Search - Lord of Light

I just reread this and I'm glad I did. This is one of those little books full of big ideas, wonderful language and some interesting characters. They're proud, fearful, smart (and stupid) and all around human, even though they are gods ...

For those that don't know, the book is set on a distant world in the far future when Earth is dead and the world was colonized by a starship called The Star of India. There, the crew helped tame the world by fighting against the bodiless Rakashas, the Mothers of the Glow and several other races. Then they set themselves up as Hindu gods using psionics and advanced technology.

As the book opens Tak, an ape, and Yama, a renegade god of death are trying to reincarnate the Buddha, who has been exiled to Nirvana. From there we are taken on a tour of Heaven (the city of the gods), treated to epic battles suitable for the Vedas and all around given a good story.

I'll say this much - I've read Zelazny's Amber series once. This I've read and re-read and will continue to do so.

This Hugo Award winning novel of 1968 is probably RZs best novel in that he effectively brings together myth, religion, technology, philosophy, laughs, and action. Even if a reader is not keen on science fiction novels, this is worth reading and, dare I say it in a world jammed with books, re-reading. Be cautioned about flash backs and time slips, as confusion will be visited upon the inattentive reader.

Zelazny provides an alternate world where colonists use the power of their technology to impersonate gods (in this case, Hindu gods) while a rebel impersonates Buddha to try to bring them down. Not the most original of plots (this was written in 1967, and reads that way - burn some incense while you read), but a solid contribution by a solid writer.

It helps if you know something about Buddhism. Still, that should not detract from the pleasure of reading it.

Interesting premise, characters didn't grab me.

This book is a mix of science fiction (colony planet where a group of powerful men rule by the means of advanced technology) and Hinduism (the powerful ones are known as the gods of the Hindu pantheon). Zelazny has long been one of my favorite authors for his Amber novels, but I found this one pretty difficult to get through. If you enjoy his writing style normally, you may still get some fun out of it.