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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
Giving up. Looks like a good story, but the writing style is unbearable.
What a truly strange read. A book that you either need to read twice or you need a serious spoiler laden brief for. Without some form of precognition you'll spend the first half of the book trying to make sense of the setting, the characters, and the plot. If you have a look over Hinduism and Buddhism before you start you might fare better but even then how those religions are translated into the futuristic colonisation of another planet will be hard to comprehend.
The seven chapters are like seven skips of a stone on a pond, the ripples from each skip overlap but the moments are distinct.
The most brilliant prose is found in the book's philosophical dialogue. How could one not find some stunning parables and analogies from the life of a god?
Where the book veers away from its philosophical and political core, and its historical underpinning is where it is weakest, such as the silly little jokes and asides e.g. the characters always lighting up cigarettes.
If you removed the exoticism of eastern philosophy from this narrative it would be a fair to middling sci-fi but that would be like trying to separate your skin from your breath.
Sam loses both his importance and relevance to the movement and the story he started. You're always expecting the great escape but you can only up the ante so far and then disappointment is inevitable as each trick and escape provides diminishing returns. Which I guess in many ways is the point.
Not a book I think I'll be recommending to everyone I meet but certainly one I enjoyed.
p.s. fascinating to see the rise of Christianity at the very end
The seven chapters are like seven skips of a stone on a pond, the ripples from each skip overlap but the moments are distinct.
The most brilliant prose is found in the book's philosophical dialogue. How could one not find some stunning parables and analogies from the life of a god?
Where the book veers away from its philosophical and political core, and its historical underpinning is where it is weakest, such as the silly little jokes and asides e.g. the characters always lighting up cigarettes.
If you removed the exoticism of eastern philosophy from this narrative it would be a fair to middling sci-fi but that would be like trying to separate your skin from your breath.
Sam loses both his importance and relevance to the movement and the story he started. You're always expecting the great escape but you can only up the ante so far and then disappointment is inevitable as each trick and escape provides diminishing returns. Which I guess in many ways is the point.
Not a book I think I'll be recommending to everyone I meet but certainly one I enjoyed.
p.s. fascinating to see the rise of Christianity at the very end
Lord of Light runs Zelazny's trickster-god antihero through a proper epic this time, using Indian mythology as a front for a story of rebellion against decadent power, and the role that the super-powered can play in liberating the common people. While some of the orientalism and sexism hasn't aged particularly well, the plot is a proper mythological thriller, the setting is top-notch, and the characters seem to fit the scope of the action; unlike the constrained and dying world of Call me Conrad. Zelazny's wordcraft is topnotch as always, and there are some long philosophical passages which I would have marked, if I weren't reading in bed.
On a distant colony world of a dead Earth, man has separated into a race of gods based on Hindu mythology, and a mass of ordinary peasants. The gods are the First, the original colonists from Earth, exceptional men and women who use a combination of psionic powers and super-science to rule a world forced into medieval squalor. The Wheel of Karma is very real, used to concentrate and promote conservative and obedient brahmins towards the heavenly city, while banishing Accelerationists and other radicals to the oblivion of true death. While once the world was a vibrant place full of adventure and danger (Rakshasa energy demons foremost among them), now it is a playground and brothel for the decadent gods. Sam, a rebel among the First, uses a version of Buddhism and his own political wiles to wage war against the gods.
A lot stuff comes together real well. The slow revelation of the setting, and the realization that this was set up by people who know about as much about Indian mythology as I do (selections from the Mahabharata in comparative religion class ages ago), but who think it's a fricking metal framework for supernatural powers. Sam and his foil, the deathgod-scientist Yama, as super competent individuals who must use cleverness against the even greater forces that oppose then. It's not so much about any specific technology, but about the idea that given the power to create a paradise, what kind of paradise will people create?
On a distant colony world of a dead Earth, man has separated into a race of gods based on Hindu mythology, and a mass of ordinary peasants. The gods are the First, the original colonists from Earth, exceptional men and women who use a combination of psionic powers and super-science to rule a world forced into medieval squalor. The Wheel of Karma is very real, used to concentrate and promote conservative and obedient brahmins towards the heavenly city, while banishing Accelerationists and other radicals to the oblivion of true death. While once the world was a vibrant place full of adventure and danger (Rakshasa energy demons foremost among them), now it is a playground and brothel for the decadent gods. Sam, a rebel among the First, uses a version of Buddhism and his own political wiles to wage war against the gods.
A lot stuff comes together real well. The slow revelation of the setting, and the realization that this was set up by people who know about as much about Indian mythology as I do (selections from the Mahabharata in comparative religion class ages ago), but who think it's a fricking metal framework for supernatural powers. Sam and his foil, the deathgod-scientist Yama, as super competent individuals who must use cleverness against the even greater forces that oppose then. It's not so much about any specific technology, but about the idea that given the power to create a paradise, what kind of paradise will people create?
Okay...
I obviously didn't get this book... Either that, or there wasn't much to it, which I doubt.
Pantheons of gods doing battle and talking a lot through 240+ pages, all of them having changed names fifty times... God... Who cares?
The gods are supposedly humans who went to an alien planet many years in the future. I didn't glean this from reading the book, I gathered it from reading about the book, which a lot of folks praise.
Enjoy, guys... But I don't think this one's ever going to be my cup of tea.
*- This book won the Hugo Award for Best Novel for the year 1968.
I obviously didn't get this book... Either that, or there wasn't much to it, which I doubt.
Pantheons of gods doing battle and talking a lot through 240+ pages, all of them having changed names fifty times... God... Who cares?
The gods are supposedly humans who went to an alien planet many years in the future. I didn't glean this from reading the book, I gathered it from reading about the book, which a lot of folks praise.
Enjoy, guys... But I don't think this one's ever going to be my cup of tea.
*- This book won the Hugo Award for Best Novel for the year 1968.
I feel like this is a great book, but so much of it is lost on me due to my ignorance of Hindu gods. I did enjoy it very much, and parts of it was like a guided meditation. I plan on rereading this again once I am more fluent with Hindu and the Buddha.
The book is something very unique. In doing some research about the book, I discovered that the author was trying to write a book that blurred the lines between science fiction and fantasy simply because there weren't any books yet that did so. The result is something arguably more science fiction because of the events which led to the world they live, events which echo throughout the story like any founding story should.
I also like Sam very much, he is a very interesting character and an extremely clever one. It is always fun to read a character who will literally burn the heavens for what he believes in.
Good book, highly recommended and I definitely need to read again to see what things I missed from this time around.
I also like Sam very much, he is a very interesting character and an extremely clever one. It is always fun to read a character who will literally burn the heavens for what he believes in.
Good book, highly recommended and I definitely need to read again to see what things I missed from this time around.
adventurous
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
A Hugo Award winner, and rightfully so. Zelazny makes no concessions to the reader—the first chapter is challenging and concentration is required throughout the whole novel—but the reward is tremendous. This is a work of genius. There’s nothing else like it. I’m in awe.
This was an extremely odd book. I appreciated what I think the author was trying to do in merging Hindu deities and Buddhism into a science fiction narrative. I definitely understand why it was an important work which won a Hugo. At times though it was hard to follow and extremely slow. My favorite parts were the parts which explained Accelerationism and the parts which dealt with the complex relationship between Kali and Sam. I also enjoyed the evolution of Yama...especially right at the end. I think my understanding and enjoyment of this book may improve upon re-reading, so I'm willing to give it another shot in a few years.