Roger Zelazny- The Guns of Avalon 1972- Book Review

 Roger Zelazny-  The Guns of Avalon 1972

The second installment in Zelazny’s Amber series continues to shine as just purely great reading of fast paced, epic fantasy story telling that leads the reader along this great vivid journey but is lacking of overly descriptive and detail oriented prose so that you the reader have plenty of room to construct your own imagery to the tale.   It picks up right where the first novel left off with the prince Corwin having escaped capture and the regrowth of his vision and a new plan to usurp the throne of his brother Eric who currently rules Amber.  There is so much great D&D related material in this book, the continuation of the use of the cards as a means of psychic communication, and in this book outright psionic combat.  There clearly has to be a relationship to psionics in the game and what happens in this novel and it’s just very inspiring to read and take in as this book was written in ‘72, and D&D comes out in ‘74- just a great book to immerse yourself in that early 70s gaming culture.  In addition to psionics being drawn directly from this book we also see the manticore and wyvern making an appearance in the book, both present themselves as quite fearsome opponents.  I’m not going to claim to be such a fantasy historian as to claim that this is the first time either/both creatures appear in literature, but again you can clearly see the connection to the Appendix N lit to the elements of the game.  Probably one thing I got out of the book, and the series altogether is the Amber series is a perfect example of faction play- each prince representing a different bent or alignment, some more good, some more evil, all with different desires and goals, and all mingling in a brew of alliances and rivalries.  It really is exactly how the rules set you up to play if you really dig into how the game was intended to be played.  It’s a literal guide or example of how players should be interacting with each other especially at higher levels.  The princes set up alliances which lead to battles over resources delineated on a map, it really is just a fantastic wargames campaign set to the novel format.  Without belaboring the point the Amber series is just clutch reading, I’m amazed the further I get into this series.  I’m a little embarrassed it took me this long to truly discover Amber, but now that I’m here I’m 100% along for the ride.  Top notch pulpy epic fantasy with a twist of 60’s humor.  It doesn’t take itself too seriously, but there’s plenty of meat in the story to keep you thinking about it.  I look forward to book 3.