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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
My first and still favorite Zelazny novel.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
On a distant planet in the far future, the original colonizing crew have set themselves up as gods, specifically taking on the roles of the Hindu pantheon. One member heartily disagrees with how the rest are running things.
The prose in this one was a little tough and I’m pretty sure the style is a deliberate choice to make this book feel more akin to reading a religious text. And as a play off of Hesse’s 1922 Siddartha, since they share the same main character. But some of it may also simply be because it was written in 1967. Still, the content is intriguing. The struggle is between the immortal gods who like being the ones with all the advanced tech (including re-incarnation to transfer themselves into new bodies), and the one who thinks this is some kinda bullshit, why make the inhabitants here go through the dark ages when they could have medicine and electricity now. The premise and watching it play out is the interest here, not so much any emotional investment in the characters.
Just randomly stumbled upon some article (about accelerationism) mentioning this book that I re-read several times in middle school.
also found this story in the Guardian - "As student revolutionaries stormed the walls of the US embassy in Tehran in November 1979, a handful of staff escaped through a back door. They managed to make their way to the Canadian embassy, but were unable to escape from Iran using their own passports. The Canadians and the CIA eventually came up with a cover to get them out of the country – issuing them with new identities and dressing them up as location scouts working on a science fiction film with a middle-eastern theme. This film was supposedly called Argo, and the CIA developed an elaborate back-story to make it appear real. They set up a production office, took out ads in Variety and bought up already-made set designs and script treatments for a film that neatly fitted into the remit of middle-eastern SF – Lord Of Light."
also found this story in the Guardian - "As student revolutionaries stormed the walls of the US embassy in Tehran in November 1979, a handful of staff escaped through a back door. They managed to make their way to the Canadian embassy, but were unable to escape from Iran using their own passports. The Canadians and the CIA eventually came up with a cover to get them out of the country – issuing them with new identities and dressing them up as location scouts working on a science fiction film with a middle-eastern theme. This film was supposedly called Argo, and the CIA developed an elaborate back-story to make it appear real. They set up a production office, took out ads in Variety and bought up already-made set designs and script treatments for a film that neatly fitted into the remit of middle-eastern SF – Lord Of Light."
Great time. Highly recommend. Struggled with untagged dialogue in some sequences.
challenging
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Okay. Hard to read at times. Essentially a sci-fi version of the rise of Hinduism and Buddhism. Earth is dead. Humans colonize another world and the life forms there. They use the Hindu mythology to assert control. Power corrupts until Sam or The Buddha comes to make things right.
This novel is just entertaining for me but I wonder how people in India read it
Mercifully it ends. I’ve really enjoyed Zelazny’s Amber books, this book won a Hugo Award, and it is on every top 100 sci-fi book list so I was very excited to read it. I’m guessing I am the problem based on the accolades but I was lost the entire book. I wasn’t sure what was happening at any point in time. There are reviewers who felt the same way I do about this book but not many.
a peculiar one
I started off confused and not liking it at all; by the halfway point I was fully immersed and loving the story and mythology (with some help from wikipedia, I gotta admit); by the end, I was somewhere in the middle - still somewhat enjoying it, but let down by the climax.
I loved the premise - that this all takes place on alien planet colonised by a bunch of Asians, who then force their descendants into a stasis of medieval-level technology whilst setting themselves up as overlords and gods. the protaganist was fantastic - pretty unique as well, as one of the gods himself, earnestly preaching a faith with good intentions whilst himself not believing a word of it, waging his war over the course of generations. the structure of the book was also very odd, though not in a bad way.
to sum it up, a fascinating concept and decent story. perfect re-read material.
rating - 6/10
some quotes -
"His followers called him Mahasamamatman and said he was a god. He preferred to drop the Maha- and the -atman, however, and called himself Sam. He never claimed to be a god. But then, he never claimed not to be a god. Circumstances being what they were, neither admission could be of any benefit."
I started off confused and not liking it at all; by the halfway point I was fully immersed and loving the story and mythology (with some help from wikipedia, I gotta admit); by the end, I was somewhere in the middle - still somewhat enjoying it, but let down by the climax.
I loved the premise - that this all takes place on alien planet colonised by a bunch of Asians, who then force their descendants into a stasis of medieval-level technology whilst setting themselves up as overlords and gods. the protaganist was fantastic - pretty unique as well, as one of the gods himself, earnestly preaching a faith with good intentions whilst himself not believing a word of it, waging his war over the course of generations. the structure of the book was also very odd, though not in a bad way.
to sum it up, a fascinating concept and decent story. perfect re-read material.
rating - 6/10
some quotes -
"His followers called him Mahasamamatman and said he was a god. He preferred to drop the Maha- and the -atman, however, and called himself Sam. He never claimed to be a god. But then, he never claimed not to be a god. Circumstances being what they were, neither admission could be of any benefit."