Customer Reviews

To Rule in Amber (New Amber Trilogy)

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

 

 

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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. The final pages of this book actually gave me chills, and for the briefest of moments I had to remind myself that Zelazney himself hadn't penned the last paragraph!

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 the last few chapters of this book are at least as enjoyable as "Knight of Shadows," my least-favorite novel in Zelazny's original series! Though the two authors are clearly in different leagues, I think it's fair to say that Betancourt on his best day is capable of evoking some of the majesty and charm of Zelazney on his worst... and Betancourt was obviously at the very top of his game when he wrote the last several chapters of "To Rule In Amber!"

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.

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.

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.

Excellent! Betancourt has caught the spirit of the series and I have no doubt that Zelazny would be proud of him. The interplay between charachters and the struggles with the family continue on in pure Zelazny style. All in all a wonderful book.
Keep 'em comin' John!!!