Rating: 
Summary: Where to start in this 10 book series in additon3new ones
Review: Ive read all of the amber novels as well as most of his other books and greatly enjoy Roger Zelazny's books. For the Amber series I would start with The Great Book of Amber or book one of the series, and not with the new novel out "The Dawn of Amber" By John Betancourt, while I enjoyed his book and it is chronologically the first book of the series, I think you really need to start out with Zelanzy to get a taste of what the whole series really is. While Betancourt does an admirable job he dosent posses the skill, and style of Zelazny which made the series. I would recommend this series to all readers.
Rating:
Summary: Zelazny's Best
Review: You really can't go wrong with Roger Zelazny. Even his lesser works are still great reading, and of all his books, the Amber series is by far his best work.Part mystery, part fantasy, part political thriller, the Amber books have something for everyone. The first five books, which have come to be known as the Chronicles of Corwin, stand head and shoulders above books six through ten, which are the Chronicles of Merlin, Corwin's son. Merlin's story just couldn't quite capture the same sense of grandeur, or the strong characters contained in Corwin's story. Nevertheless, its still a great read. I cannot stand fantasy novels of any kind, and I still found Amber to be great, I've read them over and over again, and my enjoyment of them never fades.
Rating:
Summary: Why aren't there more Stars for these ratings?
Review: I'd give it ten out of five stars, if I could.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful
Review: This series is a wonderful, imaginative story. It captures you intrest as well as you heart. My very favofite books!
Rating: 
Summary: That's my name, don't wear it out
Review: I really enjoy this book. It is very mind-boggling
Rating:
Summary: Spectacular
Review: If published by itself, the first half of the Amber chronicles would unquestionably one of the greatest works of fiction ever written. The second half is also quite good and definitely worth reading, but the two halves are both stand-alone novels and could and possibly should be published separately. I do not envy the people who had to read the Amber series one novel at a time, waiting for each successive volume to come out. Each individual book is so short that it seems ridiculous that they didn't just publish the work in two volumes instead of ten. But it doesn't matter because now we can read it all at once, thankfully. The story is so riveting, so suspenseful, it would have been agonizing to wait for the next book to come out.
This story is too complex to even begin to try to summarize the plot. You'll just have to trust me that the Book of Amber is one of the greatest fantasy novels ever. I find it absurd that many people are still obsessed with Tolkien and his Lord of the Rings series, and that LOTR is still the standard by which all fantasy is judged. I for one do not care for the simplistic and childish works of Tolkien, and clearly the Book of Amber is exponentially better than anything by Tolkien. I get worried when people describe a book as "good, but not quite as good as Tolkien". That would be my first indication that such a book is not worth reading. Roger Zelazny's Amber is in a whole 'nother universe compared to most other fantasy, and is not even comparable to Tolkien. It may be obvious that I am not exacty a die hard fan of the fantasy genre; I read Amber mostly as a diversion from the more difficult reading I had previously been concentrating on, and I was stunned by how good it was. It speaks well for this book that someone who is not even a fantasy fanatic could be so moved by Zelazy's work.
Rating:
Summary: definitely a classic in the genre
Review: I'd give five stars for Nine Princes of Amber alone. It is such a great book (check out my review for it). Zelazny created an interesting series with the Amber chronicles. It's well-written and highly entertaining. There are 10 books, and they divide into 2 groups of five. The first five books deal with Corwin and his adventures in Amber. Theseare the better of the books. The last of the books deal with Merlin, Corwin's son, and what happens to him in Amber. You can tell that ther were some years between Corwin's adventure and Merlin's. And Zelazny's style changes. Corwin's books are in a more 'high' style, whereas Merlin's books feel more like a contemporary writer. The language changes. As good as Merlin's books are, I think Corwin's books are the best and it would have been stronger if Zelazny had stopped writing before he took up Merlin's saga. But still, this series is highly imaginitive, well written, and very entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful!
Review: I adored this book. The magic in it was complex, intricate and creative. I liked both main characters, Corwin and Merlin. The story was imaginative, and Roger Zelazny's writing style is very easy to follow. As much as I loved this book, there were some things that I didn't like. For one thing, I never liked Dara. Not as a romantic interest, and when all was revealed, I felt justified in my dislike. However, every book has some character we dislike, so I don't hold that against Zelazny. For something I did think should be excluded: Merlin's relationship with Coral and his dream/when the Pattern and the Lorgus where playing with him in that strange place. First of all, Coral was, if I'm not mistaken, his half-aunt. Even though that is a distant relation, it is still a relation and he should not be fooling around with her. The weird teleport-y finding Coral place was confusing. Not much seemed to happen and it threw me off. Other than that, these books were almost flawless. I would rate the Corwin series as 5, and the Merlin series as 4.5/5. Both were excellent however, and I would strongly recommend them.
Rating:
Summary: The Master...
Review: This book entails the epic tail of the city of Amber, the highest point of reality. Including, deception,
deceit, magic, fighting, and great character development, this book is a classic in the making. At first
we follow the tale of Cowin, a prince of Amber. Later the perspective shifts to another character,
Merlin. Zelazny spends a great deal of time on character devolpment, this produces a genuine feeling
of familiarity with each character by the end of the book. I highly recomend this book to any fantasy
lover, young or old for it proves what i have always suspected...That there are other Worlds than Earth...
Rating:
Summary: Great collection
Review: I loved the first Amber series about Corwin, and while I didn't think the second about Merlin was quite as great, it was still very good. The two series have quite different feels to them, and while the first 5 books will always be my favourite, the second 5 make much more sense when pulled together in this way. You can read them all in a row, front to back, with a bit of rewinding to re-read something - this helps a lot because of all the plots and sub-plots going on in the second series. It's not a very portable book - yes, you can carry it around with you, but really only because the stories grab you so firmly that you don't want to put them down :) I highly recommend it.
|
