Customer Reviews

Blood of Amber (Chronicles of Amber: The Merlin Cycle, Book II)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

You asked for a great book and you got it! It's this one. (And the whole 10 books of the series). This book features Merlin, Lord of Chaos, and magician, who also happens to have a computer science degree from Berkeley. In this book, Merle is in the woods sleeping when he hears a threatening voice of an otherworldly creature that has appeared in the darkness that says "I am the enemy - the one you thought you would never come". Then there is a flashback while Merle remembers and philosophizes about several events in his life revolving around power. He then answers the voice in the woods, saying "It's about time". This is very Zelaznian humor which is one of the great features of these books. In addition, there is lots of great adventure. Zelazny really can write. His is an evolved writing form, far beyond his contemporaries.

Not much body to this review, but I just thought I'd say that the Amber series is one of my favourites, and I really like this book in particular. Scrof, the Dweller on the Threshold, is hilarious!

This one was quite interesting, though the ending was a bit convoluted. Still, I am interested in these new/old problems rising against the House of Amber. Merlin is a good character, though I do prefer Corwin (will we ever find out what happened to him?!).

Merlin starts this volume by breaking out of a locked cave, challenging a cave demon, and spending his rest period watching a battle at the Keep of the Four Worlds while chitchatting with a deserter. So much for idle relaxation - Merlin keeps frantically jumping from one death threat to another always avoiding the falling horde or slashing claws by a hairs breadth.

Blood of Amber reveals a layered series of plots all of which want Merlin either dead or under close control. Relatives, friends, and potential mates all are suspect while the fate of Amber hangs in the balance - and perhaps the fate of all that lies in shadow as well. For the alternate Pattern created by Corwin to stave off the advance of Chaos has begin to create reverberations of its own and shadow storms are beginning to wreak havoc.

At some point, the reader will realize that all the intricate moves that comprise the action in Blood of Amber are getting too rapid to keep good track of. At this point one must simply go along for the ride from wasteland to wonderland. It is the nature of Zelazny's writing that this remains fun, rather than dissolving in the same chaos that threatens Amber.

Merlin has been imprisoned by Luke, but he escapes. He tries a different tack by do something nice for Luke, and ends in a crazy situation due to a weird Trump.

Those Trump things are just a lot of trouble, too many frequently encountered variant edition and different versions. Bad enough using them, imagine trying to collect them!

Zelazny has a great sense of humor and is a master at putting an interesting story together. But there are certain things about his style that annoy me.

The main thing that annoys me is the way he pulls things out of his hat, out of nowhere, destroying the credibility of the story. Anyone can do anything at any time. At the end of this book, for example, he takes us to Alice In Wonderland World. I feel like screaming at him - cut it out, dammit! You have a good story here. Then you ruin it.

Another thing that annoys me about his style is that he over-plans. He has way too much detail to tease us with. He leaves us with so many loose ends. Who is this guy, who is that guy, what is the significance of this detail, and so on. Too much already. We know you are writing a story. We know you planned it out to the nth degree. We only know what you tell us. Stop leaving so many puzzles there for us, it's annoying.

Something keeps me reading this series. Book Six gave me hope that he would get sober and serious and just tell us a story, but then Book Seven took us to Wonderland and had us in Dungeon and Dragon land with the spells. Zelazny should have put some limits and some rules on his universe instead of just winging it in any direction he felt like going, from book to book.

The concept is interesting enough to rival Lord of the Rings, and the sense of humor far surpasses LOTR, which has very little of that. But Zelazny really should have taken this writing more seriously and given us a credible universe instead of an ever-changing cartoon. This whole series screams "wasted potential".