[Nine Princes in Amber] is the first book in the Amber series, five closely related novels which, while of uneven quality (the middle three are the best), are on the whole excellent, both for their unusually original fantasy elements and for their literary qualities. Readers should be cautioned at the outset that the series must be read in the proper sequence to gain the full (or in some of the novels any) understanding of the world of Amber, one of the more ingeniously conceived secondary worlds in fantasy literature…. The series starts out like many standard sword and sinew works but develops rapidly in literary quality. Characterization improves; style becomes more polished; and philosophical complexities emerge. But even in the first book, such a secondary world as Amber is enough to draw the reader into the rest of the series. Nine Princes in Amber introduces readers to the...