Zelazny's novels

[VideoChrist]

Many of Roger Zelazny's novels are out of print. The Amber books are in print in an oversized, omnibus paperback volume marred by typos. The eos/HarperCollins paperback edition of Lord of Light has a glaring typo on page 1, fer chrissake.

I think it'd be great if NESFA Press put out a definitive set of uniform hardcover editions of Zelazny's novels, as they did with their six-volume Collected Stories of Zelazny. If they were annotated by someone like Chris Kovacs, that'd be even better.

Would anyone else like to see this?

 

[J-Sun]

Many of Roger Zelazny's novels are out of print. The Amber books are in print in an oversized, omnibus paperback volume marred by typos. The eos/HarperCollins paperback edition of Lord of Light has a glaring typo on page 1, fer chrissake.

Everything has tyops these days. The intarwebs have destroyed everyone's ability to proofread and penny-pinching from publishers just guarantees it.

I think it'd be great if NESFA Press put out a definitive set of uniform hardcover editions of Zelazny's novels, as they did with their six-volume Collected Stories of Zelazny. If they were annotated by someone like Chris Kovacs, that'd be even better.

Would anyone else like to see this?

Doesn't directly matter to me as I'm a paperback guy as much as possible but, in the abstract, sure - I like to see anything I like reprinted. Even so there's a whole lot of things I'd rather see first. And I really think Zelazny was best at short fiction, anyway - the novels are kind of gravy.

 

[VideoChrist]

And I really think Zelazny was best at short fiction, anyway - the novels are kind of gravy.

That seems to be the thinking of the NESFA people, since apparently they're reluctant to do the Zelazny novels (though I've heard that the Zelazny Collected Stories are their best-selling books). But I've got mixed feelings about that. Granted that Zelazny's shorter works were of a much more consistently high quality, whereas his novels varied widely in quality, I'd argue that the best of his novels -- a couple dozen, at least -- are worthy of the archival treatment. And they certainly shouldn't be out of print.

 

[J-Sun]

That seems to be the thinking of the NESFA people, since apparently they're reluctant to do the Zelazny novels (though I've heard that the Zelazny Collected Stories are their best-selling books). But I've got mixed feelings about that. Granted that Zelazny's shorter works were of a much more consistently high quality, whereas his novels varied widely in quality, I'd argue that the best of his novels -- a couple dozen, at least -- are worthy of the archival treatment. And they certainly shouldn't be out of print.

Yeah, I don't know why they'd be reluctant, as I'm sure they'd sell. Unless it's not reluctance so much as issues with the rights - I don't know if some large houses might not have dibs on some of the novels or something, whether in print or not. And, yeah, his best novels should be in print somewhere. But it wouldn't surprise me if what is currently out of print comes back fairly soon. Some things go in and out of print. I just get upset when they seem to be permanently out. (This is another thing to hate about the current bugcrushers - they take up valuable shelf space in brick'n'mortar stores, so fewer books can be displayed and sold, so fewer books are physically reprinted.)

 

[Snowdog]

The thing is, will they sell in sufficient numbers to justify the cost? I bought the Collected Stories but they were new and only 6 (or 7) volumes and still a major commitment financially. A much longer run of novels is a far bigger financial commitment and for someone like me who already has all the novels, it wouldn't be worth buying any unless I was going to buy them all. And even though I'm a Zelazny collector, I couldn't justify the expense of doing that.

I suspect most people who bought the Collected Stories are long-term fans who have some or all the novels already. NESFA must have looked at it and decided that there wasn't a big enough market.

Unfortunately, I haven't seen a Zelazny book on the shelves of a bookshop or library for many a year.

 

[VideoChrist]

My understanding is that if NESFA did the novels, they'd be omnibus volumes, each including several novels. Most of Zelazny's novels are short enough (most are under 70,000 words, some are under 60,000) that they could easily do four or five novels per volume. Remember, these would be definitive editions, annotated and put together by the people who did the Collected Stories; in many cases they have Zelazny's original mss. and letters, and could truly do a definitive job.