Rating: 
Summary: Great book with a bitter disappointment
Review: I had read a few of the Books of Amber in the past and i picked up this compilation to get the rest. I read up to The Courts of Chaos and was loving re-reading books I had already been through. I was very disappointed to discover that from that point forward the rest of the books were not told from Corwin's prospective. i had grown to like Corwin and he was the reason I bought this book in the first place so I was very upset when the mode of the storytelling changed so abruptly.I tried to get intrested in Merlin's telling but I found I could not and was annoyed by the fact that I felt like I was picking up not where I left off but in the middle of a whole new story. However, it is a testament to Zelany's writing skills that I find myself missing Corwin as I thought I had several more books to follow his life.
Rating:
Summary: Enchanting and habit forming
Review: I'm not sure why I didn't LOVE LOVE LOVE the Amber Chronicles to a five star degree, but I didn't. I thought this was a wonderful world and an excellent flawed hero, and I greatly enjoyed the plot twists and family relations. It seemed though that I was reading a slight shadow of a book. I have stayed up for three nights trying to finish this, so the series if definitely enthralling. Good adventure. Good read.
Rating: 
Summary: The Greatest Series Ever Written--Yep, It's True!
Review: Roger Zelazny wrote many popular and award-winning books during his long and distinguished writing career (e.g., "Lord of Light" and "Madwand.") Truth be told, though, I didn't care for most of them. They seem too esoteric and not particularly interesting to me. Ah, but then there's the Amber series. Now that's a different story! If I told you that this is the best series of books that I've ever read (and I've read thousands of books), would you believe me? Probably not. But it's true. Zelazny captured lightning in a bottle when he wrote these 10 books--I only wish there were a hundred! The 10 books of the Chronicles of Amber (collected here at last in a single volume!) are divided into two separate, interlocked series. The first tells the adventures of Corwin, Prince of Amber; the second, those of his son Merlin. If you twisted my arm, I'd say that the first series is better than the second. But read them yourself and you can decide. Amber is one of the most intricate, original, and fascinating fantasy worlds you will ever find outside of Tolkien. It is a world of magic, science, illusions, and reality. The basic principle is that the universe consists of an infinite number of parallel worlds, all of which are echoes and reflections (called Shadows) of the one true city of Amber. The people, cultures, traditions, histories, even the physics of those Shadows exist in a multitude of varying degrees. Whatever kind of world or time or place you're looking for, it exists somewhere in Shadow. (Earth as we know it, for example, is merely one Shadow.) The only people who can move freely throughout those Shadows are the Princes and Princesses of Amber, the Royal blood of the ruling family; a large collection of siblings of various ages and dispositions who find it very hard to get along. That is where the brilliance of the Amber series comes in: the endless struggles, alliances, betrayals, and machinations of this very driven and political family who all want to gain control of Amber. Clausewitz would be proud of the ruthless cunning displayed by this clan. Their battles and adventures make for incredible reading. I'm not going to try to describe the plots of the books to you. Part of the joy of this series is the fascination of discovery. I return to these books every few years and read them again with joy and awe. I can think of no other group of books that I would recommend so highly to you. They are to be read and cherished, again and again. Buy a copy today!
Rating:
Summary: Fantasy with a touch of Machiavelli
Review: Roger Zelazny's Amber Series is perhaps the most evocative and brilliant fantasy series ever written--right up there with Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, but much darker. If you like your fantasy with a nasty touch of Machiavellian politics, this series is for you. And now that the complete set is bound in one volume, you won't even have to pause to get the next book: you'll just be able to jump from one superb story to the next. All of the fantasies have to do with the royal family in a parallel universe of Amber. While not set in a time long, long ago these books do have a nice balance of modern mentalities, magic, and old world touches (swords, capes, etc.) I think that there is something for everyone in the Amber series: strong male characters, strong female characters, and marvelous settings.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely brilliant fantasy
Review: Cloaked in a world of great fantasy, Zelazny has created a great series of mysteries. You cannot help but be drawn into the confusion as you, along with the protagonist, try to discover the motives of dozens of intriguing characters and how all of those create the intense intrigue that surrounds mystical Amber. An intellectual delight in addition to being an engrossing read.
Rating:
Summary: from Amber to Chaos, a truly great adventure....
Review: ....whose books I first read as a boy. Spiced with excitement, new discoveries, mysteries, and literary references that will delight and amuse, follow the mighty Corwin of Amber, then his son Merlin, as they work to restore the archetypal balance between the worlds.
Rating:
Summary: Indulgence in the metaphysical...
Review: Wow. That's all I can say. The plot is amazing, the characters are well developed and frightfully conceited at times. The theme, however, is lacking--there is no deeper subject than entertainment in this series. I highly recommend this for children and young adults, it only looks big--once you get started it becomes small--you begin to wish there were more of these books around, too bad. While it does not teach anything that important other than open-mindedness, it does widen horizons to hard SciFi readers, and is the best possible midway between SciFi and Fantasy--the bridge between.
Rating:
Summary: more superlatives
Review: I, too, read the Amber series in my early teens and thought it was really cool (and had a crush on Dara), hunted for years in the "Z" shelf in bookstores for the continuation of the series, and only recently found out that Zelazny passed in '95 and that this fantastic collection had been published. So I bought it, started again at the beginning and... wow. Zelazny is a masterful storyteller. Nevermind that his medium is the traditional fantasy landscape of swords and sorcery. The first 5 books of this series are a compelling treatment of the human condition. It's a story about people, at heart, but in the tradition of mythology, the characters are god-like beings for whom we feel empathy, hatred, love ... It's a modern Greek play, a new incarnation of the archetype. I currently think of it as a coming-of-age story, though I suspect each reader will find something different. Corwin comes to terms with his father, his family, and his existence. Lots of good metaphysical stuff in here, too. Z's right on the ball in the important features of his cosmology. I could go on about that, but I'll spare you. :^) It's also *really* hard to put down -- so I inhaled the first five books this time through. The second series, the Chronicles of Merlin ... well, it'd be hard to top the first five. Very entertaining, but there was potential there which was never realized. Corwin's story sees the growth of a fairly real character, but Merlin's journey fails to move me as much. The depth of character and timelessness of story is missing. It's also already somewhat dated, with references to 1980's shadow Earth. (The Corwin Chronicles avoid such specifics.) Eh, whatever. It's still lotsa fun. We'll miss you, Roger.
Rating:
Summary: A Must-Have for Initiating Your Friends
Review: Like any proper Amber devotee, I already owned all 10 books and some of the supplementary information, such as the RPG books. Nonetheless, when this appeared under my Yule tree, I was overjoyed. Why? Not only because it gave me yet another excuse to re-read the series, but also because it gave me a convenient, all-in-one-piece way of hooking my friends, while letting me keep the little books here to re-read myself. For those who are not yet initiated, all I can say is go pick this up NOW! If you enjoy a complex, interesting setting with complex, interesting characters and plots that twist so much you need to re-read a few times to catch everything that is going on, you'll enjoy this. In particular, I recommend this series to Darkover fans, and vice-versa. Both sets of 5 books have their strengths. The first is more straight-ahead S&S fantasy, while the second has more sci-fi elements. The first five books make more sense, but something I really like about the Merlin series is that all of the antagonists have, when you stop to think about it, absolutely understandable motivations. Of course, this could just be disappointment because a character I started out really liking in Corwin's chronicles turns out to be evil, with no satisfactory (to me) explanation of why. [A note to fans of Amber AND Darkover: You think Clarissa might be a Comynara? *grin*]
Rating:
Summary: Starts great, ends not so great
Review: I loved the first 5 books and the first few of the 2nd set. The ideas in this book just stream out endlessly, all interesting, all fun to read. Corwin is one of the siblings in the Royalty of Amber. Like any other set of ambitious royalty, there are factions formed and leaders who squabble for power. The additional complexities of this set of royalty comes about because they are immortal and from the center of the universe. They wander the planes of the universe where everything is possible in among the shadows of Amber (including Earth). My favorite characters include Benedict, the eldest remaining brother who has devoted his immortal life, not to squabbling over the throne of Amber, but to the ways of war. His mastery of sword-fighting, strategy and tactics and everything to do with war is so refined that all the other siblings fear his abilities. He is very cool. Benedict spends his time wandering through shadow finding Ceazar's, Napolean's etc.. great battles. Often, he will take charge of the other side and see if he can turn the tide of the battle. I re-read the books just for Benedict's character. The first few of the Merlin books was just as good. Merlin creates Ghost, a computer capable of looking through the shadow worlds. I thought however, that the Merlin books ended badly and were nowhere near on par with the first set. There was lots going on for no reason, characters introduced needlessly and strategies thrown in for no good reason in a mockery of an interesting plot. Still, even with the poor ending, the entire set is well worth your time. I can't say how much I enjoyed the first 5 books, really the work of a master.
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