Blood of Amber: The Chronicles of Amber, Book 7

The second series of 5 Amber novels adds immensely to the depth of Amber as a world. The character of Merlin is excellent, a computer geek trained as a sorcerer...what's the difference? Wil Wheaton performs the voices perfectly.

Alessandro Juliani, who narrated the first half of the series, from Corwin's pov, did a really good job of capturing the tone and attitude of Zelazny's writing.

Wil Wheaton, narrating the books from the pov of Merlin, son of Corwin, pick that up and also does a great job. I never have trouble distinguishing which character is speaking at any given moment, he remembers inflections and accents that he gives bit parts and keeps them consistent.

Zelzany's writing is always an interesting mix of whimsical, edgy, and inventive. Sometimes the descriptions of landscapes go on and on, but by and large this is a very enjoyable and original series.

If I were forced to rank "Blood of Amber" on a scale of one to ten, I would say it is a solid six. The difficulty I have with it is the length. I enjoy a more comprehensive listen, and would easily rank the series a Ten of Ten where all the Amber books combined into as single reading.

I found Wil Wheaton's performance very easy to listen too. I have read the books in the past and Wheaton's vocal flavoring of the characters was in line with my own internal imaginings, which made the performance very entertaining for me.

I listen to audiobooks regularly. I have a special place in my heart for Roger Zelazny as he was the first science fiction author I ever read. I tore into his stories of Amber with a great amount of zeal as a young man. The premise of shaping reality by mere force of will through infinite possibility was so enticing to me. The series backdrop is so well thought out that it allows for anything to happen, any plot to evolve any twist to take root. Roger Zelazny masterfully takes advantage of this in all of his Amber books. The story elements of family relations, politics, the romance of combat by blade, cunning and force of intellect. The underlying themes of balance in all things, Chaos and Order, Good and Evil, Right and Wrong, these books are all simply outstanding.