Sign of the Unicorn (The Chronicles of Amber #3) by Roger Zelazny

(Book Review) 

Started: January 29, 2021
Finished: February 28, 2021

This is the 3rd book in the Chronicles of Amber series.  For my reviews of the previous books, see: Nine Princes in Amber and The Guns of Avalon.

...which once again raises the question: should I even be reviewing these books separately?  Or should I have waited until I finished the whole volume before I started weighing in with my thoughts.  (*1)
I'm not sure I really have to much to say about this book that I didn't way in my reviews of the previous two books.  Most of my comments about the writing style and world-building are going to be largely the same.  And yet, having already committed to reviewing these books separately, I'm going to wade in and attempt to give some thoughts just the same.  Spoilers follow:

I had finished book 2 The Guns of Avalon half a year ago on June 4.  I should probably have immediately continued straight on to Sign of the Unicorn at that time.  (There are a number of characters and motivations to keep track of in this series.)  But I got distracted by some other books. (*2)
Well, a few month's gap isn't the end of the world, right?  After all, when these books were originally published, there was a 3 year gap between The Guns of Avalon (1972) and Sign of the Unicorn (1975).  Compared to that, a few month's gap is nothing.
But still, on January 29, I decided I had better get back into this series.  

Once I got back into the book, I immediately remembered how much I enjoyed this series, and wondered why I had let myself stay away for 6 months.  The book starts right out with more intrigue and plotting among the princes and princesses of Amber, and I was immediately absorbed into the story again.

But then, one of the characters describes a journey to a mysterious world, and I remembered what a struggle it can sometimes be to follow what is going on in these books.  Not enough detail is given for me to fully visualize what is happening in these strange worlds, and the prose is at times deliberately opaque.
As I've mentioned in my previous - reviews, this is obviously a conscious stylistic choice made by Zelazny.  He can write clearly when he wants to, so it's not a lack of ability on the part of the author.  Rather, I think he is deliberately using a minimalist style because he wants to leave these worlds up to the reader's imagination.  (Your imagination really gets a workout when you're reading these books.)
But it's not only that.  He also seems to be toying with the reader at times.  He's writing deliberately deliberately ambiguous sentences that he knows are difficult to parse.   

But again, as I mentioned in my previous reviews, it’s not the case that the whole book is like that.  The straight-forward parts of the book are straight-forward and easy to follow.  It’s just that sections of the book--particularly when the characters are travelling to mysterious lands-- are written in a confusing way.

But I should also admit that some of my frustrations with these sections may be due to my carelessness as a reader.  Sometimes my attention can wander a bit when I’m reading, and this is dangerous with Zelazny.  

I think over my years of reading, I’ve been habituated to kind of tune out a bit when an author is describing the scenery.  With another author, there can be a lot of repetitive and superfluous detail about the setting which really doesn’t affect the plot.  But with Zelazny, this kind of habit is dangerous.  You’ve really got to read every sentence carefully, because when Zelazny is describing a mysterious new place, each sentence contains important detail, and none of it is repeated if you miss it the first time.

There were a couple sections of this book (when Random travels to the dark tower, and when Corwin heads up to Tir-na Nog'th), that really confused me the first time I read them, but for both of these sections, I went back and read them slowly and carefully, and found that I understood them much more the second time around.

I also found it very useful to read Wikipedia’s plot summary of this book after I had finished it, because Wikipedia gave a very clear summary of what had happened.  Wikipedia’s summary also alerted me to a couple of details I had missed. (*3)

The fight scenes also can be confusing (*4).  But in my opinion, this isn't a problem unique to Zelazny.  I often find fight scenes in novels confusing.  (Maybe it's just me?)  I think it's usually difficult for authors to convey in words all the twisting and turning and swinging that the bodies are doing.  At any rate, it didn't interfere with my enjoyment of the book too much.  I did my best to follow the fight scenes, but if you can't visualize every blow, it's doesn't interfere with your comprehension of the broader plot.  it's still clear who won at the end of the fight.

So sections of this book were a struggle for me.  As with the previous two books.  But, in spite of getting slightly confused by the prose style at times, I absolutely loved this book.

And I think at this point, it’s time to admit that I’m completely hooked on this series.  (The first couple books I was still getting into the series.  But now I’m completely invested .)

The imaginative settings in this series has always been the high point, and it’s true for this book as well.  

There’s the mysterious dark tower, which is on some sort of world where the giant rocks are constantly moving across the ground in some sort of orbiting pattern, and which guarded by a giant transparent snake.

Or there’s the ghostly kingdom in the sky, which is a mirror image of the Amber on the ground, and which can only be accessed by climbing up the moonlight staircase at night.  (In book one, we already learned there was a mirror image of Amber under the sea.  Now we learn there’s another one hidden up in the sky.)

It’s all as bizarre as it sounds, but in a fascinating way. 

Also, as I get further along in this series, I’m becoming more and more interested in the plot.  By this point in the series, a lot of the mysterious plot points that had only been vaguely hinted at in the first two books are now becoming more developed.  (Not completely developed yet--there’s still a lot of mystery surrounding everything--but we’re at least starting to get a fuller picture of what is going on.)  And a lot of the pieces are beginning to snap together. (*5)

And then, there’s the intrigue.  The book starts out with a murder mystery.  One of the princes of Amber has been murdered.  But who did it?  Everyone has a motive.

This mystery simmers throughout the whole book, as other mysteries are added on top of it.  (Who imprisoned Brand?  Who stabbed Brand after he was free?)  

In my first review , I mentioned that I had read somewhere on the Internet that this series has been described as a combination of fantasy and hard-boiled detective novels.  And that’s very true of this book.  There are whole chapters in which the main characters are in a sitting room with a roaring fireplace, drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, and trading theories about which one of them is the murderer and why. 

So, yeah, I'm really loving this series.  I'll definitely be continuing on with the next book.

Footnotes (docs, pub):
(*1) regarding the whole volume: Although these books were originally published separately back in the 1970s, the volume I have is The Fantasy Masterworks edition, which contains the first 5 books in one volume.  And, searching on the Internet, it's apparent many fans of the series feel that the first 5 books should be regarded as one large book since it's all one continuous story.  (I'm not even sure, do they even publish these book separately now?)

(*2) On getting distracted by other books: specifically...
 Age of Myth by Michael J. Sullivan August 17, 2020
Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman September 18, 2020
Tales of Troy and Greece by Andrew Lang November 8, 2020
Frozen (Heart of Dread #1) by Melissa de la Cruz and Michael Johnston December 1, 2020
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien December 12, 2020 
(plus also finishing up Don Quixote and Chomsky's Universal Grammar)
...the other consideration was that both Age of Myth and Frozen were slimmer volumes that were easier to travel with on holiday.  Because I have The Fantasy Masterworks edition of The Chronicles of Amber, it's a thicker volume.

 (*3) On Wikipedia's plot summary alerting me to details I had missed:
For example, from the Wikipedia plot summary, one line reads:

During the conversation, Brand displays pyrokinetic abilities.

I had completely missed this, but I went back and re-read that section and, sure enough, it was in there.  As far as I could tell, it was only one sentence.  From page 460*: 

His eyes burned strangely as he took another cigarette into his hands and it lit of its own accord.

It was really easy to miss that sentence, because it was just one line of description in a paragraph in which Brand was giving out important details about the plot.  I was so focused on the dialogue that I must have skipped over the description.  But that just goes to show, you have to read Zelazny very carefully.
Actually while I'm on the subject, here is another plot point I didn't fully understand until I read Wikipedia's summary of it. Wikipedia's summary reads: 

Gérard fights Corwin, and later threatens him physically while all of the siblings are watching through trumps and is told that if he turns out to be responsible for Caine's death, Gérard will kill him, and that if Gérard is killed, the siblings will know Corwin did it. Corwin points out that if someone wants to kill Corwin and free themselves from suspicion, they now only have to kill Gérard. Gérard, angered, accuses him of trying to complicate matters. 

In the novel itself, that same passage reads:

"...Know also that my life is insured, Corwin, for it is linked now to your own."
"What do you mean?"
"All of the others are with us at this moment, via my Trump, watching, listening. You cannot arrange my removal now without revealing your intentions to the entire family.  That way, if I die forsworn, my promise can still be kept."
"I get the point," I said. "And if someone kills you? They remove me, also. That leaves Julian, Benedict, Random, and the girls to man the barricades.  Better and better--for whoever it is..." (p.398) 

...again, a careful reading of the passage from the novel does make the meaning clear, but on my first reading, it confused me slightly, and it wasn't until I read the Wikipedia summary that it clicked.

* footnote to the footnote: all page numbers are from the Fantasy Masterworks Edition, which combine all 5 novels into one volume, and therefore the page numbers are a bit high.  The original Sign of the Unicorn is only 186 pages long.

(*4) On the fighting:  I suppose the fair thing to do is to quote a few paragraphs from one of the fights, and people can make up their own mind: 

I brushed his hand away a couple of times as he stepped up his  movements, pressing nearer to me with every pace. Finally I took a chance, ducked and swung. I landed a fast, hard left just a little above his middle. It would have broken a stout board or ruptured the insides of a lesser mortal. Unfortunately, time had not softened Gerard. I heard him grunt, but he blocked my right, got his right hand under my left arm, and caught my shoulder from behind.
I closed with him fast then, anticipating a shoulder lock I might not be able to break; and, turning, driving forward, catching his left shoulder in a similar fashion, I hooked my right leg behind his knee and was able to cast him backward to the ground.
He maintained his grip, though, and I came down atop him. I released my own hold and was able to drive my right elbow into his left side as we hit. The angle was not ideal and his left hand went up and across, reaching to grasp his right somewhere behind my head. I was able to duck out of it, but he still had my arm. For a moment I had a clear shot at his groin with my right, but I restrained myself. It is not that I have any qualms about hitting a man below his belt. I knew that if I did it to Gerard just then his reflexes would probably cause him to break my shoulder. Instead, scraping my forearm on the gravel, I managed to twist my left arm up behind his head, while at the same time sliding my right arm between his legs and catching him about the left thigh. I rolled back as I did this, attempting to straighten my legs as soon as my feet were beneath me. I wanted to raise him off the ground and slam him down again, driving my shoulder into his middle for good measure.
But Gerard scissored his legs and rolled to the left, forcing me to somersault across his body. I let go my hold on his head and pulled my left arm free as I went over. I scrambled clockwise then, dragging my right arm away and going for a toehold.

...et cetera.  It goes on for a couple more paragraphs, but you get the idea.
I don't believe I mentioned this in my review of the previous two novels, but this was also an issue in the previous two books as well. 

(*5) On the plot coming together: I had mentioned in my review of book 2 - Steve Donoghue’s skepticism that all of this series had been planned out from the beginning.  But the way a lot of the initial mysteries are now gradually being revealed certainly makes one think that much of this series had been planned out from the beginning.  

(The fate of Brand, Oberon, Dworkin, and other things, which had only been vaguely hinted at in the earlier novels, are now becoming more and more important to the plot.  Zelazny has done an excellent job of keeping these things vague and mysterious in the earlier novels, and then only gradually revealing their importance.)

On the other hand… I don’t know, at times it does seem like the impact or importance of some events is beginning to change retrospectively as we learn more about the rules of this world.  In the first book, Random shows up being chased by creatures from shadow.  Nobody bothers to inquire too much about it at the time, but now in this book we learn that creatures from shadow are not supposed to be able to give chase across worlds.  Why wasn’t more made of that in the previous books?  

Actually there are plausible explanations as to why no one asked about it.  Corwin’s memory wasn’t fully restored.  They didn’t have time to talk about it. etc.  Still, you do have to wonder... was this something that Zelazny had always planned out all along, or have the rules of who can travel through shadow become more nuanced as he wrote these books?  

The other thing which seems to be much more developed in this book is the Jewel of Judgement, which is used in the first book simply to control the weather, but becomes a lot more complicated in this book.

Video Review (Playlist HERE)
Video Review HERE and embedded below:

Link of the Day
Noam Chomsky: Language and Other Cognitive Processes