Customer Reviews

The Complete Amber Sourcebook

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

 

 

Krulik's "Complete Amber Sourcebook" is a lot of fun. Arranged in encyclopedic format, it contains numerous and varied entries about most of the major people, places, things, and events described in Roger Zelazny's 'Amber' novels. Although there are some glaring omissions, Zelazny is said to have approved and personally edited this material before publication; Zelazny's involvement certainly gives the book legitimacy, although its degree of 'canonicity' is up to the individual reader.

The best parts of this book are arguably those dealing with Amber and its immediate surroundings ('Amber,' the city, and 'Amber,' the region). There are extensive notes on language and history. The book also provides colorful background on enigmatic subjects that Zelazny mentioned casually in his fiction, such as the Moon-Riders of Ghanesh, or the deaths of Osric and Finndo.

I think that a lot of the negative feedback I've seen about this book is because it challenges individual preconceptions about things dear to the hearts of Zelazny's loyal fans. Krulik also peppers his encyclopedic entries with original quotations or dialogues from Zelazny's characters, which occasionally get too cute to stomach. There also seems to be undue attention paid to extremely minute or obscure details (sheet music for Corwin's "Ballad of the Water Crossers?") while more obvious topics go unexplored. All in all, though, I thought that this was a great reference for the serious 'Amber' fan.

Okay, so the author probably took a few liberties here and there...this is still a darned good sourcebook for any Amberphile. The topics are pretty extensive and what liberties that are taken do not seem to contradict, but rather enhance the experience of reading the books. Now if only someone will come out with an Amber tribute series of shortstories...

Theodore Krulik takes on the daunting task of compiling the people and places of Roger Zelazny's Amber into a reference work. While filled with detail, the work suffers from Krulik's apparent 'invention' of history and details -- there is no mention of specific discussions with Zelazny, so these speculations are far from being canon -- and a few curious omissions.

However, Krulik does shine in his notes on Thari, the tongue of Amber, also mentioning R. McAllister's The Secret Languages of Ireland (available through amazon.com!).

Despite the author's attempt, the book misses on many levels, the least of which is cross-referencing Zelazny's material instead of 'fluffing' the story he wrote. The Amber language and calendar elements are good. The timeline vs. Shadow Earth is interesting. The omission of Mirelle, Lora, Carmella, while including characters much less central is puzzling. Especially when the author states he had Zelazny's ear to answer such questions. Fans will respect what is included and moan over what is missed here. The geneology chart doesn't agree with other sources. You'll find no mention of Shroudlings, or other elements from the short stories.

As an "incomplete" Amber source-book, I could not find much fault with this work -- especially as approved by Roger Zelazny. As a "complete" Amber source-book, I can remark that as the complex Worlds-of-Amber DO have many aspects presented and implied by Roger Zelazny -- who is now gone -- SO we will likely never see a complete Amber source-book. As for Amber background source-books -- there are only a few -- such as "The Complete Amber Sourcebook" and the [so-called] "Roger Zelazny's Visual Guide to Castle Amber" -- as well as a number of attempted additional Amber novels and novellas -- all NOT written by Roger Zelazny. At least the first two works merely claim to be background source references -- and therefore do not attempt to match or meet Roger Zelazny as the singular author of such a complexly aspected singular topic as Roger Zelazny's Worlds-of-Amber. "The Complete Amber Sourcebook" succeeds well-and-good at presenting spot-on choice Amber background material via alphabetic topic. I was especially happy to see the modest survey of Thari [Amber language] on pages 443, 444 and 445 -- related to Old Irish -- even as Thari by name +++

The subjects should be a few lines long not a few pages and I didn't like the writer adding things that wasn't in the original Amber chronicals. but for all those who design Amber web page and need to review a specifc subject or recall the action of some charecter this is a great book.

I know the author and have discussed the book with him. He is one of a very, very limited number of people who have interviewed Zelazny in regard to the Amber series. Ted's book is well written and is a good source for information in regard to the long and somewhat complicated series.

Get the 10 Amber novels and read them. If that's not enough, get Roger Zelazny's Visual Guide.... then....

Read them again. Why waste time on someone else's meanderings? I have no idea.