From: mfterman@phoenix.Princeton.EDU (Mutant for Hire)
Subject: Re: Zelazny/Amber (Spoilers)
Originator: news@ernie.Princeton.EDU
Organization: Princeton University
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1992 20:02:53 GMT

Spoilers ahead.

In article <4062@ucsbcsl.ucsb.edu> rible@vorpal.ucsb.edu (Max Rible) writes:
>Jeff Tang writes
>> 1.  How will the jewel for an eye effect Coral?
>She said it was like being in a continuous Trump contact. She'll probably
>first discover something interesting about perception, then usage...

Question is, how much control does she have over it and vice versa. When
Merlin probed the thing, she started denying him higher initiation, but
doesn't remember the experience. Also remember that he is an initate of
the Jewel as is Ghostwheel, which makes me wonder what this initiation is.

>> 3.  What about Delwin? He must be fairly powerful to have so many spikards
>> at his beck and call.
>We know definitely that Delwin has one of this own and had one to give
>to Merlin; there was also the one left as a trap that belonged to 
>agents of Chaos (who could've been led to it by the Logrus). There's
>still a bunch of spikards unaccounted for.

Well, there were nine of the things. (plus the three the elves have...
whoops, wrong series) Merlin has two, Delwin has one. Bleys may or may
not have one, it depends on how powerful his sword is. Remember that
Brand didn't have a spikard. The fact that everyone survived the last
Corwin book is testamony to that, as Merlin pointed out. Where the other
six spikards are, who knows. I want one, that's for sure.

>> 4.  Is Grayswandir a spikard? And did it predate the pattern?
>No, and no. Grayswandir's not incredibly powerful: damn good blade, and
>probably (due to the segment of the Pattern on it) invariant under
>Shadow-transformation (unlike clothing and so on). I recall that Bleys
>has one of these, too (this is noted in the first series).

Remember that when Merlin held Greyswandir, he felt a nexus of forces
passing through him. This indicates that the blade taps into some power
sources or has some strange abilities that Corwin, not being a magician,
can't tap into the way Bleys and Brand could. Or maybe not. But it is
odd that Werewindle never appeared in the original series. Or maybe it
did, and it was just never singled out as anything special other than
Brand's sword.

>> 8.  Is Jurt really all that chummy with merlin now, or is he just laying
>> low?
>Jurt seems to have figured out that the power games being played at
>the moment are a lot bigger than his, and he wants to stay with who
>he perceives to be the winning side. (He sees Merlin as the winning
>side because of all the trouble he's had affecting him...)

When Jurt becomes aware of what Mandor and Dara tried to do to Merlin,
he's going to be damn glad that he's not the candidate for the throne.
He's becoming aware that he's probably not up to snuff for the job, and
whoever gets the job is going to be at the focus of problems he really
doesn't want to face. Jurt is scared of the powers that are moving
through the universe, and Merlin is his best ally right now.

Of course, when this is all over, they're probably going to go back to
being enemies, or at least neutrals. Jurt probably wants to keep Julia
away from Merlin. Coral may feel the same way. Of course, when is Merlin
going to work out that he's making out with his aunt and not a cousin?

>> 10.  Now that Luke done and spilled blood on the pattern, is Dworkin all
>> bonkers again?
>Dworkin is probably not happy about this. Nor is anyone *else* in
>Amber, given the tendency of doing that to create shadow storms.
>I thought that was just a bit cheesy, actually; I'm surprised the
>Pattern couldn't manifest a large quantity of thick cotton on the
>ground under Luke's hand. For that matter, I was surprised they
>had to make any specifications of drinks: the Pattern should've
>been able to query their recordings and offer just what they
>wanted.

Well, reaction speed is a problem. Also manifesting stuff on the
Pattern itself may be a problem. The Pattern could have queried the
recordings, but the recordings are an older version of the two and
besides, what I want to drink varies from time to time.

Also, it didn't create storms so much as allowed the Black Road
to extend all the way over to the Kolvir. Of course, now we see
that black roads are how Chaos people travel through Shadow, which
is interesting.

>11.  What's Merlin going to do with his second spikard? Removing the
>spell on it shouldn't be too difficult, then he can either keep it
>around as a second power source (one spikard gross, two spikards
>ubergross?), or hand it to a friend.

Hey, I'd abdicate any claim to the throne, give the spikard to Jurt,
which places a dangerous killer under the control of Mandor and Dara,
and let him become King of Chaos. Its still one of the possible endings
I see for the series.

13. Is Luke/Rinaldo still alive? His trump went black. If I just spilled
blood on the Pattern, I'd be expecting a fast lightning bolt. Of course,
Brand did it and got out alive, but Brand could also trump out at the
speed of thought.

-- 
  Martin Terman, Mutant for Hire, Mad Scientist, Priest of Shub-Internet
mfterman@phoenix.princeton.edu mfterman@pucc.bitnet terman@pupgga.princeton.edu
The above text is disclaimer challenged, flaming it isn't politically correct
      "I must be making progress, she's biting my leg." - Martin Terman
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