[Nine Princes in Amber] is Zelazny's version of sword-and-sorcery, but it is not for addicts only. Zelazny has not borrowed the standard apparatus for this sort of thing, but has invented his own, and the result is an adventure story with real originality and zest.

True, the hero is suffering from amnesia after a blow on the head as the book opens, but this soap-opera ploy is milked so successfully for suspense that it is readily forgivable. As we find out, with the hero, more and more about his real situation, it becomes more and more evident that the smallest misstep will be fatal. Moreover, the author manages to create real doubt that he will win through, despite the almost insuperable handicap that he is telling his own story in the first person and therefore obviously did win through….

In many respects, the story could have been set...