A review by scavenger4580
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny

2.0

This is a baroque book that in some ways I'm the ideal audience for. It plays on many aspects of the story of the Buddha in India, how his rebellion was recuperated by Hinduism. Buddhism in this story is fake, a story Sam tells others to justify his rebellion against his fellow Gods, who are also fake: their divinity is merely the result of superior technology, and their religion used to enslave their descendants, who are intentionally kept stupid. In this way, it reminds me a lot of the first book of Asimov's Foundation: there, science is also associated with religion to keep people stupid and compliant and under control.

Yet I find it hard to like this book. There's so many different characters, and all of them seem made out of cardboard. I could find no depth in Sam, in Yama, or any of the other characters, and so it was hard also to sympathize with any of them. There's massive battles that I found myself not caring who won or lost: most characters in this book don't really die anyway, they're just reincarnated.