Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by macloo
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
3.0
This book, highly regarded as a science fiction classic, is not what I think of as science fiction. It's certainly imaginative fiction. It's set on another world, in an unknown time. The main characters are arguably humans, albeit with godlike Attributes that they have developed into essentially superpowers, over a very long period on living on this planet. I feel very ambivalent about the book, partly because I had a hard time getting into the story. Gradually Sam, the central character, grew on me, as I started to understand what he really wants to accomplish. I also started to like the writing and the structure of the plot, but there were too many battles for my taste.
There's a rather large cast of characters, and many of them are gods from the Vedic or Hindu pantheon (that is, they have the names of gods, and they act as gods -- for example, the one called Vishnu rides on the back of the great bird Garuda). Having read the Ramayana and some other Indian stories, I have a general idea of who some of these characters represent -- Agni, the good of fire, for example. Others, such as Ratri, goddess of the night, were altogether new to me. I had difficulty keeping the unfamiliar ones straight while I was reading, although by the end I was clear on most (not all) of them.
Part of my ambivalence is because I found many ideas in the story to be interesting (Sam is basically trying to free the inhabitants of the planet, and the other humans, from the tyranny of the gods), but in the manner of the ancient texts (such as the Ramayana), the action pretty much has to take place as epic battles, in which so-and-so smites someone else with his death vision or somesuch. Meanwhile, the reader is treated to some cool ideas about karmic results being decided by (human) priests, and people who have lived so many lifetimes in so many different bodies, they can no longer remember some of their greatest achievements from the past. Kali, the most frightening and powerful goddess, has a romantic history with both Sam and Yama, the death-god, and that produces some fine moments in the story.
There are some memorable scenes that stick with me, and it's possible I might re-read this one day. But I have to say the first third of the book was kind of a chore for me, and it wasn't until then that I started to enjoy it.
P.S. Others have criticized this book for misogyny. Recently I re-read Heinlein's [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], and -- whew! -- compared with THAT one, Lord of Light is a feminist tract! So, no -- I did not find this book to be especially misogynistic.
There's a rather large cast of characters, and many of them are gods from the Vedic or Hindu pantheon (that is, they have the names of gods, and they act as gods -- for example, the one called Vishnu rides on the back of the great bird Garuda). Having read the Ramayana and some other Indian stories, I have a general idea of who some of these characters represent -- Agni, the good of fire, for example. Others, such as Ratri, goddess of the night, were altogether new to me. I had difficulty keeping the unfamiliar ones straight while I was reading, although by the end I was clear on most (not all) of them.
Part of my ambivalence is because I found many ideas in the story to be interesting (Sam is basically trying to free the inhabitants of the planet, and the other humans, from the tyranny of the gods), but in the manner of the ancient texts (such as the Ramayana), the action pretty much has to take place as epic battles, in which so-and-so smites someone else with his death vision or somesuch. Meanwhile, the reader is treated to some cool ideas about karmic results being decided by (human) priests, and people who have lived so many lifetimes in so many different bodies, they can no longer remember some of their greatest achievements from the past. Kali, the most frightening and powerful goddess, has a romantic history with both Sam and Yama, the death-god, and that produces some fine moments in the story.
There are some memorable scenes that stick with me, and it's possible I might re-read this one day. But I have to say the first third of the book was kind of a chore for me, and it wasn't until then that I started to enjoy it.
P.S. Others have criticized this book for misogyny. Recently I re-read Heinlein's [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], and -- whew! -- compared with THAT one, Lord of Light is a feminist tract! So, no -- I did not find this book to be especially misogynistic.