Plot: 6/9. Lots of important details were omitted to centre merely on the protagonist’s rebellion, such as Sam’s illustrious sermons that even edified the Gods in Heaven, the cruelty of the warfare among the Gods, human, and monsters, and the culture of aliens. Moreover, it would have been better if the plot had been simply narrated chronologically.

1 3/9

In a monastery provided by Ratri, Yama resurrected the protagonist’s spirit and demanded him to fulfill their previous unfinished rebellion. The protagonist recovered so well that he even gambled with Raltariki by staking his new body.

Yama killed Mara, who disguised himself as a wanderer, so as to investigate the aberrance caused by the protagonist’s revival, which violated the no-kill rule in this monastery. Therefore Yama tasked the protagonist with bamboozling the monks. After that, they hurried to Ratri’s brothel to evade the possible following arrest.

2 5/9

The protagonist once came to Heaven for the renewal of his old body, only to find the updated reincarnation system now required probing users’ minds before deciding into which their spirit would reincarnate.

He phoned Brahma, uncovered her original identity—which she kept as a secret—and agreed to work for the Gods so as to get a fresh body without being probed.

With scruple, he hypnotized a King—against whom he had held some grudge—to impersonate him. As expected, Brahma gave him a diseased body to revenge for the protagonist’s earlier ridicule.

As a result, he and his subordinates broke into a temple, slew all the guardians, and forced the clerk to perform the reincarnation without probing before fleeing away.

3 8/9

After that, he spread his religion, Buddhism, in the forest near the city worshipping Kali. Rild, Kali’s assassin who had also been Yama’s student, was commanded to execute the protagonist. Unluckily, Rild had a fever on the way and was saved by one of the protagonist’s believers.

So, ture to Rild’s moral code, he had to abandon his task and his belief. Before long, he was moved by the protagonist’s preaching, converted himself to Buddhism voluntarily, and even surpassed his tutor in enlightenment, as acknowledged by the protagonist.

In order to suppress the protagonist’s religion and promote theirs, the Gods decided to send Yama to eliminate the protagonist decently. Rild sacrificed himself to guard the protagonist, who subsequently tricked Yama into a trap. Before his escape, he mocked Yama’s obedience to Kali.

4 4/9

Sam enlisted Taraka, whom had been imprisoned in the hell by himself, to help him fight against the Gods. Taraka, eager for his release, agreed to help him. However, Taraka possessed Sam’s body for worldly pleasure first, ignoring Sam’s warning that they would miss the best opportunity to overcome the Gods.

The Gods soon came after them, whereas Taraka and his demons couldn’t hold them off. As a result, Taraka, infected by Sam’s guilt, strengthened Sam’s soul to enable him to live without body, like demons, apologised for his imprudence, and left Sam’s body before Sam was captured.

5 7/9

Sam was allowed to wander and preach in Heaven, since the Gods wanted to identify sympathizers and purge them all later.

Even if Kali would marry Yama soon, she couldn’t suppress her lingering affection towards her ex-boyfriend Sam, offered herself to him, and persuaded Brahma to spare Sam’s life.

However, after Sam’s futile attempt to escape, she changed her mind immediately and let Sam serve as the human sacrifice at her wedding.

6 8/9

Brahma was murdered and the Gods thought the best candidate would be Kali who hated Sam and his Buddhism the most. Kali, regardless of Yama’s opposition, assumed the body and position of Brahma and abandoned the marriage to Yama. After Shiva was murdered, Yama, driven by revenge, began to investigate these cases.

His friend Kubera found the murderer sooner than him: He deduced that Sam had somehow survived the execution in the form of spirit, hacked the machine with his own superpower, and stolen another God’s body. Feeling pity for the protagonist, Kubera knocked out Sam in their duel, recruited Ratri, and fled from Heaven. Before long, Yama joined them for his unquenched anguish aroused by Kali’s divorce and betrayal.

Humans, accepting the ideology of rebellion and the renaissance of technology, prepared for the doomsday of the old Gods, along with the assistance of Nirriti’s army and demons led by Taraka. Though these rebels were eventually defeated, the Gods also suffered great loss. Yama committed suicide, for he had already prepared himself for an unnoticed reincarnation. Since Sam could live without body, his spirit was exiled into the atmosphere called the Bridge of the the Gods.

7 7/9

Allied with demons, Nirriti amassed great power through the technological development and sought to stamp out the Indian religion. Sam asked Taraka to inquire of Nirriti about his willing of their alignment. However, Taraka lied about Nirriti’s intent so as to create an opportunity to fight Yama.

Therefore, Sam’s party offered to cooperate with the old the Gods in defeating the Christian invasion in exchange for freedom of religion, and the abolition of reincarnation-related censorship.

They won the war. Nirriti died within Sam’s blessing. Kali/Brahma died on the battlefield, helping Yama eventually kill Taraka before death. Although Kali/Brahma’s soul was successfully reincarnated by Yama, the new reincarnation lost their memory and had mental retardation as well, which made Yama adopt her as his daughter and tutor her himself. Luckily, Kubera was willing to help his friend care for the special kid with his unique superpower.

Sam left the city to the east, probably in search of the goddess Parvati, and no one in Heaven knew his exact whereabouts. Shortly afterwards, Yama followed his trail. Both of them eventually ended up in various myths.

Core: 7/9. Zelazny artfully combined religion with technology to create a rebellious epic, featuring philosophic dialogues and poetic wording. Nevertheless, Zelazny’s writing still suffered from many recurring shortcomings that I wish he could overcome in his subsequent works.

limited comprehension about science

Why weren’t these superpower, tools or weapons used by the Gods replicated by human? Why did not the natives possess the same power as the First? How did human actually confront these superpower in the war?

Idiot plot

Why did not the protagonist turn their deal into a gamble before releasing them instead of simply trusting them? For example, he could have challenged, claiming the demons couldn’t help him defeat the Gods in time. If he lost the bet, he would offer them not only their freedom but also things such as undisturbed territory or bodies. Otherwise, the demons would all be imprisoned again —either by the Gods or by the protagonist himself.

In the original context, the demons’ Characterization as beings honoring gambling was so narratively pointless that it turned the plot in chapter 3 into a typical idiot plot.

plots lacking arresting suspenses

Partly due to Zelazny’s personal idiosyncratic preference of godlike protagonists, the plot always lacked some thrilling tension, intriguing conflicts, intelligent resolutions and emotional depth to evoke readers’ sympathy.

poor fighting scenes

I had originally anticipated more splendid fighting methods or combat systems, considering the Gods’ various superpower. But like This Immortal, Zelazny seemed only knew the brute force rather than the quick wit or clever tactics between two comparable enemies. (See you again, Irish Stand-Down!)

Luckily, these boring fighting scenes were largely curt, probably since Zelazny fell short of the capability of imagining a realistic war convincingly, let alone an alien war!

weak detective process

Kubera reached his conclusion of the murderer without first offering readers enough clues and possible suspects, which made the context more tedious.

Character: 5/9. Aside from the protagonist, Yama, Taraka, and Kali, other the Gods didn’t leave any impression on me—including Kubera, a lazy intellectual whose purpose of risking himself to assist the protagonist and his revolution was unknown throughout the context.

Apart from a godlike protagonist, Zelazny seemed to have an idiosyncrasy of picking these kinds of people as allies of the protagonist:

  • An inventor defying some of ordinary human sense such as favoring autopsy and showing unparalleled ingenuity, who often seemed to never mind the cliché trope that his wife trysted with the protagonist
  • A poet pursuing ladies and worldly pleasure

  • A few capable females with power and will—of course—less than males and often romantically entangled with males, especially the protagonist (as the best example of Zelazny’s hackneyed sexism)

  • Buddha / Siddhartha / Tathagata / Kalkin
    • the protagonist
    • mental control of electromagnetics
    • a self-confessed liar
    • a true rebel
    • one of the new Lokapalas
  • Yama
    • the protagonist’s ex-enemy and ally
    • inventor
    • death gaze
    • one of the Lokapalas
    • one of the new Lokapalas
  • Kali / Durga
    • Sam’s ex-lover
    • death gaze
    • skull-wheel that causes confusion and oblivion
    • Yama’s ex-wife
    • Yama loves her and at the same time, hates her abandonment.
  • Tak
    • the protagonist’s son
    • help the protagonist much
  • Kubera
    • one of the Lokapalas
    • one of the new Lokapalas
    • the protagonist’s ally
    • Yama’s friend
    • fat
    • invest inanimate objects with emotion and feelings
    • artificer building special rooms stimulating specific emotions within Heaven
  • Ratri
    • Kubera’s friend
    • cast or drive out dark
    • illuminate
  • Rild / Sugata
    • the protagonist’s ex-enemy/ally/disciple
    • ex-assassin of Kali
    • Yama’s student
  • Nirriti
    • the protagonist’s enemy/ally
    • a Christian wanting to eliminate the Indian religion
    • leader of the soulless army
  • Jan Olvegg / Olvagga
    • a Christian
    • the protagonist’s friend
    • turned into Nirriti’s inferior
    • the original captain of the ship
  • Ganesha
    • the protagonist’s enemy
    • Judas
  • Trimutri
    • ruler of Heaven
    • the protagonist’s enemies
  • Brahma
    • one of Trimutri
  • Shiva
    • one of Trimutri
    • trident and chariot created by Yama
  • Vishnu
    • one of Trimutri
    • the architectural artist of Heaven
  • Mara
    • project illusions
    • the protagonist’s enemy
  • Krishna
    • one of the Lokapalas
    • one of the new Lokapalas
    • love women, music and dance
    • apolitical libertine
    • deadly wrestler when sober but he always drunk a lot
    • the protagonist’s final ally
  • Murugan
    • his new body was stolen by the protagonist
  • Agni
    • one of the Lokapalas
    • the protagonist’s enemy
    • friend of Yama that would kill a God defending for Yama’s honor
    • wand emitting fire and goggles seeing infrared and ultraviolet wavelengths, both of which were created by Yama
  • Helba
    • the protagonist’s ally
    • thief
    • sacrificed for helping the protagonist escape
  • Taraka
    • demon
    • the lord of Hellwell
    • one-time cohabitant of the protagonist’s body
    • help the protagonist to live in the form of pure spirit
    • the protagonist’s ally/enemy
  • Raltariki
    • demons
    • native
    • like gamble

World and Others: 6/9. Amazed at the amalgamation of science and mythology, I would have given a higher score, if Zelazny either had rendered a more concrete scientific explanation of the reincarnation or elaborated alien politics more convincingly.

I just wondered how these natives lived, before the Gods landed on their planet. Why only some of them could live without a body? What was the difference between their souls and the Gods’? What did the Gods need from the ruling and worship of natives considering the Gods’ advanced technology?

Why could some souls bring particularly powerful superpower along, but others required tools or possessed inferior superpower? How did their superpowers originate and evolve? Why couldn’t other Gods learn or inhibit others’ superpower such as the protagonist’s? Why didn’t the ordinary learn superpowers?

Why did natives need the social change brought by the protagonist even at the cost of violating their original beliefs? Did the indigene not fear when they had to participate in the war against the Gods? Why were they willing to fight for the protagonist? How did the tools developed by Yama in the final war defeat enemies?

How many Accelerationists were there originally? Why did they lose in the political field at first and even let the Deicrat overrule Heaven entirely? Why didn’t any of these defeated escape from the pinions of the Deicrat, set up an illegal reincarnation centre, wait for the most suitable moment of revenge, or at least notify the mighty protagonist of the tragedy? How many sympathizers or hidden Accelerationists were there among the Gods before the final war? Was it okay to decide who could succeed deceased Trimutri in such a small cadre? Why did other Gods acquiesce in this kind of surreptitious elections and undemocratic political structure?

I found the existence of princes in this setting quite puzzling. Would the kings in this world allow their children to be born with memories that probably contradicted parents’ beliefs? Why didn’t kings just pass their thrones and wealth onto their fresh selves rather than their offspring?