religion and SF/F

[rm]

Okay, as I finish up the Valentine's Day column, I think I want to look at religion in SF/F. This is probably my personal favourite obsession in SF, so Ia m also largely asking for a reading list here. Dune, the Kushiel books, those creepy out-of-print Edith Friesner books (Psalms of Herod/Sword of Mary), and Mists of Avalon (again), HDM (again), Narnia (duh), Aestival Tide (how could I forget The Chruch of Jesus Christ Cadillac?), The Country of Last Things (ah, suicide cults) all spring to mind in pretty radically different ways.

There's also something I keep meaning to read that I just forgot the title of, about a space mission gone horribly wrong and the only survivor is a surly priest who had been sexually tortured and won't talk -- what the hell is that book again? I really need to read it like this week.

So what have you got for me with intense use of religion from our world or not?

Comments

[askeladden.livejournal.com]

surly priest who had been sexually tortured and won't talk

I'm pretty sure you're thinking of The Sparrow. I can barely remember anything about it, but I remember disliking it intensely.

Right now I'm reading the Many-Coloured Land books (which I got from Kate via Kali, so ask them for a hook-up), and they feature the interaction of a number of religions, from a "battle religion" of warring pseudo-fairy tribes to some kind of washed-out Catholicism to a sort of psyonicists' "world mind" religion. It's all used mostly to further the plot rather than explored for anything deeper, but there you are. The books themselves are damn fun reading.

[rm.livejournal.com]

The Sparrow is certainly it. Thanks!