Read for the TBR 2008 Reading Challenge.
So, as far as I can tell, a colony ship landed on a planet. Somehow, the crew got some sort of control over the passengers. They managed to gain power, and taking on the aspects of the Hindu pantheon, ruled over the planet and made sure that the regular people never got technology in order to challenge the power of the gods. Eventually, one of these First Ones decided that that was bad, and took on the aspect of the Buddha in order to subvert the gods. Battles ensue.
This is an interesting, Hugo award-winning novel, so it’s clearly well loved, but I’m actually not sure if I liked it. It’s I believe intentionally confusing, starting at the end, and then continuing in flashback, but it actually takes a while to pick up on the fact that it’s a flashback. There are also flashes of back story, but there were times I really wanted to know more to explain why things were happening.
I will say that it’s well written, and the I thought the use of the Hindu gods was well done. Still, I’m scratching my head a bit over this one.