Myth, machines, and revolution in ancient India: Roger Zelazny’s 1967 novel ‘Lord of Light’

The circular nature of time has long been a favorite among those interested in philosophy, spirituality, and literature. There is Nietzsche with his theory of eternal return, Hinduism and its concept of the kalachakra, Gabriel García Márquez’s large ring of Aureliano Buendias in One Hundred Years of Solitude, and the deliciously tense scene in True Detective, where Rust Cohle (played by Matthew McConaughey) smashes his hand down upon a cold drink can and explains to his hapless interrogators that “time is a flat circle”.

Roger Zelazny’s 1967 novel Lord of Light – winner of the 1968 Hugo Award for science-fiction – makes this circular nature of time the book’s primary conceit by making the far future reflect an ancient past. In the process, he marries science to fantasy, fuses myth and history together, and shakes up religion with colonialism to serve a technicolor dream that is part memory, part prophecy.

The Star of India

The story is set on an unnamed planet colonised thousands of years ago by the crew of an Earthen spaceship called The Star of India.

At the time of this colonisation, human technology is already advanced enough to be indistinguishable from magic. In addition to space travel, it allows people to wield superhuman powers, called “aspects” in the novel, move souls from one body...

Read more

News