TT: The Sum of the Parts
ALAN: Last time I mentioned the symmetrical Thomas T. Thomas who collaborated on a novel with Frederik Pohl. It occurs to me that he also collaborated with Roger Zelazny on a couple of novels, Flare and The Mask of Loki.
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Collaboration and Inspiration
Indeed, now that I think about it, Roger actually wrote quite a lot of collaborative novels with a large number of different authors. Shall we talk about these?
JANE: Absolutely! I believe I’ve read all of them and, now that I consider it, written a couple as well, although those were… Well, we can get to that later, if we want.
Roger’s collaborative works were mostly novels. He wrote one with Philip K. Dick, two with Fred Saberhagen, two with Thomas T. Thomas, three with Robert Sheckley, and one with Gerald Hausman. In addition, he wrote a short story with Harlan Ellison. Oh! And he completed a work that Alfred Bester left unfinished.
Where would you like to start?
ALAN: Well, since I’ve already mentioned Thomas T. Thomas, let’s start with him. The two novels he and Roger wrote together are almost at opposite ends of the literary spectrum – Flare is science fiction and The Mask of Loki is fantasy (though with some science fictional elements), which says something about both their talents, I think.
It’s been many years since I read these books, so I’m a little vague about the details. Flare, if I recall correctly, has almost no plot as such. It deals with the effects of a huge solar flare on a disparate group of people – really it’s just a series of vignettes. But I found the technique to be very effective and I remember enjoying the book a lot. The Mask of Loki is a much more traditional fantasy about an eternal battle between the avatars of Loki and Ahriman and outside of that I remember nothing at all about it, so clearly it didn’t make much of an impression on me.
JANE: I haven’t read either in a long while, but I vaguely recall that I preferred The Mask of Loki, because it was more of a story with plot and characters, although I will admit it had few surprises. Flare was definitely the more ambitious book.
By the way, Flare was meant to be episodic. I believe the influence was a book by George R. Stewart called Storm, in which the main character is a storm.
Flare had another bonus in that it gave Roger a chance to delve into writing poetry again. He wrote an entire poetic imitation of Iknaton’s “Hymn to the Son,” small portions of which were used as chapter breaks. Some years ago, Warren Lapine’s DNA Publications published a chapbook that includes the entire poem, as well as an essay by Roger about his writing. There’s also an essay by me…
ALAN: How did Roger and Thomas get together? Were they friends? Thomas is a rather obscure writer, so it seems odd that the two of them would collaborate, particularly on more than one book. Do you know anything about the background?
JANE: Oddly enough, you’ve chosen to start with one of the few of Roger’s collaborations that didn’t begin out of Roger having a previous relationship with the author. Roger had met Thomas T. Thomas before they started writing together, but the collaborations were encouraged by editor Jim Baen.
That said, Roger did enjoy working with Thomas. (Heh, you can guess if I’m referring to him by his first or last name). So overall, it was a good experience for him. Actually, I hope it was for them both.
ALAN: When you and Roger were here in New Zealand, I recall Roger talking about Deus Irae, his collaboration with Philip K. Dick. Apparently Dick had a fragment of a novel that he was stuck on and somehow (I’m not sure how) Roger had been persuaded to complete it. Dick’s title for the novel fragment was The Kneeling Legless Man (which may well explain why he got stuck!). Do you have any idea how Roger got involved in the project?
JANE: That was well before my time, so I can only say that Roger heard – I think from Ted White – that Dick had a novel he couldn’t finish and needed to. White had been approached, but had not been able to get into the project.
Roger knew Dick and was interested in his work, so he offered to step in. They worked on the project in a somewhat dilatory fashion until the publisher pressed Dick either for the book or a return of the advance.
ALAN: Roger said that he’d tried very hard to emulate Dick’s writing style and tone of voice. I thought Roger did a marvellous job of chanelling Philip K. Dick. The joins didn’t show at all.
JANE: Actually, what Roger did was more clever than merely emulating Dick’s style. Let me quote from a letter Roger wrote to me about the process:
“Before I’d started on it, I read or re-read sufficient of his material to teach myself how to mimic his style. I didn’t do it though, but chose a style between his & mine, a kind of meta Phil Dick style which blended well [with] his own & made the thing come out sounding like something reminiscent of both of us but not exactly like either.” (August 3, 1989)
ALAN: That’s interesting – and you’re right, it’s a much more clever and more subtle approach than I remembered. And there’s another writer whose style Roger adopted (and possibly adapted) in order to complete an unfinished work. Perhaps we can talk about that literary experiment next time?
JANE: Sounds good!
