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The Chronicles of Amber
Visual Guide to Castle Amber
With more than 1,500,000 books sold, Amber is one of the most popular fantasy series ever created. Now, the world of Amber has taken on an exciting new dimension, one that will bring to even greater life its magic, mystery, and truth, so...
Enter: The tour of Castle Amber is about to begin—with vivid illustrations, detailed floor plans, cutaway drawings, and page after page of never-before-revealed information.
Explore: See it all, from the throne room to the treasury, the dungeons to the dining halls, the library, laboratory, private apartments, and secret chambers.
Exult: Learn more about Amber's culture, myths, and military. Discover new facts about the royal family. Travel to the Courts of Chaos. And, at last, see for yourself what the Trump cards actually look like!
It's all here, in the one book every Amber devotee must own.
Enter: The tour of Castle Amber is about to begin—with vivid illustrations, detailed floor plans, cutaway drawings, and page after page of never-before-revealed information.
Explore: See it all, from the throne room to the treasury, the dungeons to the dining halls, the library, laboratory, private apartments, and secret chambers.
Exult: Learn more about Amber's culture, myths, and military. Discover new facts about the royal family. Travel to the Courts of Chaos. And, at last, see for yourself what the Trump cards actually look like!
It's all here, in the one book every Amber devotee must own.
221 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
2 people are currently reading
296 people want to read
About the author
Roger Zelazny
711books3,790followersRoger Joseph Zelazny was an American fantasy and science fiction writer known for his short stories and novels, best known for The Chronicles of Amber. He won the Nebula Award three times (out of 14 nominations) and the Hugo Award six times (also out of 14 nominations), including two Hugos for novels: the serialized novel ...And Call Me Conrad (1965), subsequently published under the title This Immortal (1966), and the novel Lord of Light (1967).
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
June 5, 2015
I had forgotten how horrible this was.
This... book... purports to be an accurate illustrated guide to Roger Zelazny's Amber, with detailed descriptions of the castle, its environs and the city, including each of the family Trumps and a look in each prince and princess' private suite.
It isn't.
What it is is Neil Randall's fanfiction. Bad fanfiction.
I was not surprised to learn that Zelazny himself disliked Randall's descriptions, and the story that he destroyed part of the castle in "Knight of Shadows" so he wouldn't be bound by them is rather funny if it's true.
I have a particular problem with the section on the princes' private quarters and the portrayal of the characters in it. Randall, as far as I can see, has tried to furnish each character's room in accordance with said character's personality as described in the books. This is actually a very good and logical idea. The problem is the execution, which is not so logical and very far from good.
What Randall actually did in most cases was to take one character trait of each prince and princess and base the interior of their rooms entirely on it, while intensifying it to the point of absurdity. And then he casually drops completely ridiculous statements and stories to support his one-sided, absurdly exaggerated character interpretations.
I wish I could give you direct quotes on this, but unfortunately I'm reading a translation and don't have access to the book in the original English. If I ever get it, I'll quote the problematic descriptions sentence by sentence and discuss each one. For now, I'm afraid I'll have to paraphrase and hope nothing gets lost or warped between translations.
Caine, Julian and Bleys are among the worst cases. It seems all Randall remembers about Caine and Julian is that the former is a sailor and the latter a hunter. Therefore, absolutely everything about them must be related to ships and hunting respectively. There's nothing in Caine's rooms that isn't related to the sea, Julian literally uses a bear skin as a goddamn blanket, and for some reason his rooms are so bare that the bear and the tiger rug on the floor are the only items that stand out, unless you count the bookcase that's full of pictures of hunting scenes instead of, you know, bloody books.
Then, as if that wasn't bad enough, Randall projects his own ideas of what sailors and hunters are like on the characters and makes them completely OOC. With Julian, it's only one remark and the general feel of his room that makes him seem out of character, but with Caine it's the entire description Flora gives him.
In Bleys' case, the description of his apartment is full of very strange stories about him playing chess (?) with unicorns (???) and liking vikings (?!?!), and in this case I'll give Randall some points for giving him more than one distinctive trait, but then I'll have to take them away for making shit up.
But none of these even compares to poor, poor Llewella, the greatest victim of One Trait Syndrome, Earth Affinity Syndrome (which I will discuss in a minute) and Has This Hack Even Read The Damn Books Syndrome. Lllewella's room is furnished to resemble the ocean, to the point that everything in it is shaped like conches and seashells, everything is in the colours of the sea, the rug seems to be moving like waves and Flora gets seasick sleeping there (why was she sleeping there in the first place?!). This might have been logical - if really overdone - if the explanation for it was Llewella's preference for Rebma over Amber (which is absolutely canon) making her furnish her rooms to resemble Rebma.
This is not the explanation given in the book. The explanation given in the book is that Llewella has an obsession with the goddess Venus who was born from the waves. And she has pictures of Venus on her walls and talks about Neptune and what the actual fuck.
This is only one instance of perhaps the most annoying and "fanficcy" idea of Randall's, what I earlier called Earth Affinity Syndrome - the idea that every single fucking Amberite has been to Shadow Earth and loves it! Llewella's obsession with Earth deities (which allegedly started when she met the goddess on her first trip through the Shadows, I'm not even making this shit up!) is only one example. Others include Gerard playing rugby for a college in Alabama, the armory housing Julian's armor from the Crusades, Bleys playing chess with Bobby Fischer, Fiona using Scandinavian furniture from Earth, Deirdre having armchairs designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and what the hell is this guy smoking. Perhaps the worst is the way characters like Flora and Deirdre are apparently following Earth fashion and treating it as the really important fashion, as if Earth was the center of the universe!
It appears that Neil Randall has forgotten not only that Amber is the center of this universe, but also that in the actual books only Corwin and Flora had a particular interest in Shadow Earth! Other characters tend to describe it as "that Shadow Corwin/Flora likes so much", Eric calls it "that squalid Shadow" (direct quote) in his letter in "Guns of Avalon" and no one but Corwin, Flora, and later Merlin and Luke cares about it. This insistence on centering everyone's lives around our world not only goes against canon, but also resembles nothing so much as a bad fanfiction writer moving the setting to their own country for no particular reason other than their own laziness and lack of creativity. God, it's horrible.
The art is rather bad too, and there are probably a million other problems I'm missing, but I'm sick of writing about this stain on the Amber universe so I'll stop here and try to forget it. I have to get all this bullshit out of my mind so it doesn't pollute my mental image of the characters.
This... book... purports to be an accurate illustrated guide to Roger Zelazny's Amber, with detailed descriptions of the castle, its environs and the city, including each of the family Trumps and a look in each prince and princess' private suite.
It isn't.
What it is is Neil Randall's fanfiction. Bad fanfiction.
I was not surprised to learn that Zelazny himself disliked Randall's descriptions, and the story that he destroyed part of the castle in "Knight of Shadows" so he wouldn't be bound by them is rather funny if it's true.
I have a particular problem with the section on the princes' private quarters and the portrayal of the characters in it. Randall, as far as I can see, has tried to furnish each character's room in accordance with said character's personality as described in the books. This is actually a very good and logical idea. The problem is the execution, which is not so logical and very far from good.
What Randall actually did in most cases was to take one character trait of each prince and princess and base the interior of their rooms entirely on it, while intensifying it to the point of absurdity. And then he casually drops completely ridiculous statements and stories to support his one-sided, absurdly exaggerated character interpretations.
I wish I could give you direct quotes on this, but unfortunately I'm reading a translation and don't have access to the book in the original English. If I ever get it, I'll quote the problematic descriptions sentence by sentence and discuss each one. For now, I'm afraid I'll have to paraphrase and hope nothing gets lost or warped between translations.
Caine, Julian and Bleys are among the worst cases. It seems all Randall remembers about Caine and Julian is that the former is a sailor and the latter a hunter. Therefore, absolutely everything about them must be related to ships and hunting respectively. There's nothing in Caine's rooms that isn't related to the sea, Julian literally uses a bear skin as a goddamn blanket, and for some reason his rooms are so bare that the bear and the tiger rug on the floor are the only items that stand out, unless you count the bookcase that's full of pictures of hunting scenes instead of, you know, bloody books.
Then, as if that wasn't bad enough, Randall projects his own ideas of what sailors and hunters are like on the characters and makes them completely OOC. With Julian, it's only one remark and the general feel of his room that makes him seem out of character, but with Caine it's the entire description Flora gives him.
In Bleys' case, the description of his apartment is full of very strange stories about him playing chess (?) with unicorns (???) and liking vikings (?!?!), and in this case I'll give Randall some points for giving him more than one distinctive trait, but then I'll have to take them away for making shit up.
But none of these even compares to poor, poor Llewella, the greatest victim of One Trait Syndrome, Earth Affinity Syndrome (which I will discuss in a minute) and Has This Hack Even Read The Damn Books Syndrome. Lllewella's room is furnished to resemble the ocean, to the point that everything in it is shaped like conches and seashells, everything is in the colours of the sea, the rug seems to be moving like waves and Flora gets seasick sleeping there (why was she sleeping there in the first place?!). This might have been logical - if really overdone - if the explanation for it was Llewella's preference for Rebma over Amber (which is absolutely canon) making her furnish her rooms to resemble Rebma.
This is not the explanation given in the book. The explanation given in the book is that Llewella has an obsession with the goddess Venus who was born from the waves. And she has pictures of Venus on her walls and talks about Neptune and what the actual fuck.
This is only one instance of perhaps the most annoying and "fanficcy" idea of Randall's, what I earlier called Earth Affinity Syndrome - the idea that every single fucking Amberite has been to Shadow Earth and loves it! Llewella's obsession with Earth deities (which allegedly started when she met the goddess on her first trip through the Shadows, I'm not even making this shit up!) is only one example. Others include Gerard playing rugby for a college in Alabama, the armory housing Julian's armor from the Crusades, Bleys playing chess with Bobby Fischer, Fiona using Scandinavian furniture from Earth, Deirdre having armchairs designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and what the hell is this guy smoking. Perhaps the worst is the way characters like Flora and Deirdre are apparently following Earth fashion and treating it as the really important fashion, as if Earth was the center of the universe!
It appears that Neil Randall has forgotten not only that Amber is the center of this universe, but also that in the actual books only Corwin and Flora had a particular interest in Shadow Earth! Other characters tend to describe it as "that Shadow Corwin/Flora likes so much", Eric calls it "that squalid Shadow" (direct quote) in his letter in "Guns of Avalon" and no one but Corwin, Flora, and later Merlin and Luke cares about it. This insistence on centering everyone's lives around our world not only goes against canon, but also resembles nothing so much as a bad fanfiction writer moving the setting to their own country for no particular reason other than their own laziness and lack of creativity. God, it's horrible.
The art is rather bad too, and there are probably a million other problems I'm missing, but I'm sick of writing about this stain on the Amber universe so I'll stop here and try to forget it. I have to get all this bullshit out of my mind so it doesn't pollute my mental image of the characters.
July 16, 2015
First of all, this book is written for fans of Roger Zelazny and his "Amber" Universe. It is a guide to the Castle (one of the recurring settings within the tales) and some of the castle's surroundings, inhabitants, etc. If you are NOT familiar with Zelazny's Amber stories, you should avoid this volume, as it would fill you with misunderstandings and the occasional "spoiler" that happens to be accurate. If you ARE a fan of Zelazny's Amber books, you want to avoid this book at ALL COSTS, because it is so full of errors that you'll cringe.
This book is of a genre once known as a gazetteer: a guide to a given locale's places of interest. As such, the primary concern of any modern-day author of such work is accuracy. If one bought a guide to, say, London, the reader would be justifiably upset to find the book full of misinformation, mistakes, and wild fantasies.
Yet such is exactly what a reader finds in this book. It is not understandable: not only did the author have the chance to interview Zelazny, but at the time of this book's writing, there were only a handful of Amber books in print. Surely, the research involved could not have been too taxing? Yet, it obviously was.
Just because the book lists Roger Zelazny as first author, don't be fooled. The text is bland and banal, in addition to the errors. It is obvious Zelazny had little-to-nothing to do with the writing of the book.
The book walks you through the castle, led by one of Roger Zelazny's secondary characters, Flora. The author(s) of this particular book crudely mishandled her persona. The book then provides a discussion of the castle and associated "facts." Some of the facts are grossly misrepresented, such as non-royals going mad if the view the Pattern (an artifact crucial to the tales, and hidden in the bowels of the Castle) Some mistakes are so ludicrous that one is left either a) rolling one's eyes or b) laughing out loud. The degree of care that went into the writing of this book is told by none other than the presumed main author, Neil Randell, himself. According to the book's Introduction, while colleagues were interviewing Zelazny, he was off reading the draft of Roger's next book! Talk about missed opportunities and misplaced priorities!
Another side effect of the book also made it obsolete: Zelazny so disliked being bound by the descriptions in this book that in his next novel, he had a large-but-unspecified section of it destroyed so that it could remodeled any way he wished. So, in the end, the book is doubly useless: not only it is full of misinformation, but it was obsolete as soon as Zelazny could make it so! Don't waste your money!
This book is of a genre once known as a gazetteer: a guide to a given locale's places of interest. As such, the primary concern of any modern-day author of such work is accuracy. If one bought a guide to, say, London, the reader would be justifiably upset to find the book full of misinformation, mistakes, and wild fantasies.
Yet such is exactly what a reader finds in this book. It is not understandable: not only did the author have the chance to interview Zelazny, but at the time of this book's writing, there were only a handful of Amber books in print. Surely, the research involved could not have been too taxing? Yet, it obviously was.
Just because the book lists Roger Zelazny as first author, don't be fooled. The text is bland and banal, in addition to the errors. It is obvious Zelazny had little-to-nothing to do with the writing of the book.
The book walks you through the castle, led by one of Roger Zelazny's secondary characters, Flora. The author(s) of this particular book crudely mishandled her persona. The book then provides a discussion of the castle and associated "facts." Some of the facts are grossly misrepresented, such as non-royals going mad if the view the Pattern (an artifact crucial to the tales, and hidden in the bowels of the Castle) Some mistakes are so ludicrous that one is left either a) rolling one's eyes or b) laughing out loud. The degree of care that went into the writing of this book is told by none other than the presumed main author, Neil Randell, himself. According to the book's Introduction, while colleagues were interviewing Zelazny, he was off reading the draft of Roger's next book! Talk about missed opportunities and misplaced priorities!
Another side effect of the book also made it obsolete: Zelazny so disliked being bound by the descriptions in this book that in his next novel, he had a large-but-unspecified section of it destroyed so that it could remodeled any way he wished. So, in the end, the book is doubly useless: not only it is full of misinformation, but it was obsolete as soon as Zelazny could make it so! Don't waste your money!
March 6, 2024
Одразу хочу дещо прояснити. Так, я поставила "Ілюстрованому путівнику" 5. Але це не ті ж самі 5, які я поставила оригінальній історії. Якщо говорити про цю книгу у вакуумі, то середній рейтинг більш-менш об'єктивно відображає реальний стан справ. Я поставила 5, бо вона на 100% виправдала мої очікування і дала мені рівно те, по що я у неї йшла. А йшла я туди по фанатську дурничку. Сам Желязни, як я розумію, ніякої або майже ніякої участі в створенні цієї книжки не брав. Це творіння фаната, призначене для таких же фанатів. В першій половині принцеса Флора проводить для читача екскурсію Амберським замком, а друга - це така собі міні-енциклопедія про світ Амберу з короткими відомостями про членів королівської родини і головні локації з романів. Доповнено це все ілюстраціями, по яких відразу видно, що їх малювали у 80-их. Жаль тільки, що вони чорно-білі, якби НК Богдан зробили кольорові вклейки, можливо, це було б трохи дорожче, але значно ефектніше.
April 14, 2021
Интересна информация, добре поднесена, виждам и че се счита за канон, въпреки че за някои неща бих спорила доста (повече ще кажа скоро), но артът е изключително грозен. Винаги оценявам какъв огромен труд е да се нарисуват всички тези неща, но конкретно персонажите бяха изключително противно нариусвани, а в такъв тип книга (companion book) артът е изключително важен. Не знам как Зелазни го е одобрил.
March 22, 2019
I enjoyed some of the character and historical background, knowing it came straight from Zelazny, but there were three glaring errors that I have trouble forgiving. One was a subject verb disagreement grammatical error that I don't think Zelazny would have ever committed. The second was an inside joke about a mad Zelazny being held in the insane wing of the dungeon. (Doesn't he make an appearance as a guard in one of the Amber books?) The third is Flora's statement that The Black Road War and Seven No-trump haven't made it into Castle Amber, when an illustration elsewhere in the book clearly shows those two books on a shelf in the library.
August 27, 2024
3.5 �
Ця книга викликала в мене сум. Читаючи її, ти ніби ходиш музеєм. Замок в якому ніхто давно вже не живе. В ньому залишились тільки речі, кімнати в які більше ніхто не повернеться, стежки по яких гуляють тільки туристи... Відчуття кінця історії, наче цього світу більше нама і не буде. Хоча оповідь іде в "теперішньому" часі і замок жилий. Але це зовсім не відчувається. Вже все відбулося, це залишки на згадку...
Ця книга викликала в мене сум. Читаючи її, ти ніби ходиш музеєм. Замок в якому ніхто давно вже не живе. В ньому залишились тільки речі, кімнати в які більше ніхто не повернеться, стежки по яких гуляють тільки туристи... Відчуття кінця історії, наче цього світу більше нама і не буде. Хоча оповідь іде в "теперішньому" часі і замок жилий. Але це зовсім не відчувається. Вже все відбулося, це залишки на згадку...
December 31, 2017
This is an illustrated companion piece to the Amber series. This text is fun at times but is really only for hardcore Amber fans.
August 29, 2019
What happened here? Yuck.
June 26, 2020
Not written by Zelazny and it shows. However i'm not a puritan and i liked the description of alot of the places described.
January 9, 2012
by Roger Zelazny and Neil Randall, published in 1988.
If you are at all into Fantasy and Science Fiction like I am, then the name Roger Zelazny is very, very familiar. And nothing says Roger Zelazny like The Chronicles of Amber.
But this is not one of those fantastic books of fiction, but rather a guide - literally - to Castle Amber and its environs, personalities and society. And what a fantastic little book it is complete with tons of illustrations by Todd Cameron Hamilton and maps by James Clouse.
I think by now there is a visual guide to just about every super-popular Fantasy or Science Fiction world, but I don’t know how many were co-written with the author himself as this one was.
We get great writing combined with great visuals of the entire layout of Castle Amber and the surrounding landscape. It is the perfect behind the scenes knowledge we all crave. We are led by Flora, one of Amber’s royal caste, through the castle and its many rooms including those rooms of the princes themselves.
Also included are short bios of each of the royal Amber family as well as a full page illustration of each, and those illustrations are extremely well done I must say. Good job Todd! My only beef is that Corwin looks, well, way too much like Timothy Dalton for my liking but the others are pretty spot-on as described by Zelazny himself in the Amber novels.
Which brings me to a total craving I had upon completion to this book - to read the Amber novels again, all ten of them. And so, without so much as a bathroom break, that is exactly what I am doing.
One of the most entertaining series I have ever read and will now reread. So, for the next ten posts of mine - or so - you will be getting my take on each fo the ten Amber novels. So far I am enjoying them as much as the first time, maybe more.
And this illustrated guide is the perfect volume to have beside you as you travel the Shadows and follow Corwin and Merlin on their many adventures.
If you can find it, it is well worth your time to pick up.
If you are at all into Fantasy and Science Fiction like I am, then the name Roger Zelazny is very, very familiar. And nothing says Roger Zelazny like The Chronicles of Amber.
But this is not one of those fantastic books of fiction, but rather a guide - literally - to Castle Amber and its environs, personalities and society. And what a fantastic little book it is complete with tons of illustrations by Todd Cameron Hamilton and maps by James Clouse.
I think by now there is a visual guide to just about every super-popular Fantasy or Science Fiction world, but I don’t know how many were co-written with the author himself as this one was.
We get great writing combined with great visuals of the entire layout of Castle Amber and the surrounding landscape. It is the perfect behind the scenes knowledge we all crave. We are led by Flora, one of Amber’s royal caste, through the castle and its many rooms including those rooms of the princes themselves.
Also included are short bios of each of the royal Amber family as well as a full page illustration of each, and those illustrations are extremely well done I must say. Good job Todd! My only beef is that Corwin looks, well, way too much like Timothy Dalton for my liking but the others are pretty spot-on as described by Zelazny himself in the Amber novels.
Which brings me to a total craving I had upon completion to this book - to read the Amber novels again, all ten of them. And so, without so much as a bathroom break, that is exactly what I am doing.
One of the most entertaining series I have ever read and will now reread. So, for the next ten posts of mine - or so - you will be getting my take on each fo the ten Amber novels. So far I am enjoying them as much as the first time, maybe more.
And this illustrated guide is the perfect volume to have beside you as you travel the Shadows and follow Corwin and Merlin on their many adventures.
If you can find it, it is well worth your time to pick up.
December 22, 2008
I was surprised when the librarian handed this to me: a paperback just larger than mass market size, and rather skinnier. I had been expecting a lavish coffee table edition, I suppose, with a glossy cover and full-color illustrations.
Disappointments continued: it's narrated by Flora, who isn't a particularly interesting character. (I certainly hope that the author's credit given to Zelazny has nothing to do with the actual text, because the writing is sub-par.) This allows her to make carefully neutral comments about Corwin and Eric and such, but I would have much preferred some of, say, Fiona's caustic wit. And there were far too many references to cultures on Earth, which is just one Shadow of many.
I found the section on each of the princes' and princess' rooms mildly entertaining, as the decor was extrapolated from their personalities. Unfortunately, the illustrations consist of a top-down view so you can see the layout, as opposed to a peek through the entrance, which might've granted a richer view. In general, the book tends to focus on these architectural elements, rather than the greater narrative that took place in Castle Amber.
The trumps were kind of scary in their intensity. I confess a preference for those in the _Amber Diceless Roleplaying_ book.
Disappointments continued: it's narrated by Flora, who isn't a particularly interesting character. (I certainly hope that the author's credit given to Zelazny has nothing to do with the actual text, because the writing is sub-par.) This allows her to make carefully neutral comments about Corwin and Eric and such, but I would have much preferred some of, say, Fiona's caustic wit. And there were far too many references to cultures on Earth, which is just one Shadow of many.
I found the section on each of the princes' and princess' rooms mildly entertaining, as the decor was extrapolated from their personalities. Unfortunately, the illustrations consist of a top-down view so you can see the layout, as opposed to a peek through the entrance, which might've granted a richer view. In general, the book tends to focus on these architectural elements, rather than the greater narrative that took place in Castle Amber.
The trumps were kind of scary in their intensity. I confess a preference for those in the _Amber Diceless Roleplaying_ book.
December 13, 2009
Cuter than expected. Little comments here and there made me smile, such as references to Crazy Roger. Definitely only for huge fans of the series. I think most readers would enjoy the pictures of the Trumps/characters. I was also surprised to enjoy the descriptions of everyone's rooms in the castle; the insight into their characters this generated was interesting. I couldn't help but think of how much fun it must have been for the authors and illustrators to interview Zelazny and write/create the book, which made it more fun for me as well. Overall a fun library read or gift, but not one I'd buy.
August 16, 2016
Good, dumb fun: adds little to the mythos (besides FLOORPLANS! and MAPS!) but does flesh out some details and has the bonus of being narrated for a large chunk by Flora in her Merlin Chronicles persona: to be honest, I prefer her as the gossipy aunt she is to Merlin, rather than the slightly treacherous bimbo that Corwin sees her as. The illustrations belong to the Van Art School of the '70s and '80s that has thankfully disappeared from everywhere but its natural home.
One for fans, really. So yeah, I liked it.
April 17, 2011
I reread this one every time I finish the ten books of Amber, even though there's not much in the way of additional insight into anything that happens in either series. I just think it's cool to see the level of detail that Zelazny had in mind while writing Amber even though some of those details never explicitly make it into the stories. It's also fun to revisit the drawings of the Royal Trumps just to see how my mental images of characters stacked up with the ones commissioned by Zelazny.
December 7, 2014
If you haven't read the Amber novels, this guide will spoil everything. If you have, it's mostly redundant. It's nice to see maps and a layout of the castle itself- descriptions of everyone's suites are a nice touch, as is a walk through the city. The character profiles are mostly fluff, synopses of their actions in the novels and excerpts lifted from the Chronicles themselves. Bonus: There's some hilariously bad 80's fantasy art that's amusing.
December 29, 2012
Honestly, this is not good. However, it was AMAZINGLY useful when I was GMing Amber Diceless RPG games, because I would have trouble working out some detail of Castle Amber, look at the book, and say "NO, that's all wrong! It wasn't like THAT! It was more like THIS..." and then I'd have something.
The interior of my version of Castle Amber wound up with a floor plan not unlike the Park Plaza in Boston, though.
The interior of my version of Castle Amber wound up with a floor plan not unlike the Park Plaza in Boston, though.
March 23, 2025
Absolute rubbish. All the complex characters Zelazny created have been reduced to one-dimensional caricatures perhaps only a 4-year old could fixate on. Not even the illustrations have any details. Can not believe this got published. Not a one-star ONLY because I like the idea of having a "location-based" supporting book for a world I thoroughly love. Why didn't they make it decent?? (*goes cries in the corner)
September 3, 2008
Soory for the low rating. As big of a fan as I am of the Chronicles of Amber, I already had my own mind's eye view of all the worlds and places in his books.
But, if you're the type of fan who likes the author naration and special bonus features on DVD, you'll like this book.
But, if you're the type of fan who likes the author naration and special bonus features on DVD, you'll like this book.
January 28, 2013
I always like seeing his sort of thing - maps and diagrams of various things I've read about in a series that I really enjoy. I've always found myself referring to maps included in books I've read over the years, ans this guide was really enjoyable to be for that reason.
September 22, 2015
I think I read this once a long time ago, but it's also possible I just flipped through it and looked at the pretty pictures. However, since I'm running an Amber campaign starting in two days, I would describe it as an invaluable resource. Good stuff.
Read
August 23, 2008isbn,original
February 5, 2013
There's nothing really surprising or exciting here, but it's a fun companion piece to the original Amber series. Some nice illustrations and interesting commentary for hard-core fans.
August 17, 2013
The style the book was written in kind of annoyed me, but it could be the fault of translation... anyway, it made me want to read the Amber series all over again.
Read
May 20, 2015Science-Fiction
December 11, 2015
The first 100 pages are at least readable, but still not really worth it, even if you've read all 10 Amber books. The last 100 pages are complete crap.
February 8, 2016
Excellent book if you wondered what the places in the Amber series looked like. Very recommended.
August 1, 2010
Great addition to the Amber Chronicles. Recommended for the fans.
February 28, 2016
die hard fans only.
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