Lord of Light

The idea behind this story is something a fantasy-addict like me can't help but love. The execution was, however, somewhat lacking. I kept hoping Zelany would shed some light into how the world, that the new Buddha lives in, came to be, but alas! This story sticks like superglue to a short (relative) time-frame.

This same lack of information extends to characters as well. I really would have liked to find out how the gods came to their powers, but other than hints dropped here and there, distant background information is utterly absent. Zelany teases us by inserting the real names of the god-humans in a few sections of the story, and then... nothing. Other than making it obvious that our protagonist knows a whole lot more than he's speaking (or even thinking) of, we're left high and dry.

Still, this is a book that no sci-fi / fantasy lover can ignore. The meat of the book is highly satisfying, and while the thus-spake-thee speech becomes boring after a while, it's easy to appreciate the contrast between the old-style speech of the future and the modern speech of the past in the few places they occur.

Some Hindu gods are discussing to reincarnate the Buddha in a whorehouse in order to conceal him for some reason. Oh, but don't call it a whorehouse because you will offend the goddess of brothels?

The prose didn't click with me, the story did not interested me. There was no effort to introduce a likeable character, which should be the first thing the author establishes.

Read 43/11:15 6%

Beautifully creative world/setting with an interesting interplay between sci-fi and religion, with a good mythic story overall.

But:

The storytelling is disjointed
The characters are difficult to keep straight
The characters don't feel real
Sometime the prose doesn't give enough info to know what's happening. Other times it's excessively verbose or flowery.

All of this makes it a very non-compelling read

One of the best SF&F novels ever. Zelazny in top form.
Recursive and complex, close reading is required.
I am amazed at how much story Roger Zelazny was able to pack into 319 pages without making it seem rushed. I reckon some very popular writers (not naming names, but initials RJ and GRRM come to mind) would have required three big books to tell this story.

In a comment below, I added some snips of text that caught my attention as I was reading. (Doubtless were I to read LoL again, other bits would catch my attention.)

I've read this book from time to time over the decades, but my memory of it was growing dim, when eventually I bought the Kindle version and read it again. I was quite impressed and entertained: it's more artfully written than I remembered. This is a vision of another world crafted with plenty of nice details, and it comes alive in front of you. I'm not surprised that it won a Hugo.

However, I feel that the underlying story is less impressive than the entertaining way in which it's told. What we have is a power struggle among heroes with special powers, who sometimes fight battles among themselves, assisted by hordes of mere mortals who die in droves and never seem to matter. Although such battles are only a small part of the story, speaking as a mere mortal I find them deplorable—as I do when similar battles break out in Zelazny's Amber series. Tolkien wrote of heroes fighting battles alongside ordinary folk, but he managed to do it without making his heroes seem callous and uncaring.

Fortunately, most of the story consists of small-group interactions among the heroes, which I like better.

I've read that Zelazny intentionally wrote the story in such a way that it could be interpreted as fantasy or sf. On the whole I think it's sf, but strictly speaking it's sf only if you can think of ways to achieve all the effects described with technology, rather than magic. Throughout the story there are clear indications that at least most things are done with technology.

CAWPILE SCORE
C-8
A-7
W-8
P-6
I-7
L-8
E-7
TOTAL-6.14/10

For a book as old as this it really holds up well. This is a book deserving of a second longer/slower read through, because i'm sure there are things that i missed as i was reading it.


CAWPILECharactersGreat Characters, fully realized. even with the Body Swapping you could tell who was who.Atmospherethe World felt real and exciting. i got the sense that i was where the book was taking place.WritingThe Writing was amazing and quite "playful" i enjoyed every minute of reading it, the writing never felt anachronistic even using more modern words, thanks to the world and great prose.PlotThe Plot sometimes felt off paced, moving in leaps then slowing, but i think that this is more of a character driven story, with a good plot. IntrigueThe intrigue of the why the hindu gods, why not share tech, what powers each has and how they are going to overcome each other played well in the story.LogicEnjoymentI did enjoy this book quite a bit.
I will be talking about it on Libromancy 06/15/2021 https://libromancy.podbean.com/

The years have worn heavily on this gem, yet it remains a gem. It's been over thirty years since my first reading, which I still recall as influential. Today I find the sexism uncomfortable (though not overbearingly so) and the dei ex machina over the top, but even so I loved it again. The themes are timeless: how can mortals resist the temptations of power? What is the nature of a Buddha suffering from Impostor Syndrome? Are we enough? Religion, snobbery, kindness, respect, imperfection, impossible decisions. When I read it as a teen I had little understanding of these questions; today I'm no closer to answers—except for kindness, which looms large as an approach, if not necessarily answer, to everything—but I've now spent much of my life facing those questions and I like how Zelazny addresses them. Consider this as a gift for a YA in your life.

One of the all-time great science fiction novels ever put to paper, this work is always worth the investment to read time and time again. I really can't recommend this book enough to science fiction fans. Zelazny was truly an exceptional talent and left an undying legacy with this interstellar action-adventure novel filled to overflowing with color, drama, comedy, heroism, tragedy, and a timeless mythos.

I think I'm destined to unfairly compare Zelazny's other work to my personal favourite (Doorways in the Sand) and come out less in favour of these myth/religion based experiments. It's an intriguing exercise to take on a certain writing style that echoes bits of scripture, far away (historically or geographically) or fantastical periods and places but it created a bit of distance from the characters for me. Similar  to my high fantasy issue. Long chapters seem more like short stories in a book-ended chronology. The bummer is that I would have liked a bit more in the timeline of the first and last chapters, instead of detailed retrospective of ‘how they got here'. 
I can appreciate a Promethean figure, someone more than human working on behalf of humans to improve civilization/human progress, but I feel like we only got snippets of that Sam, and him being  relatable in his words and actions - the rest of the cast was particularly esoteric from a western perspective - I'll admit my schooling/pop culture references steep me in Greek/Roman/European myths and religions rather than Eastern ones - and following an ancient pantheon known to be selfish and violent is always pretty alienating (the Olympians are at least as bad, I recognize this). 

I think if certain Buddhist concepts were new to me upon reading this it might have made for more interesting musings, but I had a period where I went hard on non-fiction on the topic and as a result this felt pretty surface level.
I don't know whether Buddhists or Hindus would consider this a work of creative fiction with a decent heart/message or actually offensive?
Less ambiguous downside involves messy gender stuff - gods taking new bodies to match certain roles, might be dated/offensive slang about lesbians in there, insinuation they'd prefer to be men. 
Heteronormative BS that they couldn't stay committed, that Yama couldn't stay with Kali when she changed to male form/new position. And then there's the ‘tragedy' of Kali's transfer issue, mega ableist.
And yet, definitely better than Creatures of Light and Darkness. 

⚠️ableism, fatphobia, non-consensual demon possession, mention of SA, outdated/offensive term for cognitive disability