Amberites

[The Yosemite Bear]

Just getting a concensis
How powerful does this group think the denizens of Castle Amber arre.

[Eleas]

"Just getting a concensis
How powerful does this group think the denizens of Castle Amber arre."

Pretty powerful, with a potential to be all but unstoppable. Shadow walking and its derivatives among pattern or logrus magic allows unprecendented amounts of resources to be harvested. One could literally become the God of a world, if one walked long enough.

Physically, Amberites aren't that über. Superhumanly strong, certainly. We saw Deirdre snap the back of a werewolf with her bare hands, and Corwin casually threw a rather heavy couch a few meters, killing the man it struck. Amberites also have rapid healing abilities and are able to regenerate. Their stamina is also quite superhuman, and they're immortal. But otherwise, I don't think there's much more to them, aside from the ability some have shown to manipulate shadows directly.

As for the denizens... well, Benedict is the master strategist and warrior. Thrawn would barely even give him pause. Merlin has some serious power with the spikard and his magic. His father, Corwin, is pure capability. Gerard is strong but not a factor, I think. Fiona has some serious power as well. The rest should be somewhere in between.

[Lord Ghykon]

I haven't read those books in years. I've forgotten most things about them.

[The Yosemite Bear]

Used to play the RPG, loved the Books, and still think that the Royal family would possibly be able to hold it's own against some other SF godlike beings with their magic and stuff.

[Moonstone Spider]

If they were really capable of using their powers to the fullest the Amberites would be pretty danged powerful, possibly near-Q level. However almost none of them are actually capable of that and don't really pull out the powers to that degree. Benedict can build and lead an army to take out virtually anything on the ground, honestly I think the only tactician who would even touch him is Ender Wiggens and even then it would be one heck of a fight and Ender would probably need some advantages in numbers or tech.

At the highest level these guys can summon objects from other universes just by thinking, cast spells that cause things like instant heart attacks, create their own personal multiverses, and they have some nifty melee weapons (I so want my own Frakir). Brand quite literally set about destroying everything that ever existed and nearly succeeded.

However it's important to note few Amberites ever actually acheive this kind of power, most of them are more interested in sex, drinking, and eating rather than personal power. Heck, they quite often simply take up lives as normal civilians in shadows and never bother to grab power there (Flora: Want a grenade? I always carry some in my purse in this shadow.)

[Hendrake]

Amberites can be pretty bad ass. Really bad ass. But they are not gods or omnipotent, they can still be taken by surprise and the 'best' of them seem to be pretty fucked up in some way (Benedict's obsessed, Brand is out of his mind...). If they have the time to make preparations they can be unstoppable, or at least they can escape Trumping of Shadowshifting but they are certainly not all powerful.

That is, apart possibly from Oberon.

[Raziel]

Jesus, I thought I was the only person I knew who ever read those books.

LOVE THEM. Zelazney is a genius.

[Eleas]

Jesus, I thought I was the only person I knew who ever read those books.

LOVE THEM. Zelazney is a genius.

Yep. Changeling, Amber, Lord of Light... all classics.

[The Yosemite Bear]

Moment of Scilence for the Dear, departed Rodger Z.

damn, why did he have to die so young while hacks like Kevin Anderson, just keep churining out stuff that makes any sane Sci-Fi fan cringe. and others like Ellison and Saberhagen who were really something once, persist on churining out carbon copies of their earlier stuff in a formatic way.

grumble

[Raziel]

*observes silence, tear rolls down cheek*

They sure don't write 'em like they used to, that's for sure. Asimov, Herbert, Zelazny, so many more greats that I know and love and can't remember off hand, they wrote awesome shit. It was all original and well thought-out... man.

Really, name a modern sci-fi author who isn't a hack, when you compare them to the greats of yesterday.

[Eleas]

*observes silence, tear rolls down cheek*

They sure don't write 'em like they used to, that's for sure. Asimov, Herbert, Zelazny, so many more greats that I know and love and can't remember off hand, they wrote awesome shit. It was all original and well thought-out... man.

Really, name a modern sci-fi author who isn't a hack, when you compare them to the greats of yesterday.

I hold... *sniffles, begins again* I hold great hopes for Greg Egan. The Force is strong in that one. And Gaiman can write, too, almost on that level.

[Raziel]

What have they written? I haven't heard of either, but I'd be interested in checking them out.

[Eleas]

What have they written? I haven't heard of either, but I'd be interested in checking them out.

The only thing I've read of Egan's Work is an anthology called Luminous. He's plainly good at the physics bit, or at least good enough that it sounds plausible. Gaiman wrote the graphic novels about Sandman, and also Neverwhere, Stardust, and Good Omens, one very cool book co-written with Terry Pratchett.

[Raziel]

I can't believe I forgot to mention Charles Sheffield. Guy's a scientist who started writing, only he writes really really well. So not only is his stuff compelling with great characters and the like, the science and such is all rock solid; his sci-fi technology, while fantastic and fictional, still works on known scientific principles and performs according to calculation rather than whim.

[The Yosemite Bear]

Gaimen also wrote American Gods[\u] which is very good. David Drake is back with the Slammers again but it's still not fair!