Reviews with content warning for Death - Lord of Light

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny

3 reviews

surdiablo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Alright, as an atheist who used to be a Hindu and is rather well-acquainted with Hindu mythology, this was somewhat disappointing. It's one of those books that showed a lot of potential at the beginning, then fizzled out eventually by the end, excluding some flashes of brilliance that ultimately went nowhere. If you are a devout Hindu, chances are you won't like this book due to the inclusion of religion and the way it's used, but with that being said, lemme express my personal gripes which will include marked spoilers.

So this is not exactly a retelling of myths from Hinduism,

it's about a group of colonists conquering a planet and living there, establishing a caste system and adopting personas of Hindu gods,

which is never directly expressed, just hinted. Most of it may seem pretty creative and it's definitely well-written, and the author has certainly done some good research on his part, including some obscure gods and art forms and such which might seem completely alien and unique to someone who's not a Hindu. I personally have no qualms about religion being used this way and I was rather excited at the beginning to read it, as I thought I would get most of the references. The first chapter starts rather strong as well with the

resurrection of Sam/Buddha and him slowly acclimatizing to everything that was happening, preparing himself for the war against Heaven.

However, then the author decided to proceed with

explaining events that happened prior to the resurrection of Buddha, his actions and their consequences which led to the present, for 5 out of 7 total chapters implicitly.

Now don't get me wrong, the chapters themselves weren't exactly bad per se, some of them had rather intriguing, even epic moments. However, regardless of the author's research and attention to detail and such, ultimately the whole use of religion is just window-dressing, with bare-bones characters ( excluding the protagonist and another major character ) that could have been so much more, besides the basic attributes mentioned about them which may appear as novelty to most people, but not to those who already know their origin. When that's over, it all comes down to one chapter to wrap-up everything, which was painfully rushed and ends in such an unsatisfying manner as well, especially considering the fate of characters. When I look at the story as a whole, it's nothing special, just needlessly bemusing for the most part. I feel like me being aware of mythologies was only detrimental to my experience as well unfortunately, not an enhancement.

Don't let my review discourage you from picking it up however, especially if you are a 'journey over destination' kind of person and want to try something different. It definitely gets weird and trippy in a good way during certain chapters and I can see why this book received so much acclaim, it just wasn't a satisfying experience for me personally is all.

Content Warnings

jessthanthree's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Content Warnings

itsnicholaslashay's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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