Customer Reviews

Roger Zelazny's To Rule in Amber (New Amber Trilogy)

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Though better than the first two installments, especially in terms of meshing with the Amber cosmology. It is still generally lacking. The whole story seems generally rushed and fails to really explore anything to any depth. The protagonist remains uninteresting, alternating between ineptitude and over-competence for no clear or identifiable reason.

I remember first reading Zelazny's Amber series as a teenage. If fact, I I checked out each of the books a few times from the library back then. I loved the originality and the sense of true wonder that they gave me.

I didn't read Betancourt's first three Amber books until after they were all published, if fact I've had all three for a few years before I read them. Earlier in the year, I reread all ten of the original Amber books and now I've finished with all three of Betancourt's books. Frankly, it's night and day. The Betancout books seriously miss the mark for me. I found them uninventive, uninspired, and downright boring! The storylines were bland and predictable and the characters were scripted and stiff. Betancourt's Oberon and Dworkin were very different from how Zelazny described them. There were literally no suprises for me as I read these books and that's a shame.

Now I'm easily entertained, I enjoy a good easy entertaining read such as the Harry Potter series and the Twilight series. However, this trilogy was downright juvenile! I'm certainly no writer myself and not a great storyteller either, but I felt as if I could have easily written this myself and probably even better.

I also have a major gripe with the publisher. My first problem is with the typos; there are quite a few in each book. I rarely see typos in novels but to have at least 3-4 in each book? That's just unacceptable! My second issue is the huge font size and page spacing of all three books. I was literally finished reading each book in less than three hours! I'm not a speed reader but I'm not slow either. This "trilogy" could easily have been combined into one book, two if you want to stretch it out, but three...now you're really milking it. I feel as if I've been ripped off and that's all on the publisher.

So in my opinion, save yourself the money and the frustration and just avoid these books. If you need an Amber fix, go reread the original series again. But if you must read these then at least try to pick them up cheaply second hand or at the library. You'll probably still be disappointed in the content but at least you won't have overpaid for them.

In the third installment of the series, Betancourt reveals the depths of the treachery in the Courts of Chaos and their lasting effects on the hero of the series, Oberon and the very universe. The book begins where Chaos an Amber left off just following the creation of the new Pattern. The results of Oberon and his father Dworkin's actions and their part in a much larger plot that threatens to see a new ruler in Chaos and to destroy the very fabric of the universe are revealed. As the plot unfolds the reader is treated to a front row seat for the creation of the what is to become their new family home, Amber itself, and for the development of Oberon into its eventual King.

Betancourt seems much more comfortable with both Zelazney's amazing universe, and with his own characters in this installment. Many things that seemed unclear or unlikely in the first two books are explained by the plot as it takes shape before our eyes. Betancourt's characters really come into their own in this book and are certainly reminiscent of Zelazney's own inspirations.

The book is a wonderful read, a definite page turner, and I would highly recommend it to fans of Zelazney's novels and the Amber universe.