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science-fiction & fantasy literature:
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Religion in Science-Fiction & Fantasy Books

"Wait a second." Mojo couldn't let this pass. "If this thing is a saint's heart, why would it help people like Juanita and me? I mean, we weren't exactly on a mission from God when those guys in the Suburban were chasing us. Why would it help us?"

"It helped you because you were thwarting the will of Satan. "That's obvious," Grandmother told him.

"It is?"

--Mojo and the Pickle Jar,
Douglas Bell

Religion in Science Fiction and Fantasy

There is a belief held widely by those unacquainted with speculative fiction, and even a few without that excuse, that works in the field are either thoroughly secular or oriented toward bizarre heresies (read: "not the things I hear in the house of worship I attend weekly"). That is, I suppose, neither the most nor the least silly misperception of our fields in the larger world.

Science fiction and fantasy is, like all literature, about us, here, now. Authors--at least the better of them, those we are dealing with on this site--who have elected to till these fields have done so because (among other reasons) they offer special opportunities to deal with large ideas in unconventional ways, ways whose unconventionality may enable the author to better say and the reader to better hear (stretching metaphor a bit) those ideas away from the noisy arenas in which they normally appear. It is thus not at all surprising that many fine science-fiction and fantasy books have a theological theme or orientation, and listing some of those books is what this page is for.

Selection of titles for this list was by no means a clear-cut process, in that "a theological theme or orientation" is not a thing so easy to define as it might at first seem. In trying to get my bearings, I established a sort of metaphorical compass.

The first compass point was that the tales need not deal, overtly or implicitly, with the creed of any particular established religion: it suffices that a major thrust of the tale is an examination or expression of one or more metaphysical beliefs. For example, the works of Eric Eddison are powered throughout by--indeed, are the flowering of--a metaphysics that does not correspond even approximately to any established creed, but which Eddison evolved with long labor and felt deeply (check the linked essay on Eddison for more on that point).

A second point is that the religious or theological element or elements need to be "genuine": that is, a tale does not qualify just because it contains or depicts some "religion", however important in the tale, that the author invented only to further that tale, a "religion" not itself primarily addressing theological issues. Invented religions as such are not a bar to listing here--as in, for example, Shardik--but they must be (in my judgment, anyway) intended to say or illustrate something meaningful about genuine religious feeling.

A third point is that, to justify the "theological" blanket, the works, however probing, should not be those of an atheist (for example, while the oeuvre of James Branch Cabell deals very largely with how mankind may best deal with mortality, I ultimately excluded it because Cabell's view was atheistic). By doing that, I do not intend to pass any sort of value judgment on Life, The Universe, and Everything; it is only that this particular list of works is premised on their expressing theological concerns.

(The careful reader will realize that "theological" is not the apt term, for belief systems such as, for example, Buddhism, do not posit a "God" in the sense that most Western religions do, and it is not even clear that Buddhism can rightly be called a "religion"--so that in such cases the theo in "theological" is oxymoronic.)

And the fourth cardinal point was that the tale need not be overtly about theology or metaphysics: it sufficed that the author's worldview permeate the tale in a way that gives it some theological significance. Several authors, some prolific, in whose work the author's strongly held religious beliefs manifest in the structure of the tale, but not overtly-- J. R. R. Tolkien, Cordwainer Smith, Gene Wolfe, and a few others of that sort--could not possibly be omitted from a list of this nature.

Oh, and one other thing: no tale needed to be solemn. There are not a few light-hearted--even zany (as with the works of R.A. Lafferty)--works that nonetheless express or consider theological issues.

In general, I have, as usual in these specialty lists, tried to be inclusive rather than exclusive. Does Roberta MacAvoy's "Damiano" trilogy really belong? Better to leave that to you, I think, than to omit it. On the other hand, I have, with serious misgivings, omitted Roger Zelazny's work; much of that work is pastiches of real religions, from the Greek pantheon to the Egyptian to the Hindu, as well as the invented perhaps-religion of his recurring aliens, but all of Zelazny's work is permeated with deep--almost morbid--concerns with individuality and death, and comments and insights of a truly religious nature pepper those works. In the end, I decided that they do not dominate the works sufficiently to justify listing them all here, but keep him in mind if literature of this sort is of interest to you.

If a given work or author doesn't seem to you to belong here, perhaps you and I see his or her work differently, or perhaps I have just erred; but I hope, as I say, that my errors are inclusive rather than exclusive.

If you--like me--are into lists, here are perhaps the most manifestly and powerfully religious writers represented here:

• G. K. Chesterton
• E. R. Eddison
• R. A. Lafferty
• C. S. Lewis
• David Lindsay
• George MacDonald
• Cordwainer Smith
• J. R. R. Tolkien
• Walter Wangerin Jr.
• Charles Williams
• Gene Wolfe

(So why are so many of these known by initials? There's a PhD thesis topic awaiting an inquiring mind.)

One other thing: I have stuck here to novels--no collections of short stories (excepting George MacDonald's collected "fairy tales").

Theologically Oriented Speculative-Fiction Works

• Adams, Richard ***
  
  
  • Shardik
  • The Girl in a Swing
  
  
  
• Amis, Martin ***
  
  
  • Other People
  
  
  
• Barrett, Neal ***
  
  
  • The Hereafter Gang
  
  
  
• Bell, Douglas # ***
  
  (were I using half-stars I'd have added one)
  
  
  • Mojo and the Pickle Jar
  
  
  
• Bellairs, John ****
  • St. Fidgeta and Other Parodies *
  
  
  
• Benary-Isbert, Margot # **
  
  
  • The Wicked Enchantment
  
  
  
• Billias, Stephen **
  
  
  • The Quest for the 36
  • The American Book of the Dead
  
  
  
• Blaylock, James ****
  
  
  • Other Novels:
    
    • The Last Coin
      (There is a preferred edition of this work.)
    • The Paper Grail
    • Night Relics
    • Winter Tides
    • All the Bells on Earth
    • The Rainy Season
    
    
  
  
  
• Bulgakov, Mikhail **
  
  
  • The Master and Margarita
  
  
  
• Chesterton, G. K. # ****
  
  Several of Chestertons's "mainstream" fictions are rather fantastic, if not actual fantasy; things like The Club of Queer Trades, Manalive, and The Napoleon of Notting Hill are highly recommended; see the Chesterton list at The Book on the Borderland section here.
  
  
  • The Man Who Was Thursday
    (There is a preferred edition of this work.)
  
  
  
• Cisco, Michael ***
  
  
  • The San Veneficio Canon:
    
    • The Divinity Student
    • The Golem
  
  
  
• Eddison, E. R. *****
  
  
  • The Zimiamvia Trilogy:
    (There was a preferred edition collecting these works.)
    
    • Mistress of Mistresses
    • A Fish Dinner in Memison
    • The Mezentian Gate
  
  
  
• Findley, Timothy **
  
  
  • Pilgrim
  
  
  
• Finney, Charles G. ****
  
  
  • The Circus of Dr. Lao
    (There was a preferred edition of this work.)
  
  
  
• Frayn, Michael **
  
  
  • Sweet Dreams
  
  
  
• Gardner, John ***
  
  Do not confuse this John Gardner--John Champlin Gardner--with the chap who continued the James Bond novels; this John Gardner is one of the major figures of American literature (the books below are only those few of his that lie in our fields--his complete oeuvre is much wider and larger).
  
  
  • Grendel
  • Freddy's Book
  • Mickelsson's Ghosts
  • The Sunlight Dialogs
  • The King's Indian: Stories and Tales *
  
  
  
• Goldstein, Lisa *
  
  
  • The Red Magician
  
  
  
• Hancock, Niel **
  
  
  • The Windameir Books:
    
    
    • The Circle of Light Tetralogy--
      
      • Greyfax Grimwald
      • Faragon Fairingay
      • Calix Stay
      • Squaring the Circle
      
      
    • The Wilderness of Four Tetralogy--
      
      • Across the Far Mountain
      • The Plains of the Sea
      • On the Boundaries of Darkness
      • The Road to the Middle Islands
      
      
    • The Windameir Circle Tetralogy--
      
      • The Fires of Windameir
      • The Sea of Silence
      • A Wanderer's Return
      • Bridge of Dawn
      
      
  • Dragon Winter
  
  
  
• Hansen, Erik Fosnes # ***
  
  
  • Tales of Protection
  
  
  
• Hoban, Russell ****
  
  
  • The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz
  • Kleinzeit
  • Pilgermann
    (There is a preferred edition of these works collecting all plus a deal more of Hoban.)
  
  
  
• Joyce, Graham **
  
  
  • The Facts of Life
  
  
  
• Kathryns, G. A. # ***
  
  (based only on releases under the name G.A. Kathryns)
  
  
  • The Borders of Life
  
  
  
• Kingsley, Charles # *
  
  
  • The Water Babies
  
  
  
• Lafferty, R. A. *****
  
  Lafferty, like other prolific yet under-appreciated authors, is hard to sort into a coherent bibliography--this is the best I could do. Anything you find by him--anything--read and enjoy. The occasional "series" listed below don't fully convey Lafferty: certain characters (like "the eminent scientist Willy McGilly") recur, often as "cameos," throughout all his tales.
  
  The world is not always ready for genius: a shockingly high fraction of Lafferty's published works were never printed in more than a few hundred copies each and remain shamefully rare (and correspondingly expensive); fortunately, John Betancourt at Wildside Press has been doing a yeoman job of bringing Lafferty (and several other fine authors scandalously under-represented by reasonably available editions) back into print--they have a good bit of Lafferty already, including previously limited-quantity works). Note: the limited-edition copy counts are from Dan Knight's 1991 R. A. Lafferty Checklist, and are shown only for works not currently in print.
  
  
  • The Novels:
    
    • Past Master
    • The Reefs of Earth
    • Space Chantey
    • Fourth Mansions
      
      
    • The "Argo" Mythos:
      
      
      • Argo: The Devil is Dead Trilogy:
        
        • Archipelago   [only 1000 copies printed]
        • The Devil is Dead
          
        • More Than Melchisedech:
          (One novel published, for economic reasons, as three books; I don't know, but would bet, that these three are all limited-quantity printings.)
          
          • Tales of Chicago
          • Tales of Midnight
          • # Argo
            (not to be confused with Episodes of the Argo, listed below)
          
          
      • Episodes of the Argo   [only 335 copies printed]
        (Also contains some material erroneously omitted from The Devil is Dead, but not the "interglossia"; the main story, a part of the Argo mythos, should have been subsumed into the novel Argo, but I don't know yet if it was.)
      • How Many Miles to Babylon?    [only 500 copies printed]
        (Includes the "interglossia" from the novel The Devil is Dead, not printed in that book, and a short tale in the Argo mythos cycle.)
        
        
      • Argo: Coscuin Tetralogy:
        (Only those first two of the tetralogy were ever published; the other two reportedly exist, but each only as single-copy unpublished manuscript in the possession of Mr. Greg Ketter, once of Corroborree Press--which published much Lafferty--but now at Dreamhaven Books.)
        • The Flame is Green
        • Half a Sky
        • # Sardinian Summer
        • # First and Last Island
        
        
      • Dotty   [only 330 copies printed]
      
      
    • Arrive at Easterwine
    • Not to Mention Camels
    • Aurelia
    • The Annals of Klepsis
    • Serpent's Egg
    • East of Laughter   [only 1010 copies printed]
    • The Elliptical Grave   [only 300 copies printed]
    • Sinbad: The Thirteenth Voyage
      
      
  
  
  
• Lewis, C. S. **
  
  
  • The Space Trilogy:
    
    • Out of the Silent Planet
    • Perelandra aka Voyage to Venus
    • That Hideous Strength
    
    
  • The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
    (This is one of a set of seven books known as the "Narnia" books; it is the only one I find readable by any other than a very young child.)
  
  
  
• Lindsay, David ***
  
  
  • A Voyage to Arcturus
  
  
  
• MacAvoy, R. A. *
  
  
  • The Damiano Trilogy:
    
    • Damiano
    • Damiano's Lute
    • Raphael
    
    
  
  
  
• MacDonald, George ****
  
  
  • Phantastes
  • Lilith
    
    
  • Children's Books (but readable by adults):
    
    • The Princess and the Goblin
    • The Princess and Curdie
    • At the Back of the North Wind
    • Complete Fairy Tales *
      MacDonald's various fairy tales--many independently famous--have been published in numerous editions, sometimes standalone and sometimes several to a volume; it seems silly not to acquire the complete collection in one volume.
  
  
  
• Mills, Magnus ****
  
  
  • Three to See the King
  
  
  
• Nichols, Ruth **
  
  
  • Song of the Pearl
    (yet another "juvenile")
  
  
  
• O'Brien, Flann ***
  
  
  • The Third Policeman
  • At Swim-Two-Birds
  • The Dalkey Archive
  
  
  
• Peake, Mervyn *****
  
  
  • Mr. Pye
  
  
  
• Pearson, Edward ***
  
  
  • Chamiel
  
  
  
• Pinckney, Josephine # **
  
  
  • Great Mischief
  
  
  
• Powers, Tim ***
  
  
  • Declare
  
  
  
• Smith, Cordwainer ****
  
  Smith's work has been published in numerous collections with overlapping contents. NESFA Press put out a nice two-volume set with all the works, including a couple of previously unpublished stories and some often-omitted content in the novel; those are the two books listed below. But read anything you can get by this wonderful writer.
  
  
  • Norstrilia
  • The Rediscovery of Man
  
  
  
• Theroux, Paul ***
  
  
  • Millroy the Magician
  
  
  
• Tolkien, J. R. R. *****
  
  
  • The Middle-Earth Works:
    
    • The Hobbit
      (There is a preferred edition of this work.)
    • The Lord of the Rings
      
      The Lord of the Rings as individual volumes:
      
      • The Fellowship of the Ring
      • The Two Towers
      • The Return of the King
      (There are preferred editions of this work.)
      
      
    • The Silmarillion
      (There are preferred editions of this work.)
    • # The Children of Hurin
    
    
  
  
  
• Tournier, Michel **
  
  
  • The Four Wise Men
  
  
  
• Wangerin Jr., Walter # ****
  
  
  • The Books of Parable Duo:
    
    • The Book of the Dun Cow
    • # The Book of Sorrows
  
  
  
• Werfel, Franz # **
  
  
  • Star of the Unborn
  
  
  
• Williams, Charles ***
  
  
  • The Aspects of Power Septet:
    
    • Many Dimensions
    • War in Heaven
    • Descent into Hell
    • The Greater Trumps
    • The Place of the Lion
    • Shadows of Ecstasy
    • All Hallows' Eve
  
  
  
• Wolfe, Gene ****
  
  
  • The Fifth Head of Cerberus
  • Peace
  • The Devil in a Forest
    (classed a "juvenile", at least by fools)
    
    
  • The New Urth Sextet (a tetralogy plus two):
    
    • The Shadow of the Torturer
    • The Claw of the Conciliator
    • The Sword of the Lictor
    • The Citadel of the Autarch
    • The Urth of the New Sun
    • Empires of Foliage and Flower
      (included in the collection Starwater Strains listed below)
    
    
  • Free Live Free
    
    
  • The Latro Trio:
    
    • Soldier of the Mist
    • Soldier of Arete
    • # Soldier of Sidon
    
    
  • There Are Doors
  • Castleview
    
    
  • The New Sun Septet (a tetralogy and a trilogy):
    (These are also available in collections, marked by inclusion in the title of the phrase Long Sun or Short Sun. They also tie, distantly, to the "New Urth" series listed above.)
    
    
    • New Sun: Long Sun Tetralogy--
      
      • Nightside the Long Sun
      • Lake of the Long Sun
      • Calde of the Long Sun
      • Exodus from the Long Sun
      
      
    • New Sun: Short Sun Trilogy--
      
      • On Blue's Waters
      • In Green's Jungles
      • Return to the Whorl
      
      
  • The Wizard Knight Duology:
    
    • The Knight
    • The Wizard
    
    
  • The Short-Story Collections:
    (There may well be some overlap in the contents of the books listed below)
    
    
    • The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories [stet] *
    • Gene Wolfe's Book of Days
      (included in Castle of Days, below)
    • The Wolfe Archipelago *
      (three of the four stories in this are in The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories and Other Stories, above)
    • # Plan(e)t Engineering *
    • Storeys from the Old Hotel *
    • Endangered Species *
    • Castle of Days *
      (includes Gene Wolfe's Book of Days and Castle of the Otter)
    • Young Wolfe *
    • Strange Travelers *
    • Starwater Strains *
    • # Innocents Aboard *
    
    
  • Short-Novel Chapbooks:
    
    • # At the Point of Capricorn
      (All others have since been incorporated into the collections listed above.)
    • Memorare--available on line
  
  
  

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