mostly harmless books

I think it’s fitting that the first real entry on this blog should be about my favorite writer.

Last month’s reading highlight: I read Lord of Light and I liked it.

Why is that unusual? It needs a little (personal) history lesson.

I discovered Zelazny around 1996. I was 12 and I think me or my brother got Nine Princes in Amber (the translation) as a present at the end of the school year. I was already a voracious reader and had just started discovering speculative fiction via my parents’ collection (which included stuff like Dune and Foundation). So, I read Nine Princes in Amber and I loved it. Then re-read it. And again. I honestly think I must’ve read it 10 times. Thing is, 1996 Romania didn’t have two things that are important for me now: many SF/F books and internet. So it took me 7 or 8 years until I got online and found out there were 9 more books in the series! You can imagine my joy.

Anyway, back to the story. I determined that Zelazny was a very cool writer and set out to find more books by him. Until 2007, only four of his books were published here: Nine Princes in Amber, Lord of Light, Damnation Alley and This Immortal. (In 2007, Tritonic started publishing The Amber Chronicles and they’re up to book 6 at the moment.)

So I read Lord of Light (knowing that it was considered Zelazny’s best by many) and was dissapointed. I just couldn’t see what the fuss was about. A few years later, I read it in English (maybe something had been lost in the translation). Nope, the translation was fine, I just didn’t get it. Then, last month, I re-read the book as part of a book club and lo and behold, it was amazing!

I think it’s my style of reading. I skim too much. I can’t help it. Now that I really tried to read every single word I saw how brilliant the writing really is, and how everything makes sense. Most of my initial dissapointment was actually my fault: I didn’t realize it was actuall SF. That those people were really a colony of humans, NOT gods. Yeah, I’m lame. The clues are all there, if you bother to look for them.

Lord of Light has the usual Zelazny smart-ass “hero” (not a hero exactly, but not an anti-hero either). The opening lines are among my favorites:
“His followers called him Mahasamatman and said he was a god. He preferred to drop the Maha- and the -atman, however, and called himself Sam. He never claimed to be a god. But then, he never claimed not to be a god. Circumstances being what they were, neither admission could be of any benefit. Silence, though, could.”
I like that. It’s not exactly lying. He just didn’t mention his status. And since no one asked, why wouldn’t he be entitled to use people (wrong) perception about him? Sneaky bastard.

I just love a couple of the hints - which are so obvious once you think about it!
“Tell me. Dele, what music do you play?”
“That which no longer finds favor in the hearing of Brahmins,” said the boy.
“What was your instrument?”
“Piano,” said Dele.
“Can you play upon any of these?” He gestured at those instruments that stood, unused now, upon the small platform beside the wall.
The boy cocked his head at them. “I suppose I could manage on the flute, if I had to.”
“Do you know any waltzes?”
“Yes.”
“Will you play me ‘The Blue Danube’?”
I think that idea of ‘The Blue Danube’ being played on an alien planet is fabulous, though I couldn’t say exactly why.

“Mortals call you Buddha.”
“That is only because they are afflicted with language and ignorance.”
“No. I have looked upon your flames and name you Lord of Light. You bind them as you bound us, you loose them as you loosed us. Yours was the power to lay a belief upon them. You are what you claimed to be.”
“I lied. I never believed in it myself, and I still don’t. I could just as easily have chosen another way—say, Nirriti’s religion—only crucifixion hurts. I might have chosen one called Islam, only I know too well how it mixes with Hinduism. My choice was based upon calculation, not inspiration, and I am nothing.”
More obvious hints, more proof of Sam’s character. But what made me choose this quote was that little mention of crucifixion, since, if you’ve read the book, you know that Nirriti (i.e. the Christian) was considered “the bad guy” by the gods. A very nice turn of events compared to our world.

Things get a little more clear in a conversation between Nirriti and Olvegga - one a god, the other a ship’s captain.
“Then Sam is winning. Across the years, he is beating them.”
“Yes, Renfrew. I feel this to be true.”
[...]
“You know me?”
“Yes, chaplin. For I am Jan Olvegg, captain of the Star of India.”
“Olvegg. That seems moderately impossible.”
“True, nevertheless. I received this now ancient body the day Sam broke the Lords of Karma at Mahartha. I was there.”
“One of the First, and—yes!—a Christian!”
“Occasionally, when I run out of Hindi swear words.”
Now Renfrew sounds like a real name… And Star of India is probably the star ship that brought the colonists to the planet (and an explanation for the main religion). I admit I included that last bit because it was funny.

And, for the most obvious one (I can’t see how I managed to miss all these!):
“Did you read then of the earliest recorded contacts with the Rakasha?”
“I read the accounts of the days of their binding. . . ”
“Then you know that they are the native inhabitants of this world, that they were present here before the arrival of Man from vanished Urath.”

I selected more quotes, but they’re too long and no one would bother reading them. This entry is… a tribute to my stupidity, I suppose. But also a tribute to my wits - in the end, I saw the obvious and finally understood why people love the book.

But before I leave (and go do some useful stuff, i.e. work), I cannot write about Zelazny without including samples of his brilliant way of suggesting swear words without actually writing them. I feel smart when I get them :D
“The Lord of Karma made an ancient and mystical sign behind his back.”

“He smelled the smells of commerce and listened to the cursing of sailors, both of which he admired: the former, as it reeked of wealth, and the latter because it combined his two other chief preoccupations, these being theology and anatomy.”

You might also be interested in:

• New Zelazny novel