LORD OF LIGHT By Roger Zelazny

Published : 1967
Pages : 317
Overall Mark : 6/10

Sam is a being whose soul is taken from Nirvana and returned to the planet he once lived on under the name of Buddha. There are a number of other beings on this world, seeming immortals with the ability for reincarnation who name themselves after Eastern Gods, and Sam has taken it upon himself to defeat their hunger for power and put an end to their limitless rule through the undermining their ways by making reincarnation either available for all or for none.

This is a very strange novel and is sometimes difficult to read. It takes most of its ideas from Buddhism as well as the Hindu religion, and each chapter feels more like a parable or morality tale than part of a cohesive whole. The basic ideas of the story have been copied on occasion in such movies as Stargate, but the idea of a renegade God who wants to destroy his fellow beings has a feel to it that is both timeless and powerful as it gives us a lead character who must be either very brave or very stupid, but in any case has a firm grip on what he believes is right and wrong.