Rating: 
Summary: amazing book, perfect ending
Review: "Lord of Light" has been one of my favorite books since I first read it years ago. If Zelazny had never written anything else, this one novel would qualify him for immortality. It is far better and more meaningful than his Chronicles of Amber."Lord of Light" follows Sam, a man (or is he a god?) who seeks to overthrow the despotic rulers of a colony world. The rulers, humans with peculiar powers who live forever by transferring their essences into new bodies, play gods in a mutated version of Hinduism. They control the means of reincarnation; those who oppose them are reborn as dogs, or worse. Sam assumes many personas in his long quest to depose the gods, and he meets fascinating characters such as Rild, the assassin sent to kill him; the death-god Yama, whose eyes drink life; Tak, the ape who is more than he seems; the goddess Kali in her many incarnations; Ratri, the goddess of the night; and Taraka, the strongest of the demons. The story is told in a long flashback, which gives Sam's quest a sense of weight and inevitability. Zelazny's style is perfectly matched to the story. Quotations from various holy texts head each chapter, offering insight into the world's culture and the religions on which the story is based. "Lord of Light" is a powerful story of a stuggle against tyranny. It is also a story of religion (pure and twisted), loss, love, the implications of immortality, and the meaning of humanity. I wouldn't say the book changed my life, but it gave me an understanding of holiness, of the tragedy and comedy of humanity, and of the presence of truth and beauty in seemingly unlikely places. After an incredible story, "Lord of Light" delivers one of the most perfect endings I have ever read; the last pages should be enshrined. The only complaints I have about the book are the typos, the comparative scarcity of female characters, and the fact that it had to end at all.
Rating:
Summary: The Lord of Light must defeat the Hindu Gods...
Review: Earth is long gone and mankind has spread out into space. On one planet, a colony is under the rule of a band of men who have used their control of technology to make themselves immortal. Now they rule using the names of the Hindu Gods and Goddesses. Few dare oppose them, but there is one who not only dares, but plans to win. A man of many names, a binder of demons and also known as the Lord of Light. Sam, which is the name he prefers, will fight them all. No matter how many times he has to die to do it!
Rating:
Summary: I read this book to pieces
Review: Funny, poignant, inventive. A rare winner of both the Hugo and the Nebula awards. Every SF fan should own it.
Rating:
Summary: deep science fiction
Review: Humanity defeats the native "energy" beings that populated the orb and establishes a colony on the planet with a Hindu like societal order. Using advanced technology, the crew of the ship transfers their minds into a new body when theirs is near death. They also develop other advances that enable them to form a pantheon with god-like powers. Beneath them are the colonists and even further below in this pyramid of power are the natives. No one bucks the leadership as not only can they technology reincarnate they can convert others into animals. One of these techno-Gods, preferring to be called Sam rather than Mahasamatman, feels that the mistreatment of others is morally wrong. He thinks that he and his peers should share their technology with the lower strata. His peers insist those beneath them are incapable of dealing with godlike powers and need their hand to guide them. Sam never claimed the mantle and though he hates what he feels he must do, this "fallen angel" leads a revolt against his ruling brothers and sisters as he wants to establish a different world order. This is a deep science fiction novel with religious and social overtones. The story line is loaded with action, but also takes its time to defend critical arguments set forth by author Roger Zelazny. The cast fosters the concepts of the plot so that development is targeted more towards an idea than a character. Still with all that this is a cerebral tale that will have readers pondering a host of subjects from comparative religions to white man's burden to fostering American style democracy in Iraq, etc. in a clever novel that will require concentration or one will miss a point. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining and thought-provoking
Review: In brief: Science fiction meets Hinduism in one of the most surprising, intriguing and enjoyable books I've come across in a while. Highly recommended. The story centres on an off-Earth colony which has come to be utterly dominated by its founders, who rule with the names, personalities and even the attributes of Hindu gods. With the injection of SF technology, social and political control pivot upon Hindu tenets with a futuristic twist. Reincarnation functions through personality-storage and cloning, allowing effective immortality for the gods, and some very bad karma for any who oppose them. The populace is held in a permanent low-tech state to ensure it continues to need its gods; innovations that might benefit mortals, such as the printing press, are swiftly eradicated. Stylistically, too, it is brilliant. The whole thing takes the form of a Hindu epic, in terms of both language and structure. The hero, Sam, rebels against the gods by (literally and figuratively) taking on the Buddha role, preaching against the priesthood and the oppressive rituals and strictures which bind society. And through this, Zelazny brings out some of the most interesting implications of his blend of SF and myth, exploring how the 'gods' have merged with their masks to truly _become_ their mythic roles. Finally, and importantly, _Lord of Light_ also contrives to be a truly entertaining read. Deservedly a classic.
Rating:
Summary: Can't say I've read anything better in my entire life
Review: Lord of Light is without a doubt, one of the best things I've read (and I've read a LOT, believe me).
I highly recommend this great masterpiece to every serious Sci-Fi/Fantasy fan out there, along with Gibson's Neuromancer, Orwell's 1984, Herbert's Dune (1-6), Harrison's The Hammer and The Cross trilogy - ones of the best novels ever written.
Rating:
Summary: Masterpiece
Review: Rare among the works of Science Fiction are books that have achieved the masterful integration of wonderful prose language, adventerous spirit, compelling charachters and thought provoking social commentary. A study in man's ability to deal with power, as well as the ties between religion and power, Lord of Light prevails in effectively communicating its point through a truly intriguing setting. A unique premise, combined with Zelazny's engrossing language and imagination serve to create a novel that is just as enjoyable when read the tenth time as it is the first. Challenging in language, thought, and structure, the reader must be quick, intelligent and capable of inferring details Zelazny has omitted so that he could create a mood that transcends the boundaries of science fiction, fantasy and modern prose.
Timeless in its ideas and brilliant in execution, Lord of Light is simply, a masterpiece.
Rating: 
Summary: Psychedelicized Gita
Review: Sorry but I just can't quite jump on the bandwagon behind this novel. I know I shouldn't be second-guessing a "classic" - and this book does deserve this consideration because Zelazny was a truly visionary writer and the setting and characterizations of this book are very unique. However, the problem here is a style of writing and plot development that is very much a product of its time, and is not really that different from much of what was being cranked out by the sci-fi intelligentsia of the late 60's. Here style has taken on a little too much importance. Because of this, it is difficult to decipher what this novel is really about through the reading of it, unless you already know beforehand - through the reviews of those who have read it many times, or the publishers' descriptions which become more like clarifications than summaries. The true plot of this novel is certainly what you've read about - human colonists on an alien world have made use of advanced technology to give themselves godlike powers, have created a society based on Hindu mythology, and the new "gods" have oppressed both their fellow humans and the world's original inhabitants. Religion, godliness, and life itself have been reduced to technological determinism and have also been politicized and bureaucratized. This leads to many possible insights into these issues in our modern world. Unfortunately, these fantastic and creative plot elements are not spelled out adequately for the reader, instead being trickled out only in passing, usually through the conversations of the new demigods, who speak either in hip small talk or gigantic theological speechifying. The plot elements are consequently fighting for air beneath a story that is mostly action and movement, with repetitive battle scenes that I suspect were inspired by the scriptural tomes of the East (which Zelazny was surely familiar with, to his credit). This neglect of plot development and explanation, which must be implausibly inferred by the reader, makes this novel less readable than it is awesomely creative. [~doomsdayer520~]
Rating:
Summary: Psychedelicized Gita
Review: Sorry but I just can't quite jump on the bandwagon behind this novel. I know I shouldn't be second-guessing a "classic" - and this book does deserve this consideration because Zelazny was a truly visionary writer and the setting and characterizations of this book are very unique. However, the problem here is a style of writing and plot development that is very much a product of its time, and is not really that different from much of what was being cranked out by the sci-fi intelligentsia of the late 60's. Here style has taken on a little too much importance. Because of this, it is difficult to decipher what this novel is really about through the reading of it, unless you already know beforehand - through the reviews of those who have read it many times, or the publishers' descriptions which become more like clarifications than summaries. The true plot of this novel is certainly what you've read about - human colonists on an alien world have made use of advanced technology to give themselves godlike powers, have created a society based on Hindu mythology, and the new "gods" have oppressed both their fellow humans and the world's original inhabitants. Religion, godliness, and life itself have been reduced to technological determinism and have also been politicized and bureaucratized. This leads to many possible insights into these issues in our modern world. Unfortunately, these fantastic and creative plot elements are not spelled out adequately for the reader, instead being trickled out only in passing, usually through the conversations of the new demigods, who speak either in hip small talk or gigantic theological speechifying. The plot elements are consequently fighting for air beneath a story that is mostly action and movement, with repetitive battle scenes that I suspect were inspired by the scriptural tomes of the East (which Zelazny was surely familiar with, to his credit). This neglect of plot development and explanation, which must be implausibly inferred by the reader, makes this novel less readable than it is awesomely creative. [~doomsdayer520~]
Rating: 
Summary: "...as western as they come"
Review: The first chapter of "Lord of Light" intentionally confuses the reader; Zelazny starts his novel near the end of his tale and provides little in the way of background or explanation. Mahasamatman ("Sam") is resurrected from the ether by the artificer Yama, whose technical skills at reincarnating the human form is unsurpassed among the inhabitants of this alien planet. Yama, with help from the goddess Ratri and from Tak (who is currently banished to the form of an ape), have recalled Sam from eternal peace to help them confront several gods who struggle for control of the world.
From this opening, the books shifts to a series of tales, in flashback form, recounting Sam's past and explaining the history of the battles among the gods. Although these divine rulers share the names and personae of the Hindu pantheon, it soon becomes apparent that the "gods" are simply the original colonists who came from Earth millennia earlier, who keep the planet's present occupants in a sort of medieval fiefdom, and who have acquired immortality by transmigrating from body to body. But there is an ongoing struggle in "heaven" between the Accelerationists (led by Sam), who want to share technology with the rest of mankind, and the Deicrats, those gods who want to maintain their lives of luxury and oppression.
Many of the earlier chapters are told in the form of disjointed legends, but halfway into the book the pace evolves into a continuous storyline. Those readers who argue that "Lord of Light" belongs to the fantasy genre more than to science fiction have a point: beyond the futuristic technology practiced by the "gods" (which is more of a sideshow than a major plot element), the novel's prose style, structure, characters, and action resemble what you'd find in many a medieval saga. (One surprising aspect, however, that distinguishes these tales from many fantasy novels are their often sarcastic and occasionally slapstick humor.) Because of its kings-and-swords plot, Zelazny's work recalls epics like "Dune" or dystopian/political works like "The Dispossessed" rather than "hard" sci-fi.
As for the novel's much-hyped Hindu aspects, I think David Brin (a great admirer of this book) says it best: "For all of the clearly genuine empathy he finds in other cultures and conveys so well in his works, Roger Zelazny is as western as they come.... He'd be kicked out of the ashram for asking too many questions." This is no primer on Hinduism; in spite of the author's fascination with Eastern mysticism, it's no coincidence that religion is presented both as a means of enlightenment and as a form of oppression. Instead, Hinduism serves as a vehicle for a futuristic parable of all-too-human foibles.
|
