At the end of the previous novel, The Guns of Avalon, Corwin finally got what he wanted: Eric off the throne. Sign of the Unicorn is the third novel in Roger Zelazny’s CHRONICLES OF AMBER. Good enough that I have no issue coming back to it between other reads, but I'll have to decide if I want to just read the pentalogy or if I'll actually read the entire decalog. It is good enough for a diversion, but I'm not seeing anything here that is either hyper-literary or revolutionary. Again, like the previous novel in the series, I'm still kinda luke warm towads it. It allows for stories to get told, and more of the background of what is going on to gradually unfold. A bulk of the novel centers on a family meeting (a meeting of siblings) in Amber. The family drama of finding the King/Father and understanding the Pattern, the darkness that is invading Amber. It is 3/10 in the Chronicles of Amber decalog, or 3/5 in the Corwin pentalogy. Conjectures and illusions are often the better possessions.” ― Roger Zelazny, Sign of the Unicorn Another solid Zalzny fanasy novel (they are practically novellas).

Usually they are grubby little things, reducing down to the basest of motives when all is known. Conjectures and illusions are often the better possessions.'.inside stories seldom live up to one’s expectations. But look at it this way: inside stories seldom live up to one’s expectations.

“My own role sometimes makes me want to strangle the author. It is as if I were one of those minor characters in a melodrama who gets shuffled offstage without ever learning how things turn out.” I’ve a peculiar feeling that I may never see you again. Random aside, the book went rather amusingly meta at one point: Still worth finishing, but I'm starting to long for more. I want to know more about what's going on with that Black Road. We're learning a lot more about the world(s), but mostly only answering questions from the previous two books. On the other hand, not that much actually happens. It's the first time we've really seen all (or at least most) of them all in one place at the same time, which leads to a much different sort of book. It turns out that Corwin and his brothers and sisters really are a bunch of conniving bastards (in some cases literally). On one hand, we end up getting a much stronger sense for exactly who in Amber's ruling family is working with whom and what all they've done thus far. In, Corwin escapes off the Avalon in order to use jewelers' supplies to make guns to take back the throne from Eric-only to end up having to save Amber rather than attack it. In, Corwin went from having no memories to learning he was a Prince of Amber, to trying to wrest the throne from his brother Eric-only to be blinded and thrown into prison.

Sign of the Unicorn by Roger Zelazny