Unpublished 1971 Zelazny mystery/thriller novel announced
ckovacs
they will be publishing a long-lost, unpublished Zelazny thriller
novel in early 2009.
This is the mystery/thriller novel, originally entitled APOSTATE'S
GOLD, and then retitled THE DEAD MAN'S BROTHER, which was completed in
May 1971 by Zelazny and scheduled for a 1972 publication by
Berkley...and then cancelled. The publisher had been very nervous
about a non-genre work, none of the other major publishers wanted to
chance it at the time, and so it was put aside and (mostly) forgotten.
Zelazny had been discouraged by this failed attempt to break out of
the genre, and didn't try again until the novel WILDERNESS was written
together with Gerald Hausman in the 1990s. This is the only novel-
length work that was completed by Zelazny and never published.
I've been asked if this is part of the multivolume collection that I'm
co-editing, which will be published by NESFA. No, of course not. THE
DEAD MAN'S BROTHER is a novel, whereas the multi-volume collection is
of Zelazny's short fiction, poetry, and selected non-fiction.
However, I have written about the history of THE DEAD MAN'S BROTHER -
including comments that Zelazny, his agent and his editors had made
about it at the time - in the biography that will be published within
the NESFA collection.
Chris
mun dot ca not mac dot com to reply
ra2add...@yahoo.com
In the magazine NOVA issue #1 (and also the last issue), published
June 1972; there is an interview with Roger. The interviewer asked
Roger "What are you presently working on and what are your plans for
the future?" Roger replies, "I just finished an sf novel - THE GUNS
OF AVALON - a sequel to NINE PRINCES IN AMBER. I am about to begin
work on a non-sf novel." I guess this non-sf novel was APOSTATE'S
GOLD. Thanks Chris for clearing the air.... I was stumped not knowing
which book I was missing from my collection.
ckovacs
>
> In the magazine NOVA issue #1 (and also the last issue), published
> June 1972; there is an interview with Roger. The interviewer asked
> Roger "What are you presently working on and what are your plans for
> the future?" Roger replies, "I just finished an sf novel - THE GUNS
> OF AVALON - a sequel to NINE PRINCES IN AMBER. I am about to begin
> work on a non-sf novel." I guess this non-sf novel was APOSTATE'S
> GOLD. Thanks Chris for clearing the air.... I was stumped not knowing
> which book I was missing from my collection.
Actually, your assumption is incorrect. Zelazny completed THE DEAD
MAN'S BROTHER (originally APOSTATE'S GOLD) in June 1971 according to
correspondence with his agent. But he had envisioned a trio (not a
trilogy) of mystery/thriller novels, and in May 1972 he was about to
begin work on the second - it was to be entitled ALBATROSS! and was to
have been dedicated to Philip José Farmer. He described it as a "sort
of ecological mystery-adventure novel." But because of the
discouraging news about THE DEAD MAN'S BROTHER - it was making the
rounds of the other major publishers, all of whom wanted an sf/f novel
from Zelazny and not a non-genre work - he apparently never did start
on ALBATROSS! And Philip Farmer ended up with SIGN OF THE UNICORN
dedicated to him instead.