Roger Zelazny, author of novels like Lord of Light and A lonely October night, is one of science fiction’s most precious voices. Science fiction author and editor Warren Lapine credits Zelazny’s books for rescuing him from the life of a juvenile delinquent.
“Roger Zelazny is a writer to a writer,” Lapine says in Episode 534 of Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy audio file. “He makes people want to write. You read what he’s doing and you can tell he’s having so much fun, you’re like, ‘I’ve got to do it.’ And so I immediately wanted to be a writer. Well, you don’t drop out and learn how to write, so I suddenly became an A student, and I went to college, and I have a completely different life than I used to have, if it weren’t for that. Roger Zelazny.”
Lapine’s latest project is Immerse yourself, Zlaz, which gathers hundreds of letters that Zelazny wrote to his close friend Carl Yoke. Zelazny is a private person who rarely talks about his opinions or personal life, and his letters provide a rare glimpse into his thought process. “It was really, really fascinating,” says Lapine. “If you want to know who Roger Zelazny is, these letters will help you with that.”
Zelazny’s early work was met with rave reviews, but critics were less enamored with his later works, such as the popular 10-volume series. Amber series. But Lapine says the critics have no basis when they dismiss it Amber as light, commercial text. “Most science fiction critics don’t even have a degree in English, and so they don’t even have a clue,” says Lapine. “All the things going on in Amber, the extent and amount of literary allusion in it is absolutely astounding. There is almost a literary allusion on every page. But if you haven’t read all that stuff, you won’t grasp it. If you haven’t read any of the Jacobean plays, you’re going to miss them all.”
In recent years, Lapine has worked closely with the Zelazny estate to bring many of Zelazny’s older titles back to print. He strongly believes that all of the author’s dozens of books are worth reading. “Even his flimsy book is better than many of the best writers’ books,” says Lapine. “I know we will have others who can demonstrate such great skill, but that hasn’t happened in my lifetime—before or after his death. There’s nothing like reading Zelazny.”
Listen to the full interview with Warren Lapine in Episode 534 of Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy (above). And check out some highlights from the discussion below.
Warren Lapine upon meeting Zelazny:
I was interviewing Roger, and I had the tape there, and at one point he was sitting upside down in a chair with his head down at someone else’s feet, talking about the direction of the tape recorder’s microphone, and he was spinning around in his chair. . At one point, he stood on the chair, talked to it, and then he stood on top of the back of the chair. He was in constant motion, just spinning around in the chair, up and down and around. I’ve never had anyone I’ve interviewed be anything like that. It’s fascinating. And he never broke a chain of thought. He’s really focused, really good at answering interview questions. But that’s surreal.
Warren Lapine on Deus Irae:
[Zelazny] shows the passage he wrote for Philip K. Dick, and Dick was unlocked and immediately wrote the next chapter and sent it to Roger, then Roger read it, then he would write a chapter and send it back to Philip K. Dick. And what was really interesting to me in those letters was that you could see that when the letters started, Philip K. Dick was in a horrible place. He has no money, no prospects, nothing suits him. And in the last letter, he talks about how [Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?] doing great. Money is coming in, and this book is outselling anything he has written before. Philip K. Dick was in a very different and better place than when they were writing to each other in the early days of writing the book.
Warren Lapine on George RR Martin:
Read [Immer, Zlaz] today, a modern reader would think that Roger is throwing George RR Martin’s name all over the damn place. But what they won’t realize is [George] did not write Game of thrones however, and he’s not half as famous as Roger. Therefore [Roger] just talking about his friend. It looked like he was dropping the name of the world’s most famous fantasy author, but he didn’t. … I remember the first time I met George, and people would ask, “Who is George RR Martin?” I would be like, “Oh, he wrote fever dream.” It was his best-selling novel, a New York Times best selling vampire novels. That’s what he’s known for. I remember hanging out with him at conferences, and there was no one around but a few of us. Now you can’t get close to him at a conference.
Warren Lapine on Zelazny vs. Critics:
Some say, “It’s like he has all these magic tricks, and he just keeps putting them back in his pocket.” And I said, “Well, how many times do you want to see him pull a rabbit out of his hat?” I mean, if he pulls the same rabbit out of the same hat, when will it stop being a hoax? He’s doing all these tricks, and doing all the things he wants to see, and I’ve never quite understood why – after he’s done all the experiments he’s following. chase – that they think he should keep experimenting with things that have no interest in him. They all want him to continue to be a brilliant writer who has gone places no one has ever been before. And he was like, “But I’m done with that. I know where the line is.”
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