The Road to Amber (87 page)

Yin/Yang

A symbol of the influence of eastern philosophy and martial arts in Roger’s writing. Roger was a trained martial artist, and he was fascinated by Japanese culture. [It was also used as a metaphor for the motivations of Mari and her enemies in “24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai,” for the two roles of “doctor” and “death” in “Godson,” and it is also specifically evoked in the early tale, “The Year of the Good Seed.” —EDS.]

Sea Monster

This is “Ikky”, the Ichthyform Leviosaurus Levianthus from “The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth.”

Bat

“Damnation Alley” has large bats and large swarms of bats.
…And Call Me Conrad
has caves of spiderbats. Bats and vampires figure in a dozen other stories.

Pair of Keys

A metaphorical reference to “The Keys to December.”

Snowflakes

I was thinking quite a bit about Frost in “For a Breath I Tarry,” the line “aware of every snowflake that fell.” Cold and snow also figure in two stories from the same period: “This Mortal Mountain” and “The Keys to December.”

Black Unicorn

“Unicorn Variation” features a black unicorn.

Angel with Flaming Sword and Lightning Bolts

This is the female angel-defender from “This Mortal Mountain” who shoots lighting at the protagonists.

Big Spider

Hell Tanner runs into a giant spider in “Damnation Alley.” And swarms of mechanical spiders threaten Frost in “For a Breath I Tarry.”

Club/Diamond/Spade/Heart

I was thinking of Amber’s Trumps, and the various stories in which cards appear.

Kali, Four-armed Hindu Goddess

Kali is a major character in
Lord of Light
, an excerpt of which is included in volume 2: “Death and the Executioner.”

Six-limbed figure (above the loop of drape)

This is an illusion. It is just a texture.

Anubis

Anubis is a major character in the novel
Creatures of Light and Darkness
, an excerpt of which is included in volume 3: “The Steel General.”

Flock of Black Birds

These are the Nine Black Doves.

Spiral Galaxy

In “The Furies,” Sandor, Benedick, and Lynx chase Vicror Corgo allover the galaxy; “The Keys ro December” talks about populating the galaxy; and the first line of “Come Back to the Killing Ground Alice, My Love” is “All the death-traps in the galaxy, and she has ro walk into mine.”

Indistinct Figure Above the Tarot Cards

I wish it were (as someone suggested after the painting was done) an invisible Faioli from “The Man Who Loved the Faioli,” but alas, it is just an accidental texture.

Tarot Cards

Zelazny collected Tarot cards and their shadows appeared in Amber as the Trumps used for communication and travel.

Épée

A sword as a symbol—nobody’s specific blade. I was thinking more of the fighting in “Night Kings” than of Corwin’s blade. Swordplay figured in many of Zelazny’s srories.

Fossil Ammonite

A symbol I use for extinction or the incomprehensibility of time.

Chalice

This is The Holy Grail from “The Last Defender of Camelot” and the Tristram/Isolde myth’s chalice with red wine (and the Dali pin featuring it) in “He Who Shapes.”

Road & Road Sign

A punning reference to
Last Exit to Babylon
. The sign was too small to fit the word “Babylon” on it, so I can understand why that might not be obvious, which is just as well, because it can double as a reference ro
The Road to Amber.

More Road

“Damnation Alley” and Roadmarks involve road travel. And this is a stronger reference to the volume 6 tirle,
The Road to Amber.

Alice in Wonderland

It’s Alice, loosely based on the Tenniel illustrations. Zelazny’s works include a lot of references to characters from
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
, including “Epithalamium,” the second Amber series and the Amber short srories in volume 6.

Skull

A generalized death reference. Skulls also appear in “Come to the Killing Ground, Alice My Love” (the skulls from the Alice clones and the showdown at the “Place of Facing Skulls”) and in “The Man Who Loved the Faoli” (a field of skulls and bones). Jack from
Jack of Shadows
and and Osiris from
Creatures of Light and Darkness
each keep the skull of an enemy at hand.

Scarab

Another Egyptian reference.

Assyrian Stone Carving

The Assyrian Balawat Gates have carvings like this, here adding another ancient, mythic element ro the atmosphere of the painting.

Lower Left Corner

The small green flying creatures appear in the Dilvish story “Tower of Ice.” I wanted to break up the ground color with something and I thought of these critters… They could also work as some of the creatures mentioned offhand in “This Moment of the Storm.”

Automobile Wreck

Auto wrecks seem to be a major theme of Zelazny’s stories. They show up in many stories: “Passion Play,” “Devil Car,” “The Last of the Wild Ones,” “Auto-Da-Fe,” “He Who Shapes,” and the wreck that placed Corwin in the hospital at the very beginning of
Nine Princes in Amber.

Tombstones

A metaphorical reference to “The Graveyard Heart,” though there are graveyards in other Zelazny stories such as “Walpurgisnacht”, The “Alpha” and “Omega” on two of the stones don’t refer to a specific story.

Cistern

This is the well from “Come Back to the Killing Ground, Alice, My Love.”

Large Red Rose

Though roses show up in several places in Zelazny’s works, this is the first one in Zelazny’s stories, the tose that played a major role in “A Rose for Ecclesiastes.”

Machinery

A rather indistinct reference to
Power & Light
…there being power in the energy of technology, and light in the lighted buttons and screen. At the same time, I did have a background sense of the tech and machines in “For a Breath I Tarry” and at the top of The Gray Sister in “This Mortal Mountain.” It also represents the “tech” part of Zelazny’s habit of pitting magic against technology.

Chess pieces

Chess is the center of the action in “Unicorn Variation” and is a way for Death and his godson to communicate in “Godson.” “

Many Lit Candles

Death’s cave in “Godson” contains a lit candle for every living human on Earth.

Small Pagoda on the Stairs

The pagoda in “24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai” or any of the many references to eastern philosophy found in Roger’s work.

Griffin

I thought of the Griffin when reading “Unicorn Variation,” but it seemed a good generalized reference to the creatures of myth.

H
ere is a sampling of what we and some others believe are Roger Zelazny’s best works. These lists are opinions, but they may provide a basis for discussion or a starting point for new readers.

Roger Zelazny
listed his own favorites in interviews (see “…And Call Me Roger” split among the six volumes of this collection). He said several times that his favorite
experimental
novel was
Creatures of Light and Darkness
and his favorite novelette was “For a Breath I Tarry” (in volume 2 of this collection). In two of his last interviews, he listed his five favorite books:

Samuel R. Delany
has written of his favorite Zelazny pieces and recently reiterated his opinions to one of the editors. He believes Zelazny’s best works were all novellas, starting with ten early stories:

He later added the three
My Name Is Legion
stories:

and a story written much later than the rest:

“24 Views of Mt. Fuji, by Hokusai”

Christopher S. Kovacs
believes the interested reader should not miss these 20 short works:

these 10 novels:

and these 5 collaborations:

David G. Grubbs
was impressed by these novels, some on the initial reading, some after finding the way to appreciation:

He wishes to add these to Samuel Delany’s excellent list of 14:

and he also found these works to be entertaining:

Ann Crimmins
says: First, I urge everyone to read all of the poetry in these six volumes. Zelazny’s poems are amusing, challenging, thought-provoking, clear, obscure, and more personal the most of his prose. The poems reintroduced me to an author I thought I knew, adding a dimension to my understanding.

Novels:

Shorter Works:

S
ometimes I wake up from dreams in which my father has played a role. For a few seconds I truly believe he is alive, or has returned. More times than I can count I’ve woken up just after hugging him, and no matter how many times this happens, once my conscious mind takes over and reveals the painful truth, the emptiness I feel inside is immeasurable.

I have accepted my father’s death, though I have never gotten over it. Maybe one reason I’ve had so much trouble is that his books are everywhere. Right now I can just turn to the shelf behind me and find no less than fifty paperbacks with his name on them. I am a huge fan of his work, my friends are fans of his work—people read my last name, and sometimes they ask me if I’m related to the writer. These kinds of things might possibly stagger the process, I don’t know. It could also be a number of regrets I have. Regrets about how I dealt with things when he was sick—how the whole family did, maybe. I do have to chalk at least some of it up to that I was a somewhat dysfunctional, self-absorbed teenager. I wasn’t there for him—or Jane—like I should have been. With all of my other problems at the time (now pointless by comparison) I was in heavy denial. I did not believe that my father was going to die. Or I really did not want to believe it.

With the exception of a couple of pieces, I did not read my father’s work while he was alive. Within a month after his death, I picked up
Nine Princes in Amber
, hoping that, in some way, it might help me hold on to him. To an extent I was successful, but moreso, the book just blew me away. I immediately read
The Guns of Avalon
, then
Sign of the Unicorn
, and so on, and began to fantasize about living in Amber, training with Benedict or riding with Julian through the forests of Arden. I became obsessed with the series (hell, my son’s name is Corwin Random), and then eventually moved on to his other books. I have a special fondness for “The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth,”
The Dream Master
, and
My Name Is Legion
.
Lonesome October
is up there too. I found a love for his writing, as well as a newfound love for the man. I regret not reading his work while he was around. I regret never being able to toss one of his books down in front of him and say, “This rocks.” I regret that I never got to tell him how proud I am of him.