Characters
The Machiavellian royal family of Amber is headed by Oberon, the former king, now absent. His five daughters are Florimel, Deirdre, Fiona, Llewella, and Coral (who doesn't come into play until book 9) but the major players of the novel are the nine princes of the title:
- Benedict. The oldest surviving prince; uninvolved in the current struggle for the crown. The master tactician of the family and a man who seldom smiles. Presumed to be dead by the rest of the family.
- Corwin. The protagonist. A cross between a cruel rogue and a reluctant poet, his years on Earth seem to have softened him somewhat. "And remember who it was who gave you your life where another would have taken it."
- Eric. The arrogant yet competent would-be king of Amber; he commands the loyalty of Julian, Caine and Gérard.
- Caine. Calculating and realistic.
- Bleys. Dashing and charming; Corwin's other ally in his fight against Eric.
- Brand. Like Oberon, mysteriously unavailable. "There was a quality of both strength and weakness, questing and abandonment about him."
- Julian. A sinister hunter. "I enjoy slaughtering beasts and I think of my relatives constantly."
- Gérard. Physically strongest of the nine, affable and liked even by his enemies.
- Random. A sneaky rascal albeit Corwin's ally. A gambler and the youngest of Oberon's children.
Read more about this topic: Nine Princes In Amber
Famous quotes containing the word characters:
“I have often noticed that after I had bestowed on the characters of my novels some treasured item of my past, it would pine away in the artificial world where I had so abruptly placed it.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“His leanings were strictly lyrical, descriptions of nature and emotions came to him with surprising facility, but on the other hand he had a lot of trouble with routine items, such as, for instance, the opening and closing of doors, or shaking hands when there were numerous characters in a room, and one person or two persons saluted many people.”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)
“Philosophy is written in this grand book—I mean the universe—
which stands continually open to our gaze, but it cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and interpret the characters in which it is written. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometrical figures, without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it.”
—Galileo Galilei (1564–1642)