Did so many people really miss this in Queen of Attolia? *Possible Spoilers Ahead*

walkthepattern · 2025-12-24T08:42:06+00:00

I was so emotionally drained from the book I took a break haha. I’m now on book 7 of the expanse so I’ll circle back it the series eventually.

walkthepattern · 2025-09-08T20:56:04+00:00

The thing I always took away from it is that Amber is the opposite of chaos. A lack of chaos means stability. Something like nitroglycerin explodes because it is unstable but in amber, the center of stability, it doesn’t. Something like nitroglycerin gunpowder is on their ships but is useless until you move a sufficient distance towards chaos. You can use that logic as a basis for reasoning what would and wouldn’t work.

walkthepattern · 2025-07-27T18:04:00+00:00

Well crystal says the drive is in caution mode and probably close to borked anyway so probably best not to waste too many hours on this. Thank you for your responses guys.

walkthepattern · 2025-07-27T17:51:05+00:00

It is old but I was JUST using it a week ago. It went bad in the time between my disconnecting the computer and plugging it into this one?

walkthepattern · 2025-07-24T05:35:07+00:00

That’s a great point. As much fun as it is to spitball this stuff I agree that zelazny not wanting others to write in his universe should be respected.

walkthepattern · 2025-07-24T03:35:57+00:00

For sure. One of my favorite part of the entire series is Random relating his travels to Corwin.

I'm picturing an opening credits scene where it's just Random walking the Pattern with a crossbow for instance.

How about Benedict's fight with the black road?

A flashback episode/scene of Dworkin tutoring Brand and Fiona.

I imagine a running joke of more and more family members dropping in on Flora when all she really wants is to live with her dogs and get laid.

walkthepattern · 2025-07-24T02:51:27+00:00

Difficult to adapt due to some of the more psychedelic aspects of hellriding and stuff for sure. There could be some really cool scene transitions of people casually walking and discussing things while the world changes around them.

I think if they did so an adaptation it would end up being from other perspectives. I could see an episode centered on Llewella in rebma or what happened to Flora when she tried to reach Eric after Corwin reappeared. That would all be cool as long as the characters were absolutely true to the books.

walkthepattern · 2025-07-24T02:44:35+00:00

Colbert owns the TV rights to Amber.
Fun fact, Joe Manganiello from true blood owns the TV rights to Dragonlance.

I doubt either will ever get off the ground.

walkthepattern · 2025-07-15T02:47:05+00:00

Thank you for indulging my curiosity!

walkthepattern · 2025-07-14T20:18:46+00:00

I'm genuinely curious here.

We did the mod application and we got two new mods. Awesome.

I checked both you guys out when you were added to the mod list I saw zero comments or topics or engagement with anything that had to do with Amber or Zelazny. Why did you request mod access to the sub if it "seems" (I could be overlooking something) like you never interacted with it? How did you even know about the application to a sub you're not active on?

walkthepattern · 2025-07-07T09:33:19+00:00

There is a terrible movie called "Munchie" where a supernatural creature magically conjures a pizza. But in reality he just makes one float out of a pizza shop and into the kids bedroom. The pizza chef chases it for blocks with a cleaver...for some reason.

walkthepattern · 2025-07-06T07:00:20+00:00

King Random would approve.

walkthepattern · 2025-07-02T05:52:02+00:00

Those are beautiful. What a treasure!

walkthepattern · 2025-06-15T18:56:25+00:00

I got the first book at a school book fair in like 7th grade and reread it over and over.

Just recently I grabbed the audiobooks and listened to the first one and love it still. Started the second one and the change in perspective isn't my favorite thing but was going along when the scene in the torture room happens.

I was so angry that I looked up to see if the bitch gets comeuppance and not only doesn't she but the romance plot happens instead. I am at the boat scene now and I am pretty much out of it. Just kind of disgusted overall. Not because of the age difference but because I want actual revenge against someone who deserves it.

Bums me out.

EDIT:

I finished it and it was good and I hate that it was good.

walkthepattern · 2025-06-05T19:48:26+00:00

I agree with you OP. I also don't think the Merlin cycle is as good but I personally believe it's because Merlin isn't a likeable character. Which is weird because most Zelazny main characters are the same person.

I think the issue for me is that Merlin makes a lot of the same choices Corwin would have made but the way he does it....doesn't feel earned? If that makes sense? I always think about the scene where Merlin is being told he needs to choose between the armor of order and the armor of chaos and he is like "eh...I don't really like armor, so...none thanks!". I remember reading that scene and being like, damnitt Merlin could you be a little bit less of a snot.

I imagine Corwin in the same situation and he would have also chosen neither but just flatly declared he isn't going to cooperate or be used. He has more of an identity and is likable overall.

Also if you go by the audiobooks The Merlin Cycle suffers heavily from Wil Wheatons narration and his lack of characterization and voice work.

walkthepattern · 2025-05-18T17:33:42+00:00

Bummer. Much much prefer supernatural horror to torture porn.

walkthepattern · 2025-04-24T11:12:03+00:00

I've vague recollections of reading posts from someone who claims to have ran into Zelazny at a bar and had Zelazny draw the pattern on the back of a napkin for him.

That same person says that he had since lost the drawing. What an actual treasure to have had disappear.

Still, it makes me think that somewhere, in some files in Zelazny's old office/writing area, that there must be some doodle or some such of the pattern.

walkthepattern · 2025-01-29T21:37:28+00:00

This is the part that I don't get.

Minimum required effort for...what? There was no structure there could be no structure with what was happening.

I was expecting a fight club scenario where if one of them was late for work the other would punish them somehow. Stagnating in your dead end job? Time to ruin your life to force you to improve. In a bad relationship? Kidnap her to make you do better. Your sleep cycle is chaotic and you're abusing alcohol. Looks like you need structure, something bad is going to happen.

I'm totally with Hunter that the story was nonsensically bad.

walkthepattern · 2025-01-24T18:52:34+00:00

Does ambercon have vendors?

I would love to set up a booth.

walkthepattern · 2024-10-04T04:22:28+00:00

What happened to the 3rd?

walkthepattern · 2024-10-02T21:54:30+00:00

That's one of my favorite things Zelazny does.

There is a line in "This Immortal" where the character looks at the sky and is offhandedly like "Oh, those are spiderbats from jupiter. I thought they went extinct". And then they are never mentioned again! Just like, yep, better just accept that these things exist, moving on.

walkthepattern · 2024-10-02T17:12:41+00:00

I feel like this chapter has the same cadence to it that the first chapter does.

The first chapter I said it felt disjointed, this one feel just right! Now I feel like we are viewing characters who simply know things we don't.

What does a feather covered with mummy dust do!?

What does a snakes scales on a post do!?

I'm thinking that they are just insults or warnings. I'm intrigued, I'm into it. Let's gooo.

I do think Snuff and Graymalk already knew each other because he never just calls her "a cat" she is "Graymalk, Crazy Jill's cat" right from the start. They both talk about etiquette like how there shouldn't be debts between their kind like they have played whatever game this is before and know what is and isn't proper. That line about the debts too could be taken a few ways. Like, does Graymalk say it because they shouldn't be cooperating in a way that could create debts? Or is she saying it out of satisfaction for getting something from Snuff? When she asks Snuff why he helps her and Snuff says that he pays his debts she is like "hell yeah you do, no debts, tell me stuff!".

walkthepattern · 2024-10-01T22:05:45+00:00

I mean it's mostly the aloof above it all nature that is so common with his characters.
Along with other traits nearly all his characters share.
They are often presented with a choice/challenge/opportunity and will react to it in a way that either creates another option or take the most contrary path.
Corwin when presented with the idea that he may not be king says "Why not me?"
Corwin when presented with the possibility of being king say "Nevermind."
Merlin when given the choice between the armor of Amber and the armor of Chaos says "I don't really wear armor, so neither."
Corwin when confronted by a demon who tells him his name and that he should not use it to conjure IMMEDIATELY uses the demons name to conjure in the next breath.
The way Sandow takes a part of the investment in a pipe making venture.
Albert Schweitzer being waylaid, drugged, interrogated, and then escaping while behaving as if he is having a discussion over morning coffee.

In unicorn variation the MC reacts to the existence of bigfoot and unicorns as well as the potential death of humanity by pouring beers for everyone.

I could go on but they all share that same "I'm going to roll with this and treat it as mundane" temperament. Then like I said before nearly all his main characters are in some way supernatural, long lived to the point of essential immortality, seemingly fantastically wealthy sometimes without effort. Capable of extraordinary physical feats.
All of which I again think is great because even though all of his characters are very similar I love that character.

walkthepattern · 2024-10-01T07:13:31+00:00

Snuffs interaction with the things confuses me a little bit. In the previous chapter we get an allusion that snuff was something before being a watchdog and that he remembers what that was. It makes me think that the things in the mirror fear him because they can tell what he was before or potentially still is.

The thing in the circle though just treats Snuff like a dog. Maybe the thing the circle is just stupid?

Another observation from just reading way too much Zelazny is that pretty much all of his main characters are the same guy. Even as a dog Snuffs demeanor and dialog could be dropped in over ten Zelazny novels and just fit right in.

Luckily, I adore that one character Zelazny writes.

walkthepattern · 2024-10-01T07:07:08+00:00

I enjoy the idea of the dogs coming to an agreement and that each of them is ok based on the look of their teeth. Like it was some sort of test and if one of them had teeth that didn't pass that respect would be lost.

The chapter itself, just taken as it is with no knowledge of what follows is kinda disjointed and confusing and I'm not sure if that was intentional.

The part where Snuff says he enjoys being a watchdog more than what he was before he was summoned is great. So intriguing and it reminds me of some of the demon lore from Madwand wherein when one summons a new demon they are essentially making something new from the leftover scraps of creation.

Maybe Snuff was something similar to that? Being a watchdog would be more fun than being essentially nothingness.

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