The Guns of Avalon

Infobox Book |
name = The Guns of Avalon
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Dust-jacket illustration from the first edition
author = Roger Zelazny
cover_artist = Emanuel Schongut
country = United States
language = English
series = The Chronicles of Amber
subject =
genre = Fantasy novel
publisher = Doubleday
release_date = 1972
media_type = Print (Hardcover)
pages = 180 pp
isbn = ISBN 0385085060
preceded_by = Nine Princes in Amber
followed_by = Sign of the Unicorn

"The Guns of Avalon" is the second book in the Chronicles of Amber series by Roger Zelazny. The book continues straight from the previous volume, "Nine Princes in Amber", but soon includes a recap.

Plot introduction

etting

Corwin has escaped the dungeons of Amber, where he was imprisoned by his hated brother Eric, who has seized the throne. All of Corwin's siblings believe that guns can never be brought to the medieval world of Amber, as all gunpowders seem inert there. But Corwin has secret knowledge: in the shadow world of Avalon, where he once ruled, there exists a jeweler's rouge that will function as gunpowder in Amber. Corwin plans to raise a legion of shadow soldiers, and arm them with automatic rifles from the shadow world Earth.

Plot summary

Corwin bids farewell to the "Butterfly", the boat which bore him away from Amber, and sets out through the endless worlds of shadow in search of Avalon, his former home and the true source of our Earthly Arthurian legends. As Corwin nears Avalon, he passes through a land called Lorraine. As it is metaphysically near to Avalon, some aspects of it are similar - It is a medieval kingdom, once ruled by a shadow version of Corwin, and more recently by a king named Uther. Corwin comes across a wounded man, whom he recognizes as a parallel version of Lance (Lancelot), a knight of Avalon. Corwin carries Lance back to a nearby fortress, the Keep of Ganelon. Along the way, Corwin slays two giant "hellcats"—feline demons who name him the "opener", confirming his fears that he is responsible for the corruption of the vale of Garnath.

Corwin meets with Ganelon, whom he also knows, though Ganelon does not recognize him. Ganelon had once been Corwin's right-hand man in Avalon, until Ganelon betrayed him (see Ganelon the Traitor, of medieval literature), for which crime Corwin banished him into an unfamiliar shadow—this one, apparently—and left him to die. But Ganelon did not die, and, as he tells Corwin, he rose from leading an outlaw band to become leader of all the forces of Lorraine fighting against a strange evil: a dark circle of toadstools from which demonic creatures and soulless men emerge, and which is constantly expanding. Since Corwin suspects that this unnatural disturbance is somehow tied up with the blood curse he pronounced against Amber (at the end of the previous volume), and agrees to stay and aid the soldiers of Lorraine.

While in Lorraine, training soldiers and recuperating from his imprisonment, Corwin meets a local camp follower, also named Lorraine. He invites her back to his tower chamber. She is curious about his apparently supernatural strength, and makes him promise to trounce Melkin, her abusive boyfriend. During their conversation, Corwin senses that someone is trying to speak to him by means of the trumps—magical tarot cards. He blocks the attempt. Lorraine, who knows a bit of witchcraft, describes seeing a vision of a man whom Corwin recognizes as his father. She also reveals that her daughter—whom she had conceived by witchcraft—was the first person to die in the dark circle. Soon, a winged demon from the circle arrives at the window to challenge Corwin, but Corwin is able to dispatch it, using his silver sword, Grayswandir.

Corwin, Ganelon, and Lance lead an army against the dark circle. On the top floor of a tower, Corwin slays the enemy leader, a goat-headed creature. The enemy is revealed to come from the Courts of Chaos, a place far, far from Amber, beyond where the shadows cease to follow ordinary rules of reality. Though he is a hero, the men now fear Corwin, having learned that he is somehow the same as the shadow Corwin that once ruled Lorraine; that shadow Corwin is remembered as a demonic tyrant. Lorraine runs off with Melkin. Corwin pursues them, only to find that Melkin has murdered and robbed Lorraine. Corwin kills Melkin in revenge.

Ganelon joins Corwin, and together they journey on toward Avalon. They encounter a young deserter, who tells them that the forces of Avalon, led by a man known as the Protector, have recently been battling a horde of demonic, cave-dwelling hellmaids—a force of evil somehow linked to the dark circle in Lorraine. Corwin and Ganelon journey on and meet the Protector, who turns out to be Corwin's long-lost brother Benedict, the most formidable swordsman and military strategist anywhere. Benedict's forces have defeated the hellmaids, but he has lost his arm in the battle. Benedict greets Corwin cordially, but refuses to support his claim to the throne. Benedict also reveals that their father, King Oberon, did not abdicate, as Corwin had believed, but simply vanished.

Benedict sends Corwin and Ganelon on to his country house. There, Corwin meets a young woman named Dara, who claims to be Benedict's great-granddaughter. She is anxious to learn more about the Pattern of Amber, a glowing design traced on the floor in the basement of Castle Amber. Walking the Pattern gives the royalty of Amber the ability to walk in shadow. Corwin trades information with her, and learns that Benedict has been visited there by brothers Julian, Gérard, and Brand. In Avalon, Corwin arranges to purchase vast quantities of jeweler's rouge, then journeys through shadow to a parallel Earth, where he harvests diamonds from an African coast that has never seen human habitation, in order to pay for everything. When he returns to Benedict's house, he encounters Ganelon, who tells him that several fresh human bodies are buried in the garden. Corwin is reluctant to get involved. Later, Dara finds him, and they become lovers.

Corwin sets off into shadow with a wagon full of jeweler's rouge. He and Ganelon notice a strange phenomenon: a black road, similar to the dark circle in Lorraine, cuts through shadow, apparently stretching from Amber to Chaos. The grass along the black road encircles the ankles of Ganelon, and Corwin has to free him. Corwin is able to destroy a section of the black road by focusing his mind on the Pattern of Amber. Then Corwin receives a trump contact, which he assumes to be from Benedict. Corwin figures that Benedict is angry, having just discovered either that Corwin has been using Avalon to arm himself for an attempt on the throne (thus compromising Benedict's neutrality) or that he has slept with Dara. Corwin tries to escape further into shadow, but Benedict catches him. Benedict accuses Corwin of being a murderer, which flabbergasts Corwin, but Benedict is in no mood to listen, and they duel. Corwin is able to survive only by tricking Benedict into moving into a patch of the strange grass. Once Benedict is restrained, Corwin is able to knock him unconscious, and summon Gérard via trump to care for him.

Corwin journeys to Earth, and arranges to have an assembly line set up to produce the special ammunition he needs to assault Amber. While that is happening, he visits his old house in New York, where he finds a message to him from Eric, pleading for peace. Corwin rejects this. He recruits his army, strange red creatures from a shadow where he is worshiped as a god, and trains them in the use of firearms. Then he leads them through shadow to attack Amber. However, upon reaching Amber, Corwin discovers that his brothers are engaged in a desperate battle against wyvern riders from the Courts of Chaos. Corwin also finds Dara wandering about the battlefield, and orders some men to guard her. After assisting in the battle and dispatching the threat, he moves to confront Eric, who has been wounded during the battle. Before he dies, Eric passes the Jewel of Judgement to Corwin and pronounces his death curse on the enemies of Amber. Dara, having disposed of her guards, rides past Corwin on horseback, toward Amber. Corwin, suddenly apprehensive, contacts his brother Random via trump, and has Random teleport him into Amber. They hurry down to the chamber of the Pattern, to find that Dara is already walking it. As she walks, she shifts into all manner of strange and grotesque shapes. Finally, she completes the pattern. She announces to Corwin that "Amber will be destroyed," and then vanishes.

Trivia

* Dara appears as one of the illustrated characters in the 1996 collection Barlowe's Guide to Fantasy
* Ganelon is the name of the main character in "The Dark World" by Henry Kuttner—one of the chronicles' main inspirations
* Roger Zelazny appears in a cameo in this book as "Roger," the cadaverous, grinning, pipe-smoking guard in Amber's dungeon who is writing a "philosophical romance shot through with elements of horror and morbidity."
* Some of the imagery in the book is inspired by Tarot art. For example, when Ganelon ties the golden-haired youth by one ankle to a tree branch, this mimics the Tarot card "The Hanged Man." The wheel that Corwin dreams about is inspired by the Tarot card "Wheel of Fortune."
* The poem about Avalon (that Corwin quotes to Ganelon) alludes to both Psalm 137 ("By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion") as well as to a classic nursery rhyme ("How many miles to Babylon? Threescore miles and ten").

Other adaptations

A three part comic adaptation was done by Terry Bisson in 1996. [http://zelazny.corrupt.net/ambcomics.html] [http://www.iblist.com/author5800.htm]

References

*cite book | last=Levack | first=Daniel J. H. | title=Amber Dreams: A Roger Zelazny Bibliography | location=San Francisco | publisher=Underwood/Miller | pages=39-41 | date=1983 | isbn=0-934438-39-0