May 2020 Book Club: Lord of Light

Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny

My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Category: Adult
Genre: Sci-fi, Fantasy
Content: What I read was clean





This was my May book club read, and unfortunately it wasn't for me. I ended up not finishing it, but instead ended up reading the Wikipedia article about it to get all the spoilers so I could be somewhat more prepared for book club. It turns out that no one else at book club finished either.

"The crew and colonists from the spaceship Star of India found themselves on a strange planet surrounded by hostile indigenous races and had to carve a place for themselves or perish. To increase their chances of survival, the crew has used chemical treatments, biofeedback and electronics to mutate their minds and create enhanced self-images, or "Aspects", that "strengthened their bodies and intensified their wills and extended the power of their desires into Attributes, which fell with a force like magic upon those against whom they were turned." The crew has also developed a technology to transfer a person's atman, or soul, electronically to a new body. This reincarnation by mind transfer has created a race of potential immortals and allowed the former crew members to institute the Hindu caste system, with themselves at the top." -Wikipedia.

This was intentionally written so it could be read as a science fiction or fantasy novel. I think the idea was interesting, but the execution not so interesting. As one friend said, this is hard to read. It was confusing that the story jumped around chronologically, and if I had not read those Wikipedia spoilers, I may have never been able to make sense of a few things. If you want to try a Zelazny book, I would suggest starting somewhere else.