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Posted By: Bmat Aug 05, 2003 - 06:39 am

Roger Zelazny’s Dawn of Amber

By John Gregory Betancourt (author)

Ibooks, Inc. 2002

Roger Zelazny’s Dawn of Amber tells the story of the events before the Amber series by Roger Zelazny. Amber has not yet been created, and the Courts of Chaos are a powerful and seemingly invincible force.

The story is told from the point of view of Oberon. Oberon is a loyal and strong soldier, dedicated to serving his king. Dworkin arrives in Oberon’s world and removes him to Dworkin’s castle. Oberon gradually discovers that he has a large family, and that they possess special powers, such as walking through Shadows.

The family is under attack by forces from the Courts of Chaos. Oberon has to learn to live in the world that he did not know existed.

I read the book in two days, partly because I was eager for more about Amber, and partly because the book mainly sets the stage for future events. It was interesting to learn more about the background of the Amber series, but the writing was not that of Zelazny.

Betancourt writes a good story, but when one compares the writing Zelazny's, it falls short. In Zelazny’s books, I never doubted that the characters were from the world described by Zelazny. In Dawn, the characters came across as being from our own world and time. The conversations did not have the sense of the background that was typical of Zelazny’s creations. I felt that Oberon was a contemporary of mine.

I also observed that the device of showing the reader about the world of Oberon and his family was very similar to the device used in Zelazny’s Nine Princes of Amber. The narrator knows nothing of Shadows or his family and must tread lightly while learning and not disclosing that the learning process is occurring. It was a fascinating way in Nine Princes to learn about Amber. It is not quite as fascinating in Dawn.

For fans of the Amber series, read Dawn. It will help satisfy the desire for more about Amber. For those who haven’t read the Amber series, Dawn is still a good read, but I suggest that it would mean more to the reader who has read the Amber series first.

Dawn is the first of three in the series by Betancourt.


Review by the writer behind Bmat.

Posted By: MerleZ Aug 06, 2003 - 05:24 am

Thanks, Bmat! I'm always skeptical when some writer decides he/she has what it takes to write in some other writer's universe. Christopher Tolkien published his father's unfinished works, but never really presumed to write "new" stories.

I can't say I'm really interested in reading Dawn of Amber, as it would always seem a forgery. After all, it is Roger Zelazny's Amber, no one else's. And sadly, he has left us.

Just my two cents, without reading the book.

Posted By: Bmat Aug 06, 2003 - 08:55 am

I found it impossible to resist, and I am not unhappy that I didn't. The book is not the same quality as those by Zelazny. But I was so interested in reading more about the Amber universe that I did not much mind it.