I decided about 10 pages into this that I liked Corwyn as a protagonist out of sheer cocky assholishness. It's a tricky balancing act Zelazny pulls off, but pull it off he does! On the one hand, Corwyn is a guy who decided he deserves a throne and was totally gonna kill his brother for it - and this is all we have to go on as readers. Any temperance of his worst impulses, empathy for the little guy and all that, is due to circumstances forced on him (his sojourn on Shadow Earth) which even happened off-page to boot!

But frankly, this is a guy who says shit like "fat chance, buddy!" in a high fantasy setting, which is very endearing after consuming a lot of the classics the last couple of years. Chronicles of Amber is a funny contrast to E.R. Eddison's Worm Ouroboros in this respect -- both of them concerned with the travails of ruling families one can barely muster up any sympathy for, both of them introduce us to their world via an opening on "our" world (though Amber returns to our world occasionally -- you get a feeling Eddison might even have forgotten we followed a guy and his thrush to Venus (?) about 100 pages in), but the language use is intentionally alienating in Worm vs. inviting and low-barrier in Amber.

The book settles into a pleasant rhythm with Corwyn setting up schemes to regain "his" throne, and it indulges in a bit of uhhhh Classic Sci-Fi/Fantasy gender politics with the Dara romance, but then that final twist! His vengeance denied! His plans... bamboozled!

Someone said in respone to my thoughts on the first book that the first two books should have been one, and frankly I very much agree!