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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
The beginning of Zelazny's Lord of Light does what the back cover quote on my version promises: makes one glad to be, or want to be a writer. His descriptions, poetic language and straight-up intelligence is what is missing from many fantasy fiction books. The concept of a technologically world so far advanced that it can be used to suppress the lower classes from even knowing technology exists is also a promising and exciting storyline. As is the god-like attributes of the main characters who use technology to make themselves deities.
I failed to stay enthralled in Lord of Light however, as the plot failed to really develop. There is really quite a short story in this novel, that is buffed up by a complex fantasy world that needs much explanation. I would have liked to explore this world further, and allowed the characters to truly roam through it, and gain further dimensions than their often one-sided and flat characters.
I failed to stay enthralled in Lord of Light however, as the plot failed to really develop. There is really quite a short story in this novel, that is buffed up by a complex fantasy world that needs much explanation. I would have liked to explore this world further, and allowed the characters to truly roam through it, and gain further dimensions than their often one-sided and flat characters.
challenging
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Wew, I don't know what to say about this book. The book was written in 1967, which is so long ago that I know nothing about the historical context of that time (well, except that this is around the time the Beatles decided to explore India and its culture), but this book has been on my to-read pile for a long time, mostly because of the fact that its the only popular speculative fiction work that I have heard of, written by someone from the western world, but which uses the characters of Indian mythology (specifically Hindu and Buddhist mythos). It was never close enough to the top of the pile though, until I started reading Max Gladstone, and I realized that he considers Zelazny to be one of his biggest influences growing up.
When I read the introduction of the book, I was a little angry because I felt like the introduction had spoiled part of the plot for me, but when I began reading the book I was quickly engrossed enough that I forgot all about it. In truth, the introduction hadn't spoiled anything I hadn't already known, but instead made me realize that the awesomeness of the book transcends individual plot points. Zelazny paints the tapestry of the plot using a series of interconnected chapters displaced across time, which follow Sam in various stages of his life and his struggle against the Celestial City, and each word of each chapter is beautifully used to draw the comparisons to Hindu and Buddhist mythology, even while it tells its own tale.
One of the most interesting aspects about this entire book, to me, was that even though the guy who wrote the introduction flagged aspects of orientalism in the book, I didn't actually feel that there was any major orientalism in the book; and while the book can be construed as critical of the caste system, and can be seen as a Renaissance thinker trying to bring enlightenment to the unenlightened Hindus, I think that such a reading over-simplifies the complexities of the tale that Zelazny is telling.
I cannot recommend this book enough.
When I read the introduction of the book, I was a little angry because I felt like the introduction had spoiled part of the plot for me, but when I began reading the book I was quickly engrossed enough that I forgot all about it. In truth, the introduction hadn't spoiled anything I hadn't already known, but instead made me realize that the awesomeness of the book transcends individual plot points. Zelazny paints the tapestry of the plot using a series of interconnected chapters displaced across time, which follow Sam in various stages of his life and his struggle against the Celestial City, and each word of each chapter is beautifully used to draw the comparisons to Hindu and Buddhist mythology, even while it tells its own tale.
One of the most interesting aspects about this entire book, to me, was that even though the guy who wrote the introduction flagged aspects of orientalism in the book, I didn't actually feel that there was any major orientalism in the book; and while the book can be construed as critical of the caste system, and can be seen as a Renaissance thinker trying to bring enlightenment to the unenlightened Hindus, I think that such a reading over-simplifies the complexities of the tale that Zelazny is telling.
I cannot recommend this book enough.
Well...that was an experience! I was intrigued by the concept but thought this might have been one of those books that is written in language that is fancy just for the sake of being more "intellectual". That always annoys me. The language is very rich, and yes sometimes a tad difficult to follow, but I still enjoyed reading it. As for the story itself, I found it complex and completely enthralling. If I were really being picky, I might give this 4.5 stars, but I this is one instance I don't mind GR forcing me to round up.
One of my favorite novels ever, and definitely the best of Zelazny.
This is a world where once-human immortals took on roles of Hindu gods like RPG players, using its mythology to keeping the planet's populace ignorant and low-tech in the name of maintaining stability. Their fundamental belief: Technology/knowledge = evil. If the populace wanted to keep "reincarnating" -- that is, having their consciousness transferred from one body to the next, rather than into a lower animal, an insect, or even be destroyed utterly -- they better toe the line and behave.
How to escape tyranny masquerading as religion that controls all aspects of thought and life itself? One man rebels by taking on the role of Buddha down at the grass root, dispersing Buddhist belief and thoughts, and in the process a true Buddha emerges from among his ardent followers. Conflict ensues, between the two religion, between exoteric and personal faith, between and amongst the gods, and rebellious mortals throughout the centuries.
This novel also raises several questions: Does the genuineness of a prophet matter, if he inspires true faith and emancipation? Is knowledge in essence good, even if it leads to war and strife? Can ignorance truly be bliss?
An exploration of Buddhist and Hindu philosophy set among a pseudo-historic and ultra-high technology. Excellent!
This is a world where once-human immortals took on roles of Hindu gods like RPG players, using its mythology to keeping the planet's populace ignorant and low-tech in the name of maintaining stability. Their fundamental belief: Technology/knowledge = evil. If the populace wanted to keep "reincarnating" -- that is, having their consciousness transferred from one body to the next, rather than into a lower animal, an insect, or even be destroyed utterly -- they better toe the line and behave.
How to escape tyranny masquerading as religion that controls all aspects of thought and life itself? One man rebels by taking on the role of Buddha down at the grass root, dispersing Buddhist belief and thoughts, and in the process a true Buddha emerges from among his ardent followers. Conflict ensues, between the two religion, between exoteric and personal faith, between and amongst the gods, and rebellious mortals throughout the centuries.
This novel also raises several questions: Does the genuineness of a prophet matter, if he inspires true faith and emancipation? Is knowledge in essence good, even if it leads to war and strife? Can ignorance truly be bliss?
An exploration of Buddhist and Hindu philosophy set among a pseudo-historic and ultra-high technology. Excellent!
4.5/5 A brilliant piece of science fiction
The opening lines got me:
"His followers called him Mahasamatman and said he was a god. He preferred to drop the Maha- and the -atman, 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. Silence, though, could."
The rest of the book was just as good.
The story takes place in a world where Hinduism is the main religion. Hindu Gods, immortal and powerful, run this world. In this world, just as it happened in ours, Buddhism has arisen in opposition to Hinduism.
It is just that the Buddha in this world is also called Sam. And he smokes an awful lot of cigarettes.
I shouldn't give away any more. Although the secret of this is revealed in the first few chapters, it is really rewarding to find it out for oneself. This secret is really the book's big, brilliant idea. All I can say is that this is truly science-fiction, not mythology.
It is difficult to review the book in any detail without giving away the central premise, so I will restrict to general comments. The book is richly imagined. The big, brilliant idea is really impressive. The protagonist Sam is charismatic, complex and hard to forget. All the characters are striking. The story is well paced and the end is fitting.
It was an easier book for me to read than Western readers because of my familiarity with the Hindu mythology and Indian history. Clearly Zelazny has done his homework on the subject. It was really quite impressive. Few would know that Buddhism actually arose in opposition to Hinduism in ancient India.
The flaws: the prose can be clunky at times. There is a little bit of sexism in it too, as one might expect from a book written back in the sixties. But other than these, the book is near perfect.. The clunkiness actually helps somewhat in maintaining the mystery.
I deeply enjoyed reading this book. I read another review which said that this book succeeded because of its orientalist packaging and would not interest readers familiar with Hindu mythos. I could not disagree more. As an Indian reader, I see nothing orientalist here. This is a fascinatingly imaginative work of science fiction. Even those who are familiar with Hindu mythos should thoroughly enjoy this book, if they don't get too hung up about the mythology and can see the book for a work of science fiction that it is, .
The opening lines got me:
"His followers called him Mahasamatman and said he was a god. He preferred to drop the Maha- and the -atman, 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. Silence, though, could."
The rest of the book was just as good.
The story takes place in a world where Hinduism is the main religion. Hindu Gods, immortal and powerful, run this world. In this world, just as it happened in ours, Buddhism has arisen in opposition to Hinduism.
It is just that the Buddha in this world is also called Sam. And he smokes an awful lot of cigarettes.
I shouldn't give away any more. Although the secret of this is revealed in the first few chapters, it is really rewarding to find it out for oneself. This secret is really the book's big, brilliant idea. All I can say is that this is truly science-fiction, not mythology.
It is difficult to review the book in any detail without giving away the central premise, so I will restrict to general comments. The book is richly imagined. The big, brilliant idea is really impressive. The protagonist Sam is charismatic, complex and hard to forget. All the characters are striking. The story is well paced and the end is fitting.
It was an easier book for me to read than Western readers because of my familiarity with the Hindu mythology and Indian history. Clearly Zelazny has done his homework on the subject. It was really quite impressive. Few would know that Buddhism actually arose in opposition to Hinduism in ancient India.
The flaws: the prose can be clunky at times. There is a little bit of sexism in it too, as one might expect from a book written back in the sixties. But other than these, the book is near perfect.. The clunkiness actually helps somewhat in maintaining the mystery.
I deeply enjoyed reading this book. I read another review which said that this book succeeded because of its orientalist packaging and would not interest readers familiar with Hindu mythos. I could not disagree more. As an Indian reader, I see nothing orientalist here. This is a fascinatingly imaginative work of science fiction. Even those who are familiar with Hindu mythos should thoroughly enjoy this book, if they don't get too hung up about the mythology and can see the book for a work of science fiction that it is, .
Originally published on my blog here in June 2004.
This novel is a science fiction classic - or possibly a fantasy classic, depending on how you look at it. It takes a particular theme of the genre, the relationship between science and religion, especially the counterfeiting of magical or divine power using superior technology, and develops it about as far as it is possible to go in its particular direction. For in Lord of Light, set on a world colonised from the now lost Earth, the controllers of technology have created the system of Hindu myth in reality, with themselves as the pantheon of the gods, controlling the cycle of birth and death and reincarnation. The plot of the novel is basically describing an attempt by someone who though one of the original colonists has remained something of an outsider, becoming a wandering preacher who has modelled his teaching on that of the Buddha, and aiming to overthrow the existing order of things.
The second half of the sixties saw the appearance of quite a few of the science fiction genre's most famous novels, many of which have religious themes - [b:Dune|234225|Dune (Dune Chronicles, #1)|Frank Herbert|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1349105964s/234225.jpg|3634639], [b:Stranger in a Strange Land|350|Stranger in a Strange Land|Robert A. Heinlein|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1156897088s/350.jpg|908211], [b:A Canticle for Leibowitz|164154|A Canticle for Leibowitz|Walter M. Miller Jr.|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1329408540s/164154.jpg|250975], [b:The Traveller in Black|41082|The Compleat Traveller in Black|John Brunner|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1287265333s/41082.jpg|2707505] series. Of course, this was picking up (and also feeding) the mood of the times; the hippies and the New Age movement didn't just influence the psychedelic music scene. More than any of the stories I've just mentioned, Lord of Light aims to recreate the atmosphere of ancient myth (Brunner's Traveller comes closest to it, and is also written in a similar style). It is eminently successful in this, full of characters who are clearly no longer fully human, who have become remote and detached, just as portrayals of the Hindu gods often seem to be, particularly to Western eyes.
Lord of Light can be wearing to read in large doses, but it is an impressive achievement by any standards. The main reasons it is hard to read are the difficulty in keeping track of the large number of names associated with each character, the deliberately wooden, mythic and stylised writing, and an occasionally confusing chronology (the first chapter, for example, comes near the end of the story). Persevere, and the rewards make it worth the effort.
This novel is a science fiction classic - or possibly a fantasy classic, depending on how you look at it. It takes a particular theme of the genre, the relationship between science and religion, especially the counterfeiting of magical or divine power using superior technology, and develops it about as far as it is possible to go in its particular direction. For in Lord of Light, set on a world colonised from the now lost Earth, the controllers of technology have created the system of Hindu myth in reality, with themselves as the pantheon of the gods, controlling the cycle of birth and death and reincarnation. The plot of the novel is basically describing an attempt by someone who though one of the original colonists has remained something of an outsider, becoming a wandering preacher who has modelled his teaching on that of the Buddha, and aiming to overthrow the existing order of things.
The second half of the sixties saw the appearance of quite a few of the science fiction genre's most famous novels, many of which have religious themes - [b:Dune|234225|Dune (Dune Chronicles, #1)|Frank Herbert|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1349105964s/234225.jpg|3634639], [b:Stranger in a Strange Land|350|Stranger in a Strange Land|Robert A. Heinlein|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1156897088s/350.jpg|908211], [b:A Canticle for Leibowitz|164154|A Canticle for Leibowitz|Walter M. Miller Jr.|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1329408540s/164154.jpg|250975], [b:The Traveller in Black|41082|The Compleat Traveller in Black|John Brunner|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1287265333s/41082.jpg|2707505] series. Of course, this was picking up (and also feeding) the mood of the times; the hippies and the New Age movement didn't just influence the psychedelic music scene. More than any of the stories I've just mentioned, Lord of Light aims to recreate the atmosphere of ancient myth (Brunner's Traveller comes closest to it, and is also written in a similar style). It is eminently successful in this, full of characters who are clearly no longer fully human, who have become remote and detached, just as portrayals of the Hindu gods often seem to be, particularly to Western eyes.
Lord of Light can be wearing to read in large doses, but it is an impressive achievement by any standards. The main reasons it is hard to read are the difficulty in keeping track of the large number of names associated with each character, the deliberately wooden, mythic and stylised writing, and an occasionally confusing chronology (the first chapter, for example, comes near the end of the story). Persevere, and the rewards make it worth the effort.
Sorry everybody! But I barely liked this. Had to force myself to finish it. Cool concept, but hard for me to get involved in the story. Probably because there are too many characters. (I dislike Game of Thrones books for the same reason.) A multi-season TV series could perhaps interest me, but as a single book, it was too tough.
It was an intriguing meld of eastern religion, technological advances, and the power struggles incorporating both of those aspects. However, I felt there was a pervasive lack of clarity that made it a chore to read and did not add to the work.
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny, is a stand-alone book, considered to be in the upper echelons of sci-fi by many, including George R.R Martin, who claims it to be one of the best books he has read.
The story takes place on a colony planet, a band of men, the 'first' have gained control of technology, made themselves immortal, and now rule their world as the gods of the Hindu pantheon, while the rest of humanity, which comes from their loins, live as if they were in ancient India. Only one dares oppose them: he who was once Siddhartha and is now Mahasamatman. Binder of Demons, Lord of Light, the Buddha, who wishes to break the illusion and pass technology to the rest of mankind.
Zelazny does a fantastic job of creating a world which brings forth many aspects of Hindu lore, for example, the incumbent alien race is an energetic species that play on human fears and thus fill the role of Rakshasa, or demons.
The interplay between modern technology and epic heroic language from myth is interwoven in a seamless manner, on the one hand, we have Sam asking for a cigarette and telling a local boy to play the flute in a way reminiscent of the piano (from the boy's past life memories of Earth which are made taboo by the Gods), to the language used amongst warriors before an epic battle or making vows of vengeance, or the language of the mystics preaching to a group of seekers akin to that found in eastern traditions.
This is a wonderful treasure of a book, filled with creative world-building, strategic scheming, unique character interactions and thought-provoking dialogue. I look forward to exploring the rest of Zelazny's work.
“Why could you not have left me as I was, in the sea of being?"
"Because the world has need of your humility, your piety, your great teaching and your Machiavellian scheming.”
The story takes place on a colony planet, a band of men, the 'first' have gained control of technology, made themselves immortal, and now rule their world as the gods of the Hindu pantheon, while the rest of humanity, which comes from their loins, live as if they were in ancient India. Only one dares oppose them: he who was once Siddhartha and is now Mahasamatman. Binder of Demons, Lord of Light, the Buddha, who wishes to break the illusion and pass technology to the rest of mankind.
Zelazny does a fantastic job of creating a world which brings forth many aspects of Hindu lore, for example, the incumbent alien race is an energetic species that play on human fears and thus fill the role of Rakshasa, or demons.
The interplay between modern technology and epic heroic language from myth is interwoven in a seamless manner, on the one hand, we have Sam asking for a cigarette and telling a local boy to play the flute in a way reminiscent of the piano (from the boy's past life memories of Earth which are made taboo by the Gods), to the language used amongst warriors before an epic battle or making vows of vengeance, or the language of the mystics preaching to a group of seekers akin to that found in eastern traditions.
This is a wonderful treasure of a book, filled with creative world-building, strategic scheming, unique character interactions and thought-provoking dialogue. I look forward to exploring the rest of Zelazny's work.
“Why could you not have left me as I was, in the sea of being?"
"Because the world has need of your humility, your piety, your great teaching and your Machiavellian scheming.”