Trade Paperback, 296 pages
English language
Published April 4, 2004 by Eos, HarperCollins.
Earth is long since dead. One a colony planet, a band of men has gained control of technology, made themselves immortal, and now rules their world as the gods of the Hindu pantheon. Only one dares oppose them: he who was once Siddhartha and is now Mahasamatman. Binder of Demons. Lord of Light.
I stopped reading because I don't find Sam interesting as a character, nor do I find much interest in sorta-religious and political machinations.
I'm mixed on this book.
Let's start with the good: this book does, imo, does what a scifi book should do. It placed all kinds of questions in my mind. My favorite sequence is one where Sam, a sham Buddha, leads another person to true enlightenment somewhat unintentionally. This is such an interesting idea! Sam himself is really interesting in all kinds of ways.
The bad for this book is more or less that it contains a bit of the kind of unthinking transphobia which you might expect from the 60s. Given the current climate where people are attacking power stations to disrupt drag shows, I don't think the book can be recommended in spite of this. Another weakness for the book is that it retains a "religious" kind of feel for the prose. I can understand why this decision was made, but it prevented me from ever being truly …
I'm mixed on this book.
Let's start with the good: this book does, imo, does what a scifi book should do. It placed all kinds of questions in my mind. My favorite sequence is one where Sam, a sham Buddha, leads another person to true enlightenment somewhat unintentionally. This is such an interesting idea! Sam himself is really interesting in all kinds of ways.
The bad for this book is more or less that it contains a bit of the kind of unthinking transphobia which you might expect from the 60s. Given the current climate where people are attacking power stations to disrupt drag shows, I don't think the book can be recommended in spite of this. Another weakness for the book is that it retains a "religious" kind of feel for the prose. I can understand why this decision was made, but it prevented me from ever being truly immersed in the story.
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.
This was a great book; I'm glad I finally got around to reading it. The setting, with it's mix of fantasy, science fiction, mysticism, Hinduism, and Buddhism, is exceptionally clever and well written. The characters and plot are likewise engaging; you really feel like the main character, Sam, is a figure out of legend. I can certainly see why this is an often-cited book among the science fiction community.
For a full review, check out my blog: strakul.blogspot.com/2017/06/book-review-lord-of-light-by-roger.html
For such a slender volume, Lord of Light delivers an impressively epic story. It's simultaneously a great mythic adventure story (on a par with his Amber tales) and a critique of both colonialism and religion. There's a lot going on here, I imagine it would stand up well to repeated readings.
Brilliant!
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Readers and their love of books are not commodities …
GoodReads/Amazon management has chosen to ban this review from their "community". The complete version of this review has therefore been moved to the following sites:
https://plus.google.com/101089108381539470202/posts/aPLwqBk388t
http://www.librarything.com/work/20886/reviews/96463336
http://pmaranci.booklikes.com/post/32973/lord_of_light
If you, like me, object to what Amazon has done to the world of books, book lovers, and book shops, you can find many alternatives to GoodReads (for reviews) and to Amazon (for shopping) at the "Escaping Amazon" community [plus.google.com/communities/101902216461396504043]. Our free public resource listing and describing alternatives is at [https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AhaXhGep913MdEg5VjJLWE9xTVRmRXVCVDF6eFRJbVE&usp=sharing%5D
Please be aware that the reviews you read here on GoodReads (now wholly owned by Amazon) are not an unbiased view of the opinions of site members. Reviews which threaten Amazon's bottom line are censored. Reviewers aren't even informed that their sites have been quietly exiled to a literary ghetto. There are better sites, both for reading and for shopping.
Readers and their love of books are not commodities to be bought and sold - unless we allow it.
