Here's the cover for the second Amber book titled Bullets of Avalon:

One more Guns of Avalon thing:

Near the end of chapter two Ganelon rants about his work as the leader of the soldiers who are resisting the Circle:
"I never wanted this damn stay-at-home job!"

Does this mean the same as the job of a stay-at-home parent? Or does it have some other connotation?

Once again I need some help with interpreting Zelazny:

Great Book of Amber p. 189:
"There where big, flat, pale flowers and puddles where the moisture dripped from overhead."

Are the flowers and puddles overhead or are they on the ground where the water drips to?

From the description of the city of Avalon p.193
"[..] there was some smoke from the stithies and the public houses [..]"

Are stithies just smithies and the public houses bars?

From p. 193
"Seeing it from up there, a certain nostalgia came over me, a wistful ragtail of a dream accompanied by a faint longing for the place that was this place's namesake to me in a vanished shadowland of long ago, where life had been just as simple and I happier than I was at the moment."
"a wistful ragtail of a dream"

What is a ragtail? Ragged? Broken?

And while we're on the theme of work:

From the Great Book of Amber:

From the description of the keep of Ganelon:
"...occluding the early stars, casting shadows of jet down the high hill the place occupied." p. 128

Occlude is a devilish word because it has quite a few translations into Finnish: to block, to hide, to bury, to not let through, absorb. Does any of you have an opinion of which one Zelazny means here?

"If I happened to be in the mood to hand you a line, I would tell you we met in a meadow behind the castle..." p. 140.
Hand you a line? Is this the same as brag? Or rather to make things appear sweeter than they are? Or maybe just to embellish a story?

About Corwin's pipe:
"It was a clay job and drew hot and hard" p. 149
Drew? Was it hot only when he drew a puff from it? What about that hard? It grew harder when lit? Or it grew harder when Corwin puffed on it? My mind boggles.

(By the way, puff is another devilishly hard word to translate. The few ones I can think of make me think of Popeye... For once I find myself hoping I was a smoker.)

"balance of the day" p. 180
Is this the same as the rest of the day?

What am I going to do with you, Grayswandir?

So far I have three clear choices and none of them are really good:

1, Leave in the English form.

2, Translate it and leave out those "extra" letters s, i and r. (What is that "s" doing there, anyway? It's not a plural, is it? What the frell is a plural gray? But surely it's not a possessive, either?)

3, Translate it but leave the extra letters. This gives me two other choices:
a, Harmaansauvair (with s as possessive)
b, Harmaatsauvair (with s as plural)

I'm now a self-employed translator and my first comission is to translate Zelazny's Guns of Avalon into Finnish!

The final book in the Corwin saga starts with Dara appearing to Amber with commands to the Amberites. Even though they are skeptical at first, soon Corwin is galloping toward the Courts of Chaos. And what is hanging in the balance is no less than the fate of Amber and all of the Shadow worlds. However, the series doesn't end with a huge battle. Yes, there is a battle but somewhat earlier and Corwin doesn't really have a part in it.

For me the Courts of Chaos doesn't have as a satisfying ending as it could have had. We finally find out to whom Corwin is telling his tale and that's an anticlimax. All the earlier plotting is really revealed to be much simpler than it was represented earlier. That's quite possibly intentional, though; usually plots turn out to be simpler in reality than when you’re trying to figure them out. ;)

Don't get me wrong: I really enjoyed the first Amber series. It just didn't end with a bang but neither did it end with a whimper, but more like "That's it? I want more!" The ending was also far more, well, sugary than I had remembered. (I thought that the whole crossbow-thing was the end.) I would have preferred for the siblings to continue their rivalries. Then again, just because Corwin is feeling brotherly towards the others doesn't necessarily mean that his siblings return the feeling.

Apparently, Manna from Heaven has Amber short stories. Unfortunately, the only version available here is almost 30 euros and I consider that to be too high for a book with less than 200 pages.

This is the book that turns many of the things that we've learned in the previous books into their ear. Corwin is, of course, in the middle of everything racing thither and yon mostly in the Shadows. We learn some things about Dara, Brand, and the other characters. But are the people telling these things really trustworthy? We are also told some things about what the various plotting factions are doing but can we trust this info either? We just don't know. If we can trust it, some things are becoming clearer.

However, I can't really trust any of them and I'm occasionally struck by Corwin's desire to trust his siblings even though he thinks all the time that he can't trust them. I was also a bit disappointed that so little came from their ancient rivalries. Centuries of hating or at least disliking each other is thrown away with a hand shake and: "I guess you've changed"? If I had been born and raised to expect the worst from my siblings I probably wouldn't have been able to shake it off so quickly.

Of course, Zelazny isn't writing a fat fantasy and I'm actually happy to be spared of hundreds of pages of angsty introspection of "should I trust him or not". Just seemed a bit quick, that's all.

On the other hand, I'm not entirely happy with the way he keeps changing the rules. In the first book Corwin thinks that he can't takes his troops with him through the Trump. However, in the next book the solders are moved with the use of two Trumps and by this time it's an established fact of moving. Horses can go through, too. Now, of course, in the first book Corwin might just not have the time to move the soldiers. However... I didn't get that impression. So, Zelazny thought it would be cooler (not to mention easier for the plot) to change it. The problem is that the reader can never know what "rule" is going to be changed next. And now with the Pattern, well, shouldn't one of the intrepid explorer siblings have found out the truth before now?

But it's also a clear sign of the strength of Zelazny's writing that (at least this) the reader starts to think of these things instead of just dismissing it as "just fiction, of course it doesn't make sense". Amber is a fascinating setting.

The publisher and I are making final revisions to the Zelazny text and noticed again something a bit odd:

"a straw-tick mattress in the corner." near the start of the eight chapter on page 100 in the Great Book when Corwin is in jail.

Is this just a typo and should be straw-thick or does it refer to a tick infested strawmattress?

I've send Amber on to the publisher and we're going it over at the start of next week. Then it's over to printers in a couple of weeeks! I'm a bit troubled, though, that there's no cover yet.

I've got a few more clarifications to ask you:

On page 8, in second chapter when Corwin descibes Flora's library: "There was a big globe beside the big desk with Africa facing me and a wall-to-wall window behind it, eight *stepladders of glass*. What are they?

And on page 52 when the Amber trio arrives to Rebma Corwin describes the Rebmans: "All wore only scaled trunks and cloaks, *cross-braces* on their breasts, and short swords [...]". What are the cross-braces? Large or small? Made of metal like armour or cloth or leather or sea shells just for show?

This is the first in a classic fantasy series. To me, the Amber is even more special because when I read it for the first time over a decade ago, I realized for the first time that fantasy doesn't have to be medieval but, you know, fantastic. And so it was quite an honor to start translating it into Finnish.

The first person narrator wakes up in a hospital without any memory of who he is or how he got there. However, soon enough he notices that the staff is trying to keep him sedated. He manages to avoid getting another shot and makes his way to an office where he manages to threaten a doctor to tell him the name and address of his "benefactor" who turns out to be his sister. His own name turns out to be Corey. However, he has not recollection of having a sister. He escapes and makes his way to his sister’s house. There he does recognize her as his sister although not with the name she gives him. There they engage in a weird chess-like discussion when he tries to find out who he is and who his increasingly weird sounding family are. Practically the only thing he remembers is that he knows a lot about anatomy and medicine but he isn't a doctor and that he remember the name "Amber" even though he doesn't know who or what that is.

Eventually, he receives a phone call from his brother Random who is being chased by some tough-sounding guys. Random arrives but soon his followers arrive, too. Corey and Random fight quite surreally the non-human guys in her living room. Corey is quite puzzled but still doesn’t want to reveal that to his family. After they win the battle, Corey and Random try to make their way to Amber. Corey drives and Random does something to chance their scenery to weirder and weirder versions of Earth. Corey remembers bits and pieces but now much. Such as that his family is Not Nice and that he should know what is going on.

Eventually, they rescue their other sister Deirdre and find out that their brother Eric wants to keep them all out of the city of Amber. Random suggests a way to restore Corey's memory but it's, of course, dangerous. And the people who chase them are also dangerous.

The Nine Princes of Amber is fast-paces and a real feast of imagination. I wouldn't have minded if they had explored the alternative Earths some more. I was also a bit surprised by how easily Corey trusts the lead of Random even though he thinks all the time that he shouldn't. The characters are quite memorable and distinct especially for such a short book. I was a bit disappointed by the treatment of the female characters, though. The sisters weren’t even considered as possible rulers even though they had the same knowledge and skills as their brothers. Instead they were just assigned roles as either helpers or eye candy.

But Amber remains still one of my personal favorite series just because of Zelazny’s imagination.

The raw translating is now done and on Monday I'll start the polishing of text, looking up odd refrences and looking up translations for the Shakespear quotes. Hopefully, it's all done this time next week.

Once again I beg your knowledge of things English:

In Chapter seven, when Corwin is in prison and remembering his relationship with Rein there's a mention of "fake graces": "He was lousy at them (martial arts)... so I forced the fake graces upon him and also made him a passable saber man."

What on Earth are fake graces?

This is near the end of chapter four when Deirdre is talking:

"That was different. I was trying ot get out, not in. Perhaps he did not guard me so carefully as he would one of you, because of my sex and my lack of ambition. *And nevertheless, as you can, I did not succeed*."

I'd like to claim that the last sentence should be "as you can see". Or does "as you can" mean something else here?

Kentucki Fried Lizzard Partes! Argh!

I've been itching to tell this and finally the deal has been done and I can tell: I've been contracted to translate into Finnish Zelazny's Nine Princes in Amber! I'm excited, exhilarated, and scared to death at the same time!

I'm also continuing my blog about translating the current book. The blog is in Finnish, though.