Ahira's Hangar

So, Sam moves into the mountains with a bunch of followers and goes into all out Buddha-mode as a way of attacking the gods in the Celestial City that he's pissed at. Meanwhile, Kali, the goddess of destruction sends her pet executioner, Rild, to kill Sam. But Rild gets sick walking through a swamp. Some of Sam's monks find Rild and bring him back to the monastery, where Sam takes care of him. Rild switches over to Sam's side, and becomes his biggest disciple. Soon, he actually becomes the real Buddha, because as we all know, Sam is a poseur. Later, Kali drops by, and Sam laughs at her and tells her that he defeated her plot to kill him. She's pissed.

Next, Yama gets involved. He travels to Maharta and goes to Kali's temple, where he gets hammered with one her priests. Then he travels off into the mountains to find Sam and kill the Buddha. First, he runs into Rild, and has an epic battle with him before he finally offs the Rild-master. Then, he finds a group of Sam's monks meditating. He goes into some sort of weirdo trance, and then does battle with 4 dudes from the North, South, East and West. Then he wakes up, and finds Sam hanging out by a tree. He has a long talk with Sam, and finds out that he's already killed the real Buddha. Then Sam calls him a dumbass, and Yama gets pissed and charges Sam. But he finds that he's trapped in quicksand. Sam laughs at him, and tells him to call for help before he dies. Then Sam takes off.

Random tidbits:

We find out that Sam's world has multiple moons.

Sam & Yama have a hilarious conversation about their powers transferring from one body to another: it takes a while to fully regain them. Yama gives Sam his death-stare, but only gives Sam a headache.

You're making me really want to reread this great book. Maybe I will give it a try next week, and see if I can catch up with you.

OK. So here chapter three takes place after chapter two, but before chapter one. So chronologically we have:

chapter 2
chapter 3
chapter 1

I find Sam's attack on the gods to be intriguing. The other original settlers who have taken on the roles of the Hindu pantheon. So Sam takes the role and theology of Budhism in repsonse - so siphon off the worshippers of the "gods".

But what Sam never counted on is that someone would actually become a Buddha - an Enlightened One.

Sadly, that person - Rild, the former assassin, sacrifices himself to protect Sam and the other monks. Though, of course, what else would you expect of someone who has achieved Enlightenment other than self sacrifice?

Now then, it sounds like the original settlers have their god powers through two things:
*high tech, both brought to this planet, and sometimes further developed after arriving there
*natural mutations, which follow them from body to body

Yama's mutation is the death gaze - but we still have not learned what Sam's mutation is.

Sam also warns Yama about the goddess Kali, and makes her sound like a grade A self serving *itch. Wonder if that will come up later is the book?

(Reading this chapter tonight has made me want to go reread Herman Hesse's Sidhartha, by the way. It is a novelization of the life of Buddha).