Roger Zelazny Book Review: The Hand of Oberon, Part II

I never imagined Benedict looking quite so much like Fabio

I mentioned in the first half of the recap that I would cover what I think is the biggest disconnect in the books.

The children of Oberon are strong. Corwin, in the first book, instinctively throws an overstuffed easy chair hard enough to kill something that's probably stronger than a man. Later on, with a little help, he picks up and carries a Mercedes, which, in that era weighed upwards of two tons. Deirdre, his baby sister, breaks a werewolf's spine over her knee. After escaping from years of imprisonment within the dungeons of Amber, Corwin is still strong enough to deadlift four hundred pound boulders and carry them around.

Gerard is stronger than that. Gerard is so strong that he can pound Corwin unconscious with his bare hands. He's probably the strongest human being in existence.

Ganelon, on the other hand, as far as anyone knows, is just some dude Corwin dragged out of shadow. He beats up Gerard. Specifically, he does so by overpowering him, opening the fight by holding back Gerard's arm, so that Gerard can't move it forward. ("I moved to block his hand, but it halted in midreach. Turning my head, I saw that another hand had fallen upon Gerard's arm, was now grasping it, was holding it back...Gerard jerked his arm forward, but it did not come free.")

I occasionally used to bitch that in the Lord of the Rings, rings that turn the wearer invisible must be so impossibly common that it never even occurs to Gandalf that Bilbo's ring might be the One Ring. In Unfinished Tales, I think it is, Tolkien explains this, saying that he did in fact suspect this, quite strongly, but the Ring was fine where it was as there was nothing to be gained by rocking the boat. That actually sounds pretty plausible to me. But this bit with Gerard seems like a situation where things are so weird that someone should comment on that.

It's not hard to believe that Oberon can take Gerard. What is a little much to swallow is that some no-name shadow dweller can do it and nobody says anything. It's one of the weirdest disconnects in the entire series. They're just so blase about the whole thing. I have the feeling that if I were there and I commented on it, the response would be, "Boy, how about that? C'mon. Let's get a beer."

I enjoyed the conversation with Julian in Arden too. He is one of my favorites, even though as I mentioned earlier, he no longer strikes me as reserved, but rather as one whose emotional growth has been stunted.

A little later on Corwin observes: Could it be that the children of the unicorn took ages in which to mature...?

I really think that's the case with Julian. But that's a feature, not a bug.

It was a very delicate situation. If Dad were to return, Eric could step down and justify all of his actions to anyone's satisfaction-except for killing you. That would have been too patent a move to ensure his own continued reign beyond the troubles of the moment. And I will tell you frankly that he simply wanted to imprison you and forget you.

I think that's a good explanation for an action that made sense in a one-off adventure with Eric as a mustache-twirling villain, but less so in a series where he's as smart and calculating as the rest of his siblings.

Corwin refers to passage across the Primal Pattern as "Like striding through a field of electric wheat." I thought that was a neat visual.

I love the scene with Brand and Benedict in Tir-na Nog'th, but it's too long to reproduce in full, so I'll just comment on my very favorite parts.

My earliest fear had been that Brand would contrive to arrive directly behind Benedict and stab him in the back. I would not have tried that though, because even in death Benedict's reflexes might have been sufficient to dispatch his assailant Apparently, Brand wasn't that crazy either.

Heh.

"You know I can do certain things the others cannot," Brand said. "If there is anything at all that you want and think that you cannot have, now is your chance to name it and learn how wrong you were. I have learned things you would scarcely believe."

Benedict smiled one of his rare smiles.

"You have chosen the wrong line," he said. "I can walk to anything that I want."

"Shadows!" Brand snorted, halting again. "Any of the others can clutch a phantom! I am talking of reality! Amber! Power! Chaos! Not daydreams made solid! Not second best!"

"If I had wanted more than I have, I knew what to do. I did not do it."

I like Zelazny's reading, but Bruce Watson, who took over for the final part of the recording does a really good job with Brand.

"You are too good a man to waste yourself on that mess in Amber, defending something that is obviously falling apart. I am going to win, Benedict. I am going to erase Amber and build it anew. I am going to rub out the old Pattern and draw my own... You will command our legions, the mightiest military forces ever assembled. You-"

"If your new world would be as perfect as you say, Brand, there would be no need for legions. If, on the other hand, it is to reflect the mind of its creator, then I see it as something less than an improvement over the present state of affairs. Thank you for your offer, but I hold with the Amber which already exists."

- "If you have to kill a man it costs nothing to be polite."

"Admit that you fear me, Benedict. All of you are afraid of me. Even when I approach you weaponless like this, something must be twisting your guts. You see my confidence and you do not understand it. You must be afraid."

Benedict did not reply.

". . . And you fear my blood on your hands," Brand went on, "you fear my death curse."

"Did you fear Martin's blood on your own?" Benedict asked.

"That bastard puppy!" Brand said. "He was not truly one of us. He was only a tool."

Again, I like Brand, but he's clearly psychotic. Bruce Watson nails this line too.

"Brand, I have no desire to kill a brother. Give me that trinket you wear about your neck and come back with me now to Amber. It is not too late to set matters right."

Brand threw back his head and laughed.

"Oh, nobly spoken! Nobly spoken, Benedict! Like a true lord of the realm! You would shame me with your excessive virtue! And what is the sticking point of this all?"

"You would shame me with your excessive virtue" is a phrase I actually do manage to work into conversation from time to time.

When Brand freezes him, Corwin observes that nothing that Brand had been saying had really mattered. It had simply been a running line of patter, a distraction thrown up before him while he sought cautiously after the proper range.That said, it was both smoothly executed and obvious in retrospect.

Zelazny is a notorious punster ("Then the fit hit the shan", anyone?), and it's only now, a good fifteen years after I read the book for the first time, that I caught the double meaning in the title. There's the obvious meaning of Oberon influencing events from behind the scenes, but it suddenly occurs to me that it also refers to Benedict's hand from Tir-na Nog'th. Well played, Roger. Well played.