As a junior high school kid in the 1970s, my first introduction to fantasy adventure fiction was limited to what I could find in the library or the bookstore – preferably the used bookstore, because I wasn’t exactly rolling in cash. I still remember jotting down a raft of titles from the Dungeon Master’s Guide’s now famous Appendix N and making the long trek on my bicycle to search out grand adventure. Alas, most books from that list weren’t on the any of the shelves in my town, and having no experience with interlibrary loan, I was pretty much out of luck. Except… the used bookstore had Leiber’s Swords Against Death (for my money the best of all Lankhmar collections) and the library had Roger Zelazny’s The Chronicles of Amber.

People in sword-and-sorcery circles keep finding their way to Leiber, but I don’t see Zelazny getting discussed much anymore. In some small part that’s probably because The Chronicles of Amber doesn’t meet the strictest definition of a sword-and-sorcery tale. But anyone hesitating to try the series because of a pedantic view of the genre’s borders is missing out, because the original five books narrated by Corwin (starting with Nine Princes of Amber and ending with The Courts of Chaos) are some of the finest heroic fantasy fiction ever put to paper. They deservedly sit near the very top of my favorite fantasy works.

You want bold vivid action, wild and sometimes even “gonzo” world building, fast-paced adventure, and compelling characters? Amber delivers in spades. The first series* opens in what was then modern times as a man wakes up from a drug-induced coma in a private hospital. He’s not sure why he’s there, or even who he is, but he’s pretty sure he doesn’t want the orderly to put him back under. It’s a gripper of a start, even if it seems pretty far from fantasy, let alone sword-and-sorcery. First time readers better hang onto their hats, though, because things get stranger and stranger very fast, and the pace rarely flags.

One of the things I love about genre predecessors like Howard and Leiber and even the lesser known Kuttner is that they were making up the conventions as they went. A modern reader can be very surprised by the magic that turns up in a Conan story, or the supernatural menace and mind-bending cosmic journeys that take place in Leiber and Kuttner. The kind of limits we now expect, probably due in part to classifications imposed by fantasy game books, just weren’t found in this foundational fiction. Zelazny, too, delivers the unexpected again and again, for he wasn’t the least bit worried about genre – story came first. In one moment Corwin might be dueling his way down an underwater staircase, in another he might be seeking the keys to reality by walking the ancient pattern at the center of creation, or smuggling special gunpowder into a realm where guns have never worked so he can blast his way to the throne backed by machine guns.

Corwin himself is a lover, a poet, and a nearly immortal warrior possessed of superhuman strength, endurance, and astonishing blade skills – although he’s not even the best bladesman in the epic, because he has several older brothers, the eldest of whom has spent untold lifetimes mastering the art of war.  Unlike many in his large family Corwin possesses a curious streak of honor that keeps him from outright evil — mostly. It’s fascinating to watch him find his way through the intrigues he wakens to, and you find yourself rooting for him even when you probably shouldn't.

Once Corwin regains his name and his identity, he learns Earth is one of countless realities cast like shadows from the world of Amber, a realm ruled by his far-flung family. Corwin vows to take the throne from his brother and seek revenge from the siblings who left him exiled on Earth, bereft of identity. But nothing in Amber is really what it seems, even the plot, which quickly develops into something far more complex and involved than a revenge drama. Secrets lie hidden within other secrets, enemies masquerade as allies, and always, somewhere, other forces are plotting.

Powered alternately by gumshoe prose and lively poetic turns of phrase, the story gallops forward with speed and fury most authors can’t hope to touch. And in case you’re worried about a massive undertaking, remember that a five book series from the ‘70s is far shorter than a modern five book series. Zelazny tells the entire saga in about the same number of words as the first book of a modern fantasy doorstop saga.

Zelazny’s great works don’t stop with Amber. Fellow sword-and-sorcery aficionados ought at least to try out his sequence of short stories starring Dilvish the Damned (collected in a book of the same title). Others of his best are different in feel. Some of my friends prefer the award winning Lord of Light above all others and share my affection for both Jack of Shadows and A Night in the Lonesome October. But me, ah, Amber holds a special place in my heart. Just as I did all those years ago when I first found the book, a part of me still wishes that I was actually a Prince of Amber so that I could hellride through leagues of Shadow and return to the peerless city of my birth, nestled in the arms of Mount Kolvir.

If you’ve never traveled there yourself, you’re long overdue.

* Alas, I’ve never been a fan of the second series, narrated by Corwin’s son, and even most Amber fans find it missing some of the magic of the original.

Howard Andrew Jones lives in a lonely tower by the Sea of Monsters with a wicked and beautiful enchantress. He’s the author of the Ring-Sworn heroic fantasy trilogy from St. Martin’s, starting with For the Killing of Kings, the critically acclaimed Arabian historical fantasy series starring Dabir and Asim (beginning with The Desert of Souls) and four Pathfinder novels. As Managing Editor of the print magazine Tales From the Magician’s Skull, he’s proud to be next to last on the Skull’s Immolation List.

When he’s not hunched over his laptop mumbling about flashing swords and doom-haunted towers you might find him lurking at www.howardandrewjones.com, where he blogs about writing craft, gaming, fantasy and adventure fiction, and assorted nerdery. Now and then he’s on FB at howard.andrew.jones.1, and he occasionally tweets @howardandrewjon.