Roger Zelazny's The Dawn of Amber Book 3 : To Rule in Amber

Rating:
Summary: Better than Zelazny's Amber books starring Merlin
Review: Betancourt finished his 2nd Amber prequel with a flourish. His 3rd book picks up where the 2nd ended, and maintains that same higher level of energy, involvement and realistic fantasy throughout.

Couldn't help but compare this book to Zelazny's Amber books. IMO this one is much better than the last five Amber books Zelazny wrote.

I heard earlier this year Betancourt may write more Amber books. I sure hope so!

Rating:
Summary: Improved but still unfulfilling
Review: Betancourt's writing feels a lot more like Zelazny's in this tome (reminiscent of the Trumps of Doom). The characters, particularly Oberon are much better and the dialog is also improved from prior offerings in this series. That said, the book feels hollow and unfulfilling. To start off, it's double-spaced so the 300 some odd pages is really half that. It is also mostly dialog with little description and a pretty shallow plot. Perhaps that's somewhat due to use of 1st person perspective but it's disappointing nevertheless.

We learn more about Oberon, Dworkin, Aber, Connor and the rest of the family yet never truly appreciate how powerful the Pattern is or why it is tied to Oberon (e.g., why it cloned him). While the Chaosians (is that a word?) are pretty god-like compared to normal mortals their powers seem illogical and oddly formed. For example, they can shift from world-to-world through Shadow finding anything their imagination requires (say a 100,000 warrior priests who worship Oberon as a god when he is in need of an army), materialize tons of gold necessary to finance castle Amber out of ethos using the power of the Logrus, catch arrows in mid flight, or unleash raw chaos to obliterate enemies yet are unable to defend against a common sword or a magic (poisoned) ring. The bottom line is that this work is much improved over the last but is still unfulfilling.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable Amber story
Review: Dworkin has created a new pattern--one that sends shock-waves and chaos storms throughout the old world of Chaos, but now he and his family have been denounced as traitors. Oberon, Dworkin's son, does his best to gather up the remnants of the family. The lords of Chaos will not sit still for the creation of a new power--one that might even be more potent than the ancient Logrus which forms the basis for the entire realm of Chaos. Fiercely manipulating the new shadow worlds cast by the pattern, Oberon begins construction of an entire new world--the one true world of Amber.

The pattern allows possibilities and alliances that were impossible in Chaos--but the ancient rules of betrayal and military might still apply. Oberon has many enemies, but only some of them are in the party of Chaos's king. Even within Chaos, a power struggle threatens to upset the king's rule--but whether this will benefit Oberon's family or destroy it remains to be seen.

Author John Gregory Bethancourt continues building the stories of early Amber. Bethancourt writes of the generation before Roger Zelazny's wonderful 'nine princes,' a generation where Chaos and Amber mingle more closely and where Amber is not yet the center of the universe. A respectful co-creator, Bethancourt is careful to set the stage for Zelazny's even more powerful stories.

TO RULE IN AMBER shares the strengths of the earlier novels in this series. Fans of Amber will definitely want to read what may be the strongest of Bethancourt's series, so far. I thought Bethancourt left a few story-lines dangling (wasn't Oberon going to come back to the head in the tree), and the eventual climactic battle was a bit of an anticlimax. Still, that didn't keep RULE from being an entertaining re-examination of the Amber creation story.

Rating:
Summary: A little better
Review: For my own selfish pleasure and sense of completeness I am writing a review of this third installment in this series, having done this for the first two. I gave the first two books a very poor rating. I agreed with one reviewer of the second book that he had read unpublished fan-fiction that was much better. I still feel this way about this present third novel, but I am being truthful when I say that there was more character development, more structure, more of a sense of direction in this last novel than was apparent anywhere in the first two. Having said that, it still put me in mind of a slow Sunday drive with not much of a destination in mind. Yes, yes, I know all of the arguments about this author not being Zelazny, how it should not be judged on that basis, etc. Folks, I think RZ was one of the premier writers of the century, and could go on ( and won't right now) about why. I was willing to cut slack to whomever his estate decided to award the mantle and continue some of his work. But there were powerful writers in their own right who admired RZ and felt a kinship with him. There was a sampling of that in a tribute book of short stories that was published in honor of RZ. Mr. Betancourt's work does not live up to any facet of the Amber storyline that I can see. I predict that in the future these three novels will not be considered in the 'canon', if I may use that word. While this novel is better than the first two it did not even rightfully cap or tie up the simple plots or characters that were introduced in his first two books.

I like to finish things, so I read all three through. But this is not a re-reader that I will enjoy in future years.

Rating:
Summary: Better than the other two
Review: I must say I was impressed by this third installment in his series. I don't know if Betancourt found his groove or if he got a really good editor, but he really overcame the shortcomings of the first two books. The narrative flows much smoother and there's actual plot in this book. Things happen. It's not just a short and uninteresting linear narrative like books 1 and 2. Betancourt also manages to tie in significant elements from the original material.

This is not to say the book is an unqualified success. The protagonist, Oberon, is still fairly weak. Again, he's better than the first two books, but there's definite rough patches. Particularly frustrating are the continuing "Mary Sue" elements that Oberon seems riddled with through the series. In this book Oberon finds that he can just intuitively use powers that other people spend years trying to master. He gets no training. He just uses the powers. And then halfway through the book all his moxy and confidence disappears and he seems incapable of doing any other cool feats.

Another weakness of the book is the general inconsistencies. At first it was simply things that weren't consistent with the previous two books. Some of it could be explained away as Betancourt "fixing" his setting so that it more closely resembled the Amber canon. In other places he simply flubs his facts. The worst is when the book is internally inconsistant. A few times I found myself flipping back through the book to check on something that didn't jibe right. I think the internal problems were due to revisions. I'd read an early plot outline for the book, and the end product bore only a passing resemblence to his initial plan.

So, overall: A vast improvement over his previous efforts, but it falls apart in the details.

Rating:
Summary: Betancourt FINALLY gets it right!!
Review: I was a little less than kind about the first two books in this trilogy (see my reviews). The first installment, "Dawn of Amber," was slow and plodding, and Betancourt's Oberon seemed too helpless to be a protagonist in any 'Amber' story worthy of the name! I liked "Chaos and Amber" only a little better, because Betancourt's Oberon seemed to grow somewhat in this second installment, and because much of the story was actually set in places described by Roger Zelazny ; unfortunately, as Betancourt continued to find his own narrative voice, he seemed to be moving further and further away from the magic that Zelazny created with "Nine Princes in Amber." By the end of the second prequel, in fact, I had resigned myself to the idea that Betancourt would never measure up to Roger Zelazny's amazing creative talent, and accordingly, I approached "To Rule in Amber" with greatly lowered expectations.

What a difference this third novel makes!

As I read "To Rule in Amber," I found myself liking it more and more with every page. Oberon's passivity is a thing of the past-- as a character he has grown and developed, and he now seems natural leading the family that once barely accepted him. The very things that made him a weakling in the first book now give him strength and confidence. This Oberon is wiser, stronger, and more capable than I once suspected. I actually found myself interested in this character, and concerned about the things that happened to him.

The plot in this book is more interesting, and MUCH better paced, than in either of its predecessors. Instead of creeping gradually from unconnected crisis to unconnected crisis, the story in "To Rule in Amber" actually rewards the reader with a beginning, a middle, and an end! Where "Dawn of Amber" and "Chaos and Amber" were primarily stories about unseen threats and invisible assassins, "To Rule In Amber" is the story of one family's epic struggle for freedom from tyranny. By the end of the book, you really want to see Oberon and his fledgeling kingdom succeed-- and you're a bit shocked and saddened by the drastic action that Oberon is willing to take in order to ensure this victory. One one level, in fact, "To Rule In Amber" is really the tale of Oberon's fall from innocence.

One weakness to Betancourt's writing style is that the other characters who make up Oberon's immediate family (basically every character that Zelazny didn't create) still seem one-dimensional. Some of Oberon's family members were introduced exactly once in the first book, where they were presented without any meaningful description whatsoever, and by the third installment we still don't know anything about them! This is a sharp contrast with Zelazny's work, where character after character literally lept off of the printed page and greeted you as old friends. For this reason, Betancourt still fails to evoke Zelazny's magic, but that doesn't mean that his series is a wasted effort.

Dare I say it? "To Rule In Amber" is BY FAR the best of Betancourt's three 'Amber' prequels... and, blasphemy of blasphemies, I'll go one step further by saying that this book is at least as enjoyable as "Knight of Shadows," my least-favorite novel in Zelazny's original series! I think it's fair to say that Betancourt on his very best day is a close match for Zelazny on his very worst... and Betancourt was obviously at the top of his game when he created "To Rule In Amber!"

Rating:
Summary: A pleasant morning's read
Review: Just finished reading this trilogy. From the reviews I'd seen prior to purchase, my expectations were low. Mr. Betancourt has, in my opinion, done an admirable job at filling some huge shoes.

Mr. Betancourt appears to have researched the original Amber materials and, unlike many other similar attempts to follow another's work, I found no glaring inconsistencies. He has applied some interpretations to the powers and how they work that could be problematic down the road, but who knows if more Amber books will be written to expose these.

My only disappointment, the plot was not as twisted as Zelazny's work. Mr. Betancourt doesn't demonstrate a knack for intrigue. The end was very predictable, as were all the villains. And, the ending of this book seemed abrupt to me. But that also leaves the door open for additional work.

To his credit, he did an admirable job of developing Oberon from a naive grunt into a character that would become the godlike Oberon in Zelazny's work.

Overall, a good read.

Rating:
Summary: Where's the beef?
Review: Okay, I admit it, I'm a Zelazny freak and would read toilet paper if it ostensibly contained a reworking of anything Zelazny. I bought this hardback as a Christmas present for myself.

That said, I have many of the same complaints others have about the Oberon prequel trilogy. It drags, the style is not too much like Zelazny, and Betancourt only starts to scrape the surface of Zelazny's dizzying plots.

But, my biggest gripe is that this is a trilogy instead of the quintilogy like the original series. I don't agree with the cover which indicates this is the conclusion of the trilogy. There are plenty of holes left to be filled in an additional two short novels like this one.

And if I view the third novel as the middle of a series, it somehow makes sense. Now we've got Swayvill introduced. He's got the Spikard. He's got plenty of live relatives who are dead by the time the Corwin's story starts, and he has plenty of offspring to sire, raise, and kill off. But that, in itself, is frustrating because they tout this novel as a conclusion while it really concludes squat.

However, I did like reading it because I DO love Amber and it's stories. Betancourt is getting better at the tone of Amber, and I've had my Amber fix for another year. Ah, that's good.

Good luck and God bless



Rating:
Summary: A Good Effort, But It Fails on Every Level
Review: To put it simply, Betancourt simply isn't skilled enough to pull off an Amber novel. I had hopes that the third installment would justify my investment in the first two, but it did not.

The work reads like a piece of fan-fiction. Motivations are never clear even after long explanations and a few seemingly significant plot points are never resolved. I had hoped to see Oberon evolve toward the monarch we met in Zelazny's Amber novels -- instead, he jumps erratically between different skills, moods and motivations with little or no justification.

In a way it's good that the author never attempted to emulate Zelazny's style because he is obviously not up to the task. Yet even in the third novel, he hasn't yet achieved a consistent style of his own. This was a discordant and slow read and like another reviewer I found myself flipping back several times to confirm that I had read something correctly the first time when it appeared to be contradicted later.

Ultimately I came away from this novel with some anger that the wonderful Amber universe was put into the hands of such a meager talent. I'm not such a Zelazny fan that I ignore the potential for other authors to follow him. Still, this book sucked and I feel ripped off.

Rating:
Summary: When's the next book coming out?
Review: When the first book of the prequel came out, some of the reviewers said that they wished Betancourt would write more like Zelazny had. Well, now he seems to have taken all this to heart: this book was very much in the Zelazny style. Action, characterization, wild fantastic worlds, and ...

... and a plot with a big bunch of loose ends! We're all waiting for the next book!