TL;DR
This is a phenomenal book. The below paragraphs will now ramble on about how phenomenal I think this book is while trying to remain spoiler free.
Review
Sometimes… a random stranger on the internet actually gives very good recommendations. Why I’m more inclined to actually entertain their recommendation than say, the recommendation of a friend of over a decade whom I know & trust is a topic for another time.
But I digress. Having given up on The Long Earth series, I was in need of something fresh in the world of fiction to dive into. The Lord of Light had been on my loosely kept reading list, and happened to be downloaded to my reading tablet at the time, so I thought, why not give it a try?
This book is incredible. It’s mysterious, artistic, poignent, reflective of human nature and utterly absorbing in a way that is so rarely achieved in fiction. For someone who normally takes a while to get invested in a fictional world, Zelazney managed to hook me in completely from the first few pages. This is a book that truly harks back to the golden age of science fiction, and stands firmly shoulder to shoulder with the greatest works of Asimov and the the other giants of the era. The fat it is not better known (in fact, is most famous as the cover story used in the film Argo) borders on criminal!
The Lord of Light is simply an excellently paced, well written novel, set in a truly fascinating fictional world. Everything is presented with a degree of mystery & concealment, leaving it up to the reader to piece together the reality disguised behind the facade. It’s exceptionally well done, blending science and magic behind the veil of the unknown, gradually feeding the reader clues to unravel it all.
The non-chronological story telling really works here, as it introduces you to the main cast and their goals, then gradually fleshes out their backstory as to why and how they got to this point through historical events. By the time the climax of the story comes, you are fully invested in this cast, and are eagerly awaiting to see how their story concludes.
The only mild criticism I can really raise against the book as a whole, is the relative weakness of the final act compared to the rest of what’s there. While it does conclude the story suitably, it does feel a bit rushed compared to the slow burn nature of everything that has come before it, and things turn from an epic marathon of storytelling to something of a sprint on the final straight. While I understand every story should end before its presence becomes unwelcome, I feel Zelazny could’ve spent another chapter or 2 in this world delivering the truly epic conclusion this narrative deserved.
But hey, compared to the endings some other stories get, I’ll take what’s there.
Score
9.5/10
So damn near perfect. Read this book.