Trumps of Doom

Infobox Book |
name = Trumps of Doom
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Dust-jacket illustration from the first edition
author = Roger Zelazny
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
series = The Chronicles of Amber
subject =
genre = Fantasy novel
publisher = Arbor House
release_date = May 1985
media_type = Print (Hardcover)
pages = 183 pp
isbn = ISBN 0877957185
preceded_by = The Courts of Chaos
followed_by = Blood of Amber

Trumps of Doom is the first book in the second "Chronicles of Amber" series by Roger Zelazny; and the sixth book overall. Whereas the first series was narrated by Corwin, this series is narrated by his son, Merlin.

Plot summary

Merlin has spent the last several years on Earth learning computer science while building Ghostwheel, a trump- and pattern-based computer, elsewhere in Shadow. Having completed his project, he wishes to know who has been trying to kill him every April 30th, and why some of the better attempts failed, before he leaves. He meets with his friend Lucas Reynard (Luke), a salesman, who tries to convince him to stay, and who tells him that Julia Barnes, Merlin's ex-girlfriend, may be in trouble. Merlin investigates and finds Julia slain by creatures from another shadow.

Merlin investigates through shadow, and is given orders by king Random to shut down Ghostwheel. However, Ghostwheel has become sentient and capable of defending itself. Eventually, Luke - who, it turns out, is Brand's son - imprisons Merlin in a blue crystal cave so he can attempt to take control of Ghostwheel for himself.

Trivia

* Merlin's landlord "Mr. Mulligan" is an allusion to Buck Mulligan from James Joyce's "Ulysses".
* Merlin tells Luke that Ghostwheel's operations involve "a lot of theoretical crap involving space and time and some notions of some guys named Everett and Wheeler." The Everett-Wheeler theory of quantum mechanics proposes a "many worlds" interpretation in which the universe instantly fragments into a bundle of alternate histories each time the quantum state of any particle in the universe changes via interaction.
* At the conclusion of this volume, Merlin is imprisoned in a crystal cave, just like his namesake from Arthurian legend.