And light said, Let There Be Gods

This is a most interesting and accomplished story, a fantastic tale woven out of science fiction and ancient Hindu mythology in equal parts!

This Hugo Award-winning book by Roger Zelazny is set on a planet colonised by humans, where is Earth is nothing now but a distant memory. Long isolated from the cultures and technologies of the homeworld, they have only what they brought with them, and their society has become deeply stratified along class lines drawn according to who has access to God-making technology, and who does not.

The first generation of colonists, hoarding the technology for themselves, used genetic manipulations to seed a planet-full of humans at rapid pace. For themselves they reserved other devices...devices which they used to cultivate and enhance superhuman powers. To the regular folk, they soon came to resemble Gods. This belief they actively encouraged, invoking the names and attributes of Hindu gods, and by means of technology capable of allowing mind-transfer from one body to another, convince the people they they are those same masters of Karma, able to decide who reincarnates and who does not. No matter to the peoples of course, that they reincarnate on a large piece of medical hardware!

This system of deicratic oligarchy is not to everyones tastes. Chief despiser of it is one whom the people call "Mahasamatman", one of the original colonists himself, who believes in, let us say, more open government, and begins to sow the seeds of the buddhist philosophy amongst the masses, in the hope it will form opposition. The people, accustomed now to gods, believe he is the enlightened one...something he neither confirms nor denies.

What we observe through this book is an epic battle across a number of generations and incarnations, between the self-centred First colonists, and the forces drawn together by "Sam", as the buddha-impersonating rebel calls himself in private.

This planet was not without its own occupants when the humans arrived, and matters are majorly complicated by the powers and goals of the aliens native to this world.

That then, for the plot. But there is infinitely more to this work than the plot. This book is real genius... how cleverly Zelasny integrates a high technology and a religious system you will have to see for yourself, but the believability and balance of the writing is outstanding. Take for example the "pray-o-matic", a singular device, which, on insertion of payment, will register a credit against your karmic debt.... the quality of body one receives for ones next incarnation is dependent on how many payments one has made!!

There are many beautiful touches like this, Zelazny manages to show both cynicism towards mans manipulation of man, and also balances this with clear respect for the Hindu Pantheon itself, no disrespect is shown to Hinduism per-ce, and it is made clear that any system could be manipulated in such a fashion. Hinduism is a particularly clever choice, as its many gods express such a variety of attributes.

This book is also rich in dialogue where ethics and morals , politics and spirituality are all debated intelligently. Zelazny does this even-handedly, and no one opinion is preached to the exclusion of others. Plenty of good thinking material.

This novel is distinctly reminiscent of the style of the ancient Hindu epic poems describing the battles of the gods. Even the prose style is archaic in places, and this fits well within the setting. The "Gods" of the book came off feeling very much like superheroes because of their unique superpowers, around which their whole personal identity had come to revolve. This does not detract; the same is true of the Mahabarat as I recall, the gods of which were fantastic in attributes also, and such works are obviously the inspiration from which Zelazny launched.

The book is a fine, fine achievement and deserved its Hugo award. It contains extremely well-written battle scenes , utilising both extravagant technologies, and blade to blade combat. It is, I have come to learn, not common for authors to be skilled at writing good combat scenes. Zelazny excelled.

Some of my other science fiction book reviews:

Rama Revealed
Prelude to Space
Stand on Zanzibar
The Demolished Man
The Stars my Destination
Cat's Cradle
The Gods Themselves
Watchmen
A Canticle for Leibowitz
The Hammer of God
The Left Hand of Darkness
Flowers for Algernon
Lord of Light
Rendevous with Rama
The Tombs of Atuan
The Dispossessed
I am Legend
The Einstein Intersection
Earth Abides
Peace on Earth
The Farthest Shore
Methuselah's Children
A Call to Arms
To your Scattered Bodies Go
The Lion of Comarre / Against the Fall of Night
To Say Nothing of the Dog
The Doomsday Book
Frankenstein Unbound
Batman - The Dark Knight Returns
Imperial Earth
A Case of Conscience
Solaris
The Sands of Mars
The Land of Laughs
Eden
His Masters Voice
Citizen of the Galaxy
King David's Spaceship
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
Double Star
The Fabulous Riverboat
Songs of Distant Earth
Way Station
The Fountains of Paradise
The Long Tomorrow
Lincolns Dreams
Alas Babylon
More Than Human
1984
The Forever War
All the Myriad Ways
I Sing the Body Electric
Gateway
Flow my Tears, the Policeman Said
This Immortal
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress


Recommended: