Unsolved Amber Mysteries

[weilide]

Perhaps castle Amber has its own life and is becoming sentient, either from being so close to the Pattern, or maybe Amber is its own power, hidden until now. The Hall of Mirrors seems directly connected.

Or perhaps Zelazny was going to bring out a new manifestation of castle Amber, similar to the Unicorn and the Serpent!

One possibility I like is that the entire castle was grown like a crystal, using a Spikard as a seed. Of course there is absolutely no textual evidence for this...

[RPGPundit]

Maybe the castle contained a whole universe of its own, being bigger on the inside...

RPGPundit

[weilide]

Maybe the castle contained a whole universe of its own, being bigger on the inside...

RPGPundit

I do like the mental image of the castle spinning through space like a top while being repeatedly struck by lightening and rock music plays in the background.

[blueznl]

Perhaps castle Amber has its own life and is becoming sentient, either from being so close to the Pattern, or maybe Amber is its own power, hidden until now. The Hall of Mirrors seems directly connected.

Or perhaps Zelazny was going to bring out a new manifestation of castle Amber, similar to the Unicorn and the Serpent!

I think _Hall of Mirrors_ talked about it:

***

"Hardly ever, when I was growing up either," Flora said. "It's only in recent years that it's become this active. Almost as if the place were waking up."
"The place?" Luke said.
"Almost as if there's another player in the game," she responded.
"Who?" I demanded, causing a pain in my gut.
"Why, the castle itself, of course," she said.

***

[blueznl]

I think that's the standard assumption. Merlin strengthens her with his blood and somewhat later the Corwin Ghost mentions that she is under his care, or something along those lines. I think we presume that the infusion of blood enables her to walk the pattern safely and then she teleports out to Corwin's neck of the woods.

There's a remark somewhere made by Corwin's pattern ghost, where he states that one more pattern ghost, strengthened by Merlin's blood, was now under protection of Corwin's pattern as well.

[Taewakan]

A page on The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny describes it as a "sex scene between Corwin and Dara from The Guns of Avalon that Doubleday deleted because it was too explicit for its time."

If I recall correctly, Roger wrote this passage just to annoy his editor (which it did) and with full intent that it would be removed prior to publication (which it was). I had often wondered whatever happened to it...

I suspect it won't be hard core, if that's what you're expecting.

Sex with a shapeshifter! Zelazny style. Whoo Hoo!

[Taewakan]

What are the main mysteries that Zelazny leaves unanswered? I can think of several. What am I forgetting? How do people answer these?

• The mystery wizard from the short stories: Just who is and what is he up to?

• The stationary shadow storm that Merlin, Mandor, and Fiona investigate: is it, as Mandor suggests, a chaos phenomenon, perhaps related to the mystery wizard?

• The Jewel of Judgment: just what is Dworkin up to when he implants it in Coral's eye-socket?

• In the short story Blue Horse, Dancing Mountains Dworkin and Suhuy meet to play a chess-like game that seems to correspond to actual events in some way. During the game Dworkin moves a Chaos piece instead of one of his own. When Suhuy objects Dworkin points out that they set no rule against it. What is going on here?

• Eric: When he died on Kolvir why did Caine not permit Fiona to conduct an autopsy? What does it mean when his pattern ghost tells Merlin, "I know you?"

• What is the nature of the universe produced by Corwin's pattern?

• What ultimately is the role of the Spikards? How do Bleys, Delwin, Sand, the mystery wizard, and the pattern swords fit in?

• What is the meaning of the duel between Corwin and Luke at the end of the short story The Hall of Mirrors? How do Mandor and Fiona relate? What is the meaning of Flora's comment at the end that Castle Amber is waking up and becoming involved?

Imagine not being able to go back and correct choices you made while wielding the JoJ. Now imagine having a kid you can control psychically that has direct access to the artifact in question.

Mandor and Fiona is a great match. A scary match. Mandor is the Chaos version of Hannibal Lector. Silence of the Lambs meets the Black list.

Benedict? One thought: All Warfare is based upon deception.