Good-bye and hello, as always.

So. Oberon is back. Things are still going wrong. The Pattern is breaking apart and Brand / the Courts of Chaos are trying to hurry things along.

Oberon tries to fix things on one end by repairing the Pattern while at the same time sending Corwin on a Hellride to end all Hellrides out to the Courts of Chaos.

We get some interesting worldbuilding in the way of references to other works –something we’ve seen all along, but these are a bit more obvious. Ygg the talking tree ( Yggdrasil ). The raven Hugi (one of Odin’s ravens ). The Spinx . Merlin . It’s interesting to see, but a bit weird change of tone.

Crazy battles. Huge storms. The end of the world. Some fantastic writing in the descriptions and battles there, I’ll give Zelazny that.

And… now there might be two Patterns ? And the next five books follow Corwin’s son Merlin rather than Corwin? That’s a thing.

Overall, I’m glad I read the series. It was certainly interesting. Not my favorite books I’ve ever read though. I think it might be time for a break before trying the Trumps of Doom.