Sign of Chaos

The Chronicles of Amber, Book 8

By: Roger Zelazny

Narrated by: Wil Wheaton

Sign of Chaos is the eighth book of The Chronicles of Amber; an epic fantasy series written by six-time Hugo Award winning and three-time Nebula Award winning author, Roger Zelazny.

The ten books that make up the series are told in two story arcs: The Corwin Cycle and the Merlin Cycle.

Narrator Wil Wheaton, who won the 2012 Audie Award for his engaging performance of Fuzzy Nation, brings this classic series to a stunning close by giving voice to Merlin, Corwin’s son, in the final five books of the series.

Following the cliffhanger ending of Blood of Amber, Merlin is stranded in surrealistic Alice in Wonderland-esque bar where the Mad Hatter serves cocktails. Managing to escape, Merlin meets new family members--one of whom is intent on killing him. As events escalate, Merlin finds himself surrounded by his worst enemies including his ex-girlfriend--back from the dead.

©1987 The Amber Corporation (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

excellent read!

With things heating up for Merlin he'll have to escape peril and make alliances with unexpected magicians. Enjoy this well read book. I certainly did.

Formulaic, but still a fun read.

I first met Zelazny's Princes in Amber books a long time ago. By the 7th or 8th book they became a little too formulaic, but still enjoyable. Much, much better than the recent spate of twinkling vampires and ethical werewolves. I'd love to see these books rewritten in the depth of "Tales of Ice and Fire", or "Harry Potter'. Zelazny has the mythology charted, but his palette, however entertaining, is a bit narrow.

Wheaton and Zelazny are back!

I LOVE this series. I read it decades ago, in the all-in-one version. Wil struggled to voice the characters in book 7 but all is well in book 8. Maybe that is a director issue? I am uncertain. Sign of Chaos has a great story line and cast. This is worth owning!!

Merlin's adventure continues

I think a slightly higher male voice as narrator would have made Merlin his youth more apparent, for he is, in Amber terms, a younster.

Best of the second part

By far, this series does hold up to the first series. Corwyn or Merlyn? Both keep my interest and are satisfying.

Merle wises up, mask unmasked, plot unstuck!

This second Amber series gets progressively better each book. Two changes in the writing I noticed in this one. In the last book there was a hell of a lot of recap. Holy crap! Like one full chapter at the beginning and a long passage midway. Plus characters telling each other what happened in previous chapters. Also, Merle continued in his obtuseness through the entire second book, and it was essentially his blindness to events and forces around him that drove the plot. In this one, however, Zelazny starts in the middle of the action and then works in a short recap in a less objectionable fashion. After that, it's off to the races. And there are overt references made to Merle getting his head out of his ass and starting to think things through rather than being so gullible. So the writing, pacing, and plotting are notably better. Some of the mysteries start to unfold, which is a welcome change after two books of setting them up. Seems like Z likes this five books format with the middle one being a sort of bridge/turn.

On a different note, I have been remiss in mentioning that Wil Wheaton narrates this second series. The narrator for the first Amber series (Alessandro Juliani) was a complete ham! So terrible. Every voice had a different accent/nationality, and all of them were goofy caricatures of the real world thing. (A drawling westerner, a feisty scotsman, etc.) So maybe I just love Wil here because he is not Alessandro. But I listened to his reading of Agent to the Stars a while back and was pleasantly surprised. He is a damn fine narrator, actually, and I think he is the perfect personality for this series. He keeps a sort of light/fun tone that works well with the material.

Love this series

My only complaint with this series is the narrator. Not terrible just too many similar voices. Hard to make out who is who sometimes .

Fantastic story, narration could be improved

The Amber novels are a stand-out series and the first series had excellent narration. Wil does a great job as Merlin in this second series but he does not really change his voice much to accommodate all the different characters. He’s gotten better as he has been narrating the second series but he still needs to improve a lot. His Mandor , Bill and Jasra characters were good but none of the other characters really stand out. Julien and Random are just… Wil Wheaton.

I hope the next two are better.

best narrator ever!

The narration is excellent. No falsetto for female characters. each character is easily distinguished . excellent diction. speed and excitement when called for. Never heard better!

Wheaton Nails it Again!

Listening to Merlin brought to life by Will Wheaton is a masterpiece atop what is already legendary writing. He is bringing such deep thinking and calculating depth to his mindset which is so fitting!