| conceptual fiction |
| Reviewed by Ted Gioia |
I recently read about a gathering of experts who specialize in the study
of international relations. The purpose of the conference was to
explore why religious beliefs have seldom been taken into account in
academic work on how nations deal with each
other. Given recent history, this would seem
to be a serious oversight, huh? Yet readers of
Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light would never have
made that mistake. They would know that every
good conflict requires a powerful godhead.
This is a strange and fascinating book. How to
describe it? Imagine Edith Hamilton's Mythology
but with much better weapons. Better, yet, take a
large helping of Joseph Campbell’s re-working of
mythic heroes into contemporary role models.
Then add the razzle-dazzle of Marvel comic
books, and those great teams of super-heroes,
such as the Fantastic Four or X-Men. Mix in plenty of James Bond type
gadgets. Finally spice it up with large handfuls of mysticism and Eastern
spirituality. What you end up with is Lord of Light.
The plot is simple enough. A group of tough characters have acquired
some radical technology, and they use it to set themselves up on a
colonized planet as quasi-deities modeled on the divine figures of
Hinduism. But one breaks away, reinventing himself as a Buddhist
alternative, taking on the guise of Siddhartha, and thus undermining
the more rough-and-tumble philosophy of his rivals.
The book opens: “His followers called him Mahasamatman and said he
was a god. He preferred to drop the Maha- and the -atman, however,
and called himself Sam. He never claimed to be a god, but then he never
claimed not to be a god.” Sam the Maybe God? Even from this opening
gambit, you can detect the sweet mixture of high and low that
characterizes Zelazny’s clever concoction. Like other sci-fi books from
this same era—A Canticle for Leibowitz, Dune, The Left Hand of
Darkness, A Case of Conscience—Lord of Light shows that sometimes
the most fanciful settings can serve as excellent springboards for
looking at the peculiar role of belief systems in society.
Yet this is much more than a battle of theologies. In Lord of Light, you
are only as strong as your technology, and each of the ruling deities has
enough military hardware to take on an army single-handedly. They
also occasionally enter into military pacts with
an assortment of odd and disturbing characters,
such as demons or zombies. In fact, if this book
hadn’t been published in 1967—winning a Hugo
award the following year—you would swear that
the author had grown up playing modern-day
video games.
This whole affair could come across as rather
corny, but Zelazny is a very deft writer, and
takes just the right tone – fabulistic with only
a touch of cynicism – to give his story wings.
And he throws it surprising twists and turns,
not typical of the sci-fi genre. Some thirty
pages into the book he unleashes a lengthy
spiritual discourse, from the mouth of Siddhartha, that works both on
the level of ideological manipulation and religious philosophy. By this
point, the reader knows that Lord of Light will not be restricted by the
conventions of pulp fiction narratives. Zelazny also plays around with
the chronology of his tale, and carefully withholds many key elements
of the story until late in the game. These structural devices, along with
a heavy dose of borrowings from Eastern mystical literature (and often
direct quotes from spiritual works), uplift and transform a story that, in
the hands of another writer, would be a fairly conventional whizz-bang
adventure tale.
A writer of spy novels once shared with me an important rule of his
genre: “When you have a fight scene, make sure it goes on for a long
time.” I laughed when I first heard it, but I now recognize the wisdom
of his advice. Certainly Zelazny has learned the lesson well. When our
author needs fisticuffs, he delivers them in grand fashion. His battles
are carefully choreographed, and unfold with both drama and elegance.
A fight between Lord Yama and Rild in the first half of the book
develops over eight pages, and stands out as one of the best
descriptions of one-on-one combat I have read anywhere.
There is a strange historical epilogue to this story. In 1979, a $50
million film version of Lord of Light was announced. The plan to make
a movie collapsed due to various legal issues, but the CIA acquired
some set designs and parts of the script, and used them to set up a cover
for a team sent to Tehran—ostensibly scouting shooting locations, but
really to help rescue six members of the US embassy staff who had
narrowly missed being held prisoner during the Iranian hostage crisis
because they had been out of the building at the time. These half-dozen
people were in hiding in the Canadian embassy, and the Lord of Light
pretext contributed to the CIA bring them safely out of the country.
An uplifting anecdote, certainly . . . but I would still like to see this book
made into a real motion picture. Certainly there are plenty of other
action-packed tales waiting for translation to the silver screen, but few
bring with them the ecumenical smorgasbord of contrasting ideologies
and concepts that the author draws on for this fine novel. Perhaps the
mythological deities of yore were the prototypes for all later
superheroes. Despite this illustrious lineage, no novelist has latched on
to the dramatic potential of the intersection of spirituality and slickly-
paced adventure with more fervor than Roger Zelazny.
of international relations. The purpose of the conference was to
explore why religious beliefs have seldom been taken into account in
academic work on how nations deal with each
other. Given recent history, this would seem
to be a serious oversight, huh? Yet readers of
Roger Zelazny’s Lord of Light would never have
made that mistake. They would know that every
good conflict requires a powerful godhead.
This is a strange and fascinating book. How to
describe it? Imagine Edith Hamilton's Mythology
but with much better weapons. Better, yet, take a
large helping of Joseph Campbell’s re-working of
mythic heroes into contemporary role models.
Then add the razzle-dazzle of Marvel comic
books, and those great teams of super-heroes,
such as the Fantastic Four or X-Men. Mix in plenty of James Bond type
gadgets. Finally spice it up with large handfuls of mysticism and Eastern
spirituality. What you end up with is Lord of Light.
The plot is simple enough. A group of tough characters have acquired
some radical technology, and they use it to set themselves up on a
colonized planet as quasi-deities modeled on the divine figures of
Hinduism. But one breaks away, reinventing himself as a Buddhist
alternative, taking on the guise of Siddhartha, and thus undermining
the more rough-and-tumble philosophy of his rivals.
The book opens: “His followers called him Mahasamatman and said he
was a god. He preferred to drop the Maha- and the -atman, however,
and called himself Sam. He never claimed to be a god, but then he never
claimed not to be a god.” Sam the Maybe God? Even from this opening
gambit, you can detect the sweet mixture of high and low that
characterizes Zelazny’s clever concoction. Like other sci-fi books from
this same era—A Canticle for Leibowitz, Dune, The Left Hand of
Darkness, A Case of Conscience—Lord of Light shows that sometimes
the most fanciful settings can serve as excellent springboards for
looking at the peculiar role of belief systems in society.
Yet this is much more than a battle of theologies. In Lord of Light, you
are only as strong as your technology, and each of the ruling deities has
enough military hardware to take on an army single-handedly. They
also occasionally enter into military pacts with
an assortment of odd and disturbing characters,
such as demons or zombies. In fact, if this book
hadn’t been published in 1967—winning a Hugo
award the following year—you would swear that
the author had grown up playing modern-day
video games.
This whole affair could come across as rather
corny, but Zelazny is a very deft writer, and
takes just the right tone – fabulistic with only
a touch of cynicism – to give his story wings.
And he throws it surprising twists and turns,
not typical of the sci-fi genre. Some thirty
pages into the book he unleashes a lengthy
spiritual discourse, from the mouth of Siddhartha, that works both on
the level of ideological manipulation and religious philosophy. By this
point, the reader knows that Lord of Light will not be restricted by the
conventions of pulp fiction narratives. Zelazny also plays around with
the chronology of his tale, and carefully withholds many key elements
of the story until late in the game. These structural devices, along with
a heavy dose of borrowings from Eastern mystical literature (and often
direct quotes from spiritual works), uplift and transform a story that, in
the hands of another writer, would be a fairly conventional whizz-bang
adventure tale.
A writer of spy novels once shared with me an important rule of his
genre: “When you have a fight scene, make sure it goes on for a long
time.” I laughed when I first heard it, but I now recognize the wisdom
of his advice. Certainly Zelazny has learned the lesson well. When our
author needs fisticuffs, he delivers them in grand fashion. His battles
are carefully choreographed, and unfold with both drama and elegance.
A fight between Lord Yama and Rild in the first half of the book
develops over eight pages, and stands out as one of the best
descriptions of one-on-one combat I have read anywhere.
There is a strange historical epilogue to this story. In 1979, a $50
million film version of Lord of Light was announced. The plan to make
a movie collapsed due to various legal issues, but the CIA acquired
some set designs and parts of the script, and used them to set up a cover
for a team sent to Tehran—ostensibly scouting shooting locations, but
really to help rescue six members of the US embassy staff who had
narrowly missed being held prisoner during the Iranian hostage crisis
because they had been out of the building at the time. These half-dozen
people were in hiding in the Canadian embassy, and the Lord of Light
pretext contributed to the CIA bring them safely out of the country.
An uplifting anecdote, certainly . . . but I would still like to see this book
made into a real motion picture. Certainly there are plenty of other
action-packed tales waiting for translation to the silver screen, but few
bring with them the ecumenical smorgasbord of contrasting ideologies
and concepts that the author draws on for this fine novel. Perhaps the
mythological deities of yore were the prototypes for all later
superheroes. Despite this illustrious lineage, no novelist has latched on
to the dramatic potential of the intersection of spirituality and slickly-
paced adventure with more fervor than Roger Zelazny.
Roger Zelazny
| Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny |
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Experimental works of
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The New Canon
Great literary works published
since 1985
Great Books Guide
Reviews of current books
Postmodern Mystery
Experimental works of
mystery & suspense
Follow Ted Gioia on Twitter at
www.twitter.com/tedgioia
Conceptual Fiction:
A Reading List
(with links to reviews)
Home Page
Abbott, Edwin A.
Flatland
Adams, Douglas
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Allende, Isabel
The House of the Spirits
Amis, Martin
Time's Arrow
Apuleius
The Golden Ass
Asimov, Isaac
The Foundation Trilogy
Asimov, Isaac
I, Robot
Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Banks, Iain M.
The State of the Art
Ballard, J.G.
Crash
Ballard, J.G.
The Crystal World
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
Bradbury, Ray
Dandelion Wine
Bradbury, Ray
Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray
The Illustrated Man
Bradbury, Ray
The Martian Chronicles
Bradbury, Ray
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Bulgakov, Mikhail
The Master and Margarita
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Card, Orson Scott
Ender's Game
Chabon, Michael
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Chiang, Ted
Stories of Your Life and Others
Clarke, Arthur C.
Childhood's End
Clarke, Arthur C.
A Fall of Moondust
Clarke, Arthur C.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Clarke, Susanna
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Danielewski, Mark Z.
House of Leaves
Delany, Samuel R.
Babel-17
Delany, Samuel R.
Dhalgren
Delany, Samuel R.
The Einstein Intersection
Dick, Philip K.
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Dick, Philip K.
The Man in the High Castle
Dick, Philip K.
Ubik
Doctorow, Cory
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Esquivel, Laura
Like Water for Chocolate
Gaiman, Neil
American Gods
Gibson, William
Burning Chrome
Gibson, William
Neuromancer
Grass, Günter
The Tin Drum
Haldeman, Joe
The Forever War
Hall, Steven
The Raw Shark Texts
Harrison, M. John
Light
Heinlein, Robert
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Heinlein, Robert:
Stranger in a Strange Land
Heinlein, Robert
Time Enough for Love
Helprin, Mark
Winter's Tale
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Kundera, Milan
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Lathe of Heaven
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Left Hand of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
The Big Time
Leiber, Fritz
Conjure Wife
Leiber, Fritz
Swords & Deviltry
Leiber, Fritz
The Wanderer
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
Lem, Stanislaw
Solaris
Lethem, Jonathan
The Fortress of Solitude
Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude
McCarthy, Cormac
The Road
Miéville, China
Perdido Street Station
Miller, Jr., Walter M.
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Millhauser, Steven
Dangerous Laughter
Mitchell, David
Cloud Atlas
Murakami, Haruki
1Q84
Niffenegger, Audrey
The Time Traveler's Wife
Niven, Larry
Ringworld
Noon, Jeff
Vurt
Obreht, Téa
The Tiger's Wife
Okri, Ben
The Famished Road
Pohl, Frederik
Gateway
Pynchon, Thomas
Gravity's Rainbow
Rabelais, François
Gargantua and Pantagruel
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Red Mars
Rowling, J.K.
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone
Rushdie, Salman
Midnight's Children
Saramago, José
Blindness
Shelley, Mary
Frankenstein
Silverberg, Robert
Dying Inside
Silverberg, Robert
Nightwings
Simak, Clifford
City
Simak, Clifford
The Trouble with Tycho
Smith, Cordwainer
Norstrilia
Smith, Cordwainer
The Rediscovery of Man
Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash
Stross, Charles
Glasshouse
Sturgeon, Theodore
More Than Human
Sturgeon, Theodore
Some of Your Blood
Updike, John
The Witches of Eastwick
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Mixed Men
Van Vogt, A.E.
Slan
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Voyage of the Space Beagle
Van Vogt, A.E.
The World of Null A
Verne, Jules
Around the Moon
Verne, Jules
From the Earth to the Moon
Verne, Jules:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Vonnegut, Kurt
Cat's Cradle
Vonnegut, Kurt
The Sirens of Titan
Vonnegut, Kurt
Slaughterhouse-Five
Wallace, David Foster
Infinite Jest
Wells, H.G.
The First Men in the Moon
Wells, H.G.
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Wells, H.G.
The Time Machine
Zelazny, Roger
Lord of Light
Special Features
Notes on Conceptual Fiction
Ray Bradbury: A Tribute
The Year of Magical Reading
Remembering Fritz Leiber
Samuel Delany's 70th birthday
The Sci-Fi of Kurt Vonnegut
Curse You, Neil Armstrong!
Robert Heinlein at 100
A.E, van Vogt Tribute
Links to related sites
The New Canon
Great Books Guide
Postmodern Mystery
Ted Gioia's web site
SF Site
io9
Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
Los Angeles Review of Books
Big Dumb Object
Jospeh Peschel
The Misread City
Reviews and Responses
SF Signal
True Science Fiction
Disclosure: Conceptual Fiction
and its sister sites may receive
review copies and promotional
materials from publishers,
authors, publicists or other
parties.
www.twitter.com/tedgioia
Conceptual Fiction:
A Reading List
(with links to reviews)
Home Page
Abbott, Edwin A.
Flatland
Adams, Douglas
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Allende, Isabel
The House of the Spirits
Amis, Martin
Time's Arrow
Apuleius
The Golden Ass
Asimov, Isaac
The Foundation Trilogy
Asimov, Isaac
I, Robot
Atwood, Margaret
The Handmaid's Tale
Banks, Iain M.
The State of the Art
Ballard, J.G.
Crash
Ballard, J.G.
The Crystal World
Bester, Alfred
The Demolished Man
Bradbury, Ray
Dandelion Wine
Bradbury, Ray
Fahrenheit 451
Bradbury, Ray
The Illustrated Man
Bradbury, Ray
The Martian Chronicles
Bradbury, Ray
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Bulgakov, Mikhail
The Master and Margarita
Burgess, Anthony
A Clockwork Orange
Card, Orson Scott
Ender's Game
Chabon, Michael
The Yiddish Policemen's Union
Chiang, Ted
Stories of Your Life and Others
Clarke, Arthur C.
Childhood's End
Clarke, Arthur C.
A Fall of Moondust
Clarke, Arthur C.
2001: A Space Odyssey
Clarke, Susanna
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
Danielewski, Mark Z.
House of Leaves
Delany, Samuel R.
Babel-17
Delany, Samuel R.
Dhalgren
Delany, Samuel R.
The Einstein Intersection
Dick, Philip K.
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said
Dick, Philip K.
The Man in the High Castle
Dick, Philip K.
Ubik
Doctorow, Cory
Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom
Esquivel, Laura
Like Water for Chocolate
Gaiman, Neil
American Gods
Gibson, William
Burning Chrome
Gibson, William
Neuromancer
Grass, Günter
The Tin Drum
Haldeman, Joe
The Forever War
Hall, Steven
The Raw Shark Texts
Harrison, M. John
Light
Heinlein, Robert
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
Heinlein, Robert:
Stranger in a Strange Land
Heinlein, Robert
Time Enough for Love
Helprin, Mark
Winter's Tale
Herbert, Frank
Dune
Huxley, Aldous
Brave New World
Kundera, Milan
The Book of Laughter and Forgetting
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Lathe of Heaven
Le Guin, Ursula K.
The Left Hand of Darkness
Leiber, Fritz
The Big Time
Leiber, Fritz
Conjure Wife
Leiber, Fritz
Swords & Deviltry
Leiber, Fritz
The Wanderer
Lem, Stanislaw
His Master's Voice
Lem, Stanislaw
Solaris
Lethem, Jonathan
The Fortress of Solitude
Lewis, C. S.
The Chronicles of Narnia
Link, Kelly
Magic for Beginners
Márquez, Gabriel García
100 Years of Solitude
McCarthy, Cormac
The Road
Miéville, China
Perdido Street Station
Miller, Jr., Walter M.
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Millhauser, Steven
Dangerous Laughter
Mitchell, David
Cloud Atlas
Murakami, Haruki
1Q84
Niffenegger, Audrey
The Time Traveler's Wife
Niven, Larry
Ringworld
Noon, Jeff
Vurt
Obreht, Téa
The Tiger's Wife
Okri, Ben
The Famished Road
Pohl, Frederik
Gateway
Pynchon, Thomas
Gravity's Rainbow
Rabelais, François
Gargantua and Pantagruel
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Red Mars
Rowling, J.K.
Harry Potter & the Sorcerer's Stone
Rushdie, Salman
Midnight's Children
Saramago, José
Blindness
Shelley, Mary
Frankenstein
Silverberg, Robert
Dying Inside
Silverberg, Robert
Nightwings
Simak, Clifford
City
Simak, Clifford
The Trouble with Tycho
Smith, Cordwainer
Norstrilia
Smith, Cordwainer
The Rediscovery of Man
Stephenson, Neal
Snow Crash
Stross, Charles
Glasshouse
Sturgeon, Theodore
More Than Human
Sturgeon, Theodore
Some of Your Blood
Updike, John
The Witches of Eastwick
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Mixed Men
Van Vogt, A.E.
Slan
Van Vogt, A.E.
The Voyage of the Space Beagle
Van Vogt, A.E.
The World of Null A
Verne, Jules
Around the Moon
Verne, Jules
From the Earth to the Moon
Verne, Jules:
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Vonnegut, Kurt
Cat's Cradle
Vonnegut, Kurt
The Sirens of Titan
Vonnegut, Kurt
Slaughterhouse-Five
Wallace, David Foster
Infinite Jest
Wells, H.G.
The First Men in the Moon
Wells, H.G.
The Island of Dr. Moreau
Wells, H.G.
The Time Machine
Zelazny, Roger
Lord of Light
Special Features
Notes on Conceptual Fiction
Ray Bradbury: A Tribute
The Year of Magical Reading
Remembering Fritz Leiber
Samuel Delany's 70th birthday
The Sci-Fi of Kurt Vonnegut
Curse You, Neil Armstrong!
Robert Heinlein at 100
A.E, van Vogt Tribute
Links to related sites
The New Canon
Great Books Guide
Postmodern Mystery
Ted Gioia's web site
SF Site
io9
Graeme's Fantasy Book Review
Los Angeles Review of Books
Big Dumb Object
Jospeh Peschel
The Misread City
Reviews and Responses
SF Signal
True Science Fiction
Disclosure: Conceptual Fiction
and its sister sites may receive
review copies and promotional
materials from publishers,
authors, publicists or other
parties.