Unpublished 1971 Zelazny mystery/thriller novel announced

The publisher Hard Case Crime has announced in their newsletter that
they will be publishing a long-lost, unpublished Zelazny thriller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

On Jan 15, 9:22 pm, ckovacs <ckov....DeleteThis@mac.com> wrote:
> The publisher Hard Case Crime has announced in their newsletter that
> they will be publishing a long-lost, unpublished Zelazny thriller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



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.