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nirmalya 's review for:
Lord of Light
by Roger Zelazny
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, .