Book Review: The Guns of Avalon by Roger Zelazny

 The Guns of Avalon 

By Roger Zelazny 

[The Chronicles of Amber #2]

Published Year: 1972

Page Count: 182 pages 

Medium Used: Paperback 

Genre : Adventure, Fantasy, Sorcery, Multiverse, Shadows, weird creatures, 2025-read. 

Rating : 4.5/5 💝💫

I forgot  time and surroundings while reading this book. It is very captivating and the conversations between people are very enjoyable. I would have given it a 5 pointer but somehow, at some places, I didn't fully follow the landscape descriptions. Mr.Zelazny has very masterfully and skillfully included weird looking and behaving creatures into the narrative. Some writers spoil the fun and make it too noxious to read. Not this one!

 There is plenty of suspense and intrigue. Brothers of royalty fighting among themselves for the throne, have to also, face evils that are coming into their world from somewhere out of the shadows (multiple universes). The main character ,Corwyn, acknowledges that he has placed a curse around his brother's kingdom sometime in the past and he was the cause for opening a portal into the shadows and allowing, evil, entry. I wish to gain more knowledge on when he did it, how he did it and if the consequence to that action is the spread of 'black road' which all the brothers ( walkers of shadows) fear. 

So, at the start of this, we find Corwyn escaping from the dungeons of Amber with some mystic help. He plans to lay low for a while before mounting another expedition against Amber and his usurper brother, Eric. He wants to go to his old place, Avalon. Enroute, he encounters situations which bring him face to face with the evils tormenting and pestering the shadows they walk through. And,sadly, these were the forces he himself had unleashed in the past. Upon reaching Avalon, he meets his long presumed dead brother, Benedict, who is fighting a set of evil forces bothering his kingdom. Not trusting his brother enough to stay, Corwyn and his friend run away from Avalon. Benedict gives them a chase and eventually makes it upto them only to lose a fight and roll back. All this time, Corwyn is making sketches to defeat Eric and take over Amber. He meets Benedict's grand daughter,Dara, at Avalon and without their knowledge lead her to Amber. Who is she really? And what are these black roads that are destroying their walks through the shadows? These questions remain unanswered as at the end of this book and I want to read the third book without delay!! 

Yayy!! What a book series really! Stupendous.