The Amber Chronicles

[Ka-tet]

Somone else here must have read these books, im on the fourth at the moment, and let me tell you its astounding. The only serise ive read to rival the dark tower in my opinion. And corwin reminds me of roland in some respects.

So what do you guys think? Remember to forwarn any spoilers.

[pathoftheturtle]

Yar, I made that comparison back on tdt.net. I read all ten of Zelazny's originals some time ago.

What do I think? Well, the metaphysics are quite interesting, and there's some very clever drama, but it is really just action-adventure. I wouldn't say that it rivals DT on all levels.

[Ka-tet]

Yar, I made that comparison back on tdt.net. I read all ten of Zelazny's originals some time ago.

What do I think? Well, the metaphysics are quite interesting, and there's some very clever drama, but it is really just action-adventure. I wouldn't say that it rivals DT on all levels.

Not on ALL levels of course nothing can do that :P.I enjoy the relationships between corwin and his siblings, i find it humerous how they interact :P

[cody44]

I have them all in a large edition, but have yet to read any of them.

[Jean]

What do I think? Well, the metaphysics are quite interesting, and there's some very clever drama, but it is really just action-adventure. I wouldn't say that it rivals DT on all levels. Not on all levels? I can't think of a single one. While Zelazny is good at inventing things (which I would say was a prerequisite for being a fantasy writer), he is very mediocre at anything else, like, you know, writing. His characters belong in cartoons - by the way, are there Amber cartoons? if they were, I'd be happy to watch - and his dialogs in fanfiction. The only thing I really liked was the playing cards they use for traveling; bears could do with a few of those.

[Ka-tet]

What do I think? Well, the metaphysics are quite interesting, and there's some very clever drama, but it is really just action-adventure. I wouldn't say that it rivals DT on all levels. Not on all levels? I can't think of a single one. While Zelazny is good at inventing things (which I would say was a prerequisite for being a fantasy writer), he is very mediocre at anything else, like, you know, writing. His characters belong in cartoons - by the way, are there Amber cartoons? if they were, I'd be happy to watch - and his dialogs in fanfiction. The only thing I really liked was the playing cards they use for traveling; bears could do with a few of those.

I belive you stated at least one area in which amber rivals DT yourself Jean. Invention. One of the things that facinated me at least, about The Dark Tower, was the world (s), in which it was set. Amber, and its various shadows is somthing that draws me into the cronicles even more.

Of course this is all just my opinon, im sure others will disagree :P

[pathoftheturtle]

...The only thing I really liked was the playing cards they use for traveling...One might argue that, in a very superficial sense, those are more creative than wooden doors, but, on balance, the series with more great inventions is nevertheless TDT. The clear winner, even there.
Many of SK's details are corny and ridiculous, but that goes both ways.


...I wouldn't say that it rivals DT on all levels. Not on all levels? I can't think of a single one. ...You know, Jean, that I'm not often caught being too polite, but no one is perfect.

I will say that it is practically a relief to read novels like these, which are basically stupid in what they say about good and evil, after DT, which seems to tease and tantalize and stands all the more disturbing in its ambiguity.
With Amber, I can at least declare easily that I don't really believe in any of it, whereas King does know how to write and uses it to make me feel strongly that I should either defend his work or attack it, then leaves me unable to decide. Brilliant... but not real nice. :lol:

[Jean]

I belive you stated at least one area in which amber rivals DT yourself Jean. Invention.



...The only thing I really liked was the playing cards they use for traveling...One might argue that, in a very superficial sense, those are more creative than wooden doors, but, on balance, the series with more great inventions is nevertheless TDT. The clear winner, even there.

I would say the difference between the cards and the doors is the key. The cards seem nothing more than a means of communication, totally predictable and no different than any other except in convenience and speed. The artist made them as ordered by those princes, as if he was constructing railways; the difference is merely quantitative. The doors, however, are objects whose nature or purpose seems all but unexhaustible. White Rabbit’s holes at the intersection of different universes, knots of tension at the most important points of human existence, archways through which one’s own self may not reemerge unscathed or unchanged, secret paths around, or sometimes right into the middle of, todash madness… To me it really looks like the difference in depth, convoluteness, and beauty between those cards and these doors is, in fact, the difference between the sagas.

[pathoftheturtle]

Wow, I hadn't noticed that you posted again, Jean. (Not that I remember, anyway.) Interesting argument... However, another point to mind is that the princes can also cross worlds without any cards. (Perhaps The Talisman would have been a better comparison. But then, TDT is now quite tangled into that mythos.)

There are innumerable realities in both of these series, yet, also in both, some of them are more real than others. I've mentioned often how uncomfortable I am with SK's "keystone" concept, yet it is that which most reminds me of the Amber books. The concept that the city of Amber is the most real world drives the ambitions of the princes, and also justifies their arrogance.

[ur2ndbiggestfan]

Zelazny outwrites King any day. He was one of the best science fiction/fantasy authors of all time. He was marvellous at writing and his ideas were monumental. For a picture of many, including all the first editions of the Amber books, check out my pictures at THE COLLECTOR.

[Dead Man]

Fwiw I think Amber was really good for its time. I read them when I was a freshman in HS and they were pretty damn good to me at the time. They don't hold up as well for me today. I am actually interested in Timothy Zelazny. I follow him on Facebook. He is a great tortured writer I haven't read anything but the way he comes across is hmmm tortured.

[pathoftheturtle]

Roger Zelazny, author of the Chronicles of Amber, passed away. I'm not sure who you're thinking of. Timothy Zahn?

[Dead Man]

Roger Zelazny, author of the Chronicles of Amber, passed away. I'm not sure who you're thinking of. Timothy Zahn?


Roger's son. It is Trent not Timothy. Yeah I wouldn't mistake him with Timothy Zahn.

http://trentzelazny.com/

[pathoftheturtle]

I wouldn't mistake him with Timothy Zahn.

Good to know. Once in a while, someone new posts a few things that barely make sense in old threads before they start advertising spam. Nice to meet you.

[Merlin1958]

Zelazny outwrites King any day. He was one of the best science fiction/fantasy authors of all time. He was marvellous at writing and his ideas were monumental. For a picture of many, including all the first editions of the Amber books, check out my pictures at THE COLLECTOR.

Oh, come now!!! Really? I have not read these books, and I am now inclined, but you are putting this guy ahead of Tolkien, Ellison, Bradbury, Hubbard and Asimov" Really? Sorry but IDFTS (Translation "I don't fucking think so") Hate to differ with you on this point as we usually agree but really? How about Lewis Carroll and Jules Verne? And "King"? I could go on...

I am floored by this!!

And "Alas, I thought I knew you so well" LOL LOL LOL

[ur2ndbiggestfan]

I think I had just read LISEY'S STORY or THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON before I wrote that statement. So I was a little discouraged with King at the time. I now retract it, although I still love the Amber novels, and most of Zelazny's works. I collected Zelazny years before I started King, who I resisted even reading before I read The Mist, and then I was hooked.

I have re-read the Amber series three times, and always find it hard to put down. The same can be said (hard to put down) for the latest King book I read, 11-22-63, which I think is one of his best novels.

So - I like everybody! Haven't read much Hubbard though, except for the 10 book series he wrote (can't think of the name of it), and BATTLEFIELD EARTH, which I thought was sort of a young adult novel.

[mattgreenbean]

Well, with all the discussion, I think I'll have to check out the series myself.

[pathoftheturtle]

It's fun. Not terribly deep, but worth reading for entertainment.

[ur2ndbiggestfan]

NINE PRINCES IN AMBER
1st/1st signed by Zelazny
1st/1st ex library copy (cost me $2)
1st/1st UK
Gregg Press edition
paperbacks

http://i759.photobucket.com/albums/xx239/2ndbiggest/AMBERbooks.jpg

[petricmina9]

What was most interesting to me were the references and similarities, e.g. when Random describes his trek to the tower in which he actually quotes >>childe roland to the dark tower came<<, where his brother, Brandon, sits and, he fears, has lost his mind / paralleling the Crimson King. Also the Martin, Merlin stuff.