Ahira's Hangar

If this chapter had a title, my guess is that it would be called "Gardens of the Moon." Seriously, I'm about halfway through, and I have no idea what in the hell is going on-it's almost like Zelazny was channeling Steven Erikson when he wrote it. Zelazny also goes all William Faulkner on us a few times during this chapter. There are at least two page-long paragraphs in the chapter that are single, run-on sentences. Holy crap, they're hard as hell to follow.

Here's a re-cap. The chapter is set in Heaven, and it gives a nice description of the dome-world that the gods have created. It's temperate, and the gods have total control over the weather. The Celestial City is surrounded by a jungle, which is patroled by albino tigers. The chapter starts off with one of the gods lurking through the jungle in tiger form (can't remember which one). Heaven is actually remarkably like the computer-world that Hanuman constructed in War in Heaven; in fact, I'm sure that this had to be Zindell's inspiration. I felt like I was reading the same passages from WiH that I read earlier this year.

There is a lot of discussion about the Aspects and Attributes of the gods. First they take on their aspect, then they wield their attribute. It's a little confusing. I think that the attributes are usually some sort of talisman that gives them power (usually a weapon that is viewed as magical, but really it's just ancient technology). There is also a lot of discussion about Accelerationists-these are gods who want to teach all the regular humans about the ways of technology, and who want to de-mystify the gods. Sam is an accelerationist (I think that's what it's called), and all the other gods want to kill him for this. Technically, he's hasn't been elevated to god status, because he's refused the opportunity. He's just as powerful as the other gods, as far as I can tell.

The chapter introduces a bewildering number of characters (all gods) in a completely Eriksonian fashion. I guess it would make more sense if I knew something about the Hindu religion. Alas, I don't, and I don't really care to study up. We do find out that Krishna is the god of drunkeness. And he likes to blow on his pipes and chase skirts, which gets him in trouble from time to time.

Sam meets with Helba (or something like that). She/he is the god of thievery, and Sam makes a deal with her to steal his long-lost attribute back from the museum of the gods. It's a gawdy pink and yellow belt that gives him the power to bind demons. He mentions something about sophisticated micro-circuitry in it that is the key to its operation. She steals the belt for Sam, but he gets caught in the process, and is killed (or sacrificed) by Kali in her tigress form. His body and the belt are burned during Kali and Yama's wedding. The wedding lasts 7 days, and during this time one god (I think Ratri) insults Kali, so Kulbera kills him. Then the chapter pretty much ends. I'm definitely forgetting stuff, though, because a lot happens in this chapter with the new characters.