Trumps of Doom

I love being surprised by books, as is probably evident by how many of my reviews start out with "I was surprised by this book". This is the first book of the second set of five in the Amber Chronicles, in other words, the sixth in the series. These latter five, which follow Merlin of Amber, are downplayed by fans as being not as good as the first five, which follow his father Corwin. I really liked it, however. It plops you right into action and over the course of the book, catches you up on who Merlin is, what may or may not have happened to his father, reintroduces his aunts and uncles, and works you into Amber and its Shadows. There's some info dumping, but I rather liked it, giving me a chance to remember what the Amber universe is about, having read the first five about six months ago. With all the books I read, I don't remember the details of most of them, so this is a good thing. This book won the Locus Fantasy Award in 1986.

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