Thrift Store Book Miner's Reviews > Lord of Light

(May contain moderate spoilers, though this is a hard book to spoil)

"Lord of Light" is a top tier Sci-Fi novel, but I would call it Sci-Fi loosely. It's essentially a genre onto itself. While containing Sci-Fi elements at it's core, in that it describes future technology capable of creating superhumans, it also incorporates Vedic mythology, fantasy, and supernatural elements. Zelazny displays incredible imagination and world building talent as well as great writing about political intrigue, philosophy, action, and adventure.

Many centuries in the future, after the Earth has been destroyed, a group of survivors colonize a distant plant capable of sustaining human life. They have the technology to augment their bodies and give themselves superpowers, called Attributes. Through the process of this augmentation, an elite subgroup of Earth's survivors turn themselves into the Vedic pantheon, taking on the form of Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva, Agni, and others. The fake gods rule over the other humans, subjugating them into a future primitive way of life, while keeping their transformative technology for themselves.

The artificial "gods" create a system of artificial "reincarnation", both for themselves and their subordinate humans. The regular humans have their future incarnation dictated by the Lords of Karma who administer judgement based on brain scanning technology. A favorable brain scan may lead to a future incarnation into a strong, healthy body, while an unfavorable scan may lead to rebirth into a diseased body, or even a next life as a dog. A key factor in determining the conditions of the new body is the brain scan's assessment of one's belief in either Deism or Accelerationism.

Deism and Accelerationism are two competing philosophies in the colonized world. Deism is the idea that the gods are entitled to rule over common humanity and keep them from developing any technology beyond a horse and buggy. Accelerationism is the idea that humans should be allowed to develop technology so that they may one day develop into gods themselves. The Desists believe that the common man is incapable of handling technology and will misuse it to destructive ends. The Accelerationists believe that the gods have no right to oppress humanity by suppressing technological progress that may enhance their lives and that the system of judgement through artificial reincarnation is unjust.

One who was formerly one of the "gods", a being who goes by the name of "Sam", but who is also an emulation of the Buddha, leaves the abode of the gods to seek a life outside of the decadent and vapid existence lived within their artificial "Heaven". He seeks to travel the planet, preaching a quasi-Buddhistic philosophy, while facilitating the development of the Accelerationist movement. He eventually becomes the spearhead of a rebellion against the gods.

As the story unfolds, there is humor, scheming, one-on-one combat, epic battles, demonic possession, and all sorts of twists and turns. It's not a book that can be casually skimmed through, it requires one's full attention. If my "must read" list wasn't stacked up to Heaven, I would gladly read this twice, back to back. A lot of it can be confusing, there are so many different ideas in here that it's hard to grasp them all at once.

The meanings within the book can be open to a wide variety of interpretations. It hints at being a critique of religious institutions, pointing out that the religious elite claim to have their follower's best interests at heart while manipulating them for their own gain. It can also be seen as an attack on elitism and social hierarchy in general, with those who consider themselves the top of the food chain being not really that special once the curtains are drawn back to reveal their true natures. One of the more fringy interpretations I thought of while reading this was that Zelazny may have been hinting at an idea similar to Erich Von Daniken's "Chariots of The Gods", in which the "gods" were really beings from another planet who created humans to be a servant class. I also thought about the theory of the Illuminati, which speculates about an elite, secret group who conspire to manipulate world events to eventually bring the majority of humankind under total control while themselves using transhumanist technology to develop into god-like beings.

Overall I would recommend this book to anyone into any kind of sci-fi, or fantasy, or magical realism, or mythology. Though daunting, this book has the potential to interest a wide variety of readers. After reading it, I'm surprised that it's not more widely known. It definitely got me more interested in Vedic mythology. While reading it, I added "Mahabharata" and "The Upanishads" to my "Want to Read" list.