Books of Amber, 1-5, Zelazny
3.0 Stars
6-10-2023

Some weird, fast, plot-heavy little fantasy books. One of the first thing you notice is that these books have a lot going on; it is rare that 10 pages will go by without a fist-fight, sword-fight, psychic-duel, assassination, battle, invasion, panicked flight, car chase, horse chase, crippling, imprisonment, death, faked death, betrayal, theft, reveal, reversal, seduction, etc. etc. Zelazny definitely subscribes to the South Korean soap opera style of writing. This is helped along by the setting, where a family of centuries old, dimension hopping siblings are competing for the throne of the one true dimension, Amber. To a modern reader it's going to remind you a bit of Rick and Morty, as the main characters traverse/cause problems/flee/summon armies from various sub-dimensions, and are generally cavalier about what is to them an infinity of replaceable worlds and people.

Overall I liked this, but by the end of book 5 and the first narrative arc of the series, I had all the plot I could handle. There's a further 5 books in the second story arc, and I have absolutely zero appetite for them.