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. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
When Roger Zelazny died in 1995, I thought the questions I had about the Amber universe -- like how and why it was created -- would never be answered. As a longtime fan of the Amber Chronicles, I was excited to hear that the Zelazny estate had authorized a prequel trilogy to be written that explored the events that led up to the first installment in the ten-book series, Nine Princes in Amber.

While in a desperate battle against hell-creatures, the young soldier Oberon is whisked away from his kingdom by his mysterious uncle Dworkin to the shadow world of Juniper, where he meets a family he never knew he had. The enigmatic Dworkin, it turns out, is not only Oberon's father but also an exiled prince in the Courts of Chaos, the one true world. As Oberon struggles to understand Dworkin's centuries-old feud with Chaos, Juniper is attacked by the same hell-creatures that savaged his shadow world.

Like Zelazny's own fantastic Amber novels, Betancourt's The Dawn of Amber is fast-paced and filled with action and intrigue. And although the novel does begin to answer some of the questions I had regarding the creation of Amber, the cliff-hanger at the book's conclusion left me pulling out my hair waiting for the second and third books in this trilogy. Paul Goat Allen

FROM THE PUBLISHER

In the final novels of his ten-book Amber series, Roger Zelazny rewarded readers with several startling revelations about his fantasy universe. But with Zelazny's passing, many important questions about Amber and the Courts are left unanswered. Who created Amber? Why was its creation necessary? Who created the Pattern? How did Oberon become ruler of Amber? Why are the Courts of Chaos and Amber at war? How did this conflict begin, and whom does it serve?

The Dawn of Amber is a prequel trilogy, exploring events that precede the first novel in the series, that answers these intriguing questions. Here, in Book One, you'll meet the young soldier known as Obere as he's whisked away from the kingdom and world he has known and defended his entire life, and placed on a knife's edge of turmoil, intrigue, domination and death. He must learn what he can on the fly, unwilling to let friend and foe alike know how little he understands of this strange universe and the dangerous creatures that rule it. His life is in jeopardy, as is the entire House of Dworkin -- the result of an ages-old blood feud that threatens to destroy Obere's new-found family and any hope for a universe of light to balance and oppose the forces of Chaos and darkness. To achieve his legacy of power and become a player in this deadly game whose rules he is yet to discover, Obere must journey into the serpent's lair, the home of his enemies...the Courts of Chaos.

FROM THE CRITICS

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. (Sept.) Forecast: A featured alternate of the SF Book Club, this spinoff should benefit from a four-hour Chronicles of Amber miniseries due to air on the Sci Fi Channel in 2003. The author is also the proprietor of Wildside Press (see "PW Talks with John Gregory Betancourt," Forecasts, Apr. 1). Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal