And we’re back to Corwin as narrator.
He, of course, has some Literary References (“Oedipus, Hamlet, Lear, and all those guys”) to throw around, citing folks whose stories hinge on not knowing vital information.
All three named figures involve royal parent-child relationships, by the way. Oedipus grows up unaware of his parentage and kills his dad, marrying his mother. He blinds himself when he finds out. Hamlet arrives home after the death of his father and dithers about as he decides whether or not to extract revenge on his father’s possible killer (his dad’s brother, who married his mom). Lear tests his children, demanding to know who loves him the most, and makes a grievous mistake resulting in the loss of his best and most loving kid.
They are all tragedies.
Corwin gives a quick summation of the larger plot, tying pieces together and reminding the reader of what’s been going on. Ah, for the pre-internet pre-wikipedia days when you couldn’t quickly refresh yourself on the contents of the books that had come before. We’re also reminded of Osric and Finndo who “died for the good of Amber.” In “Nine Princes in Amber” Corwin mentions three dead brothers. Here are two of them. I don’t know about the third, but the death of these two served the good of Amber in that it was a way for Oberon to remove them from succession plotting. “they had done more than wishful thinking about the throne, and it became necessary that they die bravely for Amber.” In other words, like Random and his marital sentence, they fucked around and they found out.
Random and Corwin settle in to try and solve this mystery. “Nine Princes” starts out a very noir-detective-story style thing and veered into Fantasy while still retaining bits and pieces of the noir. The men all smoke and drink whisky and use slang and there’s a lot of broads. This bit of the novel starts leaning into mystery territory and I wish it had gone further in that direction, although the mystery part DOES result in a suspenseful drawing room situation and a stabbing. Random lays out the information they have and then launches into speculation. One important thing he brings up is Dworkin. We saw a bit of him in the past: his Trump drawing, his talk of turning people into frogs, his shaky hold on sanity. Corwin, bless his heart, decides he can “handle” Dworkin. Again, we have a king lacking vital knowledge.
In several ways.
In addition to underestimating just how dangerous Dworkin is, and what he’s capable of doing, Corwin doesn’t actually know anything about the Jewel of Judgement. It’s a big old ruby on a chain and Oberon claimed it could change the weather, which we saw Eric doing very handily. Corwin realizes that Oberon used to wear it when away from Amber, and that he wasn’t using it for the weather. And “Jewel of Judgement” is a pretty significant name for something that only (“only”) affects the weather. We see some pretty tantalizing things in the incomplete notes which pay off later in the series. The writing gets a bit tighter as the books go on – it’s part of why I prefer the Merlin Cycle. Details are knit together a bit more firmly, there’s more planned-out foreshadowing resulting in more payoffs that feel like logical outcomes.
As he strolls toward the Pattern Corwin takes a moment to continue justifying his hatred of Eric. Dude shouldn’t have coronated himself! It was badwrong! Either it’s HIS FAULT that Oberon is dead and shouldn’t have taken the crown or it WASN’T his fault that Oberon was dead/missing and he shouldn’t have taken the crown. But either way he should have saved the crown for Corwin! Interestingly he’s also sort of… talking himself out of wanting to be king. It’s hard work! He can barely hold shit together! People don’t trust him! There are PLOTS afoot! Please note that Eric managed to handle all of this before Corwin showed up, during Corwin’s little attack on Amber, and for a few years after until the incursions from Chaos got to be too much – incursions helped along by Corwin. He put in the work, he had support from people (brothers, no less!) who trusted him to do a good job, and he actively lead the country for a fair amount of time before moving to make it official. He was successful. I mean he was bad and had an obese ego! A real fathead.
I like the implication that Corwin may have been plotting against himself what with his head injury and all. I also like the fact that Freud was able to suss out what his relationship with his dad was like. I forget the exact quote but later in the series someone talking to Brand says something like “dad really fucked you up.” Which. Relatable.
We get some good description of his trip down and down and down, deep into the heart of Kolvir, just as he once swam the depths of Rebma to get to the reflected Pattern there. We also get some glimpses of the labyrinth that is the cave system beneath Castle Amber. Because there’s a lot of passages and caves that are alluded to, are mentioned, but never explored! Much later, Zelazny wrote some short stories about Amber and one of them involves the Castle itself as a player in the game. I deeply, dearly wish we’d gotten more of that.
Speaking of players and games, Corwin mentions feeling like a game piece being pushed around the board. This is something he shares with Merlin in the second Cycle. Both have had options taken from them, bits of free will curtailed. Both are pushed into making choices they wouldn’t have otherwise made; both are forced to settle for the least-bad option instead of what they actually want.
We get some more descriptions of the Pattern and its setting, the slick black floor and the shining sinuous curves of it. Although Zelazny mentions specific Curves and Veils he never actually describes the Pattern itself. We know that it’s a source of light, we know about the sparks, but there’s no map to it. He purposely wanted people to come up with their own image of it. He may have based it in part on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, though fans often use labyrinths like the one in Chartres Cathedral. Interestingly, some of the instructions regarding walking that Labyrinth are similar to instruction for Walking the Pattern.
The Second Veil… The angles… It always seemed to tax the strength to its limits, to produce the feeling that one’s entire being was transformed into pure Will. It was a driving, relentless sensation. At the moment, the negotiation of the Pattern was the only thing in the world that meant anything to me. I had always been there, striving, never been away, always would be there, contending, my will against the maze of power. Time had vanished. Only the tension held.
The sparks were up to my waist. I entered the Grand Curve and fought my way along it. I was continually destroyed and reborn at every step of its length, baked by the fires of creation, chilled by the cold at entropy’s end.
This passage is extremely interesting – destroyed and reborn, baked and chilled, created and killed – in light of some of the secret abilities we find the Pattern has in Merlin’s books.
Walking the Pattern is as much a mental exercise as a physical one, one that requires great force of will. Which raises the question of whether an Amberite who was physically disabled would be able to traverse it somehow if their will was strong enough. Likewise, if an Amberite were possessed by another being could that being puppet them through the Walk? Either way, Corwin reaches the center and takes a breather.
He proceeds to project himself inside the Jewel. Inside this magical construct is a version of The Pattern in 3 Dimensions… similar, perhaps, to the maze that is the Logrus.
Corwin referring to his relationship with the Pattern and the Jewel in a musical context is, frankly, beautiful. He very much is a poet.
Finished with this trials, Corwin uses the vast power of Th Pattern to teleport himself to a cool room with a great view. He pauses to observe the very small very distant people who are very far below him and indulges in a bit of self pity.
And then he, sorcerer king, calls up a storm.
References:
- Sisyphus is the guy from Greek Myth condemned to push a boulder up a hill. Every time he almost reaches the top the boulder goes rolling back. Like Sisyphus, the Amberites do keep trapping themselves in the same patterns of behavior. To paraphrase Camus, one must imagine the Princes of Amber happy.
- Fulgent means brightly shining or dazzling, so bright it hurts to look at.
- Hilbert Space is a Quantum Mechanics thing.
- “July Fourth Evening” refers to fireworks at night.
- An octave is a musical thing.
