Jon Betancourt must die!

[yendi]

So, I'm tracking down some info on Zelazny, and I found the following link:

http://www.wildsidepress.com/jgb.htm

For the record, Zelazny had stated numerous times that he'd never want anyone else writing the Amber universe. But according to Neil Gaiman's weblog, Zelazny's estate is administered by someone who apparently doesn't care a whit about his wishes (and no, I don't think it's Jane Lindskold -- I get the impression it's a blood relative).

This is wrong. On so many damned levels. Betancourt isn't capable of writing these characters. Few writers are. And the ones who are wouldn't stoop that low.

Comments

[terracinque.livejournal.com]

I've only read two books by Zelazny: Roadmarks and Doorways In the Sand.

I enjoyed them both.

[yendi]

I'm not surprised -- although not his best, they're both damned good. Of all the writers to die in the last ten years, his death struck me as the worst, because he's someone who had many good tales left to write.

[terracinque.livejournal.com]

He wasn't even very old, was he? Seems like he was only in his fifties.

What else should I read by him? Don't recommend Amber, because fantasy really isn't my bag. If he wrote more books like Doorways, that would be right up my alley.

[yendi]

Yep. Mid-50s.

Well, Zelazny wasn't a big fan of distinguishing between fantasy and sci-fi -- most of his books cross the line. Damnation Alley, This Immortal, and Lord of Light are the only sci-fi he's written, and only Damnation Alley really avoids fantasy completely.

You'd also like A Night in the Lonesome October (although it's not sci-fi at all). It's hard to classify -- it's technically horror, in the sense of having supernatural creatures wandering London, possibly to bring about an apocolypse, but it's filled with literary archetypes. Basically, every October, the various players and their familiars compete to perform a ritual or stop it (depending on where they stand, and most folks shift). We get the classic vampire, witch, Holmes-like detective, etc. The entire book is told by the dog who is "Jack"'s familiar. It was his last solo novel.

[phantom_wolfboy]

I'd call Doorways in the sand SF.

[yendi]

True. With 50 books or so, I don't have them all memorized. :-)

[voltbang.livejournal.com]

I don't read fanfic, even if it's released in hardback. Ok, I know, the Dune prequels, but the exception proves the rule. Besides, his son writes Dune better than he did after the first book..

[yendi]

I don't read fanfic, even if it's released in hardback.

I may have to borrow this quote sometime.

[voltbang.livejournal.com]

it's yours for the taking.

[maida-mac.livejournal.com]

That is just so sick and WRONG. Nobody can do Zelazny, esp. that particular universe.

Ouch.

Couldn't agree with you more

[gamera-spinning.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of the unfortunate release of the posthumous ghost-written Douglas Adams book, "Salmon of Doubt". He never wanted it published.

The folowing quote from Harlan Ellison neatly sums up my view of the issue of primacy of the author:
"Word got out that I said to my wife, Susan, "when I die" - which ought to be fairly quickly now - "when I die, I want you... the, the first thing I want you to do, before you even turn me to ashes, before you bury me, before you start dancing on my grave - the first thing you do is go up to my office, you find my workbooks, you find the files of unfinished stories and you burn those suckers. You take them, you put them in a big can and you burn them. You pour gasoline all over them and set fire to them and take a big stick and stir the ashes so nobody could ever see what I wrote that was unfinished.

Anything with my name on it was written by me. A lot of people have things that were written with other people's names on them. Like V.C. Andrews. V.C. Andrews died, I don't know 8, 9, 10 years ago, and she still got books coming out every year. Bill Shatner. His name is on books, they're all written by Ron Goulart. Ron's not allowed to talk about it because of contract. But, when you see my name on something that means I wrote it.

And this argument on the web site is really ridiculous. It shouldn't even exist. The argument is, quote, "Does a writer have, or an artist, have the right or should she or he have the right to burn his or her unfinished work?" Say What?? Who does have the right? People say, "well, we wouldn't have such and such a piece of work that was published after somebody's death. You know, I don't know what it would be but they give you all kinds of examples of great things that people found later on. So what? That's the audience. The audience wants that. The creator - it comes from the creator and it ends with the creator. If I decided my stuff is going to get burned so that 10 years after I'm dead there won't be, you know, a sequel to Blood's A Rover by, you know, Harlan Ellison and Fredrick Pohl from snippets of what I wrote, that's , that's my choice and there's no argument there. I know people like to argue about it, but in fact, there is no argument."