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First published
in 1967 it won the Hugo Award for best SF novel of that year. Sales
continued for 32 printings and over 2 million copies until 1992. In
March, 2000, due to popular demand and continued high ranking on best
SF Lists around the world, Avon brought out an unprecidented new edition
garnering more critical praise and delight to international fans new
and old. Zelazny's Lord of Light and The Amber Series are considered
amongst the best SF novels ever written.
LORD
OF LIGHT is a novel about a future world after the destruction of Earth,
conquered by men who, through ultratechnology, give themselves godlike
powers and set themselves up as the old Hindu gods to rule the common
people. Called The First, they have achieved a kind of immortality by
transferring their identities from old bodies to new ones. These deicrats
(as Zelazny calls them) through centuries of "divine" rule, have become
corrupt, and only one among them will openly oppose their tyranny. He
is the hero, "who was variously known as Mahasamatman, Kalkin, Manjusri,
Siddhartha, Tathagatha, Binder, Maitreya, the Enlight-ened One, Buddha
and Sam."
The Novel itself starts
off as a flashback, after Sam is brought back to life by Yama-Dharma,
Lord of Death, to return to fight the Hosts of Heaven a final time and
save the world from tyranical destruction. [It is noted that the Film
adaption restructures the book to follow a linear plot line]
 
Zelazny was a very bright
shooting star when he first appeared on the fantasy/SF radar some 35
years ago, a new writer of power, originality, insight, and depth. Lord
of Light was his third novel, and it exemplifies all these qualities
in grand style. Combining the Hindu/Buddhist mythos/religion with the
science-fictional concepts of true re-incarnation via technology-enabled
body swaps, set on world dominated by those who have access to the technology,
and are thereby effectively real gods, this book is a powerful statement
of character, philosophy, and morality.
Mahasamatman, or Sam as he
prefers to be called, is our protagonist for this trip through heaven,
hell, and meditation, one of the original colonizing crew who has, over
the centuries, fallen out of favor with the ruling coterie, who now
style themselves as actually being the Hindu deities. Sam, seeing the
inequitable treatment of the colonist's descendents, the forcible holding
back of their attempts at technological progress, the sometimes total
denigration of these people as mere objects and the cynical attitude
of the ruling group towards them, decides to become a one-man army to
change the status-quo by preaching the heretical philosophies of Buddha.
But he finds his preaching has some unlooked-for consequences: he attracts
a fanatical following and he finds it near impossible to not actually
become the modern incarnation of the ancient philosopher, even though
he does not totally subscribe to Buddha's philosophical outlook himself.
As we delve deeper into Sam's battle with Shiva, Kali, Brahma and the
rest of ruling pantheon, we are given looks at the original battle to
colonize the planet, when all the crew had to develop Attributes to
fight the native denizens (almost literal demons) of the planet, Attributes
now part of their chosen godly character. In seeing this early period
(which is highlighted by some very powerful and exciting battle descriptions),
we get to see that none of these people are either totally evil or saintly,
but are very human, with engaging foibles and distinctive characteristics.
This is one of the main strengths of this book, as we have a large set
of fully realized characters, each with their own motivations and desires,
whose interactions form a complex weave of happenstance and emotional
intertwinings, that give the novel a unique order and flow, and are
sure to evoke multiple responses in the reader.
The prose style is more than
adequate to the task here, sometimes brilliantly, almost poetically
descriptive, at other points understated, leaving items just slightly
nebulous, ready for the reader's imagination to complete. And the religious
statements will burrow into your mind, forcing little cracks of enlightenment
and quiet meditation. The story is not told in linear order, which some
may find a little confusing, but as each piece of the story is unfolded
and wrapped into the whole, it forms a mosaic that layers in your mind,
building a tightly interlocked edifice of strength and stature.
Zelazny here has managed
to create an archetype, a legend for modern times, with real relevance
to the reader's everyday life, with a great promotion of life philosophies
without preaching. Sadly, Roger is no longer with us, there will be
no more of these brilliant tour-de-forces, but this will stand as one
of his finest gifts to the world. A gift that everyone can enjoy and
appreciate.
Story
Overview & Commentary:
There are direct parallels to be drawn between the interaction of Hinduism
and Buddhism and Zelazny’s form and chaos theory. Yoke writes: In the
relationship between Hinduism and Buddhism, Zelazny found a perfect
metaphor for his own doctrine. The parallels between the historical
relationship of the two great religions and the novel are obvious. The real Buddha, who was originally a wealthy young Prince,
found the Hinduism of his time to be static, corrupt, weighed down by insensitivity to the common man & too complex to be understood. Sam found Zelazny's Hindu system to
be the same. Buddha’s mission on Earth was to reform the old religion,
not to start a new one. Sam’s mission is identical, to reform the old
religion through Accelerationism. Both men are instruments of change.
And we see the change
brought on in the world by Sam’s actions. He must be a force of destruction
in order to restore the proper rhythm to men’s lives. Sam himself evolves
throughout the course of the story. His immortality grants him the length
of time necessary for such personal change. Each of his many names reflects
a different person he has become, even to the point that he says, about
the Buddha, "‘I don’t recall any longer whether I was really that one,
or whether it was another. But I am gone away from that one now’." Needless
to say, this doesn't make his lifelong mate, Kali, very happy and she
does everything in her power as Death Goddess to thwart him.
At first, he takes a Machiavellian
approach to it all, doing whatever he deems necessary to achieve his
goals. Though he spends years as the Buddha, he doesn’t believe a word
of his own teaching; he is still willing to murder Brahma and Shiva
in the city of Heaven (which he does). Though he and Kali love each
other still, they are both willing to fight to the Death and he goes
to battle against the gods anyway. And though his battles lay the foundation
for the demise of Heaven's grip on the world he still loses, because
he has failed to integrate all the creative and destructive forces within
himself. But by the end of the story, Sam has become all of the men/gods
he once was, and in a final battle, his side prevails. A new world of
mankind living without the rule of the Gods is born.
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