Thanks to GalleyCat, I just learned that Charles Ardai’s Hard Case Crime line will be publishing The Dead Man’s Brother, a previously unpublished novel by Roger Zelazny.

The manuscript, supposedly completed 30 years ago and long thought lost, was apparently recently discovered among Zelazny’s papers.

Roger Zelazny was once one of my gods. I loved “A Rose for Ecclesiastes,” Creatures of Light and Darkness, Lord of Light, Nine Princes in Amber (the sequels, not so much), “The Doors of His Face, The Lamps of His Mouth,” and many other of his short stories and novels, so a new work, particularly one from when he was still in his prime, is big news for me.

I’m also looking forward to learning the entire history of the manuscript’s submissions and rejections, and why it ended up in a desk drawer for decades instead of being read by all of us in the ’70s.

The stories behind Phil K. Dick’s struggles to get his mainstream novels published were fascinating, so I’m hoping that the entire story behind this particular story will also end up being revealed.

Though GalleyCat didn’t provide a link to it, the publisher’s site is offering an excerpt. The fragment certainly has that hardboiled feel to it, and so I’m anxious to read the entire novel to see Zelazny’s take on the genre.

For a Zelazny fan, nine months will be a long time to wait.