What was Roger cooking up?

[RTrimmer]

I'd been thinking a bit about that myself when I chanced across this:
http://stolenthunder.blogspot.com/2011/03/continued-chronicles-of-amber-5-putting.html

[RPGPundit]

Its an interesting question; sadly, we'll never know for sure. But he sure left an ample setup of playing pieces behind for us gamers to run campaigns with.

RPGpundit

[Atgxtg]

Yeah, we won't ever really know. But then maybe Roger Zelazny didn't really know either. I got the impression that the Amber series evoked along the way and that his finished story was exactly the one he started with.But like RPGPundit said, it sure leaves us with a lot to work with, and that is better for Amber GMs than a happy ending that wrpas it all up.

At least that's what I keep telling myself.

[RPGPundit]

Zelazny was pretty clear that with Amber he was making most of it up as he went along.

RPGPundit

[finarvyn]

Actually, Roger's phrase was "intuitive writer" and by this he meant that he would offer up details with no clear goal in mind at one point in a series and then somehow found that those details could be tied together in the big picture later in the series. He claimed it made him look like a master of foreshadow but he simply was an intuitive writer.

[Atgxtg]

Giving Corwin amnesia and partial brain damage really helped with that, too. It allowed Zelazny to contradict and change things as better ideas came along. Practically everything that Corwin tells the reader in Nine Princes is wrong in some way. Most of it can be explained away by the amnesia, and the rest by Amberite sneakiness.

[RPGPundit]

I certainly wasn't criticizing the brilliance of Zelazny's work. Its all the more impressive in that he didn't actually have any idea where he was ending up.

RPGPundit

[Evermasterx]

I certainly wasn't criticizing the brilliance of Zelazny's work. Its all the more impressive in that he didn't actually have any idea where he was ending up.

RPGPundit

It is called genius!

[Panjumanju]

I very much enjoy the speculation that Bill Roth could be the sorcerer man in the mirrors.

//Panjumanju

[RPGPundit]

I very much enjoy the speculation that Bill Roth could be the sorcerer man in the mirrors.

//Panjumanju

I don't know, it'd be nice if there was one normal shadow guy that stayed a normal (though competent) shadow guy.

RPGPundit

[Panjumanju]

I don't know, it'd be nice if there was one normal shadow guy that stayed a normal (though competent) shadow guy.

RPGPundit

I very much understand where you're coming from, but it is much more Zelazny's style to reveal Bill Roth as something more, especially because of how close he has already been to Luke, and all good suggestions point to Luke having a major role (if not that of protagonist) in the final series of books.

//Panjumanju

[Evermasterx]

I don't know, it'd be nice if there was one normal shadow guy that stayed a normal (though competent) shadow guy.

RPGPundit

I agree with you. Amberites trust noone and have few friends. For me Bill is a mortal, common man: a warm and secure friendship, a link for a superhuman to normality.
And because everyone suspects him to be someone else... maybe Roger wouldn't use such a predictable move.

[RPGPundit]

Yes, note that in the first series, the big surprise was "normal shadow dude turns out to be Oberon".  In the second, it was "big mysterious enemy turns out to be normal shadow ex-girlfriend".  I would think that the third would probably have some other surprise twist, but it wouldn't be an exact repeat of either of the two above.

RPGPundit

[daniel_ream]

In the second, it was "big mysterious enemy turns out to be normal shadow ex-girlfriend".

Also, Ophelia.

[weilide]

If I recall correctly, in one or more of the interviews or paratextual materials contained in the big six volume collected works Zelazny suggested that each of the forthcoming final five novels was to be narrated by a different Amberite and also that the Amber navy was to play something of a role in the proceedings.