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A review by outcolder
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
5.0
Although the post-humans-setting-themselves-up-as-familiar-ancient-gods-all-from-the-same-pantheon thing seems to crop up regularly in SF, I think this might be a very early example of it and also has the advantage that the pantheon here is from Hinduism instead of the usual Greek/Roman or Norse stuff. What is really cool though is the pace of the plot and the fun characters, and the way the backstory is revealed. There are fun SF reasons for why and how reincarnation and karma and all that work. I also think the message in here about religion in general is great, with the heroes against the gods but promoting the messages of various prophets and especially buddhas.
There is some gender and sex fluidity in here, because there is a mess of body-swapping going on. In the front matter of this edition there is a quote from [a:Joanna Russ|52310|Joanna Russ|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1423801257p2/52310.jpg] about how great the book is, and I would like to find the rest of her review because I bet she gets more into that side of it. It isn't all wonderful... it's still totally binary and there is at least one reference to lesbianism that left me thinking it could have been cooler, but considering this book is from the sixties or something you kind of have to give him points for even having a lesbian character at all even if it is not exactly the nicest plot point in here.
but, again, bottom line, it's super fun to read.
There is some gender and sex fluidity in here, because there is a mess of body-swapping going on. In the front matter of this edition there is a quote from [a:Joanna Russ|52310|Joanna Russ|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1423801257p2/52310.jpg] about how great the book is, and I would like to find the rest of her review because I bet she gets more into that side of it. It isn't all wonderful... it's still totally binary and there is at least one reference to lesbianism that left me thinking it could have been cooler, but considering this book is from the sixties or something you kind of have to give him points for even having a lesbian character at all even if it is not exactly the nicest plot point in here.
but, again, bottom line, it's super fun to read.