Trumps of Doom

Zelazny, Roger. Trumps of Doom. New York: Arbor, [1985], [S. F.] Book Club Edition. (Published in Canada by Fitzhenry & Whiteside.) Blood of Amber. New York: Arbor, 1986. Rpt. New York: Avon, 1987. Sign of Chaos. New York: Arbor, [1987], [S. F.] Book Club Edition. (Published in Canada by Fitzhenry & Whiteside.)

ToD is Book 6 in the Amber series of semi-heroic fantasy and the first starring a member of the third generation of Amber's royal family: Merlin of Amber and of the Courts of Chaos. Neither Amber nor Chaos has gone high-tech, but Merlin does build "the Ghostwheel": a "paraphysical surveillance device and library" he places in "a shadow [world] where no ordinary computer could function" (143). At the end of TD, the Ghostwheel threatens Merlin and possibly Amber. In BoA, Book 7 in the series, the Ghostwheel has a brief dialog with his "father," Merlin (Avon edn. 99-100) but is mostly just alluded to; "Ghost" makes a brief appearance in SoC to speculate on the question "Am I a god?" (94; see also 172-74).