Reddit reviews The Great Book of Amber: The Complete Amber Chronicles, 1-10 (Chronicles of Amber)
We found 38 Reddit comments about The Great Book of Amber: The Complete Amber Chronicles, 1-10 (Chronicles of Amber). Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Eos
The Amber Chronicles by Roger Zelazny A royal family whose members can just walk into alternate realities.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Great-Book-Amber-Chronicles/dp/0380809060
I don't read much fiction anymore, but by far my favorite fantasy series of all time is Roger Zelazny's Chronicles of Amber. My alias for the past 15 years (Grays) is derived from that series.
It's a crossover between modern world and fantasy realm fiction. The series is split cleanly into two story arcs, each five books long. It's short--the ten book series is only 1200-ish pages, and compiled into a single volume at a very affordable $16. Very little "scenery"; his descriptions are short and use language very well to imply details of a setting while he focuses on characters and rapid dialogue.
Read the first chapter on Amazon. If you like it, get the whole thing.
I couldn't recommend Steven Brust's The Book of Jhereg enough. It's the first collection of books in a series he's been writing since 1983. Every book is a great read, and the characters will really grow on you. I believe any fan of Zelazny will like Brust.
The Chronicles of Amber
Lord Demon
This Immortal
The Iron Druid series is about an immortal druid.
Incarnations of Immortality series though the main characters aren't strictly immortal.
It is a place, the source of all order in the Multiverse. All other planes of existence are mere shadows of Amber, moving either closer or farther away from it. On the opposite end of the spectrum is the realm of Chaos, ever-changing and unstable.
There's wars and stuff.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Great-Book-Amber-Chronicles/dp/0380809060/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333703165&sr=8-1
> I am looking for series that can be bought in one big omnibus or one-volume set. I prefer this format because it's usually cheaper, and easier than purchasing 3 or more individual books. Any suggestions?
Here's a shopping list for you. All links go to the Amazon's US site.
I highly recommend The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny. Its 10 books but they're pretty short and each set of five is really one extended story. Excellent series by an excellent writer that sadly seems to be fading out of people's memory.
The Chronicles of Amber- Roger Zelazny, you can get it in a towering omnibus here. Still some of the best sci-fi fantasy authors and works ever, though highly under rated. Sex, Drugs, Rock and Roll, Parallel Universes, high fantasy kings and blood feuds and swords and castles. His book of short stories are impeccable too IMO
He won more than a few Hugo awards for his work. In particular outside of Amber, I would recommend his short story 24 Views of Mr Fuji
For /r/worldbuilding I'd put him much higher than F. Herbert and George RR Martin.
You can find physical copies of most older books on amazon for like $4.
Half price books, abebooks, thrift stores and shopping around for ebooks are all also options.
If you are looking for specific books there are some pretty reasonably priced compilations out there.
The Belgariad volumes one and two can be gotten for around $14.
All ten volumes of The Chronicles of Amber can be purchased for about $12.
All three volumes of the Dark Elf Trilogy can be purchased for around $12.
If you look around there are some pretty great deals out there.
This is one of my all-time favorite series. Awesome magic system and worldbuilding. The full series is currently published in one volume, available here. It's funny that all 10 of these books are about the size of Oathbringer.
A long time ago I was reading a SF magazine and in it there was an add for the SF Book Club. The teaser for one book was "What if Earth were the shadow of the real world?" That book was Nine Princes in Amber, the first in Roger Zelanzy's Chronicles of Amber
oh, Dragonlance <3 if one dives into that series, hold on to your butts! theres SO MANY OF THEM!
i managed to get ahold of the annotated original trillogy. i love it so much.
Chronicles of Amber is another good multi-book set.
There are a ton of different editions and compilations of the Amber books. It might be useful to poke around at the different editions if you're looking for a bargain.
Some potentially helpful links:
If you think you might want to read all of the Amber books and not just Volume 1, you may want to consider purchasing (or borrowing, whatever) The Great Book of Amber which is vol. 1-10 bound together. It's a doorstopper, so be forewarned. I do not think it's available electronically as an omnibus. Amazon link: https://smile.amazon.com/Great-Book-Amber-Complete-Chronicles/dp/0380809060/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1501692577&amp;sr=8-2&amp;keywords=nine+princes+in+amber
Secondly, for just Vol. 1 Nine Princes in Amber, for some reason the listings for the paper copies and the electronic copies aren't linked up very well.
Paper/Audible (the Amazon link GR provides): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0380014300/ref=x_gr_e_nl_general_sin?ie=UTF8&amp;tag=x_gr_e_nl_general_sin-20&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=0380014300&amp;SubscriptionId=1MGPYB6YW3HWK55XCGG2
Kindle edition (Amazon link): https://smile.amazon.com/Nine-Princes-Amber-Book-Chronicles-ebook/dp/B011MYPIY0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1501692577&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=nine+princes+in+amber
http://www.amazon.com/The-Great-Book-Amber-Chronicles/dp/0380809060/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1345692696&amp;sr=8-1&amp;keywords=the+chronicles+of+amber
Very easy quick reads and my all time favorite series.
You might like Roger Zelazny's "Amber" books. There are five in the original, excellent series, then a second series that's not as good but still interesting.
He starts you off with a traditional trope: Protagonist wakes up amnesiac in a hospital and suspicious people are trying to kill him. Then he takes you off in directions you'd never expect. Zelazny was a Byzantine, so a discerning eye will catch some Eastern Christian threads and Septuagint allusions now and again.
The first book, Nine Princes in Amber, is available cheaply online, or you can get a compilation of all ten books inexpensively (especially if you buy used.)
I bought myself the Arcadia Jumpship and Fallen Walker Megablocks set with Xmas money. Also a Kindle Fire tablet and a food scale with what was left. Also got the Blu-Ray of Cowboy Bebop (entire series) and the Amber Chronicles from my Imgur secret santa (they sent something else from UK but I won't see it for a few more days or so.
Strange Relations is, uh, interesting.
He's most wellknown for the Riverworld series, though. First book: To Your Scattered Bodies Go.
Might I also suggest Roger Zelazny.. The Chronicles of Amber (10 book anthology).
To me this sounds like a lot like book one of The Chronicles of Amber. Good luck in any case!
The Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zalazny
wiki
Amazon
The first book (9 Princes in Amber) is nearly as old as I am (pub.1970) -if you ignore Galaxy Mag which ran the first few books in '67-69.
While it COULD be done with todays CGI and graphics, I just don't think it's popular enough for a studio to take a risk on it as most of the folks that read this are now in the 'over 49 and therefore invisible to marketing' group.
Just my .02
Awesome read btw. I had the original hardcovers as a child gifted to me and went back just a year or two ago and got this 'all in one' edition I linked to at Amazon and it holds up amazingly well 40 years later.
Highly recommended
Came here to namecheck RZ's Amber. But my work was already done. (I also echo cuddlemonkey's Hitchhiker rec, as well as the equally deserving mentions of Discworld. Zounds, you have some awesomely entertaining reading ahead of you!)
Edit: Closed the parenthesis.
Try some of Martin's literary influences:
Reading at least the first book makes a huge difference in understanding the setting. The good news is that the books are cheap, fast reads, and still in print. The "Great Book of Amber" is everything but the short stories collected together.
The Chronicles of Amber - 1264 pages of pure science fiction joy!
The Chronicles of Amber.
“A storyteller without peer. He created worlds as colorful and exotic and memorable as any our genre has ever seen.”
—George R.R. Martin
So happy to see Amber on this list! Re-reading the omnibus for about the 8th time right now, and it's still my favorite series ever.
Roger Zelazny's Amber Chronicles
I know I'm late to the game but I thoroughly enjoyed The Chronicles of Amber series (Wikipedia Link).
Good set of books, might be considered more fantasy than Sci-Fi.
I remember the Book Fair in my elementary school used to come on my birthday week, without fail. My parents at the time were very into the “no gifts” policy for birthdays, which was fine since I wasn’t a toy kid anyway. But luckily they never considered books to be “gifts” so my mom and dad would separately (and what they thought was secretly) slip me a little bit of money for the book fair around birthday time. It was such a magical feeling to see my library transform into something foreign and beautiful, and even now when I step into grade-school libraries I remember the smells of book fair day (bad popcorn, new printing, bubblegum crayons). Anyway, I hope that one day, if I have kids, there will still be some kind of honoring books in the way that you and I experienced, because it really was magical.
I’m not sure what kind of books you like, but if you like J.K. Rowling, I very much recommend her mystery series, The Cormoran Strike series, which she writes under her pen name Robert Galbraith. I haven’t read the third in the trilogy, but the first two had such amazing dialogue. I actually don’t usually like mysteries, but she has a way with words that makes reading seem both natural and pleasant. The third book is on my Most Wanted wishlist, but I definitely recommend starting at the beginning of the trilogy.
If you are looking for literary fiction, I would recommend anything by Yann Martel. I have many of his books on my Books wishlist, but my favorite book of his (besides Life of Pi) is called Beatrice and Virgil. It is...super weird, to be honest. But it has a poignant message while also just being an amazing story.
If you like fantasy, I recommend the Amber Chronicles. There are fifteen of them, and they are all amazing. I have the entire compendium (in one volume) on my Most Wanted Wishlist. It’s pretty cheap, and will keep you busy for hours! This is the one I put a link to, mostly because if I can only have one count towards the contest, I think I would choose this.
I also have a plethora of cookbooks and comic books that I love to recommend. I think the best cookbook I have on there is called Jerusalem. When I went to Israel, I have to admit I didn’t particularly like the food much because I didn’t have the money to cook for myself and I was basically thrust onto the coast eating terrible halumi salads. This cookbook, though, is both beautiful and gives homage to a great world of cooking that often goes unnoticed. For comic books, I recommend March. It is highly political and emotional, but, as with all great comic books, its message is one that will stand all tests of time.
I hope you have a very Happy Birthday and that so many books can become special to you and help you commemorate the day.
reminds me of this https://www.amazon.com/Great-Book-Amber-Complete-Chronicles/dp/0380809060
Roger Zelazny - The Chronicles of amber -Get all the short novels in one book as The Great Book Of Amber
Steven Erikson - Malazan Book of the Fallen
Gene Wolfe - The Wizard Knight
Book 6 of 10 in the Amber Chronicles.
And then I'll jump back to the Hyperion Cantos with The Fall of Hyperion
Totally agreed with greenlightning. I'll add that the person running the game should probably have read at least the first of the two series.
The character creation bidding system is so much fun, people will still be ribbing each other about that starting bid for years to come. :)
The omnibus is here: https://www.amazon.com/Great-Book-Amber-Complete-Chronicles/dp/0380809060/ref=sr_1_fkmr2_1?keywords=amber+omnibus+zelazny&qid=1563678685&s=gateway&sr=8-1-fkmr2
If you want the specific art and each individual book, I have no idea.
Fantasy books, specifically from first person (she liked hunger games). She would enjoy Alexey Pehov's work. Chronicles of Siala is a great place to start.
I can't comment on how good the translation is, but Pehov is one of the best russian fantasy authors (really popular here). So if they did a decent job at translating his books - the stories will go great with her.
Also from a first person perspective (and really good) are the Chronicles of Amber by Roger Zelazny. Although this one might be a bit too dated for todays youth. A lot of characters smoke in it (I think all main ones smoke) and some of the descriptions are vague and abstract (almost surreal like) while others are clear and vivid.
And lastly (but not leastly?) I would recommend The Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb. First person perspective, fantasy, rich world, with a lot of intrigue. This might the most appropriate book, because even though the protagonist a boy, the novels were written by a woman (it has that vibe about them, a feminine quality). Also has a lot about interaction with animals if she's into that sort of thing (like certain people being able to communicate with them etc). Has a lot of romance elements too (not with animals, don't worry). I'm sure you can figure out if a book is appropriate by reading the synopsis.
I hope this helps. Have a glorious day!
Roger Zelazny - The Chronicles of Amber
You can either get the Great Book of Amber (books 1-10)
https://www.amazon.ca/Great-book-Amber-Roger-Zelazny/dp/0380809060
or just start with Nine Princes in Amber
http://www.amazon.com/Nine-Princes-Amber-Roger-Zelazny/dp/1935138197
Here's another great series/book you should check out if you enjoyed Dune: The Great Book of Amber, by Roger Zelanzy. It's actually 10 books they combined into one for the Great Book. Really interesting mind-bending mystery sci-fi, plot points to keep you guessing until the end, and written during the same general time period as Dune (1970-1991). It's a wild ride! Plus, you know, the philosophical musings on humanity that we all love so much in our sci-fi/fantasy :)