The Road to Amber (89 page)

“Warriors and Dreams” first appeared in
Warriors of Blood and Dream
, AvoNova 1995 (as “Introduction”). Previously uncollected.

”’…And Call Me Roger’: The Literary Life of Roger Zelazny, Part 6” by Chrisropher S. Kovacs, MD first appears in this volume.

“Sandow’s Shadow (Outline)” first appears in this volume (written in the early 1990s).

“Shadowland (Outline)” first appears in this volume (first draft written circa 1979; revised 1993).

“Dysonized Biologicals (Outline)” first appears in this volume (written circa 1993).

“Donnerjack, of Virtù: A Fable for the Machine Age (Outline)” first appears in this volume (written September 1991). “Z-World” by Michael Whelan first appears in this volume. “Isle of Regret” by Trent Zelazny first appeared in Amberzine #12-15, March 2005.

“In Memoriam: Roger Zelazny, The Lord of Light”
by George R. R. Martin
was a Eulogy delivered at Roger Zelazny’s wake in June 1995. It was reprinted (edited slightly) in
Locus #415
, August 1995, and again in
Isaac Asimovs Science Fiction Magazine
, March 1996.

“Our Own Piece of the Sky” first appears in this volume. Written in 1994 as a coda to
Psychoshop
, by Alfred Bester and Roger Zelazny, but not used.

“The Appetite and Rising Sun”, “Cry of the Needy”, and “The Rational Gods” first appear in this volume. Written 1955-60 for
Chisel in the Sky
.

“Srorm”, “Spinning the Day Through My Head”, “The God and Frustrate Shrine” first appeared in
To Spin Is Miracle Cat
, Underwood-Miller 1981. Written 1955-60 for
Chisel in the Sky
.

“Walking, of Course” first appeared as a coda to the collaborative novel
Wilderness
by Roger Zelazny and Gerald Hausman, Tor/Forge 1994. It was published separately in
New Mexico Poetry Renaissance
, eds. Sharon Niederman and Miriam Sagan, Red Crane Books 1994.

“Paranoid Game” first appeared in
Alternities #6
, Summer 1981.

“Ikhnaton’s Hymn to the Sun” first appeared in its current form in
Hymn to the Sun: An Imitation
, DNA Publications 1996. Extracts appeared in
Flare
, by Roger Zelazny and Thomas T. Thomas, Baen 1992.

“Spring Morning: Missive” first appeared in
To Spin Is Miracle Cat
, Underwood-Miller 1981.

Thanks go in many directions: to Roger Zelazny for his life’s work, a body of writing that made this project a joy to work on; to my wife, Leah Anderson, without whose support this project would never have started; to Chris Kovacs, whose research efforts not only produced a comprehensive collection of material, but whose insights added depth to the whole project; to Ann Crimmins for her dedication to all things grammatical; to Kirby McCauley, who promoted the project and arranged for us the right to print Zelazny’s writing; to Jane Lindskold, Gerald Hausman, and Gardner Dozois for their heartfelt introductions; to Michael Whelan for his spectacular dust jacket painting and his illuminating essay; to Ed Greenwood for his multi-year collaboration with Roger Zelazny; to Elizabeth Danforth for her Amber map; to George R. R. Martin and Trent Zelazny for their touching memoria; and to Alice Lewis for her polished dust jacket design, her clever layouts for the Timeline and Whelan essay, and her invaluable advice in design issues. Thanks also go to: Mark Olson for his help in book production, Geri Sullivan for design advice and our stalwart band of proofreaders:

Rick Katze, Tim Szczesuil, Ann Broomhead, Larry Pfeffer,
Peter Olson, Larry Setlow, Alice Lewis, Sharon Sbarsky,
Ann Crimmins, Chris Kovacs, and Mark Olson.

David G. Grubbs
October, 2009

In order to write the “A Word from Zelazny” sections, the annotations, and the literary biography, I relied on many individuals. Some aided in the extensive search to locate original manuscripts, correspondence, rare fanzines, and obscure interviews. Colleagues, family, and friends of Roger Zelazny helped to clarify details and quash rumors about his life and work. My own colleagues helped with translations of Greek, German, Japanese and other foreign language phrases. Apologies to anyone who might have been overlooked in compiling the following list:

Charles Ardai, John Ayotte, George Beahm, Greg Bear, John Betancourt, Paul Bradford, Rick Bradford, Ned Brooks, Lois McMaster Bujold, John Callender, George Carayanniotis, Ung-il Chung, Michael Citrak, Giovanna Clairval, Bob Collins, Lloyd Currey, Jack Dann, Jane Frank, c Shell Franklin, Paul Gilster, Simon Gosden, Ed Greenwood, Joe Haldeman, David Hartwell, Gerald Hausman, Graham Holroyd, Patrick Hulman, Tom Jackson, Beate Lanske, Elizabeth LaVelle, Jane Lindskold, George R. R. Martin, Bryan McKinney, Henry Morrison, Kari Mozena, Rias Nuninga, Richard Patt, Greg Pickersgill, Bob Pylant, Mike Resnick, Andy Richards, Fred Saberhagen, Roger Schlobin, Darrell Schweitzer, Robert Silverberg, Dan Simmons, Dean Wesley Smith, Ken St. Andre, Richard Stegall, Thomas T. Thomas, Norris Thomlinson, Erick Wujcik, Carl Yoke, Trent Zelazny, Cindy Ziesing, and Scott Zrubek.

Diane Cooter, Nicolette Schneider, Lara Chmela
Roger Zelazny Papers, Special Collections
Research Center, Syracuse University Library

Thomas Beck, Susan Graham, Marcia Peri, Shaun Lusby
Azriel Rosenfeld Science Fiction Research Collection,
University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Sara Stille, Eric Milenkiewicz, Audrey Pearson
Bruce Pelz and Terry Carr Fanzine Collections, Special
Collections Library, University of California, Riverside

Greg Prickman, Jacque Roethler, Kathryn Hodson, Jeremy Brett
M. Horvat Collection, Special Collections,
University of Iowa Libraries

Jill Tatem
University Archives, Case Western Reserve University

Thomas M. Whitehead
Whitehead Collection, Special Collections Department,
Temple University Libraries

Patti Thistle, Dion Fowlow, George Beckett
Document Delivery Office, Health Sciences Library,
Memorial University of Newfoundland.

And then there are the personal thanks that I need to make. Of course none of this would have been possible without Roger Zelazny creating the very stories and characters that I find myself returning to again and again. When I finally met him at Ad Astra in 1986, I interrupted his rapid departure from the convention and asked “Mr. Zelazny” to sign the books I’d carried with me. He kindly took care of that and the requests of my companions. “Everybody OK, then? Right, gotta get to the airport”—and then his parting comment to me was ” …and call me Roger.” From that memory came the fitting title for the monograph in these volumes.

My mother handed me that paperback
Nine Princes in Amber
one dull day so long ago when I complained that I had nothing to read, and my parents drove me to countless new and used bookstores on the very first Zelazny quest to find copies of all of his books. The Internet makes searches so much easier now, and I couldn’t have gathered much of this material if I’d had to rely on physical searches and postal mail. My buddy Ed Hew and his cousins drove me to Ad Astra for that fateful meeting. Dave Grubbs believed in and fought to see this project succeed when my involvement made it expand well beyond what he’d anticipated, and Ann Crimmins pruned, weeded, and used a flamethrower where necessary to turn my sometimes passive prose into something more readable. And none of this would have been possible without the support of my wife, Susan, and our children Caileigh and Jamieson, who put up with my additional absences from home and the other blocks of time consumed in creating this project. If their eyes should roll at mention of the name Zelazny, you may now understand why. And the fact that Susan’s birthday is also May 13, or that my last name also refers to what happens in a smithy, are just examples of those Strange and Odd Coincidences in Life realized while researching this project. That one of our Golden Retrievers is named Amber is not one of those coincidences.

Christopher S. Kovacs, MD
October, 2009

I wish to thank my daughters Fiona and Deirdre, whom I dragged to cons as children and who have grown to love sf and fantasy as much as I do. Particular thanks to my husband Peter Havriluk for patience, encouragement, and easing the log jam at the p.c. by buying himself a laptop. Thanks to Elizabeth Zaborskis Fernandez, for help with the Spanish. Dave and Chris, I’m delighted to have worked with you. Thanks also to the various Crimmins/Havriluk cats who warmed my lap as I edited.

Ann Crimmins
October, 2009