List: Religion Portrayed Differently

So I've decided that the first Sunday of each month is going to be list-day, where I decide to list a few great books on a particular topic if you want something to add to your reading list. I hope you enjoy this! :)  


Today's topic is on Religion Portrayed Differently. As Edwin Lewis says, "A religion without the element of mystery would not be a religion at all", and yet most of my list tries to do exactly that - strip the element of mystery from religion, and let the chaos unleash itself on whichever world the book might be set in. Yet others on my list try to talk about the role of religion in our life - on religious conflicts that separate and unite people - and about the things that we do for religion. Not all the books in my list today are about religion, but each of them has religion as one of the major themes of the book. If you are interested in religion, and in less-than-normal portrayals of the same, it is my hope that you will enjoy this list. 

Religion Portrayed Differently

(Note: The books are in no particular order.) 

1. American Gods (Neil Gaiman) 

Plot: In American Gods, Gaiman uses the following theme - when people go from one place to another, they take their Gods with them - and the fate of these Gods in that place depend on the belief of the people in them. In American Gods, old gods, be it from Hindu mythology or Norse mythology, must fight for their survival against the new Gods - media, internet, technology. The battleground? America. 

Why should you read it? Great metaphor, great writing, believable characters and epic scale. A book to keep you up all night reading it. 

(Read my full review here.) 

Dont believe me? Dont take my word for it. Read this review, or this one, or this one. 

Why you might not like it? Quirky writing style. You might want to read a sample first. 

(Cover variants) 

2. The Lions of Al-Rassan (Guy Gavriel Kay) 

Plot: In the Lions of Al-Rassan, Kay writes about a world torn apart by a politico-religious conflict.  The novel concentrates on the relationships between the three peoples: the Kindath (based on the Jews), the Asharites (based on the Muslims), and the Jaddites (based on the Christians). In this setting, three people - Jehana, a plucky Kindath physician, Ammar, an awesome poet and mercenary, and Rodrigo, the captain of a Jaddite company - meet and start to like each other. But what happens when they are torn apart by religious and political conflicts that sorround their nations and people? The Lions of Al-Rassan will tell you. 

Why should you read it? Great characterization, touching plot, immensely powerful world-building and a writing style like poetry. Not a book to miss. 

(My full review to come soon). 

Dont believe me? Read Limyaael rant about why this book makes a good fantasy, or read this review, or this one. 

Why you may not like it? The author's style, which I describe as poetic, can also be called ponderous. There is a lot of skipping around from one place to another, which might be very annoying. 

3. Gardens of the Moon (Steven Erikson) 
Plot: The Gardens of the Moon is the first book in Steven Erikson's Malazan Book of the Fallen series, a series about the struggles on power on the Malazan Empire. In fact, in the first book, the Malazan Empire is basically trying to annex two remaining provinces to it - The Pale and Durjhistan. The only problem is, there are a lot more players in this game than our immediately apparent to those playing it - including a lot of meddling gods. 
Why should you read it? Cool plot, intense world-buildings and amazing characters - an epic story. 
(My full review to come soon.) 
Dont believe me? Read this review, or this one, or this one. 
Why you may not like it? Erikson is definitely a hate-him or love-him writer. He's got a really complex backstory, he throws you right in the middle of the plot from page one and expects you to swim or sink, and the book skips around a lot. It can be hard to follow and way too complex. 

4. Age of the Five Trilogy (Trudi Canavan) 
Plot: About a century after the war of the Gods, only five gods remain in the world...and they have formed their own religion, that of the Circlians. Auraya, the main character, is the newest priestess for this religion. But the loyalties of Auraya and the rest of her world are going to be sorely tested when the southern part of the continent claims to have a new religion with five new Gods - and even more with the appearance of the Wilds, old sorcerers who hate the Gods. This series raises questions about what happens when Gods live - and whether Gods can die. 
(The Age of the Five Trilogy has three books - The Priestess of the White, The Last of the Wilds, and The Voices of the Gods.)  
Why should you read it? Great characters - every character (especially the Gods) is shown to be so very human, great plot, amazing ending and very deep world building. An excellent, gritty, dark, realistic book. 
(My full review will come soon)
Dont believe me? Then read this (where it gets compared to my favorite author of all time - George R. R. Martin), or this, or this. 
Why you may not like it? You might not enjoy the skipping around between different points of views - as frankly I didn't like the Pentadrians or Ellaria enough to enjoy their voices. Also, the main character can get a little perfect at times and the ending may seem gimmicky and clichéd.

5. The Lord of the Light by Roger Zelazny

Plot: The Lord of the Light  is more science fiction than an actual book on religion, and yet, the fact remains that it makes a pretty great statement on Hinduism. In a futuristic earth, a group of colonists on earth have taken the names of the ancient Hindu gods - and rule their descendants within the framework of traditional Hindu beliefs. And to oppose them is one force - Sam (also known as the Buddha - the Enlightened One) who tries to overthrow the Gods and show their true faces to the people who they dominate. 

Why should you read it? Bold, creative, different - full of as much humor as action and as much beauty as mystery - great characters (I love the portrayal of Hindu gods as simple, erring humans, and how Zelazny recreates Hinduism). 

Dont believe me? Well, this review, and this review, and this one, quite seem to agree with me. 

Why you may not like it? Well, its a confusing, complex book, and the odd chapter structure and non-linear storyline has managed to confuse even me. 

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Well, thats all for today. Go read this books, or if you've read some great books that give you a new twist on religion, do share them with me and my readers! 

American Gods by Neil Gaiman

American Gods, by Neil Gaiman, is an epic book.

(You might wonder at the three covers...but I find them all beautiful. None, incidentally, is the one I read.) 

Why do I call a book epic? Because its about 600 hundred pages? Well. That might just be large. (Actually, this is fantasy, and thats probably just about average for the genre.) Do I call it epic because it is about a mind boggling concept - that Gods exist, and that we take them with us when we go to different places, and our belief in them determines how powerful they are? Well. That's just a wonderful concept, but I've seen something similar, and I still wouldnt call it epic. No, I think the epicness about the book is that it deals with a whole country - America - and the Gods of a hundred different religions. It deals with large-scale battles fought in landscapes humanity cant even understand, and most of the book relies on things you can even imagine, actually, and yet the author still manages to leave you feeling like you know the characters, and understand them, and you start to care for them. 

I think the biggest reason for this is the main character. Shadow is just amazing. He starts the book in prison, and is hit by the shock of his life - the death of his beloved wife, within the first twenty pages or so of the book. He's devastated, but brave - and then he enters the service of Mr. Wednesday, an odd guy who seems to have too much money and claims to be a God. Through the course of the book, Shadow's life is torn apart, he is faced with numerous revelations, and he finally learns how to be alive - and he's the reason I could stay hooked on to the book. Because Shadow is so very human, and yet so very interesting, that he balances out the extreme oddities of the various Gods without becoming annoying or boring. Other, supporting characters, are also great - especially people like Mr. Wednesday and Anansi, and the Zorya sisters, are really wonderfully written and deep and beautifully portrayed - and they add to the book in great ways. 

But thats not the only reason why the book is amazing. The book is also amazing because of its plot. The entire book is a huge metaphor that juxtaposes the old religions with the new ones (technology, media, internet - the gods of the 21st century) and thus questions the role and importance of religion in our life. And there are many other themes - love, honesty, beauty, death, life, and the secret costs of a perfect life that add layers and layers to this book. I'm already looking forward to a re-read because I know the book will be full of new layers to uncover - a sure sign that the book is a good one. The book is helped by the author's writing style - somewhat rambling, full of many points-of-view and unafraid to deal with both sorrow and death. 

Final thoughts: Bold, imaginative, epic. You're going to love American Gods if you like to examine the role of religion in your life, if you like fantasy, or if you just plain like odd. Because this book is definitely odd, but a good kind of odd. This author is starting to climb my list of favorites.  

Fragile Things by Neil Gaiman

Fragile Things is an odd book.

I knew it was going to be an odd book the moment I picked it up. The point was whether it was going to be a good kind of odd or bad kind of odd.

It turned out to be a good kind of odd.

A little background. I had heard of Neil Gaiman, mostly in connection with George R. R. Martin. I was planning to read a book by him sometime, especially because he's one of the few fantasy authors whose books come in the book store here. Of course, my buying this book would have involved days of research, days of reading reviews, and days of deciding whether this was the best book to start with. However, what ended up happening was this: I saw the book, with its shiny white cover, lying on the bookshelf. It called to me. I picked it up, read the back. I was intrigued. I sat down to read to read the introduction.

I was hooked.

The book called to me, and I'm so glad I replied.

Fragile Things is a book about, well, Fragile Things. Like Neil Gaiman puts it in the book - "It seemed like a fine title for a book of short stories. There are so many fragile things, after. People break so easily, after all, and so do dreams and hearts."

But for a book that is about transitory things, Fragile Things is still a very hopeful book. As a book, Fragile Things seems to be celebrating the beauty of all the soap water bubbles in the world that are so beautiful and so easy to break. At its heart, Fragile Things is a book about hope, and fairy tales, and about writing that lives longer than the person who wrote it.

There are many strange stories and poems in this collection, from a story about a boy who makes friends with a ghost that is told by the months of the year, to a poem about what to do when you're in a fairytale, to a story about Susan, from C.S. Lewis' Narnia novels, the dismissal of which Gaiman (and I, incidentally) found very problematic and irritating. There are stories which don't make sense immediately. There are stories which leave you thinking. There are funny stories, sad stories, scary stories. There is some 'upsettling' stuff in this novel, as well as some extremely sad stuff.

Read this book if you're not afraid to try something a little different. Read this book if you can deal with (or relish) a little bit of oddness. Read this book with an open heart and mind. Read this book without thinking about any 'fantasy' that you may have read before, because this book is not going to be like any of that. Read the introduction of each story/poem right before reading the story or poem because it will really add to your appreciation of the poem or story. Read this book if you're in for something new.

Don't be put-off if you read many unfamiliar names in the introductions. I can assure you that I did not know about 90% of the authors mentioned in the introductions, and that did not stop me from enjoying the book at all, though now I'm tempted to read all the authors mentioned and hear all the songs mentioned. I'm sure that a knowledge of the mentioned literature adds richness to the book, but it is not a prerequisite to reading the book.

This book is great (and quick) way to know whether or not you like Gaiman's style of writing. My verdict? I definitely want to read more. Maybe American Gods.

Last words: Read this book only if you're fine with things being a little bit out of the ordinary. Don't judge too quickly. Read it with a sense of humor. And get ready for a few hours of pure fun.