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A review by fairymodmother
Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
4.0
Not at all what I expected! I think I sort of expected a "Moon Is A Harsh Mistress" clone but espousing Hinduism instead of Rational Anarchy. While I probably would have liked that also, this was really a very inventive myth retelling and I loved it for that.
CONTENT WARNING: (no actual spoilers, just a list of topics)
Things to love:
-The myth. Holy wow! I read a lot of myths and I adore them. But never before have I felt one that felt so...plausible. The powers were still superhuman, but the explanation of them in the context of the world was incredible. Very clever and something I will recall for a long time.
-Sam. He's great! It took me awhile to figure out why I cared, but then I did very much.
-The other characters. I actually became quite attached to all of them. I think this was a really well done way to describe characters quickly. He relied a bit on our cultural understanding of various gods, and a bit on our willingness to believe that over the centuries, humans would stop behaving terribly humanely. Well, I was sold.
-The dialogue. When the gods aren't thee-ing and thou-ing, they're hilarious. There were several lines that made me chuckle out loud.
-The descriptions. Everything felt at once surreal and concrete. You could feel what it would be like to have lived for an eon and how your age might change what parts of the past stood out.
Things that were annoying:
-The thee-ing and thou-ing. You could tell that even Zelazny got tired of it eventually. The book starts off very stiff and by the end has found its comfortable center. I thought I was going to lose my mind over the auxiliary verbs but luckily, they did peter out (;-) )
-The time jumps. The chapters don't do a great job helping you figure out where in Sam's narrative you are. I think this could have been tightened up to give more obvious clues so that you don't have to keep switching to previous chapters to figure out how they got from one city to another in a paragraph break.
-The naming. I get it. It's a myth, and part of the "fun" of oral traditions such as most myths is the litany of names. But with all the body hopping, the time jumping, and the use of various religious frameworks, trying to keep them all straight got a little tedious.
-Still dated. It's not as bad as many, but I did wince a few times at the casual misogyny and the transphobic comments. Please see the content warning for more.
Really, a delightful blend of myth retelling and new world exploration. I'd say you really need to enjoy myths to find this at all interesting. It feels much more fantastical than it does sci-fi, though I did really like how those elements were blended in. A great intro for me to this author!
CONTENT WARNING: (no actual spoilers, just a list of topics)
Spoiler
Transphobic comments/deadnaming, death of loved one, sexual assault (mild)Things to love:
-The myth. Holy wow! I read a lot of myths and I adore them. But never before have I felt one that felt so...plausible. The powers were still superhuman, but the explanation of them in the context of the world was incredible. Very clever and something I will recall for a long time.
-Sam. He's great! It took me awhile to figure out why I cared, but then I did very much.
-The other characters. I actually became quite attached to all of them. I think this was a really well done way to describe characters quickly. He relied a bit on our cultural understanding of various gods, and a bit on our willingness to believe that over the centuries, humans would stop behaving terribly humanely. Well, I was sold.
-The dialogue. When the gods aren't thee-ing and thou-ing, they're hilarious. There were several lines that made me chuckle out loud.
-The descriptions. Everything felt at once surreal and concrete. You could feel what it would be like to have lived for an eon and how your age might change what parts of the past stood out.
Things that were annoying:
-The thee-ing and thou-ing. You could tell that even Zelazny got tired of it eventually. The book starts off very stiff and by the end has found its comfortable center. I thought I was going to lose my mind over the auxiliary verbs but luckily, they did peter out (;-) )
-The time jumps. The chapters don't do a great job helping you figure out where in Sam's narrative you are. I think this could have been tightened up to give more obvious clues so that you don't have to keep switching to previous chapters to figure out how they got from one city to another in a paragraph break.
-The naming. I get it. It's a myth, and part of the "fun" of oral traditions such as most myths is the litany of names. But with all the body hopping, the time jumping, and the use of various religious frameworks, trying to keep them all straight got a little tedious.
-Still dated. It's not as bad as many, but I did wince a few times at the casual misogyny and the transphobic comments. Please see the content warning for more.
Really, a delightful blend of myth retelling and new world exploration. I'd say you really need to enjoy myths to find this at all interesting. It feels much more fantastical than it does sci-fi, though I did really like how those elements were blended in. A great intro for me to this author!