The Magic

      (October 1961–October 1967)

      Ten Tales by Roger Zelazny

      Selected and Introduced by

      Samuel R. Delany

      Cover art by Bob Eggleton

      ©2018 Positronic Publishing

      The Magic: (October 1961--October 1967) Ten Tales by Roger Zelazny is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, locales or institutions is entirely coincidental.

      All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission except for brief quotations for review purposes only.

      ISBN 13: 978-1-5154-3922-6

      Acknowledgments

      “Zelazny!” copyright © 2018 by Samuel R. Delany.

      “Introduction” by Theodore Sturgeon originally appeared in Four For Tomorrow 1967. Copyright © 1967 by Theodore Sturgeon.

      “When Zelazny was Magic” by Darrell Schweitzer copyright © 2018 by Darrell Schweitzer.

      “A Rose for Ecclesiastes” originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November 1963. Copyright © 1963 by Mercury Press.

      “The Graveyard Heart” originally appeared in Fantastic Stories of Imagination, March 1964. Copyright © 1964 by Ziff-Davis Publishing Co.

      “The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth” originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March 1965. Copyright © 1965 by Mercury Press.

      “The Ides of Octember” originally appeared in Amazing Stories, January 1965 as “He Who Shapes.” Copyright © 1965 by Ziff-Davis Publishing Co.

      “The Furies” originally appeared in Amazing Stories, June 1965. Copyright © 1965 by Ziff-Davis Publishing Co.

      “For a Breath I Tarry” originally appeared in New Worlds, March 1966. Copyright © 1966 by New Worlds.

      “This Moment of the Storm” originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, June 1966. Copyright © 1966 by Mercury Press.

      “The Keys to December” originally appeared in New Worlds, August 1966. Copyright © 1966 by New Worlds.

      “This Mortal Mountain” originally appeared in If, March 1967. Copyright © 1967 by Galaxy Publishing Corporation.

      “Damnation Alley” originally appeared in Galaxy Magazine, October 1967. Copyright © 1967 by Galaxy Publishing Corporation.

      “A Word from Zelazny” and “Notes” following each story compiled by Christopher S. Kovacs. ©2009 by Christopher S. Kovacs, MD. Originally appeared in volumes 1, 2, and 3 of The Collected Stories of Roger Zelazny, NESFA Press, 2009. Revisions to the notes copyright © 2018.

      “A Few More Words from Roger Zelazny: On Ellison, Delany, and Brust” by Theodore Krulik originally appeared on Tor.com May, 2016. Copyright © 2016 by Theodore Krulik

      “A Voice from the World Mountain: an Interview with Roger Zelazny” by John Nizalowski originally appeared in The New York Review of Science Fiction, March, 2006. Copyright © 2006 by John Nizalowski.

      Cover image This Moment of the Storm copyright © 2018 by Bob Eggleton

      Cover design and interior layout copyright © 2018 by Warren Lapine

      Zelazny!

      by Samuel R. Delany

      In 1938, in what is probably one of the best books on writing I’ve ever read, Cyril Connelly wrote, “Those whom the gods would destroy, they first call promising.”

      Though I was not to hear of it till many years later, both Zelazny and I had early high school stories published in a national magazine called Literary Cavalcade—Roger’s was a short–short called “Mr. Fuller’s Revolt,” from Vol. 7, October 1st, 1954.

      A year before Connelly’s Enemies of Promise appeared, Zelazny (May 13, 1937–June 14, 1995) was born in Euclid, Ohio.

      In the October1965 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction the first half of his serialized novel . . . And Call Me Conrad appeared.

      A young woman friend of mine named Ana Parez brought the issue to my apartment on East 7^th Street, to show me. Ana was a folksinger, who, when I first met her, had been a student at the Bronx High School of Science, who had recently come from Boston Latin. When she arrived at Seventh Street, she explained: “This is it, what I told you about on the phone. Chip, who is this guy?” And that night I read it, and by the end I wanted to read not only the rest but everything he wrote or had published. And shortly I was able to find the November 1963 issue (with the glorious Hannes Bok cover) and read the first of the stories here, “A Rose for Ecclesiastes” (which would later be revealed to have been written a year before his first two professional sales, “Horseman” in the August 1962 issue of Fantastic and “Passion Play” in the August 1962 issue of Amazing). There is something about the early stories of Roger Zelazny that makes you want to analyze how they work, because they work so well.

      I wanted to meet him, and that year I went to my first SF convention, the Tricon, in Cleveland, Ohio, where . . . And Call Me Conrad tied for the Hugo Award with Frank Herbert’s Dune! (For a while, in manuscript, Zelazny's novel had born three titles, typed or handwritten: I Am Thinking of My Earth, and Good-Bye, My Darling, Good-Bye, Conrad had been rejected; finally, . . . And Call Me Conrad, one of the handwritten ones, had—happily!—been chosen.) I recall sitting in the audience when the professionals who were in attendance were announced, and how we all applauded the known names when they came up. Zelazny’s name received an incredibly enthusiastic, standing ovation—the only writer there who did, and—unlike the others—it went on and on and on . . .

      I stood too, and felt good that I was there to applaud with the rest, and that, as well, I was lucky enough to belong to such a community that recognized the excellence of this writer. (I had read enough of Dune to know that, while I approved of what I had picked up as its ecological message, it was an unreadably poor novel and homophobic to boot.) That weekend, I sought out Roger (my own sixth novel, Babel-17, had been nominated for a Nebula Award), and he was free for dinner, and I was lucky enough to dine that night with him and his wife, Judith, at the hotel restaurant. We were both enthusiastic about each other’s work, and I recall we reached our table over a transparent bridge above a fish pond in the floor, and we agreed that it looked like something one might find in an Alfred Bester novel. I also seem to remember that Judith said she didn’t find science fiction that interesting, but that since everybody here seemed to like what Roger wrote, she guessed it was good. As early as 1968, three years after . . . And Call me Conrad, I knew the stories I wanted to see together in this book. (One of his most satisfactory novels, Doorways in the Sand [1976] was still to come.) When, once again, we got a chance to sit down for a few moments together (in Baltimore?), I told him, “I didn’t think ‘Damnation Alley’—” which had been nominated for a Hugo award—“worked as well as it might.” He grimaced a little.

      “Actually,” he said, “I didn’t think so either, Chip. But it’s good to know you cared.”

      That was the last time we ever spoke directly, though we were in touch in other ways. In ’68 in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction published my loving pastiche of what I felt to be Zelazny at his best, whose hero was a more realistic and, I hoped, a more heroic version of Hell Tanner. Only in 2012, did I hear—through a Facebook chat