Roger Zelazny's The Dawn of Amber

By: John Betancourt, Roger Zelazny

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

From Publishers Weekly Fans of the late Roger Zelazny's popular Amber series should flock to this workmanlike, authorized prequel, the first of a projected trilogy, by Betancourt (Infection and three other Star Trek novels). Readers familiar with the heroes Corwin and Merlin from the earlier books will soon catch on that Betancourt's protagonist, the Conan-like Oberon (aka Obere), will one day be their father. In the realm of Chaos, Obere is as handy with his sword as with his sweethearts, serving the king of an outlying world. He is innocent of the magic that rules in his universe until he discovers he is not an orphan but has a nearly 200-year-old father, Dworkin, with vast magical abilities and many progeny from a wide assortment of mothers. Not all these siblings are loving, Obere finds. Betancourt captures the fantastic nature of the original and peppers his story with Amber-familiar terms such as Logrus, that mystical gift which enables its holders to accomplish seemingly impossible tasks and travel vast distances instantly; Trumps, the illustrated cards that assist those with Logrus to travel and even to foretell the future; and Courts of Chaos, the center of this pre-Amberian world. The narrative may lack the sparkling wit of its predecessors, but the cliffhanger ending should leave the faithful hungry for the next installment. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library Journal Snatched from the jaws of death by the mysterious figure he knows only as Dworkin, young Obere travels to the realm of Juniper, one of the lands of Shadow that mirror the Courts of Chaos. There he learns his true identity and his flawed heritage and meets his eccentric and magically powerful family for the first time. Working under authorization from the estate of the late Roger Zelazny, Betancourt inaugurates a new series that takes place in the popular world of the Amber novels. Exploring the origins of Amber itself and the nature of the world's most enigmatic character, Dworkin the "mad," Betancourt creates a thrill-a-minute series opener that should appeal to longtime fans of the previous series. For most fantasy collections.

Inappropriate pauses.

Pauses in the middle of words and the lack of pauses at the end of sentences. Also, the saying "-" instead of a brief pause.

new Amber books

do not care for AI narrator, but want the new stories, wasn't given a choice for a live narrator 😭

Loved the story. The AI reader sucks

The AI just doesnt do as good a job as a human. Spend the big bucks and hire a human, it will ne well worth it. Shame on youforletting AI read it.

Good book and great story, narration is annoying

I’ve read all of the other books in the Amber series, and this one doesn’t disappoint from a content/story perspective. However, the AI reading othis title was fairly annoying. The tone of the voice sounds pretty good, but the pace, unnatural pauses, and reading out of punctuation marks detracted from the overall experience.

I’m still glad I bought the book, because I really wanted to read it and this was a good story for a long drive. However, I sure wish a real voice actor had done the reading.

Weird pauses and mispronounced words

Good story. Interesting characters plus some odd glimpses of shadows. If you have read the original series it will help.