HBO to adapt Ohioan's novel

SANDUSKY — One of northern Ohio's most beloved science fiction writers will get some new attention soon. "Roadmarks," a 1979 science fiction novel by the late Roger Zelazny, is being adapted as a series by HBO, Deadline.com reported on Feb. 18. Science fiction writer George R.R. Martin, who became better known after HBO adapted Martin's "Game of Thrones" books, will serve as the executive producer. Zelazny was born in Euclid, Ohio, in 1937 and spent much of his life in the Cleveland area; he worked for the Cleveland Social Security office in the 1960s while developing his science fiction career before moving to Baltimore and then Santa Fe, New Mexico. Before his death from cancer in 1995 at age 58, Zelazny racked up six Hugo Awards and three Nebula Awards, penning novels such as "This Immortal," "Lord of Light" and authoring the popular "Amber" series. "Roadmarks" is a time travel novel; the protagonist rides on a highway that has exit ramps leading to various times. Author and critic F. Brett Cox, Charles A. Dana Professor of English at Norwich University in Northfield Vermont, is the author of "'Roger Zelazny," a book on the science-fiction legend that will be released on May 11 by the University of Illinois Press. "'Roadmarks' is one of the standalone SF novels Zelazny published in the 1970s, a period when he was devoting more and more of his writing to the Amber series," Cox told the Register. "It's a very interesting book that plays around with narrative structure, is wildly inventive, and is often overtly comic," Cox said. "It's excellent source material for a TV series, and I hope that the HBO adaptation will lead the audience back both to the novel and to Zelazny's other work." By the time Zelazny died in Santa Fe, he had become close friends with Martin. Martin was an established science fiction writer by then but did not become really famous until penning his "Song of Fire and Ice" fantasy novel series, bestsellers that HBO adapted as the "Game of Thrones" series. In a tribute to Zelazny published on his website, Martin wrote that when he moved to Santa Fe in 1979, "fresh from a divorce, near broke and utterly alone," Zelazny took Martin under his wing. "When a local bookstore asked him to do a signing, he made sure that I was invited as well. He took me with him to parties and wine tastings, even asked me to share Thanksgiving and Christmas with his family," Martin wrote. "If I had to fly to a con, he drove across town to pick up my mail and water my plant. And when my money was running low at the end of my first year in Santa Fe, he offered me a loan to tide me over until I could finish 'Fevre Dream'." Martin is now in a position to help new fans discover his mentor.