Mask of Loki versus Flare

On Feb 7 2006, 4:15 pm, Patrick Hulman <patrick.hul....DeleteThis@nospamcox.net>
wrote:
> i never thought of them as collaborations. It seemed that Zelazny wrote
> the first with Thomas being the editor and Thomas wrote the second with
> Zelazny acting as editor ( and the addition of the poem).
>
> But like Bob when i originally saw it, I thought oooohhhhh only to be
> crushed like a grape later on.
>
> On Sun, 29 Jan 2006 13:13:06 -0500, bob sullivan wrote:
> > Hard to believe these two books were written by the same people.
> > I was genuinely excited when I picked up _Flare_ in the bookstore,
> > because I'd enjoyed _Loki_ so much. Wow, what a letdown.
>
> > ~bob

Resurrecting this old thread to report on a resolution to theories of
how FLARE and THE MASK OF LOKI originated.

THE MASK OF LOKI was developed from a detailed outline that Zelazny
wrote which was entitled THE AHRIMAN FACTOR, and later had the working
title of THE MASK OF AHRIMAN. The outline contains most of the
concepts that are in the novel, with instructions from Zelazny to
Thomas to read certain pages of specific reference or history books
that would provide details about the Templars, Watchers, and other
relevant material of the 12th century. I have a copy of this
outline / manuscript that Thomas used as the template for the novel.

Conversely, FLARE started out as an outline written by Thomas, to
which Zelazny gave some commentary and direction, but the amount of
involvement by Zelazny was evidently a lot less for this second book.
I've seen the outline that Thomas wrote, and various correspondence
that pertains to the writing of this novel and the earlier one. It
seems that Zelazny's biggest contributions to FLARE were writing the
long poem from which a few excerpts were used as chapter headings, and
having his name on the cover.

Thus, it appears that Thomas actually wrote both novels, although he
had a very detailed outline from which to work on the first, whereas
for the second novel the outline was his, with some (but much less)
input from Zelazny on the writing of it. Plus a scientific editor was
involved to check on the science in FLARE. The final manuscripts for
both came from Thomas, not from Zelazny.

Chris

mun dot ca not mac dot com to reply

On Jul 16, 9:12 pm, ckovacs <ckov....RemoveThis@mac.com> wrote:
> On Feb 7 2006, 4:15 pm, Patrick Hulman <patrick.hul....RemoveThis@nospamcox.net>
> wrote:
>
> > i never thought of them as collaborations. It seemed that Zelazny wrote
> > the first with Thomas being the editor and Thomas wrote the second with
> > Zelazny acting as editor ( and the addition of the poem).
>
> > But like Bob when i originally saw it, I thought oooohhhhh only to be
> > crushed like a grape later on.
>
> > On Sun, 29 Jan 2006 13:13:06 -0500, bob sullivan wrote:
> > > Hard to believe these two books were written by the same people.
> > > I was genuinely excited when I picked up _Flare_ in the bookstore,
> > > because I'd enjoyed _Loki_ so much. Wow, what a letdown.
>
> > > ~bob
>
> Resurrecting this old thread to report on a resolution to theories of
> how FLARE and THE MASK OF LOKI originated.
>
> THE MASK OF LOKI was developed from a detailed outline that Zelazny
> wrote which was entitled THE AHRIMAN FACTOR, and later had the working
> title of THE MASK OF AHRIMAN. The outline contains most of the
> concepts that are in the novel, with instructions from Zelazny to
> Thomas to read certain pages of specific reference or history books
> that would provide details about the Templars, Watchers, and other
> relevant material of the 12th century. I have a copy of this
> outline / manuscript that Thomas used as the template for the novel.
>
> Conversely, FLARE started out as an outline written by Thomas, to
> which Zelazny gave some commentary and direction, but the amount of
> involvement by Zelazny was evidently a lot less for this second book.
> I've seen the outline that Thomas wrote, and various correspondence
> that pertains to the writing of this novel and the earlier one. It
> seems that Zelazny's biggest contributions to FLARE were writing the
> long poem from which a few excerpts were used as chapter headings, and
> having his name on the cover.
>
> Thus, it appears that Thomas actually wrote both novels, although he
> had a very detailed outline from which to work on the first, whereas
> for the second novel the outline was his, with some (but much less)
> input from Zelazny on the writing of it. Plus a scientific editor was
> involved to check on the science in FLARE. The final manuscripts for
> both came from Thomas, not from Zelazny.
>
> Chris
>
> mun dot ca not mac dot com to reply

thanks for doing alot of leg work chris. i always wondered how much of
Roger was in those.