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.  

Blue Moon Rising by Simon R. Green

Blue Moon Rising is an awesome, fun book.

The story begins with Rupert, the book's amazingly endearing hero, out on a quest to kill a dragon at the end of the darkwood. His noble steed is a unicorn. Hes out to be a hero. Until this point, most readers will think, 'Wow. Stupid cliche fantasy plot #901123'.' And then the world explodes. You get to know that the unicorn is an awesome guy with a biting sense of humor and without a smidge of respect for his owner. (In fact, the Rupert-Unicorn equation is quite similar to the Loiosh-Vlad relationship in Steven Brust's Vlad Taltos books, which are also some of my favourite fantasy books ever.) And the book goes on to kill another list of fantasy cliches. The dragon hoards butterflies instead of gold, the second son is sent on the quest to save the kingdom from financial trouble, and the finally rescued princess couldn't be more of a mess. And the fabulous fix-it-all magic swords: well, lets just put it this way, even the worst human in this book wouldn't hold on to them. If you're sick and tired of the regular fantasy mush that novelists seem to serve up - well, pick up Blue Moon Rising right now.

The good parts of this book don't require a lot of explanation. The plot is interesting and complex, the characters are really well-fleshed out (except for the main villians, the 'demons', and even among them the Demon Prince is someone I'd really like to read more about), the suspense is quite hard to guess, and honestly the inter-personal relations of the characters, especially with respect to the choices they all have to make under pressure in this book are beyond description. One has to read this book to accept the enormity of the decisions that these characters make. The kind of books and authors who manage to make this work are really rare, and this book definitely works.

Final thoughts: A fun, and yet at the same time really deep book on how heroes are sometimes made from the most unlikely situations. Definitely a must-read for anyone who has read a lot of fantasy (and its cliches) and almost anyone with a sense of humor.

Other thoughts: Unfortunately, I didn't have internet for nearly a week. In the meantime I've finished reading Julia Quinn's Brighter than the Sun, finished about a quarter of A Thousand Splendid Suns, and acquired some more books to read this diwali. Look forward for a lot of reviews.

Nightmares and Dreamscapes by Stephen King

Nightmares and Dreamscapes was my first Stephen King book.

(I unfortunately didn't get to pick any of these two covers...mine was plain and green and had a toad on it - unfortunately I only realized it was a tone after reading one of the scariest stories in this book)

Yes, this (along with the term-end examination) has been what has taken me so long. (In the interval, actually, today, I've also read Eva Ibbotson's Which Witch, which is a fun if childish book - I don't know if I'll be reviewing that one, but anyway, I digress) It took me a while to even pick a Stephen King book. I mean I would go to the bookstore, meaning to buy one of the huge books in the Stephen King section (yes, he has his own section) and would always be so overwhelmed by the choices that I would promise myself that I would research a little bit more and come back. Anyway, last time I just decided to take the plunge and buy myself a book, any book (and since I have recently come to like short stories I decided to pick this book) by the "King of Horror and Fantasy".

I had a wonderful time.

I mean, I won't say all the stories were equally appealing. There was story called Fifth Quarter about a map in four pieces and a guy who wanted revenge that I just skimmed through, and there are two stories in the end about baseball that I am finding hard to even start. But its the other stories: the two stories about a mysterious vampire (and one which features his remarkably cool grandson!), the two stories about what the author calls "those mysterious little towns" (one of which is about the toad mentioned above), the Sherlock Holmes story where Watson gets to solve a case (I loved this - Watson is one of my favourite characters ever), Umney's Last Case (which was about the relationship between a writer and a character and just so bloody cool), a story called 'Suffer the Little Children' which actually made shivers run down my spine and so many others in this wonderful collection (if I sit and name all of them, it won't be much of a review, so I'll break off now...)

What I love about Stephen King is his characters. His characters are all very distinct and they tell their stories their way, and they think in complicated ways (and sometimes speak in complicated ways, too) but the reader is not pampered...and by throwing you into the minds of these people (half of which, in this book, are remarkably disturbing minds) makes you sympathize with even the horrible guy who kidnaps children to sell them or the guy who plans to bury a few people alive in a cadillac under the desert (this is the first story in the book and sets the tone - its a highly, highly creepy story about a highly odd man, except that he's avenging his dead wife and you can't argue with a motivation like that). King's characters are all very human (even the non-human ones) and you just get immersed into their lives - and what interesting lives they are, too.

This book has been described as 'horror' (and often with a disdainful tone at that). I don't know if I would call it that. I mean, some stories are definitely scary (once, while reading, I woke up at 2:00 am in the night thinking about the vampire story and almost freaked out) and most border on the supernatural and all of them are slightly off-center (I don't know how to put this better - but they're different, though according to me in a good way) but they're not your typical horror books (there are no buckets of blood and floating eyeballs as far as I remember) and I think they would be enjoyed by readers who like all types of books.

Final thoughts: Most of the stories (I think this depends on your personal taste) in this book are absolutely brilliant. They're deep, layered, fascinating - the character's are so real and the plots to original that I can't help but recommend this collection to any lover of fantasy and/or horror. (And any open-minded lover of books).

Other thoughts: I forgot to mention my favourite story - it was The House on Maple Street, where King writes the perspective of children so brilliantly that I loved it. I also loved the Notes, though, as the author says himself, they're not for everyone.

I'm going to start on the first book of the Millenium Trilogy, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo soon. Looking forward to it. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

P.S. - If you've read and liked this book, read Neil Gaiman's Fragile Things (reviewed here). It reminded me a hell lot of this book.