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

[raaven.livejournal.com]

I'll second that (or third it or whatever). There's a good, out-of-print multi-writer series (edited, I think, by Mercedes Lackey) called Merovingen Nights that is about a sort of post-apocalyptic planet that is divided into 3 or 4 major religious groups, and the social/political maneuvering thereof. Steven Brust has a book called To Reign in Hell, which is a great retelling of the Christian myth of Lucifer's fall from heaven. His Dragaera books also have a strong religious element (thought not even remotely Christian). Like the Bujold, in Brust's world, gods actually interact with their worshippers.

Probably there are more that aren't popping immediately into my brain, but I'll check my shelves later & see if I come up with anything good.

Also, and I don't know if this falls under your request, as it's not religion per se -- but there are a number of books that concern various sorts of ghost-in-the-machine AI which address an assortment of religious themes without being specific about any particular religion (Neuromancer,the later books from the Ender's Game series, some John Varley, Cory Doctorow's Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, several PKD stories - I'm sure I can think of more, if you need them).

That might be a whole 'nother topic, though.

[affreca.livejournal.com]

Merovingen Nights started with and was edited by C.J. Cherryh.

[raaven.livejournal.com]

Ah, yes! Thank you! :)