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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Dreamlike and beautifully woven, The Lord Of Light tells of the many incarnations of Sam and his battle against the pantheon of Hindu deities. As a religious studies major in college, I was familiar with Eastern Religions and found Zelazny's tales credible and delicious. I found myself amazed at the details. For any true sci-fi nut, this book is a must!!!! Not only is it dripping with the fantastic, it embraces the greatest of all sci-fi rules -- don't explain too much. It is what is....we must accept the world he has created blindly and we will be rewarded with a rich tale of this new and amazing world.
Lord of Light uses amazing visualizations to describe the most beautiful sights or the most truly horrific. The book could be boiled down to good versus evil, but who is good and who is evil? The story is really the oldest ever lived. People have many beliefs and they don't allow others beliefs to exist. What isn't my belief is wrong. A group of people (the Firsts) travel to another world to set themselves up as Gods and they succeed for many... centuries? I'm not sure about the time. They move from body to body to continue their existence. They set up "Heaven" and keep the masses down by denying them any knowledge of technology. If the people happen to discover something like the printing press, the Gods crush the people and technology. There was one among them who believed in "Acceleration". This just meant that the people would be given the knowledge slowly and the people would rise up to be equal with the Gods and therefor no more need for Heaven or Gods. The one who believed this, Sam, had many names and none of them were popular within Heaven and the gods, so there were many battles. Sam is a rather charming and ingenious character. The book started out slowly for me, but picked up pace about three quarters of the way in and built in a battle to the death. One funny aside was the fact that Christianity is fought by zealot leading zombies.
CAWPILE SCORE
C-8
A-7
W-8
P-6
I-7
L-8
E-7
TOTAL-6.14/10
For a book as old as this it really holds up well. This is a book deserving of a second longer/slower read through, because i'm sure there are things that i missed as i was reading it.
CAWPILE
Characters
Great Characters, fully realized. even with the Body Swapping you could tell who was who.
Atmosphere
the World felt real and exciting. i got the sense that i was where the book was taking place.
Writing
The Writing was amazing and quite "playful" i enjoyed every minute of reading it, the writing never felt anachronistic even using more modern words, thanks to the world and great prose.
Plot
The Plot sometimes felt off paced, moving in leaps then slowing, but i think that this is more of a character driven story, with a good plot.
Intrigue
The intrigue of the why the hindu gods, why not share tech, what powers each has and how they are going to overcome each other played well in the story.
Logic
Enjoyment
I did enjoy this book quite a bit.
I will be talking about it on Libromancy 06/15/2021 https://libromancy.podbean.com/
C-8
A-7
W-8
P-6
I-7
L-8
E-7
TOTAL-6.14/10
For a book as old as this it really holds up well. This is a book deserving of a second longer/slower read through, because i'm sure there are things that i missed as i was reading it.
CAWPILE
Characters
Great Characters, fully realized. even with the Body Swapping you could tell who was who.
Atmosphere
the World felt real and exciting. i got the sense that i was where the book was taking place.
Writing
The Writing was amazing and quite "playful" i enjoyed every minute of reading it, the writing never felt anachronistic even using more modern words, thanks to the world and great prose.
Plot
The Plot sometimes felt off paced, moving in leaps then slowing, but i think that this is more of a character driven story, with a good plot.
Intrigue
The intrigue of the why the hindu gods, why not share tech, what powers each has and how they are going to overcome each other played well in the story.
Logic
Enjoyment
I did enjoy this book quite a bit.
I will be talking about it on Libromancy 06/15/2021 https://libromancy.podbean.com/
While it had a weird start, It got a lot better. loved it.
GoodReads/Amazon management has chosen to ban this review from their "community". The complete version of this review has therefore been moved to the following sites:
https://plus.google.com/101089108381539470202/posts/aPLwqBk388t
http://www.librarything.com/work/20886/reviews/96463336
http://pmaranci.booklikes.com/post/32973/lord_of_light
If you, like me, object to what Amazon has done to the world of books, book lovers, and book shops, you can find many alternatives to GoodReads (for reviews) and to Amazon (for shopping) at the "Escaping Amazon" community [https://plus.google.com/communities/101902216461396504043]. Our free public resource listing and describing alternatives is at [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhaXhGep913MdEg5VjJLWE9xTVRmRXVCVDF6eFRJbVE&usp=sharing%5D
Please be aware that the reviews you read here on GoodReads (now wholly owned by Amazon) are not an unbiased view of the opinions of site members. Reviews which threaten Amazon's bottom line are censored. Reviewers aren't even informed that their sites have been quietly exiled to a literary ghetto. There are better sites, both for reading and for shopping.
Readers and their love of books are not commodities to be bought and sold - unless we allow it.
https://plus.google.com/101089108381539470202/posts/aPLwqBk388t
http://www.librarything.com/work/20886/reviews/96463336
http://pmaranci.booklikes.com/post/32973/lord_of_light
If you, like me, object to what Amazon has done to the world of books, book lovers, and book shops, you can find many alternatives to GoodReads (for reviews) and to Amazon (for shopping) at the "Escaping Amazon" community [https://plus.google.com/communities/101902216461396504043]. Our free public resource listing and describing alternatives is at [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhaXhGep913MdEg5VjJLWE9xTVRmRXVCVDF6eFRJbVE&usp=sharing%5D
Please be aware that the reviews you read here on GoodReads (now wholly owned by Amazon) are not an unbiased view of the opinions of site members. Reviews which threaten Amazon's bottom line are censored. Reviewers aren't even informed that their sites have been quietly exiled to a literary ghetto. There are better sites, both for reading and for shopping.
Readers and their love of books are not commodities to be bought and sold - unless we allow it.
Near the beginning, the protagonist notes, upon finding himself pulled from the ether back into human form: “It’s the eternal recurrence of the anecdote. You’ve a willing horse, so flog him another mile.”
Zelazny does just that: spinning a surprising science fiction yarn wrapped in the narrative of an Indian epic featuring the vast panoply of Hindu deities. At times the prose gets cloying with it’s constant attempts to present the action as steeped in myth and religious significance. This focus makes some of the dialogue stilted and annoying.
Then, when Zelazny isn’t attempting second-rate Hesse, he’s presenting some fascinating battles and entities, almost a classic Legion of Super-Heroes tale of adventure with similar powers, different names. And the imagination at work here allows this novel to soar.
A bit of advice: As soon as you finish, turn to the beginning and start again. You’ll find this tale is more cyclical than linear.
A worthy novel to win a Hugo. If you enjoy this, read Zelazny’s THIS IMMORTAL, which isn’t as polished but also displays similar flights of creativity and imagination.
Zelazny does just that: spinning a surprising science fiction yarn wrapped in the narrative of an Indian epic featuring the vast panoply of Hindu deities. At times the prose gets cloying with it’s constant attempts to present the action as steeped in myth and religious significance. This focus makes some of the dialogue stilted and annoying.
Then, when Zelazny isn’t attempting second-rate Hesse, he’s presenting some fascinating battles and entities, almost a classic Legion of Super-Heroes tale of adventure with similar powers, different names. And the imagination at work here allows this novel to soar.
A bit of advice: As soon as you finish, turn to the beginning and start again. You’ll find this tale is more cyclical than linear.
A worthy novel to win a Hugo. If you enjoy this, read Zelazny’s THIS IMMORTAL, which isn’t as polished but also displays similar flights of creativity and imagination.
I found the narrative style interesting, especially for science fiction. It's not about deities themselves, but rather about people who take on their ideas of their aspects for their own purposes. In the same way, Roger Zelazny has taken on a mythic style of writing to tell his story in a way I haven't seen before.