I first read this book a long time ago, during my high school days.

Looking back now, I'm certain that I didn't fully understand and appreciate its depth.

Recently, I used this book in my AP English class, and I feel that I'm now closer to truly grasping its value.

Roger Zelazny is an incredibly talented writer. He manages to pack a wealth of ideas and details into his stories while still making them highly accessible and enjoyable to read.

In some interviews, Zelazny mentioned that he would often be reading 6 or 7 books simultaneously, covering a wide range of fields from history to the hard and social sciences, from mythology and religion to literature and speculative fiction.

Perhaps he read less of the latter compared to the former, but his extensive knowledge shines through in this science fiction novel that has a touch of fantasy.

He blends the elements so skillfully that in this backward world where an elite has established itself with advanced technology, science seems almost like magic or spirituality.

The colonists of this planet discovered a technology that enabled a person's essential self, the atman or soul, to be transferred from one body to another, using genetic engineering to create new host bodies.

At first, these people simply hopped from body to body, fathering a race of humans that they neglected to care for as they overcame the natural dangers of the planet.

In time, they set themselves up as gods over the children they had created, and in a world where reincarnation could be a literal reality, they naturally recreated Hinduism as the dominant religion.

This entire setup serves as the backdrop for the novel.

That's why, at times, it feels as though we're in India of 500 BCE.

The story follows one of these original colonists who has rejected the plans of his fellow colonists for the planet.

He wants to share the wonders of technology with all the people so that they can all experience the same kind of lives that the "gods" lead.

This is the story of his battle, which is sometimes subtle and sometimes overt, against the gods.

I decided to teach this book mainly because we had a bunch of copies sitting in the bookstore.

I had no idea what I would discuss or what aspects of the book would be worth exploring, as it had been so long since I last read it.

However, I thought that if someone in the past had considered it a good choice, then I would give it a try too.

And, aside from some laziness shown by the students, it went extremely well.

The boys (remember, I teach at an all-boys boarding school) really seemed to enjoy it.

No doubt, this was partly because it had a lot of action, but there were also many "big issues" to think about.

The primary issue was whether the government should be managed by an elite or be open to the people.

There were also issues related to religion, as we see it both as a tool used by the elites to control "the rabble" and as a real and positive force in the lives of believers.

Other issues included "the ends vs. the means" and personal regret and reconciling with the past as one changes throughout life (or, in this case, lives).

As I mentioned earlier, although there are many interesting issues to ponder, Zelazny makes the reading experience very smooth.

The strangeness of the eastern setting and the science-fiction background are balanced out by the fast pacing, the witty dialogue and writing, and Zelazny's expert craftsmanship.

I almost gave this book 4 stars, but the more I think about it, it's even better than that - perhaps a 4.5.

The ending seemed a bit rushed (the first and last chapters serve as bookends around one long flashback that makes up the rest of the novel), but overall, I have no complaints.

This is a very good book that I will likely teach again and will definitely enjoy reading again if I do.

Although the backbone of the novel consists of religion and its reflection on society, colonialism, the nature of myths, and free thinking, if it weren't for Sema, this would not be as convincing as it actually is. A powerfully written character who flawlessly brings the narratively strangely constructed story to an end. Everything functions without major problems and as a sympathetically retold Hindu myth, but simply, what is special here lies within Sema, who has never said that he is a god, but has also never denied it, and who is clearly a human in the best sense of the word.

Sema's ambiguity adds an extra layer of depth to the story. He is neither completely divine nor entirely human, but exists in this in-between state. This makes him a fascinating and complex character, one that readers can't help but be drawn to. His actions and decisions throughout the novel are influenced by his unique position, and yet he still manages to maintain his humanity and his sense of morality.

Overall, the combination of these elements - religion, colonialism, myths, and Sema - creates a rich and engaging novel that explores important themes and ideas. It is a story that will stay with readers long after they have finished turning the pages.

I am most definitely going to keep this particular one extremely handy for a reread. I firmly believe that it is a book which will greatly benefit from having more knowledge at the very start. This is because I surely floundered around for several chapters, attempting to sort out the rather complex back story.

Despite this initial struggle, I immediately fell head over heels for the main character. He is a man with numerous names, but for the sake of simplicity, let's just call him Sam. He is the quintessential lovable rogue, endowed with some truly amazing powers. I also thoroughly enjoyed many of the other characters. In particular, there is Tak, who is living out a rather unique reincarnation as an ape.

This is a relatively short book, yet it is packed to the brim with a plethora of elements such as myths and legends, religion and science, and so much more besides. It was first published way back in 1967 and went on to win the highly prestigious Hugo Award in 1968. Although it may be a bit out of date in some of its views, it is without a doubt a classic of the science fiction genre and is eminently readable.

**Hugo/Nebula Awards Reading Challenge - 41 of 93**

I don't feel that I did this work full justice. I left it on my bedside, dipping in and out of it late at night and early in the morning. My memory of the early parts of the book is a bit hazy. I'm afraid my brain isn't very good at handling all those characters with multiple names and name-changing reincarnations.

However, the book itself is so vast and all-encompassing that it makes a strong impression no matter how it is read. It feels vaguely familiar, and more modern novels like American Gods have undoubtedly drawn inspiration from it. There is absolute poetry in its prose. The conversations between the gods flow exactly as one imagines divine conversations should. When you have had all eternity to talk with your godly colleagues, most world-changing arguments can be debated in just a single sentence.

It combines science with a touch of magic and gods with a touch of humanity. Zelazny precisely describes how a pantheon of strong-willed beings might behave if given a world to create and destroy at their leisure. This book is truly a remarkable work that offers a unique and captivating reading experience.

This one is truly le-gen-waitforit-dary, like the stuff that myths are made of. It can be regarded as a memory of our distant past or a glimpse of our future. It could be a multigenerational spaceship that arrives on prehistoric Earth and sows the seeds of civilization as we know it, or the same multigenerational ship that is dispatched from Earth to colonize the distant stars. I have come across some of these ideas in Erich von Daniken's slightly provocative speculations from the 70's, but Zelazny does a far better job in presenting them.

The story is filled with avatars and symbols, depicting the struggle between Light and Death, between freedom and tyranny. It also showcases friendship, love, dreams, and hope that transcend the physical body and continue as "atman" - spirit, energy, ideas.

The book is a bit confusing at the beginning. This is because the author decided to start the first chapter somewhere towards the end of the story, with Mahasamatman's resurrection after his defeat in the attempt to overthrow the Hinduist Pantheon. However, the patient reader is rewarded. The author doesn't aim to confuse or misdirect the reader's attention. Instead, I found the gradual revelation of the epic scope of the story very appealing.

The major selling point of the novel for me is Zelazny's masterful control of the language. He alternates between the archaic phrasing of the Mahabharatta and the modern space faring quips. The prose reaches lyrical heights, as seen in the meeting between Kalkin and Khali in the Pavilion of Silence, or in the duel between Yama-Dharma and the nameless Buddha apprentice.

I've saved a couple of quotes to illustrate this:

[I] "But I recall the springtime of the world as though it were yesterday—those days when we rode together to battle, and those nights when we shook the stars loose from the fresh-painted skies!" [/I]

[I] Then, as so often in the past, her snowy fur was sleeked by the wind. She walked where the lemon-colored grasses stirred. She walked a winding track under dark trees and jungle flowers, crags of jasper rising to her right, veins of milk-white rock, shot through with orange streaks, open about her. [/I]

I liked The Great Book of Amber when I first read it last year. I think Lord of Light is even better.

So I guess these would be considered...

Spoilers??

So....

Reader beware (if anyone bit me reads this)

Stripped of the religions - it's kind of dark!

Colonists come to a new planet and commit genocide. They gain mutant superpowers and horribly oppress their own descendants!!

It's a fascinating take on how to technologically achieve immortality. I'm not too impressed with how women are portrayed. However, it gets points for an early take on gender fluidity. The god who changed genders each incarnation is a good example.

For instance, the description of the colonists' actions is quite disturbing. The act of genocide shows their extreme ruthlessness. And the way they oppress their descendants is equally appalling.

On the other hand, the concept of achieving immortality through technology is an interesting one. It makes one think about the possibilities and consequences.

Overall, this story has its pros and cons, but it definitely makes for an engaging read.

Işık Tanrısı is like nothing I've ever read before. It's extremely different and an equally amazing experience. After finishing it, I truly felt the pleasure that comes from reading a really solid book.

However, I must say that this work isn't for everyone. If you're going to start it as a science fiction book, I can tell you that you'll be quite surprised because there are almost no science fiction elements in the book. It's a work with a strong fantasy emphasis, but not exactly that either :). The novel is written using a somewhat poetic language, and when we think about the events that occur, it makes this work even more impactful and unique. I can only say that there are too many Hindu mythology god names and cultures, which makes reading a bit more difficult.

The main reason this work is so good in my opinion is our main character Sam, that is, Siddharta, Buddha, Işık Tanrısı, etc.... He is one of the most impactful characters I've ever read. The actions he takes to achieve his goal throughout the book, the dialogues he has with other gods, etc.... truly blew me away.

Writing such a unique concept in such a masterful and poetic way is not something everyone can do. It was the first book I read by Zelazny, but it has already entered my list of favorite authors. I think you should read it. Even if you don't like it, it's definitely a book you won't regret reading.

I'm currently reading this with the Sci-fi & Heroic Fantasy Group. Even though I'm quite familiar with the book, I decided to do so anyway.

My current paper/lunch time read is a nonfiction book called The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2011. It's a good read, but I'm in the mood for something lighter and different. And this book definitely fits the bill.

It features body changers who pretend to be Hindu gods in a far future on a different planet, complete with demons and politics. It's clearly science fiction, but the tone of the story has a touch of fantasy, so I'm classifying it as both. It's also a classic of SF and one of my all-time favorite books.

I really appreciate how the tone of the book evolves from that of a fable to a more normal tone that is filled with great subtlety and power. The simile at the beginning of the battle of Keenset is especially vivid: “The day of battle dawned pink as the fresh-bitten thigh of a maiden.” The pace of the book was excellent too. The setup was engaging, and then the last part of the book includes two great battles where everything becomes clear and explodes. The very end shows that I'm a romantic at heart.

Lord of Light, by Roger Zelazny

Rating: 4/5. Or something more. Or less, I don't know.

(This is not the cover of the edition I read, but it's so horribly wonderful that I love it, so there it is.)

"His followers called him Mahasamamatman and said he was a god. He preferred to drop the Maha- and the -atman, however, and called himself Sam. He never claimed to be a god. But then, he never claimed not to be a god. Circumstances being what they were, neither admission could be of any benefit."

I find it increasingly difficult to rate novels with a numerical value (or a star rating, as Goodreads suggests). With "Lord of Light," it's especially hard for me, and I confess that the 4 I've settled on is somewhat arbitrary. In many ways, it's an excellent novel, and it gives the impression (allow me to speculate) of being exactly what Zelazny wanted it to be. However, not all the readings it allows seem equally attractive to me, and the text is sometimes disorganized and... if you'll permit me... clumsy. Perhaps the reading I like the most is the exploration of religion as a tool of social control, which Zelazny takes to the extreme with a great sense of humor and with one of the most original world-building premises (in part because it's subtle, in part because it's simply magnificent) that I've read in science fiction - we could discuss whether this is more science fiction or fantasy, because it plays with the tropes and conventions of both, but my perception clearly leans towards science fiction. The archaic tone of the book, which parodies the epic of a religious text that draws from Hinduism and Buddhism, is well-executed but sometimes takes me out of the novel because it's too much. In any case, it's a classic not to be missed.

Paraphrasing a friend (who may also have paraphrased someone else), I find it easier to admire the novel than to love it. And yet... after thinking about it, I would raise its score... And I think that's the main effort (not a small one) that the book requires: the effort of continuously reconstructing the image you form of it: it's better in memory - even if it's immediate - than during its reading.

P.S. The tone and atmosphere remind me a lot of "Michelíada" by Antoni Munné-Jordà, one of the best science fiction novels ever written in Catalan during... well, during the entire existence of the genre in Catalan.

P.S. 2: And they're going to make a TV series out of this!? I'm equally curious and afraid.

One of the strangest but also most enthralling novels I've ever read is truly a literary gem.

Part of its fascination, I firmly believe, stems from the fact that it is a novel rife with contradictions on multiple levels.

For instance, it is written in the style of the New Wave, yet at its core, it is imbued with ideas that would have been perfectly at home in an SF work from the pulp era or the Golden Age.

I was completely captivated by Zelazny's approach to world-building. The mysterious sea of left-unsaid that lies between the facts that emerge from the waters and coalesce into words adds an air of enigma and allure.

I also loved how he crafted his characters as an odd, and at times even repulsive, mixture of titanism and extreme fragility.

Lord of Light is, once again, a strange novel that is difficult, if not impossible, to fully express in words. It is one of those artistic experiences that you simply have to experience for yourself to truly understand and appreciate its unique charm.

What was this, really? I'm serious. What exactly was it that I held in my hand? What face of art was this? I'm talking to myself here. It was a face of art in book form that I had never seen before. When it appeared in front of me, it spoke to me in a foreign language, and we couldn't understand each other for a long time. I couldn't fit it into any pattern I knew before. For example, it would sometimes show the "fantastic" figure hidden behind the mask of science fiction. Then it used such magical, deep, and universal words that in impossible places, it forcibly taught its own language through poetry. And it started to strike. I had a similar experience in my youth called "Ulysses." It did the same thing back then, thank goodness. I didn't have the willpower to finish it. If I hadn't read it as part of a reading group, I'm sure the fate of this book would have been the same.

So, just like with "Ulysses," when I was almost going to leave the book silently on the ground and run away in a crazy state, the noble responsibility given by my reading group held me back and said, "Finish this." Fortunately, I was able to analyze the concept of time and the character developments, which was one of my very serious difficulties, in the last section. When the penny dropped, I murmured, "What have you done, man?" After reading the last sentence, the masochistic situation I mentioned at the beginning surrounded me. I got up to make a coffee to come to my senses, placed the book in my modest library, and felt proud of myself. In a way, I endured my torture and deserved my nirvana. I think it definitely requires a second or even a third reading. But from my point of view, within the framework of the "so many books so little time" principle, I'm calmly ending my adventure with this unique book here.

Lord of Light. Well, what can I truly say about this remarkable piece of literature? This book simply left me completely speechless. It is just so goddamn fantastic! When you take into account the fact that this amazing work was published way back in 1967, it's truly mind-boggling.

Anyway, this book is firmly based on Hindu-Buddhist legends. Honestly, it comes as a welcome reprieve from the countless novels that are centered around Abrahamic religions such as Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Unlike many others who have read this book, I happen to be quite familiar with Hindu-Buddhist myths, despite not being a Hindu or a Buddhist. In fact, I'm an Atheist, by the way. However, unlike other mythological novels, the gods in this book are not really divine beings in the traditional sense. Instead, they are humans who, long ago, mastered the art of immortality. They achieve this by moving their souls or atman to a different body through a process known as Reincarnation, which they accomplish using hi-tech mind-transfer machineries.

Lord of Light is, without a shadow of a doubt, one of the very best SF novels ever written. George R.R. Martin and I are in complete agreement on that point. It is definitely the best SF book that I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Granted, I've only read a handful of SF novels, so my assertion might not carry much weight, but still, it's an extremely magnificent book with a deeply mesmerizing plot. SF aficionados will most definitely love it. Ciao ☺