Helpful Score: 3
I just reread this and I'm glad I did. This is one of those little books full of big ideas, wonderful language and some interesting characters. They're proud, fearful, smart (and stupid) and all around human, even though they are gods ...
For those that don't know, the book is set on a distant world in the far future when Earth is dead and the world was colonized by a starship called The Star of India. There, the crew helped tame the world by fighting against the bodiless Rakashas, the Mothers of the Glow and several other races. Then they set themselves up as Hindu gods using psionics and advanced technology.
As the book opens Tak, an ape, and Yama, a renegade god of death are trying to reincarnate the Buddha, who has been exiled to Nirvana. From there we are taken on a tour of Heaven (the city of the gods), treated to epic battles suitable for the Vedas and all around given a good story.
I'll say this much - I've read Zelazny's Amber series once. This I've read and re-read and will continue to do so.
For those that don't know, the book is set on a distant world in the far future when Earth is dead and the world was colonized by a starship called The Star of India. There, the crew helped tame the world by fighting against the bodiless Rakashas, the Mothers of the Glow and several other races. Then they set themselves up as Hindu gods using psionics and advanced technology.
As the book opens Tak, an ape, and Yama, a renegade god of death are trying to reincarnate the Buddha, who has been exiled to Nirvana. From there we are taken on a tour of Heaven (the city of the gods), treated to epic battles suitable for the Vedas and all around given a good story.
I'll say this much - I've read Zelazny's Amber series once. This I've read and re-read and will continue to do so.
Helpful Score: 1
Zelazny provides an alternate world where colonists use the power of their technology to impersonate gods (in this case, Hindu gods) while a rebel impersonates Buddha to try to bring them down. Not the most original of plots (this was written in 1967, and reads that way - burn some incense while you read), but a solid contribution by a solid writer.
Interesting premise, characters didn't grab me.
This book is a mix of science fiction (colony planet where a group of powerful men rule by the means of advanced technology) and Hinduism (the powerful ones are known as the gods of the Hindu pantheon). Zelazny has long been one of my favorite authors for his Amber novels, but I found this one pretty difficult to get through. If you enjoy his writing style normally, you may still get some fun out of it.
It helps if you know something about Buddhism. Still, that should not detract from the pleasure of reading it.
I suppose to most people this book would only be somewhat interesting, but to someone who is Buddhist and/or Hindu or knowledgeable about those cultures, this book brings to life many archetypes and legends. With an odd mix and twist of technology, karma is explored, enlightenment realized, and reincarnation a fact of life. Illuminating and thought provoking with each read. I highly recommend this practically forgotten book.
To be or not to be, a god. Earth has died off and a team of human colonists have settled another planet that offers a few the chance to become a "god". Only one of the seeming gods (who chooses to call himself Sam) he opposes all the other gods in an attempt to free humans, once and for all, from the tyranny of their self-imposed Gods. This author writes with a truly unique perspective and flowing writing voice.
This book mixes sci-fi with the Hindu pantheon of gods and goddesses as well as a smattering of Buddhism and Catholicism. It is not, however, about religion at all really. It is more about how a select few can bend society to their will and the consequences that they can face. The writing can be a bit disjointed because he makes pains to tell the story much like how Indian tales are written (the story jumps around a bit, lots of strange characters some of which can be more than one person in a way, sometimes archaic speech). The story is good, but the ending is a bit abrupt and the characters could have been more fleshed out in some instances.
I just reread this and I'm glad I did. This is one of those little books full of big ideas, wonderful language and some interesting characters. They're proud, fearful, smart (and stupid) and all around human, even though they are gods ...
For those that don't know, the book is set on a distant world in the far future when Earth is dead and the world was colonized by a starship called The Star of India. There, the crew helped tame the world by fighting against the bodiless Rakashas, the Mothers of the Glow and several other races. Then they set themselves up as Hindu gods using psionics and advanced technology.
As the book opens Tak, an ape, and Yama, a renegade god of death are trying to reincarnate the Buddha, who has been exiled to Nirvana. From there we are taken on a tour of Heaven (the city of the gods), treated to epic battles suitable for the Vedas and all around given a good story.
I'll say this much - I've read Zelazny's Amber series once. This I've read and re-read and will continue to do so.
For those that don't know, the book is set on a distant world in the far future when Earth is dead and the world was colonized by a starship called The Star of India. There, the crew helped tame the world by fighting against the bodiless Rakashas, the Mothers of the Glow and several other races. Then they set themselves up as Hindu gods using psionics and advanced technology.
As the book opens Tak, an ape, and Yama, a renegade god of death are trying to reincarnate the Buddha, who has been exiled to Nirvana. From there we are taken on a tour of Heaven (the city of the gods), treated to epic battles suitable for the Vedas and all around given a good story.
I'll say this much - I've read Zelazny's Amber series once. This I've read and re-read and will continue to do so.
Lord of Light uses amazing visualizations to describe the most beautiful sights or the most truly horrific. The book could be boiled down to good versus evil, but who is good and who is evil? The story is really the oldest ever lived. People have many beliefs and they don't allow others beliefs to exist. What isn't my belief is wrong. A group of people (the Firsts) travel to another world to set themselves up as Gods and they succeed for many... centuries? I'm not sure about the time. They move from body to body to continue their existence. They set up "Heaven" and keep the masses down by denying them any knowledge of technology. If the people happen to discover something like the printing press, the Gods crush the people and technology. There was one among them who believed in "Acceleration". This just meant that the people would be given the knowledge slowly and the people would rise up to be equal with the Gods and therefor no more need for Heaven or Gods. The one who believed this, Sam, had many names and none of them were popular within Heaven and the gods, so there were many battles. Sam is a rather charming and ingenious character. The book started out slowly for me, but picked up pace about three quarters of the way in and built in a battle to the death. One funny aside was the fact that Christianity is fought by zealot leading zombies.
I had to read this book for a class in sci-fi literature I took in college. I didn't much like it, but I'm not a huge fan of sci-fi. This book is considered a classic of sci-fi and I'm sure someone who enjoys that genre will really enjoy it.
My first Zelazny foray and I had a hard time really getting dug in but once I did, I realized I'm going to have to read it again sometime. Complex characters, complex imagery, complex plot and complex themes makes this a tough book to digest, in my opinion. This is probably why the friend who recommended it has re-read it so often that she's had to buy a second (or third?) copy. It won the Hugo Award, so there is that recommendation as well, not to mention the notoriety of the author.
