Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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97 of 110 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Zelazny Didn't Want it Written And It Shouldn't Have Been, August 21, 2002
I have tried to be open-minded about the content of this novel itself and judge it on its own merits. That said, I have read it and found it wanting: wanting for a plot, wanting for interesting characters, wanting for something that indicates the author actually understood the original novels and short stories, and wanting, frankly, for a narrative style that isn't both pretentious and inept.I have rarely found a book with worse first-person narration. The narration is appallingly bad. Only in the worst of Amber fan fiction does one usually see first-person narration handled this poorly. Certainly nothing published in Amberzine has ever had such poor narrative style. In fairness, first-person narratives are hard to write. Zelazny was a master of the style. So is Brust. Betancourt clearly is not. One wonders then why he made the attempt as he was not up to the task. Betancourt's narrator is Oberon. This is one of the great tragedies of the novel. Much as the Star Wars prequels have taken Vader from being interesting to a simpering young man, so too has Betancourt reduced Oberon. Perhaps to emulate Zelazny's style in the Corwin novels, Betancourt gives us an Oberon unaware of his true origins and unaware of the true nature of his universe. While allowing the reader to discover things as Oberon does, this is a bad idea. The audience of this book is already going to be well-versed in Zelazny's cosmology. They have already seen this trick. This is the problem with much of the novel: we've seen it before and better elsewhere. Betancourt's setting, too, lacks appeal. Instead of the Courts of Chaos, Betancourt gives the run of the mill fantasy kingdom of Ilerium and an Amber substitute with the painfully bad name of Juniper. The sense of wonder found in Zelazny's novels is sorely needed here. There are no wondrous new settings, just stock locations from bad fantasy books. Interesting fantasy elements found in other Betancourt novels that gave me some small hope that he might do something interesting here. Alas, this is not the case. I can think of not one single scene that I thought was fresh or interesting or original or inspired. The character names, also, are uninspired. From the extremely unoriginal Uthor and Valeria to the incredibly boring Freda and Helda. The fantasy names are even worse: I find names such King Elnar and Lord Zon painful to read. Betancourt displays only the briefest hint that he read Zelazny's novels. He claims to be a fan, but certainly, it doesn't show in his work. The material he uses is derivative at best and you never see a love of the material shining through the work. The information he uses could actually have been gleaned from the RPG, rather than the novels. And as the Merlin series seems to contradict the Corwin series, so too does this series seem to contradict Zelazny's novels. Frankly, the much reviled VISUAL GUIDE and the even more despised COMPLETE AMBER SOURCEBOOK both felt closer to the spirit and intent of Zelazny's novels. Most Amber fan fiction is far better than this novel. Most fan fiction has a better understanding of Zelazny's universe. Most of it has better interpretations of the events leading to the creation of Amber. I know Zelazny didn't want other authors writing Amber novels. If only they had honored his wishes.
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A valiant attempt that tragically fell short, November 22, 2004
Admittedly I approached this work with trepidation, concerned that the master's work would be tainted by a follow-on amateur. Unfortunately upon reading the book my initial concern was mostly right. Betancourt is a good author but he's simply not Zelazny no matter how much he tries to write like him. Like other reviewers I think this work would have been much better if it had not been done in 1st person. Not only is that the hardest style to write convincingly but the vast majority of people reading this prequel already know everything that will follow anyway. It's simply not as fresh, funny, or fast paced as the original series.
Speaking of the original, I was privileged to meet Mr. Zelazny and speak with him for about an hour at a Sci-Fi convention about a year before his tragic death. Though he knew he was arguably the greatest author in the genre, I found him quiet, unassuming, and shy; yet he had a sly charm and razor wit. He was also one of the most intelligent people I have ever met. Most of the conversation was about swords and armor and other things that had nothing to do with his books, though one of the topics that came up was his Amber novels. I got the distinct impression that they ranked among his favorite creations, something he did not want anyone else messing around with - hence no movies, TV shows, or other authors playing with his characters. This preview was clearly authorized yet I suspect Roger wouldn't have been real happy about that.
Betancourt's plot was OK but not great, too much like a rehash of the original series. As with all prequels it's very hard to be truly creative or surprising when everyone knows what must eventually occur anyway. The characters were acceptable but not exceptional though the names were truly uninspiring. Oberon's personality doesn't quite jive with his older self though I suppose that can be explained simply through the maturation process. The setting, however, was pretty darn flat. I really don't understand what appeal Ilerium could possibly have over the Courts of Chaos. Overall I think that this book was a great try, a valiant attempt at continuing the Amber legacy. Even though this work fell short I do intend to read the second one to see if Betancourt has gained his stride.
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27 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Would be good... if there was a plot., September 23, 2002
In general, I didn't hate it. Granted, I also have a lingering fondness for the Merlin series despite all the evidence against it. I found the depiction of a pre-Amber universe at least conceivable and believable. While it did not fit my own view of what it would be like, it seemed plausible. And, it in fact sort of answered questions I myself hadn't come up with answers that satisfied me. Like "Why is Dworkin's universe so unlike the Courts of Chaos?" In general the feel of the book reminded me of Michael Stackpole's "A Hero Reborn".There were a handful of things that I did not like about it, however. I'll present them roughly in order of occurance to me. - Printing quality: While this is generally a ... quibble, I think it's very valid in this case. Amazon bills it as being 416 pages. It's not. It's 299, consisting of large print and spacing, and inch-plus margins. Printed at a reasonable size, the book would be about a hundred pages. - Lack of Imagination: While I could have cared less about the names, there was very little I found new and innovative regarding this book. While torturing one of Dworkin's sons and using the blood as a scrying device was interesting, there was little else in the way of imagination. Fire-breathing horses, snake men, bat people and the ever-so-poorly named "hell-creatures" are things that I could find in a Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual. I wanted something a bit fresh and interesting. - Inconsistent with Amber: While there wasn't a whole lot of interaction with the events in Zelazny's books to conflict with, there were a couple of things that didn't quite mesh. The first was that the Logrus, defined as something that "alters itself somewhat constantly", is alluded to being something with a fixed form in the books. Dworkin and his brood are noted as having inborn reflections of the Logrus that are warped and cause them difficulty in initiating into the Logrus. Which doesn't jibe with the Logrus being a mutable thing. However, Betancourt may have something in the upcoming books that may define a middle ground between popular fan opinions and his own work. The second is that Dworkin's children are apparently ignorant of their ability to shapeshift, despite them having all gone to Chaos at least once to walk the Logrus. Only Dworkin and Oberon seem to be aware of the potential. Whereas Zelazny stated in his Amber series that "All whose origins involve Chaos are shapeshifters." That being one of the most fundamental aspects of the Courts of Chaos in the Merlin series, I was quite disappointed by this apparent contradiction. - Lack of Plot: The biggest disappointment after reading through the sparse 300 odd pages was that there was quite simply no plot. There was the beginning of a plot. But there was no complete plot. Oberon is rescued from a threat to his life in Shadow, he is taken back to Dworkin's home and learns of Shadow and Logrus and the Courts of Chaos, he meets a bunch of relatives he never knew he had, an assassin tries to kill him, armies come in to attack Dworkin's house, and they all think of a sneaky way to flee. That's it. No conflict, not even some major stumbling blocks along the way. Just, Oberon going from one place to another, meeting some people, and occasionally fighting things. I'm almost wondering if this is iBook's fault. The online descriptions of the book implied that this book would ultimately be about Oberon going into the Courts of Chaos and facing intrigue there. "To achieve his legacy of power and become a player in this deadly game whose rules he is yet to discover, Obere must journey into the serpent's lair, the home of his enemies...the Courts of Chaos." But this first book ends with them getting ready to leave for Chaos. If my estimation of 100 pages is correct, then another 300 pages would have been sufficient to turn this mere weak introduction into a book with room for character development and an intrigue filled plot. My bet is that iBooks decided last minute to turn this trilogy into a longer series to milk it for more money, so they chopped the first book off at the knees to give it a "cliffhanger" ending, and left Betancourt looking like an ... Ultimately, this is what cripples the book. If it wasn't cut off here, if it went on through the Courts of Chaos, there would be a plausible plot and possibly more character development. Instead, you've just got a crippled critter that is interesting, but not particularly good.
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by John Gregory Betancourt
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