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Science Fiction or Alternate History and Religion
The List of Books Where the Presence or Absence of Religion in a Society is the Main Theme.
Return to Fiction_L Booklists Menu
May 2005
Compiled by Jenne Bergstrom,
of San Diego County Library, El Cajon Branch, from contributions by the members of Fiction_L.
(To use this list in your library, book club, etc., please include the following credit line: "Compiled by the subscribers of the Fiction_L mailing list." This list may not be used for commercial purposes.)
NO RELIGION
- Anne McCaffrey's Pern series
- Is notorious for having a complete lack of religion. To expand on that, I believe McCaffrey has expressly forbidden any religion be included in any fanfiction based on her Pern stories. I wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't allowed in the role-playing game, either. Given her personal views, it seems likely that none of her other works would include religion, either.
- Don Callendar's "Mancer" and "Dragon" series
- (Unlike most fantasy) don't seem to have any religions in them at all.
LOTS OF RELIGION
- Diane Duane's novels.
- Her "Young Wizard" series can be read as Christian or even Zoroastrian allegory. And her "Tale of the Five" often mentions "the Goddess," who is triune, like the Pagan one.
- Lois Bujold's Chalion series
- Fantasy rather than sf, but I find this series-- THE CURSE OF CHALION, THE PALADIN OF SOULS, and the forthcoming THE HALLOWED HUNT -- to be the most well-thought-out explorations of the repercussions of divine meddling in the affairs of humans, a topic many "sword and sorcery" epics toss out without carefully examining.
- Frank Herbert's Dune series
- Filled with religious imagery, messianic characters, and jihad.
- Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series,
- Including the pre-series Vows and Honor, have a lot of religion in them. The god, gods, or goddesses--i.e., the "Star-eyed One" (I think)--depending on the country, sometimes help, or send avatars. Religion is especially important in the neighboring country of Karse, which is/has been ruled by the priests and has been at war with Valdemar for centuries. One of my favorite trilogies of the series is the Mage Storms Trilogy--Storm Warning, Storm Rising, Storm Breaking--in which Karse, having become more approachable since the new "Son of the Sun" high-priest has taken over (a female priest, at that, chosen by the God himself), sends a young neophyte priest to Valdemar as an ambassador's assistant, and he ends up playing a very important part in a united attempt to control a returning magical backlash wind wave.
- Starhawk's The Fifth Sacred Thing.
- A novel that comes at societal spirituality in a fresh way.
RELIGION IS AN ISSUE IN SOME WAY
- Waiting for the Galactic Bus by Parke Godwin
- God and the Devil are actually aliens stranded on prehistoric Earth after a wild party. They speed up human evolution for something to do until their ride comes.
- Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban and A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
- Both look at the role of religion in culture after an apocalypse (although in different ways).
- Terry Pratchett's Small Gods
- Has a lot to say on the importance of religion and philosophy in society.
- The Tides of God by Ted Reynolds
- http://www.skepticfiles.org/atheist/books02a.htm
"But as to atheist science fiction, my recommendation, if anyone can find it, is THE TIDES OF GOD by Ted Reynolds, which came out as an Ace Science Fiction Special in Feb. 1989. It is posited that religious mania is based on an astronomical event. A ship is sent to investigate the area of space which seems to be involved, with highly ambiguous, but fascinating, results."
- C.S. Lewis' "Ransom" trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet; Perelandra; That Hideous Strength)
- Contrasts the religious-and-approved-of-by-the-author Martian and Venusian societies (if two people in the second book is enough to be a "society") with the atheistic scientific hubris (and thus approved-of-by-THIS-reader) of Weston and his followers.
- A Case of Conscience, by James Blish.
- "The ethical dilemmas of a Jesuit theologian confronted with a world of apparently unfallen aliens." The aliens are reptilian, and they do what's right because it's the right thing to do, not because God says they should.
- Harry Harrison's short story "The Streets of Ashkelon" (1962)
- Caused a small stir at the time by having a sympathetic atheistic protagonist: http://www.iol.ie/~carrollm/hh/s029.htm
- Lester del Rey's novella "For I Am a Jealous People"
- Aliens invade, and we find out they, not humans, are the new Chosen People...
- Douglas Adams' "Hitchhikers Guide" Series
- There is definitely a theme of reason/science vs religion running throughout. Adams was also a huge fan of [well-known rationalist] Richard Dawkins, according to the posthumously published book "The Salmon of Doubt."
- James Morrow's Towing Jehovah and sequel
- God is, quite literally, Dead; now what?
- James Morrow's Only Begotten Daughter
- In which we learn that God has a...well, you can guess!
- The Second Greatest Story Ever Told by Gorman Bechard
- Another look at the "Daughter of God" idea.
- Robert Sawyer's Calculating God and Hominids trilogy
- Sawyer has written several excellent SF novels debating the value of religion -- Calculating God, for example -- and his Hominids Trilogy posits an alternate Earth where Neanderthals are the dominant race and Cro Magnon man died out. The Neanderthals have no concept of religion or God, and in fact in the final novel, the question arises whether the awareness of the divine is a physiological function. A bit of our brain that makes us "see" God.
- The Rakehells of Heaven by John Boyd
- "A Christian missionary and his sinful associate try to bring religion to the stars." It's mostly satiric.
- Sam Harris's The End of Faith
- Although this resource isn't fiction, I had a patron last week RAVING about this book, which seems quite apropos to your query. He and his book are highlighted at http://www.samharris.org
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