Quote Originally Posted by cerisepuck View Post
I just recently spent alot of money (well alot to me anyway) on Amazon buying some series that I had heard good reviews about on this website. I made it a point to buy only the books that were not available at my library so I was unfortunately unable to 'sample' any of them before buying them. The only ones that I knew I would enjoy were those by Tad Williams since I've read Shadowmarch.

Getting to my point, one of the series I purchased was The Complete Amber Chronicles 1-10 by Roger Zelazny. After reading Tad Williams, Robert Jordan/Brandon Sanderson, and C.S. Friedman for the past few months I knew I had high standards set, but....to be frank Roger Zelazny writes as if he was a middle school student. I'm very disappointed in the series and I'm only on page five. In order to process what I'm reading I create a mental picture of the characters and what's going on around them. Currently Mr.Corey is a gray blob talking to other gray blobs in shapless gray rooms. Where is the detail? I mean....really? I guess what I'm asking is what on earth does everyone see in this book and does it ever get any better than 'I woke. I stood. I spoke.'?

And if this book isn't going to get any better than please suggest something that takes more than a day or two to read. No, I'm not trying to be arrogant. If I've insulted anyone I'm very sorry. I'm just disappointed that this author isn't to my tastes.
Wow, this is shocking to me. Zelazny is a superior writer to all of those other authors you mentioned. Sanderson is essentially a YA author but Zelazny comes off as being a middle school student? This is hard for me to imagine.

All I can say is that his Amber series is widely considered one of the finest fantasies of all time. And it predates all the modern fantasy (maybe that is the problem, you are looking for a formula that he isn't going to give you).