The Chronicles of Bamber: Intro and Index

[goodgulf]

The Chronicles of Bamber: Intro and Index

This introduction exists because an early proofreader pointed out that some people would find some of the elements of the story confusing. Possibly very confusing. Hopefully it will be less confusing with this introduction. Then again, maybe not.

So where was I? Oh yes, the introduction.

Many years ago there lived a wondrous wordsmith by the name of Roger Zelazny. Among his many works were the Chronicles of Amber. Published between 1970 and 1991, all ten books were eventually collected into The Great Book of Amber. If you haven't read those books, then I would strongly urge you to go out and read them.

Now.

Seriously, by reading this introduction you'll encounter several spoilers for the series - especially the first book where the main character starts off with amnesia and can't remember anything about Amber. And it's not like they are long books; they average about 200 pages each.

Littered through these great books are countless allusions and references that you might (or might not) pick up. The books them have either been adapted to or inspired:
comics,
computer games,
role playing games,
and the movie options have been looked at by several studios.


But what is Amber? To quote from the master's work:

"Amber was the greatest city which had ever existed or ever would exist. Amber had always been and always would be, and every other city, everywhere every other city that existed was but a reflection of a shadow of some phase of Amber. Amber, Amber, Amber . . . I remember thee. I shall never forget thee again."


To put it more simply, Amber is the one truly real thing in the cosmos. Every other world is a pale reflection of the glories of Amber - and by that I mean our world as well (which isn't as real as we like to think it is). There are a near infinite number of worlds and all of them are Shadows of Amber. Some are only slightly different from the other Shadows that are close to them and others are very different. For example, if you leave our world and walk to Amber you might pass through a world where giant reptiles still roam and the Colonel's restaurants serve up Kentucky Fried Lizard Parts (yes, that was briefly in the books). Or you could go to a world where Nixon won in 1960 and JFK became a forgotten politician.


The royal family of Amber can travel the near infinite worlds, going everywhere and anywhere they want to go. If one of them wants to go to a world where he'll be accepted as the king then he does; this happens in the books. If he wants to go to a world where the inhabitants worship him as a god then he does; this happens in the books. If he wants to go to a world where every woman dreams of being spanked then... Okay, that last one wasn't in the books but it's a world I could easily picture walking to that world if I had the power to do so.


The royal family of Amber gains its powers by walking the Pattern, which is the ultimate artefact of Order in the cosmos. They also use things called Trumps - which look like tarot decks with various people and places drawn on the Trump cards. Using a Trump allows for instant transport to and from anywhere in the cosmos as long as the person drawn on the Trump will let you go through it to join him; they also act like cosmic cell phones - allowing communication with the people drawn on them.


Near the centre of things the reflections are clearer and some Shadows of Amber have lesser versions of the Pattern (usually called Broken Patterns) which can be used to gain a lesser version of that world walking power.


There is a huge amount of Amber FanFic out there. Alas, most of it doesn't have any spanking in it so I invented a Shadow of Amber called Bamber and used it as a base for these stories. Going book by book I tried to capture the feel of the first five novels (which don't have spanking in them).


The posts associated with Bamber are:

Bamber Intro and Index, which has no counterpart in the series because Zelazny (being a master wordsmith) didn't need one. It can be found at:http://www.spanko.net/spanking_forums/v ... ?f=3&t=114

Nine Princes in Amber became Nine Princesses in Bamber, serving as an introduction to the world and its plots and schemes. This story can be found at:http://www.spanko.net/spanking_forums/v ... ?f=3&t=115

The Guns of Avalon became The Paddles of Spankland, where the plot progresses and some new weapons are developed... And the hero falls for a woman named Lorraine (who is only briefly in the series). It can be found at:http://www.spanko.net/spanking_forums/v ... ?f=3&t=116

Sign of the Unicorn became Sign of the Royal Stag, where various things that were set in motion in the first two stories come to ahead. This story can be found at:http://www.spanko.net/spanking_forums/v ... ?f=3&t=117

The Hand of Oberon became The Hand of Titania, where it is revealed that a great work needs to be done (okay, this adaptation loses some of that theme). This story can be found at:http://www.spanko.net/spanking_forums/v ... ?f=3&t=118

The Courts of Chaos became The Chambers of Artwork, where various epic things happen and we learn just who the narrator has been telling his story to. This story can be found at:http://www.spanko.net/spanking_forums/v ... ?f=3&t=215


And a general note:

This series has been written as stand alone stories rather than chapters. In theory you can start anyway and it should make some sense which means that there is some repetition and summarising at the start of each story. I did this mainly because that's how the books were written.

Yes, there are inconsistencies in my adaptation - but they were inspired by the inconsistencies in the books themselves. I really doubt that Zelazny had the entire series planned out so some parts of it contradict other parts. One way of explaining this (the way embraced by the Amber: the Diceless Role Playing Game) is that the narrator is either lying or glossing over unflattering things. Another way is to assume that the storyteller doesn't have a perfect memory. A third way is just assume that in a long story there will be inconsistencies.

Is this really fanfic, borrowing the setting but not the characters? I don't know but I'm bowing to the enviable and calling it fanfic. As such I'm positive it's in the top 10% of that genre, mainly because doesn't contain any scenes of the heroes (and villains) of the main series falling in love with Mary Sue character that's based off the author. I'm not saying that all fanfic is awful, just that 90% of it seems to be variations of the "Captain Kirk/Spiderman/The Vampire Lestat/whoever would love hanging out with me" theme.


To summarise:
Walking the Pattern (or a Broken Pattern) allows you to walk through an infinite number of worlds (called Shadows), Trumps allow instant transportation and communication, and lesser magic exists. A member of the royal family can go to any world that he can picture. That basically sums up the setting.


And if these go over well then I might try to tackle the next five books (the Merlin Cycle), but if I had a plot outline for that series then I'd have already started it.

Goodgulf

[goodgulf]

Since someone asked privately...

If you have read the Amber books, the Chronicles of Bamber are set after the Patternfall war. That is, after the first series of five novels.

So why don't the people in Bamber know much about the outcome of that war (who is now on the throne and so on)? Well, they don't have reliable lines of communication to Amber. Beyond that the people of Bamber don't like thinking about how they are merely pale reflections of the Royal Family of Amber. As for people from Amber dropping by, well I can't see the princes of Amber wanting to meet female versions of themselves.

As a result the people in Bamber don't know all the facts about Amber. Basically they know all they common things (i.e. they know how the historic setting of Amber). When it comes to things changing in Amber the people in Bamber don't really have accurate sources of information and they are afraid of what they hear. Cora has heard rumours about Corwin being blinded and now fears for her eyes while everyone is looking at Brenda and wondering if she's going to do what they've heard about Brad doing. At one point the narrator says something about hearing rumours about the courts of chaos but not really believing that they exist.

In short they are from an isolated backwater and, while it is close to Amber, no one in Amber really care about them.

They are also powered down, pale reflections of Amber's royal family. If you've seen the role playing game they would start at Chaos rank for their stats and would range from between 30 and 60 points of "stuff". If you haven't, well, in the books Flora, Brad, and Bleys have mastered most of the mystic arts but in this story Frank only knows how to paint trumps and while Brenda has most of Brad's mystic knowledge she doesn't know how to make trumps (meaning she can't do
the living trump stuff that Brad was able to do).

Goodgulf
(who hopes to be able to post unmoderated soon)

[kimosabi]

I really enjoyed reading the ones that were there. Have you written the 5th one, and if so where i it?, because I can't wait to read that one as well.

[goodgulf]

It's almost done. Basically I needed to break from it to get that Christmas story done, but I wanted to post the first parts while people still remembered Katy Perry's video California Gurls. Her pose in that video was partly the inspiration for the Chronicles of Bamber (I can't be the only one who saw it and wanted the pink fluff to be the colour of her bottom). For those who haven't seen it, you can find it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F57P9C4SAW4 .

Now that the Christmas stories have been posted I'll try to get the fifth part out as soon as possible.

Goodgulf