Blood of Amber

The Chronicles of Amber, Book 7

By: Roger Zelazny

Narrated by: Wil Wheaton

Length: 6 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's Summary

Blood of Amber is the seventh 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.

Pursued by a fiendish enemy, Merle must battle through an intricate web of vengeance and murder that threatens more than the San Francisco Bay area. For Merle Corey of California is also Merlin, son of Corwin, vanished Prince of Amber; and the forces, seeking to destroy the royal house, have unleashed sorceries that can strike anywhere, especially at the very heart of Amber.

©1986 The Amber Corporation (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

The Plot Thickens

Don't start reading with this book! Go back and start with the Trumps of Doom (the first in this second series) or ALL THE WAY back to the beginning of the first Chronicles of Amber, Nine Princes in Amber. (Though if you do the latter, I'll have to recommend reading it in print. The audiobook narrator is ... in a word ... awful. I'm still hoping Audible will pay Wil Wheaton to go back and re-record the first series!)

Merlin is in some ways a more interesting character than Corwin, though his somewhat forced naïveté is off-putting. (As I mentioned in my review of the last book, just hold on a bit longer. It starts getting better in book 3, and books 4 and 5 are real fun.) In this book we get a few good bits:

• More insights into Logrus magic (my favorite parts)
• New Amberites are uncovered
• The political landscape and plot are revealed

Oddly, a huge amount of the book is just the author recapping earlier events and telling you stuff through the medium of conversations: Merle and Luke, Merle and Caine's wife (or is she?), Merle and a hermit above the Keep of the Four Winds. It feels like a weak gumshoe novel in a lot of ways - investigative interviews punctuated by someone getting beat up.

Love Zelazny as writer, but Wheaton FTW

What made the experience of listening to Blood of Amber the most enjoyable?

I have both the random house Mr. Zelazny narrated version AND the audible frontiers one with Mr. Wil Wheaton. The SFX that random house put in the background are extremely distracting and at points I had to turn it off. Seriously a high pitch screech for a LARGE portion of a book drove me to buy a 'different version' (this one) and it is far far superior. I don't blame Mr Zelazny for this but Random Houses Audio wing.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Merle Corey - main protaganist is a deeper character than his father Corwin was in the novels.

Which character – as performed by Wil Wheaton – was your favorite?

Merle - really I need 15 words to give a one word answer? Kind of silly if you ask me.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

I've read and reread the series and have listened multiple times to the RH version, I use these for a long (28 mile one way) commute in Silicon Valley.

Amber was my gateway to science fiction

Where does Blood of Amber rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

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.

Have you listened to any of Wil Wheaton’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

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.

Any additional comments?

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.

the new narrator is terrible

The person narrating the later books is far worse than the person who did the first few

Obviously great, but I miss the voices

I love it but I miss all the voices from previous Amber series. Random sounds too dignified for my taste. Still very well read and an excellent story.

slow and a little cumbersome.

there's always going to be a book like this in a big group in a series. you're the one that's running backs andfils. I have to admit I just miss Corwin. does it seem to be the same withouthim.

Wil Wheaton does an Awesome performance

A must listen! you will not want to miss this awesome performance of this amazing series..

Wheaton Aces Merlin Yet Again!

The story series in itself requires a certain kind of audoemce but Wheaton makes it so interesting with his cool narriration, portraying the collected. yet busy-minded Son of Corwin.

Great

Zelazny is one of the greats. This is the third or fourth book that I have purchesed had Wil Wheaten narrating. It is the first one that seems to have been forced and not to the usual caliber.

Good continuation of the Amber novels.

Good story and like the movement but on its own not enough core plot. more of a pass through book as opposed to a solid novel unto it self.