John Gregory Betancourt
Dawn of Amber (2003)
Chaos and Amber (2003)
To Rule in Amber (2004)
Author: John Gregory Betancourt
Genre: Fantasy
Plot Summary:
A prequel to Roger Zelazny’s beloved Amber novels, this series, beginning with Dawn of Amber, tells the tale of Oberon, a general in the employ of King Elnar in the land of Ilerium. Within pages, Oberon is whisked away by his uncle Dworkin. His true nature is then revealed. Dworkin is not his uncle, but rather his father. Dworkin is also more than a crazed old man with some illusionist’s tricks up his sleeves, he is a prince of Chaos. Basically, there is only one true world: Chaos. However, Dworkin has used powerful magic to create another order that is antithetical to Chaos. Better these two worlds are infinite alternate realities called Shadows. The royal family members of Chaos can travel between Shadows by bending their surroundings to their wills to find worlds of their liking. Anyway, the King of Chaos is none-too-pleased with the existence of Dworkin’s alternate order and the presence of Shadow worlds, and he wants Dworkin and all of his kin killed. Dworkin takes Oberon to his stronghold where they join Oberon’s brothers and sisters and plan a last stand against the forces of Chaos. The tale involves a lot of familial subterfuge. The reader is never sure where allegiances lay for someone seems willing to side with Chaos and turn over Dworkin’s kin in exchange for clemency from the King of Chaos. SPOILER: Dworkin and Oberon avoid all manner of assassination plots, destroy the Pattern which serves as an anchor for order, redraw it, and then Oberon becomes king of this new axis of order naming it Amber while creating enough headaches in Chaos that a truce between the two orders is eventually reached.
Geographical Setting: Amber, Court of Chaos, various “shadow” worlds
Time Period: irrelevant
Series: Zelazny Estate-endorsed prequel to the Amber novels written between 1970 and the early 1990s by the late Roger Zelazny.
Appeal Characteristics:
The main appeal characteristic of these novels is going to be for those who want more Amber. Zelazny did die just after reintroducing his series’ most beloved character. Being a huge fan of the original series, I can tell you that the desire to see the story continue was the only draw for me. Betancourt is a capable writer, and he does a good job of capturing the flavor of Zelazny’s style, but he’s not Zelazny. The story is fairly fast-paced but never touches on the triumph of books 3 and 4 of the original series. There is also no tie-in with the Shadow-world of Earth, as there is in Zelazny’s tales. The tale does include a lot of dry humor, wit, military science, and familial politics.
Read-alikes:
The original Amber novels by the late Roger Zelazny would be an obvious starting point. That series begins with Nine Princes in Amber. While it doesn’t deal with “shadow” worlds, David Eddings’ Belgariad is an excellent series that matches Zelazny’s in tone (the first book in that series is Pawn of Prophecy). Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time is another logical read-alike fantasy series (the first book in that series is The Eye of the World. If you really like humor in your fantasy, try Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels or Robert Aspirin’s Myth series. One could also try other titles by Betancourt like Johnny Zed or his Star Trek novels like Infection or Incident at Arbuk.
Red Flags: There is a fair amount of violence and violent imagery. There is also mention of Oberon’s “wenching”, but the book lacks foul language.
|top|
|
