Sam is one of the First, but he's offended by the tyranny of the priesthood and the greed of the 'gods,' who keep the technology for themselves and let the common people live in poverty. If not, they may be reincarnated into an animal's body. When people die, their brains are scanned, and if they've been obedient and followed the rules (and made many donations to the church), they may be reincarnated into a higher caste. The First set themselves up as gods, living up in heaven and receiving the prayers of the people down below.

The original settlers ('the First') use advanced technology combined with their psychic powers to set up a world in which various ideas of Hinduism are carried out in physical reality. Suffice to say, pretty much every single character and scene is a thinly veiled reference to Hindu and Buddhist mythology. The wikipedia page for Lord of Light contains a very extensive description of the links between the book and Buddhist tradition. He never claimed to be a god, but then he never claimed Preferred to drop the Maha- and the -atman, however, and called His followers called him Mahasamatman and said he was a god. From the opening sentence onwards it should be immediately apparent that the story is essentially a sci-fi retelling of the story of Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse.

See much stuff being written at that time which fit that description īecause I wanted to see whether I could do it and because I wasĬurious as to how such a book would be received.'Īs to whether the book was an overt homage to Eastern religion, the answer is a resounding 'Yes'. Intentional ambiguity, because I wanted it to lie somewhat betweenīoth camps and not entirely in either. I wrote it that way on purpose, leaving some To provide some justifications for what went on in the way of theīizarre on the other, I employed a style I associate with fantasy in 'Lord of Light was intentionally written so that it could be takenĪs a science fiction or a fantasy novel.

Lord of light by roger zelazny