Name: Lord of Light
ISBN: 9780380014033

Lord of Light

A colony of humankind is subjugated by the First Colonists, the crew of the starship that brought them to their new home 1000 years before. They have taken control of ancient technologies and enhanced themselves with godlike psychic powers and virtual immortality. Adopting the panoply of the venerable Hindu religion, they live lives as its Gods, surrounded by advanced technology within the trappings of a primitive civilization. Our hero Sam, unready to battle the tyrannical forces of the Celestial City allied with his former wife, now the rapturous Kali, Goddess of Destruction. A story of the classic drama of power, love, honor, pride, and fantasy erupting in an epic war of the Gods and ultimate transcendence.

What Hacker News says

smgpieSep 2026

What you described does not qualify as a good fantasy either. There needs to be rules even in the world of magic, and eventually so called hard fiction and fantasy only really differ in the way how they present the fantasies.

There is a book I love: Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny, in which he first wrote about fantasy figures with magic powers in Buddhism tales, and then revealed that they were just humans with high tech and play gods to those who don't.

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mpredaSep 2026

Looked over the lists, and there is one that was not mentioned yet:

1. "Lord of Light" by Roger Zelazny

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lukasbApr 2026

Zelazny can’t really be beat when it comes to style and wit in SF/fantasy. Pick up Lord of Light or Nine Princes in Amber (or Jack of Shadows, or The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth, or …)

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varjagOct 2024

Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny.

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bodantogatOct 2024

Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny Norstrilia by Cordwainer Smith Hospital Station by James White

More recent read, you may have heard of it since it won an award - In Ascension by Martin MacInnes

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kadobanOct 2024

Lord of Light is worth it if you can manage. I remember I bounced off a few times too.

It's rather hard to believe it's the same author as Amber sometimes, those books took me like 12 seconds to get hooked on, LoL is great it's just _quite_ different in feel.

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