There is a strange historical epilogue to this story. In 1979, a $50 million film version of Lord of Light was announced. The plan to make a movie collapsed due to various legal issues, but the CIA acquired some set designs and parts of the script, and used them to set up a cover for a team sent to Tehran — ostensibly scouting shooting locations, but really to help rescue six members of the US embassy staff who had narrowly missed being held prisoner during the Iranian hostage crisis because they had been out of the building at the time. These half-dozen people were in hiding in the Canadian embassy, and the Lord of Light pretext contributed to the CIA bring them safely out of the country.
A nice angle, certainly... but I would still like to see this book made into a motion picture. Certainly there are plenty of other action-packed tales waiting for translation to the silver screen, but few bring with them the ecumenical smorgasbord of contrasting ideologies and concepts that the author draws on for this fine novel. Perhaps the mythological deities of yore were the prototypes for all later superheroes. Despite this long lineage, no novelist has latched on to the dramatic potential of this intersection of spirituality and whiz-bang adventure with more fervor than Roger Zelazny.
Article comments
1 - Glenn Contrarian
Ah, Roger Zelazny - one of my all-time favorites. The first of his books that I read was 'The Guns of Avalon, and I read everything of his that I could get my mitts on...but sadly, the writing I most remember (can't remember which book) was from a small section of the story.
It concerned a local magistrate called the 'Shan', and followed his progress from point A to point B. I followed each phrase, each word in rapt attention until "the fit hit the Shan".
I read the line two or three times again...and realized the whole chapter was just a shaggy-dog story...
...and because of him (and Asimov and Ellison), I've developed a taste for shaggy-dog stories. I recommend a short story by Asimov - "Shah Guido G.". It's the classic shaggy-dog story, but in it Asimov did something I didn't expect. Read the title again....
2 - Kristjan Wager
Glenn, the line you're talking about is from a scene in Lord of Light
3 - rmcy
thnk
4 - Stephen Patt
Hi Ted--a lovely review, and the only addition I would render is a nod to the Zelazny-naive reader, that all of Roger's work, slight or great, has the hallmarks of his zuperb intelligence, literary leanings, and brilliant imagination. He was truly a master of his craft, and is still sorely missed. My fondest memory of Roger is his pre-publication reading from Lord of Light at an East Coast science fiction convention, and yes, it was the section describing the hand-to-hand combat you referred to. The audience was mesmerised--Roger had a wonderful and commanding prescence as a speaker. Thanks again for a terrific article.