact. When Eric initiates a mental contact, you fight him fiercely on the mental plane, eventually breaking Eric's control and proving your superiority in single combat willpower. Corwin channels his years of exile, his hatred, and vengeance into a mental assault that forces Eric to cry out and break the contact.
Caine coordinates with Eric and uses superior numbers to systematically board and destroy Bleys's fleet ship by ship, overcoming your tactical maneuvers. Caine's forces outnumber and overwhelm Corwin's remaining seventy-three vessels, forcing Corwin to surrender his men and escape.
4. Imprisonment and Reclamation
Eric's forces use weather-making and fire to turn the Forest of Arden and the Valley of Garnath into an inferno, trapping Corwin and Bleys' troops in a massive wall of fire and forcing them to flee to the river Oisen. Seventy miles of wooded valley lay between them and Amber, while thirty miles lay behind them going back to the forest end. Five thousand troops remained after the abrupt winter and initial ambushes.
Corwin and Bleys lead their remaining men through burning woods alongside fleeing wildlife, jumping falling trees before plunging into the cold waters of the river Oisen to escape.
- Head toward the nearest river when a valley is set on fire
- Plunge into the water and float while swimming past burning debris
- Dive underwater repeatedly to avoid volleys of archer fire along the riverbanks
Blocked from circling around the mountains by fire and Julian's ambushes, Bleys and Corwin are forced to launch a brutal frontal assault up the narrow eastern stair of Mount Kolvir against Eric's defending troops. Three thousand men were left to fight against Kolvir. One hundred feet from the top was where Bleys finally weakened significantly. Three thousand men again stood against Kolvir at the final clash.
Bleys advances up the Kolvir stairs like a whirlwind, using his cloak, blade, and daggers with brutal efficiency in a legendary display of swordsmanship until he is finally knocked over the edge.
As Bleys falls over the edge of the Kolvir stair after being struck by an enemy warrior, Corwin cries out and throws his deck of Trumps, telling Bleys to catch them.
Defeated princes survive imprisonment through extraordinary regenerative powers and escape using Dworkin's artistic creations to plan a final reclamation.
The Fire Assault and Blindness
After Corwin's defeat and his defiant attempt to crown himself at Eric's coronation, Eric orders Corwin's eyes to be burned out with white-hot irons and consigns him to absolute blackness in the deepest dungeon beneath Amber. Four months and 10 days had passed since the coronation when Rein first visited. One full year was spent in the dungeons by Corwin. Five months had passed when Corwin calculated time using cigarette packs.
Corwin is dragged before Eric at the coronation, tries to place the crown on his own head as a defiance, and is subsequently blinded with hot irons and thrown into a dark dungeon for a year.
Rein, who serves as a minstrel in Eric's court, manages to smuggle food, wine, and cigarettes to Corwin through the small gate at the bottom of the cell door by bribing a guard who owes him money. Two hundred twenty cigarettes were in the carton brought by Rein, and eleven packs of Salems were consumed by Corwin during his isolation.
- Dispose of all physical evidence and cigarette butts in the lavatory hole to avoid detection during inspections
- Conserve perishable food items by eating them first
- Save a single bottle of alcohol for a massive spell of forgetfulness
Random walks the Pattern in Rebma, attacks Eric with a crossbow, and wounds him before being captured. Thirty-four days prior to Rein's visit was when Random showed up with the crossbow, and seven days after that, Lady Vialle made her request to join Random in prison.
Rein informs Corwin in his cell that Random showed up with a crossbow, wounded Eric, and was spared execution due to his marriage to Lady Vialle, whose request to join him in prison left Eric uncertain how to reply.
Regeneration and Escape
Corwin heals faster than ordinary humans and spends over three years in a dark cell regrowing his eyes and recovering from historical injuries, a rare trait that allowed him to overcome his blinding by Eric. Four years marked the duration of Corwin's imprisonment near the coronation anniversary, and over three years were taken for Corwin to grow new eyeballs.
Corwin successfully regrows his burnt-out eyeballs after more than three years in his dungeon cell and also recovers from a past paraplegic spine injury.
Dworkin accidentally wandered into Corwin's cell using a custom Trump and revealed that Oberon imprisoned him because Dworkin devised a method to destroy Amber and described it to the king.
Dworkin visits Corwin in his cell, having walked through a shadow wall using a new Trump he designed, and asks for art supplies to sketch his way back.
Corwin uses a sharpened spoon to carve wood, barters matches for light, and convinces the unstable Dworkin to draw the Lighthouse of Cabra on the stone wall as a Trump gateway. Three full packages of matches and part of a fourth constituted Corwin's total fire-starting inventory, and forty-three miles measured the distance from the lighthouse back to Amber.
- Clear half the floor down to bare stone
- Cut open the sleeping roll liner and pull out dry straw from the middle
- Make a heap of the dry straw and place the liner nearby as extra fuel
- Set fire to the matchbook and use it to ignite the straw
- Stand facing the drawing, maintain intense concentration on the subject, toss the liner onto the fire, and step through as the image becomes reality
Corwin uses his last matchbook, burns his sleeping mat filled with dry straw to create a sustained flame, concentrates on Dworkin's drawing of the lighthouse, and steps through to freedom.
Corwin adopts the alias Corey, invents a shipwreck story, and stays at the lighthouse for three months to regain his health, gaining weight and assisting Jopin with maintenance and map corrections. Three months marked the duration of Corwin's stay recovering his strength, over one hundred years was the length of time Jopin held a command in the past, and forty pounds was the estimated weight Corwin gained during his months with Jopin.
Jopin welcomes Corwin into his messy quarters, feeds him beef, bread, and beer, and later allows him to use his sailboat, the Butterfly.
Corwin realizes that his past curse of hatred toward Eric transformed the peaceful Valley of Garnath into a dark, twisted forest populated by dangerous creatures and evil entities.
Corwin uses Jopin's spyglass from the top of the tower to look at the Vale of Garnath, discovering a cold mist, twisted trees, and bats symbolizing his own hatred and creating a new dangerous way into Amber.
Recognizing that direct overland entry from Amber is impossible, Corwin sets sail on the Butterfly to find a vanished domain that once existed in Chaos, intending to return with firearms.
Corwin sends off a white bird and a black bird with notes, declaring his return to Eric and vowing that guns will blaze within Amber.
10 Key Ideas
- Severe trauma and amnesia can mask an individual's true identity, physical resilience, and past capabilities while forcing them into constant vigilance against treacherous relatives.
- Magical playing cards known as Greater Trumps serve as potent memory catalysts and mystical communication links among members of a royal bloodline.
- Space and reality can be navigated by shifting through alternative versions of reality known as Shadows, while walking the Pattern in Rebma restores lost memories.
- Walking the duplicate Pattern in Rebma restores a lost prince of Amber his full memory and grants him control over Shadow.
- Princes of Amber use magical Trumps to forge alliances across Shadow worlds, recruit massive armies, and wage brutal wars for the throne.
- Princes of Amber can engage in direct mental combat and psychological dominance through Trump contact.
- Defeated princes survive imprisonment through extraordinary regenerative powers and escape using Dworkin's artistic creations to plan a final reclamation.
- Corwin heals faster than ordinary humans and spends over three years in a dark cell regrowing his eyes and recovering from historical injuries, a rare trait that allowed him to overcome his blinding by Eric.
- Corwin uses his last matchbook, burns his sleeping mat filled with dry straw to create a sustained flame, concentrates on Dworkin's drawing of the lighthouse, and steps through to freedom.
- Corwin sends off a white bird and a black bird with notes, declaring his return to Eric and vowing that guns will blaze within Amber.