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Lord of Light
from the no-not-my-family dept.
| Lord of Light | |
| author | Roger Zelazny |
| pages | 261 |
| publisher | Methuen |
| rating | 10 |
| reviewer | Danny Yee |
| ISBN | 0-413-58250-7 |
| summary | epic science fiction using Hindu and Buddhist themes |
Colonists from Earth, using a mix of mental powers and high technology, have long ago subjugated the native inhabitants -- and are now making themselves into gods, ruling over their descendants within a framework set up in imitation of Hinduism and ancient India. But even as the "Deicrat" consensus firms, there is dissent: Sam, one of the First, the crew of the original spaceship, remains an "Accelerationist," wanting to spread scientific knowledge to everyone. He starts a one-man crusade to bring down Heaven, a crusade that will lead him to the depths of Hellwell and to Nirvana and back.
Lord of Light is a lively novel with plenty of action -- duels, battles, confrontations, defiances, and repartee. Following the structure of Indian epics, elaborated sub-stories adorn a simple overall plot, with each chapter an episode in Sam's war against Heaven: his taking up arms against Heaven, his revival of Buddhism and the attempts to kill him, his loosing of the demons and possession by one of them, his capture and imprisonment in the Celestial City, his escape and defeat in a climactic battle, his return from Nirvana, and his final victory. (The first chapter is chronologically the second-last, which is a little confusing at first.) While few of the characters have much depth, they manage to be both human and (when they take on their Aspects and wield their Attributes) embodiments of fundamental forces. Sam himself is a crotchety old-timer and a con-man and a trickster - but also an embodiment of military prowess and defiance against odds.
The scientific scaffolding always remains visible -- Shiva's trident is a device, "reincarnation" is done through body farms and mind transfer machinery, the Christian heretic Nirriti uses guided missiles -- and Lord of Light is clearly science fiction rather than fantasy. This is affirmed explicitly within the story by Yama, engineer and god of Death, explaining that demons are "malefic, possessed of great powers, life span, and the ability to temporarily assume virtually any shape" - but not "supernatural".
Which is a sentiment to warm the hearts of hard science fiction devotees, even without the "technology good, theocracy bad" plot elements."It is the difference between the unknown and the unknowable, between science and fantasy - it is a matter of essence. The four points of the compass be logic, knowledge, wisdom and the unknown. Some do bow in that final direction. Others advance upon it. To bow before the one is to lose sight of the three. I may submit to the unknown, but never to the unknowable. The man who bows in that final direction is either a saint or a fool. I have no use for either."
Despite the underlying epistemology, however, the dominant "mode" of Lord of Light is mythic rather than scientific. Zelazny does more than raid Hinduism and Buddhism for props - he ends up touching on the genuinely numinous, evoking through language and mood something of the power of real religion and myth. Buddhism, for example, is introduced by Sam as a counter to Hinduism, but his own beliefs are ambiguous and when one of his disciples (originally an assassin sent to kill him) attains enlightenment, it is obvious that Buddhism has taken on a life of its own. Lord of Light sports quotations from Indian scriptures at the beginning of each chapter and uses themes and language and ideas taken from them throughout. At one point Sam delivers a three page sermon, for example, and the penultimate paragraph of the novel is
This could easily have been tedious or trite but in Zelazny's hands it actually works. Myth and religion never actually break free from the scientific scaffolding, but they manage to make it irrelevant -- one could almost consider Lord of Light a demonstration that their symbolic power does not rest on their metaphysical claims."Death and Light are everywhere, always, and they begin, end, strive, attend, into and upon the Dream of the Nameless that is the world, burning words within Samsara, perhaps to create a thing of beauty."
Despite its serious approach to religion and its success as epic, Lord of Light is at the same time rather light-hearted, sometimes verging on the flippant.
Zelazny also includes a few truly terrible puns."It was early morning. Near the pool of the purple lotus, in the Garden of Joys, at the foot of the statue of the blue goddess with theveena, Brahma was located.The girl who found him first thought him to be resting, for his eyes were still open. After a moment, though, she realized that he was not breathing; and his face, so contorted, underwent no changes of expression.
She trembled as she awaited the end of the universe. God being dead, she understood that this normally followed. But after a time she decided that the internal cohesiveness of things might serve to hold the universe together for another hour or so; and such being the case, she thought it advisable to bring the matter of the imminent Yuga to the attention of someone better suited to cope with it."
Somehow all the disparate components of Lord of Light -- humour and epic, science and religion, action and philosophy -- come together in an successful novel. The result is my favourite Zelazny work and indeed one of my favourite science fiction novels of all time. Though it won the Hugo award in 1968, it has I think been relatively neglected; it can bear comparison with the much better known Dune (and I suspect Zelazny was inspired by Frank Herbert's use of Sufism in that work).
Purchase this book from FatBrain. Check out Danny Yee's other book reviews, especially the science fiction and India sections.
Exactly, Jack of Shadows is a better work (Score:4)
While Lord of Light was a refreshing retelling of many Indian themes, and a masterwork of its time, it probably affected far fewer people than Jack of Shadows did.
Jack of Shadows gave a lot of young people a path that they could really follow, one connected more closely with the change in Western society from mythic fantasy and our belief in supernatural beings to the scientific, rules-based approach. Due to its influence, many of the gaming engines of both RPG and Computer games were created, and I've noticed most authors who came to prominence in the decade following invariably listed it amongst their favorite works.
It may have been juvenile in its characterization, never one of Zelazny's strong parts, but it was earth shattering in its impact on a number of writers, similar to the influence of the new breed that Moorcock belonged to.
However, in recent years we've seen a number of Western authors get in tune with Veddic writings and their own personal search for meaning has led them to rediscover Lord of Light. It's more of a reflection of their changing religious beliefs than the strength of the actual work, and thus a modern redefinition says that Lord of Light was the masterwork, when in actual impact any serious author of the time would have claimed Jack of Shadows as the true masterwork.
Well. . . yes and no (Score:4)
RZ does a masterful job of messing with the readers head through much of the book, leaving one with a sense of satisfaction realization.
This is the key, powerful subtlety of the work, and the mark of the true master story teller. You see, during much of the book the reader is ignorant and RZ gradualy opens their eyes and brings them to " Enlightenment." The readers own thought processes mirror the theme of the book. It's simply marvalous.
I'm afraid that those who read your review before reading the book will be denied that experience, and it is that experience that makes this work not just one of the great works of SF, but one of the great works of literature.
KFG
Quite simply the best... (Score:3)
My favourite quote : "So that's what they're playing on their fascist banjo's these days..."
after Yama lectures Sam on the "true" meaning of being a god to the populace
I wish the reviewer hadn't given away the fact that none of the "gods" are real, and that" Niriti the black" was the ships chaplain
I spent the first third of the book wondering what the hell was going on, then immediately had to re-read it once I'd finished it (after going "oh... that's what it all meant").
A *perfect* book !
Jeremy Allison,
Samba Team.
Jack of Shadows (Score:3)
In Jack of Shadows the opposite is the case. On the surface the fictional world is purely fantasy, but the plot itself is scientific: the main character is concerned (among other things) with finding out the rules that his world obeys, to use them to gain power. In this sense it is truer to science fiction than Lord of Light is.
It is also a very good read.
My favorite by Zelazny (Score:3)
Personally, I call it "science fantasy". There is a lot of magical stuff going on, but a handwaving explanation of machines and psi powers doesn't really convince me to consider it hard science fiction. This isn't a problem, of course, and in fact is a large part of why the book aged gracefully. Describing in detail how the tech works is usually a recipe for looking quaint later. (Remember the Heinlein novel that described the "computer" that used elaborate 3-dimensional cams inside its mechanical guts? One of the characters was wishing he could put in some 4-dimensional cams to make it more powerful... overclocking, kinda sorta.)
The book would have been awesome if it had just been a straightforward telling of that incredibly brilliant plot. But Zelazny had his own style of writing, and his use of language puts the frosting on top. Where other writers use words as bricks and mortar, to build the story, Zelazny also plays around artistically with the words themselves. At times this leads to pages that are poetically beautiful, at other times this means bad puns and outrageous dialog. In this book, the playing with words is not done too little or too much; it works.
A must-read.
steveha
Excellent! All we need now is Phil Dick (Score:4)
I read Lord of Light when I was 16, and I went out and bought everything else I could of his, especially the Courts of Chaos series. By coincidence I rered Dilvish The Damned the other week, it is still as good as I remembered it.
Zelazny had (he died a couple of years ago as I recall) a unique tone to his work; he wasn't afraid to stitch in some poetic stuff amongst the swords and wizardry. Again like Vance he had an eye for sketching credible women in his stories.
Pleasant to see him mentioned here where he might posthumously gain new readers!
Re:Spoilers in the review... (Score:3)
Danny (who feels he should post if only to stop himself using some spare mod points on this story)