There’s just nothing like reading Zelazny.” “I know we’ll have other people who will be able to show just as much virtuosity, but it hasn’t happened yet in my lifetime-before or since his passing. “Even his most slight book is better than a lot of writers’ best books,” Lapine says. He believes strongly that all of the author’s dozens of books are worth reading. In recent years Lapine has worked closely with the Zelazny estate to bring many of Zelazny’s older titles back into print. If you haven’t read any of the Jacobean plays, you’re going to miss all those.” But if you haven’t read all that stuff, you’re not going to catch it. There’s almost a literary allusion on every single page. “All the stuff that’s going on in Amber, the levels and the number of literary allusions in there is absolutely gobsmacking. “Most of the critics in science fiction don’t even have a degree in English lit, and so they haven’t even got a clue,” Lapine says. But Lapine says that critics are off base when they dismiss Amber as lightweight, commercial writing.

Zelazny’s early work was showered with praise, but critics were less enthused with his later output, such as the popular 10-volume Amber series. “If you want to know who Roger Zelazny was, these letters do that for you.” “It’s just really, really fascinating,” Lapine says. Zelazny was a private person who rarely spoke about his opinions or personal life, and his letters offer a rare glimpse into his thought process. Lapine’s latest project is Immer, Zlaz, which collects hundreds of letters that Zelazny wrote to his best friend Carl Yoke.

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