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Lord of Light and Shadow is an excellent book for learning about different aspects of gods from many different cultures. This is a good book for reading for its insights and then using again as a reference book for researching a particular god or type of god.

In Lord of Light and Shadow, Conway describes many different gods and groups them together into several archetypes or categories. Her chapters include "The Sacred or Divine Child", "Lord of Forests & Animals", "The Healer", "The Warrior", "The Trickster", "The Magician", "The Sacrificed Savior" and others. Many gods appear in more than one category. For example, Odhinn appears in "The Magician" and "Lord of Judgement & Prophesy" and a few more. In the chapters and in "Appendix II, Gods & Their Attributes", Conway discusses gods from many different cultures. Conway does a good job of showing us the similarities and differences across mythological systems. For instance, the chapter on "The Sacrified Savior" discusses Osiris, Odhinn, Mithras, Quetzalcoatl and at least a dozen others.

This is a well researched book, but the author manages to not hit you over the head with it. There is an extensive bibliography and a healthy supply of end-notes to help you find the relevant information in the bibliography. In addition to the gods and their attributes section, the appendices also have a cross-reference (looking for a list of sky-gods or metal-smiths? this is where to search), suggested meditations to help you connect with diety, and god symbols.

This book is more accessible than Janet & Stewart Farrar's The Witch's God. The Farrar book is a great reference and includes rituals for each of the eight or so gods which have a chapter to themselves. The writing style is a bit stiffer than Conway's. The Witch's God has a longer god list in the back and after reading the whole book, I tend to use the list more like an encyclopedia reference, whereas with Conway's book I seem to still be using both the appendices and the text after having read the book through once. I actually suggest that you pick up both books if possible.