What? No credit to Lin Carter for editing the Modern Adult Fantasy series that Ballantine Books ran in the early 1970s? (Ballantine gave birth to Del Rey books). He revived a lot of formerly obscure titles that Donald A. Wollheim somehow missed when he was scouting for cheap fodder for Ace books.
Can’t agree. Technology is referenced constantly. Agreed that quite a bit of it is of the so-advanced-it-might-as-well-be-magic sort. But it very cynically is technology (which is kind of the point of the protagonist’s rebellion - these aren’t gods at all). Indeed it explicitly points out degradation when the mightier incarnations of gods long-attuned towards godly aspects are killed, with the replacements starting at a much lower level. So the original Agni is super-powerful primarily because of tech - his super see-through-anything goggles and pure blasting wand. The replacement Agni is sneered at for merely using white phosphorus grenades.
It’s been twenty years or more since I read it, but the main thing I remember about Lords of Light was how heavily it was leaning into the “sufficiently advanced technology” trope. I’d personally call it sci-fi, but it’s really a good example of how fuzzy the line between sci-fi and fantasy can be.
So it’s not enough for SF to have laser guns, it has to provide detailed explanations of how the laser guns work, and these explanations have to comply completely with scientific theory known as of the time of writing? I’m sorry, but that’s too narrow for me. Go down that path, and you’ll end up with the entire Science Fiction genre limited to seven novels written between 1950 and 1955.
Roger Zelazny, the author, has stated that he didn’t know enough technology to write a “harder” sf novel, and he was writing things like Lord of Light and Creatures of Light and Darkness until he could learn enough.
I don’t think he ever did, or that it would have made hi writing any better. That’s not criticism – I like both those books.
There just seems to be an assumption that “Soft” SF is somehow less science fiction than “Hard” SF. I don’t agree. I think the two sub-sub-genres are equally legitimate and worthwhile (and I’m saying that as someone who prefers his SF on the softer side).
Is there a difference, in your view, between a “laser gun” and a “lightning wand”?
Hmm. The difference is cultural, mostly - laser guns are mass produced, and are therefore more common in modern or futuristic societies, while lightning wands are individually crafted, which would generally put them in preindustrial societies. Were I a writer, I’d decide to use one or the other based on what kind of people I wanted to see shooting them.
Nope. Carter reprinted older works - the Del Reys bought brand new stuff that was more in line with modern tastes. No reprint line has ever shaped a genre that I can remember.
Lord of Light (based on Hindu mythology) is a masterpiece. (This Immortal, based on Greek mythology, also was fine, especially for a first novel.) I tried rereading Creatures of Light and Darkness (based on Egyptian mythology) not that long ago and found it be a total mess. And Zelazny knew it.
Creatures of Light and Darkness was originally conceived and written as merely a writing exercise in perspective. He wrote it in present tense; constructed an entire chapter in poetry; and made the concluding chapter into the script of a play. He never intended it for publication…
Samuel R. “Chip” Delany insisted that it be published, and so it was.
But the Agnostic’s Prayer should be better known.
Insofar as I may be heard by anything, which may or may not care what I say, I ask, if it matters, that you be forgiven for anything you may have done or failed to do which requires forgiveness.
Conversely, if not forgiveness but something else may be required to ensure any possible benefit for which you may be eligible after the destruction of your body, I ask that this, whatever it may be, be granted or withheld, as the case may be, in such a manner as to insure your receiving said benefit.
I ask this in my capacity as your elected intermediary between yourself and that which may not be yourself, but which may have an interest in the matter of your receiving as much as it is possible for you to receive of this thing, and which may in some way be influenced by this ceremony.
Amen.
Oh?
You don’t think that the reprints of Robert E. Howard’s works, especially the Lancer Conan series, had a major effect on the course of heroic fantasy in the 1970s?
I read that book when I was 10 years old. Warped me for life. I love it.
Tolkien said that he enjoyed reading science fiction. And he famously made a deal with C. S. Lewis that Lewis would write a SF book about space travel while Tolkien would write one about time travel. Lewis did complete his end of the bargain by writing his Space Trilogy, but Tolkien never completed his. He started The Lost Road, and later reworked some of the ideas in The Notion Club Papers. Neither work is complete, but, with some stretching of the definition, they are arguably science fiction.
Alternate history certainly can be science fiction - Kowal’s Lady Astronaut series is about an alternate history space program, and Pavane is about the social and technological consequences of the conquest of England by Spain during the reign of Elizabeth Tudor.
(of course there’s a lot of alternate histories with time machines, but that’s too easy)
Just the one I was going to mention. Aliens and a device for reversing the parity of objects - but no magic. Seemed SFish to me.
OK, that’s a reasonable distinction. But look at Agni through that lens: His weapon is not only unique, but works only for him. That’s definitely more on the fantasy end than science fiction. If it were just the tech that were special, then anyone could use the tech after Agni’s death. But it was Agni himself that was special.
As I recall Agni’s weapon is lost when he tries to use it on the man who built it - Yama, the weapon maker to the gods. Yama had built in a fail-safe and reflects the attack back on Agni. The subsequent “incarnations” of Agni couldn’t use it because it was destroyed and couldn’t replace it because Yama fled into hiding after the first failed rebellion.
The “gods” do seem to have augmented themselves in various technology-as-magic ways such that they had what we could consider aspect-accurate magical super-powers. So Agni was probably pyrokinetic, Yama could kill with his gaze, Ratri could cast darkness, Mara could create illusions, Kubera could imbue inanimate objects with emotional resonance, etc.
But the fact that such powers could be re-created is directly referenced by noting various lesser replacement gods that were still struggling to master their newly acquired aspects. So it was again technology-as-magic, not actual magic.
Not is the subject is whether they created a new marketing genre.
Fantasy obviously existed. Some fantasy sold millions. Both Howard and Tolkien were no longer writing, though. Lancer did not have a fantasy imprint and in fact went out of business before releasing the entire planned Conan series, which was finished by Ace. The Del Reys saw the opportunity to form a coherent and consistent supply of new fantasy that would create series and fans who wanted more product than a few dead people had produced. They were not just reprinters but marketers. Huge difference.
Probably thought it was an easier gig, 
“Machine guns? – Pffft! Lemme tell you about cold.”
Lord of Light does also have actual nuclear weapons.
“In the old days I would have taken the thunder chariot–” Brahma gumbles.
“In the old days there was not thunder chariot,” Ganesha reminds him; “Lord Yama --”
“Silence! We have a thunder chariot now. I think the tall man of smoke who wears a wide hat shall bend above Nirriti’s palace.”