Sasu reviewed Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny
Intrigue at the Edge of the Mortal
4 stars
Hands down the most striking thing about Lord of Light is how well Zelazny captured the tone of the source material and translated it into a form that works well within the context of a novel of speculative fiction. This is the first and only work of Zelazny's I have read thus far, so I might just be impressed by what qualifies for his usual style, but it feels much too intentional to me for it not to have been done on purpose. Despite the excellent voice and tonal execution which permeate the book, I had the sense that there was more of an effort to bend the source material to the story Zelazny wanted to tell rather than the story which the combination of the source material and the other ideas in the book might have been naturally most suited to tell. Maybe it's not a masterpiece, but it's …
Hands down the most striking thing about Lord of Light is how well Zelazny captured the tone of the source material and translated it into a form that works well within the context of a novel of speculative fiction. This is the first and only work of Zelazny's I have read thus far, so I might just be impressed by what qualifies for his usual style, but it feels much too intentional to me for it not to have been done on purpose. Despite the excellent voice and tonal execution which permeate the book, I had the sense that there was more of an effort to bend the source material to the story Zelazny wanted to tell rather than the story which the combination of the source material and the other ideas in the book might have been naturally most suited to tell. Maybe it's not a masterpiece, but it's close enough to that that it probably influenced a lot of similar works which came after it. Dan Simmons' Ilium and Olympos come to mind as favorable candidates.
Putting whatever timeless merits the book may or may not have aside, it operates on many levels and does a lot really well. The most valuable to me was how the gods and Sam occupied and moved through the space between the mundane mortal, the legendary, and the divine. The drama and political intrigue were interesting, and so was the exploration of the ramifications of the particular kind of #reincarnation which featured in the story. There were also some interesting bits about how #legends develop over time which tied nicely into the other themes of the book.
The last thing I want to mention is that I had this recommended to me as a #Buddhist novel, which I think is a bit of an oversimplification; it contains some Buddhist ideas, but I think the underlying message is more the common science fiction refrain of scientific progress than it is about liberation. That said, I thought the presentation of the concepts of #impermanence and especially of #selflessness were really well done.