Dragaera

3000 words on Roger Zelazny

David Silberstein davids at kithrup.com
Wed Jul 23 23:42:45 PDT 2003

Steve Brust, in his weblog for 2003-07-17, says:

] I've been asked to do an introduction to a collection
] of short stories by Roger Zelazny.  I'm more than a little
] flattered and honored.  But I have no bloody clue what to
] say.  No one wants to read three thousand words of, "But. like,
] he's really good!"  I have this terrible urge to call Neil
] Gaiman and say, "Here.  You write it."

Well, you could, perhaps, describe some of the tropes that run
through his works, like his heros possessing near-supernatural
strength, in many of the stories.  Or you could point out that
there will be all of this action-adventure stuff going on, but
suddenly there will be transitions to these paragraphs of near
lyric beauty.  Or you could talk about the playfulness that is
in even his serious stories, or his way of taking a silly idea
and just *running* with it, spinning out a story like a stage
magician who will just keep pulling scarves from nowhere.  Or,
you could channel Zelazny, and write what *he* might have said
about his own works.

Hmm.  Who is the publisher?  What stories are in this collection?
I am curious to know if there is something I haven't read.