Series has been like a pack of secrets that open up one after another, Merlin knows everything about Dara and Mandor. His mother and uncle were behind many of the troubles that he faced and now as he gets close to the throne he gets strange news. The royal father who was thought to be dead has been in prison for a long time.
The boy never thought that he would one day reach so close to the throne but now it is near to his grasp and he just cannot say no to it. But even being so close to it Merlin just cannot go and sit on it because political issues are too much tricky than a fight in the battlefield. In this second Cycle raw fights were also not there as compared to the first cycle The Guns of Avalon and The Hand of Oberon in which Corwin faced serious fights.
Merlin faces terrible magic and tricks in the second portion and the rest of the material was about his discovery about his true place in Amber. Roger Zelazny’s series of ten books has remained an amalgam; there was love in it that at some places turned into enmity.
Also there is a constant struggle in the tales for the two heroes that we meet. The father and son are just not presented with a time to enjoy their life. Wil Wheaton seals the last part with the narrative skills and the narrator has done a good job in the second Cycle of the series. Lastly it is better to listen the two Cycle in sequence because if you would go for the Merlin Cycle first several things would remain unclear to the mind about Corwin.
