From: rible@vorpal.ucsb.edu (Max Rible)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Zelazny/Amber (Spoilers)
Date: 7 Apr 92 19:04:47 GMT

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...

> 2.  How much danger is she in now that she posseses the most sought after
> item anywhere?
Quite a bit. Fortunately, she's hanging out next to the Corwin Pattern
(which has shadows accessible from it that are *not* accessible as a
portion of the standard Amber/Chaos continuum!), has Corwin on hand
with Grayswandir to help out, plus Jurt, plus Luke's Pattern-ghost,
and probably even Ghostwheel (who is, by now, a living spikard with
the ability to tap the Pattern *and* Logrus for power).

> 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.

> 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).

> 5.  Is Werewindle also a spikard?
No. Just another extremely good blade... Zelazny gave some hints that
it seemed to have power, but I think it's nothing particularly flashy.

> 6.  How will mandor and dara try and manipulate Merlin now?
By begging and pleading?

> 7.  How will Random like having a nephew who's the King of Chaos?
A lot better than having a mortal enemy on the throne, I'll bet, but
he'll still not be particularly pleased...

> 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...)

> 9.  Just how does Ghostwheel like being a god.
I think Ghostwheel's given up on the godhood notion, and is quite
happy exploring the aspects of sentience, emotion, and so on, while
probably maintaining a private Shadow or three where he wanders
around blasting things at random and cackling maniacally. That's
what *I'd* do...

> 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.

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.

12.  Sand and Delwin appear to be involved, as does Bleys.  What
intrigues will we see in the future? What are they eventually
going to figure out needs doing to balance out two Patterns
and one Logrus? (My guess is that Merlin creates a second 
Logrus to make Shadow into a quadrupole...)

Max