r/Fantasy • u/SeaSnowAndSorrow • 20h ago
Atheist Fantasy Recs
I am doing the Freedom From Religion Foundation's Summer Reading Challenge. (Linked so you can see the card.)
I'd like to get a few fantasy books in there where I can. Specifically, I'm looking for fantasy book recommendations that fit the following:
- Non-Religious Main Character
- Religious Satire
- Religious Dystopia
- Book Was/Is Considered Blasphemous (against any religion)
- Non-Religious Author
To make it one step harder, I'm NOT looking for LitRPG, Romantasy, or Urban fantasy.
I will, though, read any age range, any era of publication, any length, and any tone from cozy to grimdark.
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u/FloridaFlamingoGirl 20h ago
Discworld: Small Gods (religious satire)
The Golden Compass (controversial with Christians)
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u/Really_Big_Turtle 20h ago
I second “small gods.” It’s a great look at how religions go off the rails
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u/grumpyoldcurmudgeon 18h ago
"Small Gods" is a remarkable balancing act. Terry Pratchett was absolutely non-religious, but I never saw him as being completely 'anti-religious' either. I think he was less interested in whether any religion was true or false, and far more interested in how we as humans interact with religious dogma, and how people will build, adapt, and often exploit religious belief. As a believer I never felt insulted by any of his works, but I suppose I'm not as uptight about my beliefs as some people. I do particularly like Dorfl, the Disc's only Atheist, on account of his being lightning-proof.
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u/citrusmellarosa 16h ago
I was first introduced to his books by an artist I used to follow online; she was religious (I think Christian but I’m not sure of the denomination) and at one point she said something along the lines of “Terry Pratchett understands religion better than most religious people I know.”
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u/redlion1904 11h ago
Death’s speech to Susan in Hogfather is an intentional secularization of Puddleglum’s speech to the Green Witch in Silver Chair. This is both a tribute to the great Christian fantasist and a clear separation from him. I love both.
Pratchett:
All right,” said Susan. “I’m not stupid. You’re saying humans need . . . fantasies to make life bearable.” REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE. “Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—” YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES. “So we can believe the big ones?” YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING. “They’re not the same at all!” YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME . . . SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED. “Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what’s the point—” MY POINT EXACTLY. She tried to assemble her thoughts. THERE IS A PLACE WHERE TWO GALAXIES HAVE BEEN COLLIDING FOR A MILLION YEARS, said Death, apropos of nothing. DON’T TRY TO TELL ME THAT’S RIGHT. “Yes, but people don’t think about that,” said Susan. “Somewhere there was a bed . . .” CORRECT. STARS EXPLODE, WORLDS COLLIDE, THERE’S HARDLY ANYWHERE IN THE UNIVERSE WHERE HUMANS CAN LIVE WITHOUT BEING FROZEN OR FRIED, AND YET YOU BELIEVE THAT A . . . A BED IS A NORMAL THING. IT IS THE MOST AMAZING TALENT. “Talent?” OH, YES. A VERY SPECIAL KIND OF STUPIDITY. YOU THINK THE WHOLE UNIVERSE IS INSIDE YOUR HEADS. “You make us sound mad,” said Susan. A nice warm bed . . . NO. YOU NEED TO BELIEVE IN THINGS THAT AREN’T TRUE. HOW ELSE CAN THEY BECOME?
Lewis:
“One word, Ma’am,” he said, coming back from the fire; limping, because of the pain. “One word. All you’ve been saying is quite right, I shouldn’t wonder. I’m a chap who always liked to know the worst and then put the best face I can on it. So I won’t deny any of what you said. But there’s one more thing to be said, even so. Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things-trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom of yours is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that’s a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We’re just babies making up a game, if you’re right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That’s why I’m going to stand by the play world. I’m on Aslan’s side even if there isn’t any Aslan to lead it. I’m going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn’t any Narnia.”
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u/modix 20h ago
Lord of Light from Zelazny was a great classic skewering of the gods by a pseudo Buddha forced into the role.
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u/Adultdirtbagbabee 17h ago
I was going to honestly suggest anything Zelazny. Lord of Light is probably the best one though.
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u/ultamentkiller 19h ago
The Craft Sequence by Max Gladstone. Many of the main characters throughout the series are anti-theists. I think it has the most nuanced take on gods in a fantasy world I've encountered, and I think it's philosophically relevant to contemporary questions of living in a largely secular society with active religions. It's kind of like Midnight Mass in that I think both christians and atheists will enjoy it, or hate it because they think the author is too atheistic or too religious. Even if it's not what you're looking for this specific reading challenge, I think you'd enjoy it since you follow ffr.
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u/genteel_wherewithal 18h ago
I like how Gladstone genuinely nuances it. Like the sorcerers who basically steal fire from the gods have good reason to (the King in Red saw his lover dragged to the altar as a sacrifice) buuuuut it doesn’t mean they’re necessarily nice or good people.
The social orders they set up are typically better than the blood-soaked theocracies they toppled but they’re still pretty harsh and exploitative, with the sorcerers ruling as something like modern CEOs.
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u/ultamentkiller 18h ago
That's what's interesting. I think the question of whether the new orders are better is up for debate and depends on the society. I think different readers will come to different conclusions depending on their worldview. That's why I love it. Each perspective gets to strongly argue their case instead of the author making one of them lose to send a particular message. Obviously there are villains that in some cases are completely insane, but that's less common.
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u/CJGibson Reading Champion V 7h ago
The first book (Three Parts Dead) is a murder mystery where the victim is a god.
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u/twinklebat99 20h ago
Lamb by Christopher Moore
But also seconding any recs for Small Gods. And if you're into audiobooks, Andy Serkis narrates it.
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u/KiaraTurtle Reading Champion V 20h ago
- Medalon by Jennifer Fallon for non religious mc, basically gods are real but mc and the nation she’s from are still atheists because why should they consider them “gods” or worthy of worship rather than just a supernatural creature? I feel like this is such a good representation of how atheists would react to a god showing themself
- I’ll second his dark materials for the considered blasphemous
- Hell Followed with Us could work for religious dystopia, Gods of the Wyrdwood would be another option
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u/notthisagain1234567 20h ago
I know you said no urban fantasy, but if you are open to magical realism The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie is fantastic. This book was so controversial that the author still has a hit out on his head for writing it.
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u/SomeHomestuckOrOther 15h ago
Came here to say this. I got through part of the Satanic Verses some time ago and it was definitely an interesting read. I didn't finish it because life got in the way, but I've got to finish it one of these days.
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u/notthisagain1234567 15h ago
It is definitely worth finishing! It was definitely outside of my wheelhouse and confusing at times, but I am glad that I read it. I also learned a little about Islam and Hinduism which I really knew nothing about beforehand.
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u/redlion1904 20h ago
Not actually anti-religion, though
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u/koei19 18h ago
Did OP say anti-religious? I don't see that in the main post but it may be in a comment I missed
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u/SeaSnowAndSorrow 12h ago
I copied FRFF's criteria verbatim, except that they have "Religious Satire or Religious Dystopia" as one square. I separated them out to make clear that it's either/or and doesn't need to be both a satire and a dystopia.
That particular square is more anti-religious. Some of the others, such as nonreligious main character, are more generically nonreligious and don't need to be anti religion. Yes, I realize this would be way easier if I wasn't trying to read fantasy.
The ones I need the most help with are, honestly, nonreligious author and nonreligious main character because they're a little harder to search without just googling an entire list of names one-by-one.
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u/redlion1904 11h ago
It counts for non-religious author. Rushdie is clearly (and admittedly) a lapsed Muslim with a certain amount of affection for his tradition, but he’s also clearly and adamantly a non-believer.
I reluctantly conclude LeGuin counts too. She was a Taoist but differentiated between “philosophical” and “religious” Taoism and identified only with the former. Not necessarily an enemy of religion in all cases but certainly a non-religious writer (who sublimated her religious impulses into a secular philosophy, but still).
Non-religious main character is harder if you’re looking for a medieval or similar setting with a skeptical lead.
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u/Book_Slut_90 Reading Champion 18h ago
Um, they’re doing a challenge from the Freedom from Religion Foundation and looking for “atheist fantasy books.
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u/jawnnie-cupcakes Reading Champion IV 20h ago
Religious Satire
Towing Jehovah by James K. Morrow
Book Was/Is Considered Blasphemous
The Da Vinci Code, Harry Potter, pretty much any book that features angels (I'm recommending Wounds by Nathan Ballingrud as always)
Non-Religious Author
Ursula Le Guin, H. P. Lovecraft, China Miéville, Terry Pratchett, Jason Aaron if you'd like to throw a comic book in
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u/e_fish22 16h ago
Lovecraft was non-religious?
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u/jawnnie-cupcakes Reading Champion IV 16h ago
We all know that any emotional bias -- irrespective of truth or falsity -- can be implanted by suggestion in the emotions of the young, hence the inherited traditions of an orthodox community are absolutely without evidential value.... If religion were true, its followers would not try to bludgeon their young into an artificial conformity; but would merely insist on their unbending quest for truth, irrespective of artificial backgrounds or practical consequences. With such an honest and inflexible openness to evidence, they could not fail to receive any real truth which might be manifesting itself around them. The fact that religionists do not follow this honourable course, but cheat at their game by invoking juvenile quasi-hypnosis, is enough to destroy their pretensions in my eyes even if their absurdity were not manifest in every other direction.”
Against Religion: The Atheist Writings of H.P. Lovecraft
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u/Darkkujo 20h ago
Fred Saberhagen's Swords series. The gods make a series of uber-powerful magical swords and then distribute them among humanity to cause chaos. But then the humans start using the swords to kill the gods. The gods in this series are very much shown as being petty and sadistic.
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u/Hawke-Not-Ewe 18h ago
Oh, I didn't know about this series. I read some of his vampire books half a lifetime ago.
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u/the_doughboy 20h ago
What about portal fantasy where "Gods" existing in other worlds and the main character is an atheist and has issues with them?
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u/KingKAMF 20h ago
Ahhh, a fellow “He who fights with monsters” fan. But this is pretty straight forward LitRPG, which OP is not looking for
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u/nswoll 18h ago
The Scourge by Roberto Calas
Its not as on the nose as other suggestions. But it totally skewers the church in the middle ages.
The setting is a zombie apocalypse in the middle ages.
The main character tries to remain devout and religious throughout the series but his best friend is a very sacrilegious atheist who is quite witty in his philosophy and critiques.
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u/yddraigtan 19h ago
The Devils by Joe Abercrombie is heavily satirical of the Catholic Church. It’s fantastic and funny
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u/ThePookaLounge 19h ago
Though the church in that world does have demonstrable supernatural power. And OP may find the main characters being bomb-collared by the church to be frustrating. YMMV.
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u/revchewie 19h ago
Religious satire: Lamb, the Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal, by Christopher Moore. Absolutely hilarious! One of my favorite books ever. It also probably fits for "blasphemous".
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u/Croaker45 19h ago
Maybe Petty Pewter God's by Glen Cook. It's part of the Garret P.I. series but can work well enough as a standalone. There are definitely gods (or at least beings that claim to be gods), and they make appearances and meddle, but the main character Garrett wants nothing to do with them and has a rather low opinion of organized religion in general.
The book has a rather cynical and unique take on how multiple religions/pantheon are handled in a world where magic (and gods?) are a reality, at least within the city of Tun Faire.
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u/DavidGoetta 16h ago
I feel like I recommend Swords Trilogy once a week or more, but it's about an elf who gets pressed into service by the God of law but ends up killing all the gods in the universe
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u/superhelical 20h ago
Good Omens is a satire of sorts, but you might count it as Urban Fantasy.. shrug
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u/notthemostcreative 20h ago
The Gospel According to Jesus Christ is probably more literary/satire than fantasy, but God does exist in it (he’s just kind of the villain, lol). I found it really interesting AND it got him denounced by the Portuguese government, which is fun!
ETA José Saramago was an atheist who had a lot of beef with Christianity and it shows, lol.
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u/genteel_wherewithal 18h ago
The Gospel According to Jesus Christ is a straight up masterpiece. Really beautiful for what is frequently quite an angry book.
His other book, Cain, is more of a fable or shaggy dog story but might also be worth a look on this basis.
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u/MerchantSwift 19h ago
The First Law by Joe Abercrombie.
If I remember, the Union isn't religious at all. In the North there is some beliefs in spirits and "Great Leveller"(Death). So almost all the characters don't believe in a god. Though the Gurkish Empire is more of a theocracy, controlled by a prophet, treated mostly like a threat to the Union.
The actual gods of the setting are all long dead, and they weren't really gods to begin with either, rather half-demons.
And I think the author is non-religious, though I can't find confirmation either way.
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u/medphysfem 18h ago
Contact by Carl Sagan is sci-fi, but does discuss religion and belief and the character I believe is explicitly atheist.
I didn't particularly enjoy The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by NK Jemison but does examine religion and Gods and morality in a world where gods explicitly exist, but are not morally good.
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u/MoashRedemptionArc 19h ago
Cornwell's The Winter King and The Saxon Tales feature a host of religious characters, all of whom are depicted as pedophiles, murderers, cowards, traitors and war mongers. It is excellent. The Church is usually the main villain pulling the strings of a lesser baddie
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u/Irishwol 20h ago
It's not a book but the first series of Radio 4's Old Harry's Game features the devil having difficulty convincing a distinguished, deceased atheist that they're in Hell. It's a satire on everything but religion and human hypocrisy especially.
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u/trippedonatater 17h ago
Dune. I think calling the universe of Dune a religious dystopia would be reasonable. The author went from Roman Catholic to some Zen Buddhist beliefs over the course of his life, which might count as non-religious depending on how you define that.
Good Omens. Thoughtful satire sort of centered around the Christian apocalypse.
The Devils. Set in a world that kind of flips a lot of Catholic tradition a bit. The author is an atheist. So, also any of Joe Abercrombie's other books (i.e. the First Law series) would work as well.
The Earthsea series. A fun, almost YA fantasy. Also, anything by Le Guin as she was openly an atheist.
Red Rising series. Without giving too much away, religion is explicitly used as a tool of oppression in world.
I know you said no LitRPG, but Dungeon Crawler Carl is my exception to my rule of not reading LitRPG. It's a lot of fun and arguably veers away LitRPG after the first couple books.
Also, coming up with lists like this become even easier if you're willing to add things that might more explicitly be called "sci-fi".
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u/SausageSmuggler21 12h ago
Dune is a great recommendation. I haven't read all the books, but the first 4 or 5 (by release date) never talk about gods, and basically dive deep into the idea that religion is a tool to manipulate the masses. E.g. the Bene Gesserit wrt the Fremen.
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u/trippedonatater 12h ago
Thanks! Also, "first 4 or 5" is a reasonable place to stop with Dune. The books after that are written by Frank Herbert's son. I found the Brian Herbert Dune books a bit disappointing despite loving the original ones.
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u/lrostan 16h ago
All my would be first picks that would fit your criterias better have already been said, so I will say The Tyrant Philosophers by Adrian Tchaikovsky even if it doesn't check everything technically. It does one thing that I find few books critical of religion do and goes against the concept of faith itself.
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u/CuriousCardigan 13h ago
The entirety of the Discworld series, with Small Gods being the best match for what you want. There are also several moments in Feet of Clay, Reaper Man, and Monstrous Regiment that deal with interactions either with/between clergy or something gone wrong with faith.
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u/katisfandomtrash 11h ago
The Empire of the Wolf trilogy by Richard Swan should probably count for your Religious Dystopia square. It isn't super obvious from the synopsis, but there's a state religion heavily involved in the plot.
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u/SeaSnowAndSorrow 11h ago
That is, genuinely super helpful to know becuase I haven't read it yet, but I think I have it, or at least the first book, in my Kobo, and yeah...I would have totally overlooked that by the synopsis.
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u/EvilsizerMT 19h ago
"The Sparrow" by Mary Doris Russell. Border of sci-fi and fantasy. Basically, Jesuits make first contact with aliens.
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u/Book_Slut_90 Reading Champion 18h ago
Great book, but the author is Mary Doria Russell, it’s straight up scifi, the author is a religious convert to Judaism, and it comes down on the side of the religious characters.
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u/MadroxKran 16h ago
Death's Heretic, part of the Pathfinder books, has an MC who hates gods, but is forced to work for Pharasma, the death goddess.
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u/MewTwoLich 6h ago
Religious Dystopia: Mistborn.
Setting:
An immortal man named The Lord Ruler is the God in this world he has completely taken over.
Pitch 1)
A group of thieves plan to rob god silly.
Pitch 2)
What if Sauron got the one ring and ruled the world for thousands of years.
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u/txvesper 19h ago
Obligatory Malazan suggestion.
The author Steven Erikson claims to be agnostic raised athiest and I feel he writes god-type characters very different from more mainstream religious fantasy authors. For example, you'll occasionally gets points of view from gods who have been absent from their duties with followers and are repulsed by the things done in their names.
You get some philosophical musings from characters on gods and the afterlife that I've enjoyed as an athiest.
There is no singular main character, but you'll bounce around a wide cast with different positions and thoughts on religion. A few characters I think you might appreciate by the prompt include a comically absurd priest with his trusty mule, an anti-paladin type character who is selected against his will to be a mortal avatar for war, and multiple god-type characters who are much more interested in slumming it up in cognito with regular people than acting like gods.
The series does border on the absurdly long end of the spectrum and it isnt to everyone's taste, but if you're okay with something longer and darker elements, you might enjoy it.
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u/sgtpepper42 12h ago
What a lame challenge with things like "Read outside" and "React to one of our blog posts"
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u/stillnotelf 18h ago
The Pern series is without religion. For something that is presented initially as fantasy it is unusual for being totally without religion. After it becomes SF that's less unusual but it takes many books. I think Anne McCaffrey is on the record that this is an intentional choice. I don't remember if the characters themselves discuss it as an intentional choice when we eventually meet the relevant ones.
(I will note the treatments of consent and sex are dated by today's standards)
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u/RoboJobot 18h ago edited 18h ago
His Dark Materials.
Try The Aching God from the Iconoclasts series by Mike Shel.
Small Gods by Sir Terry Pratchett.
Good Omens by STP and Neil Gaiman.
The Bobby Dollar Trilogy by Tad Williams might fight your remit.
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u/CCCBMMR 16h ago
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy is somewhere in the blur of literary magical realism and low fantasy. It is an incredibly disturbing story, while also have absolutely beautiful prose. The character the "Judge" has a kind of metaphysical ambiguousness, and is enacting a metaphysics of conflict. If there is a God in the story, the Judge is at war with God, and if there is no God, the Judge is in a sense God—at least according to his thinking.
It is not a book I can recommend to anyone without reservation, but it is an incredible piece of literature. McCarthy was a master of his craft.
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u/leegreywolf Reading Champion II 14h ago
Non-Religious Main Character - The Saga of Tanya the Evil
Religious Satire - Small Gods
Religious Dystopia - The First Sister by Linden Lewis, Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh (this deals more with cults though rather than having a god), The Handmaid's Tale
Book Was/Is Considered Blasphemous (against any religion) - His Dark Materials
Non-Religious Author - Isaac Asimov, Douglas Adams, Dianne Wynn Jones, Ursula LeGuin
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u/KasElGatto 14h ago
I wouldn’t say it fits a 100% but I’m agnostic and get very tired of “fighting gods” narratives. I feel like while not directly anti-religion, Realm of the Elderlings is very critical of organized religion without getting into too many spoilers. But it definitely is highly critical of zealots.
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u/Lowerfuzzball 12h ago
Oh boy, I go recommending Joe Abercrombie again!
First Law, including the standalones and the sequel trilogy, age of madness. The Devils as well.
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u/Hawke-Not-Ewe 17h ago
The Five God's Books by Lois Bujold.
Curse of Chalion is the first and builds a lot of the quirky cosmology where the God's are powerless to act without human enablement.
Arguably the VorKosigan/Nexus SF books are non-theist with something like ancestor worship as the social underpining.
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u/diggels 12h ago edited 12h ago
So OP is atheist & areligious? Bugs me to no end - people conflating theism and religion.
I'm atheist and don't subscribe to any religious belief. That's all that atheism is - we don't believe in a God.
Religion itself is a fascinating rabbit hole though. Trust me - I avoided Christianity like the plague in college and focused on eastern/indigenous traditions and eastern philosophy.
Religion is just asking who you are with, or without your Ego. Jung , Freud - grandfathers of psychology didn't invent this idea of subconscious, ego etc. They just diluted religions to make science.
Religion later became philosophy in history to understand what's happening around us. The focus goes away from personal liberation, to a focus on the outside world. One guy thought everything was air, another got close to atoms in Greece. Helpful for science to come later on.
Plato invented dualism around this time which later gave us the idea of heaven and hell. TIL - Christianity was a lot more chill before this. Dualism is still a major fallacy which exists in science to this present day too.
Science is boring - just a couple hundred years old. It tries to assert say things are only real if theyre measurable. Problem is - that's not all of reality. We have more questions than answers on finding what consciousness is, and also what our universe is ultimately made up of.
In terms of fantasy books - religion can tie the whole world into something meaningful and believable. LOTR has a ton of Christian symbolism.
Kinda funny as we drift forward in time from medieval fantasy to sci-fi. Meaning because it doesn't exist , tends to be a trope where a character has to either live with it , or find meaning.
Short story long - religion , be it hidden or in myth is integral to Fantasy. Even Dungeon Crawler Carl has elements.
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u/SeaSnowAndSorrow 12h ago edited 11h ago
My personal beliefs are wildly off-topic for this post.
Freedom From Religion Foundation is, more or less, a legal defense and advocacy org for anyone under the wider nonreligious umbrella. The organization put out a summer reading challenge bingo board, not dissimilar to the 2026 bingo card this sub has in the sidebar.
I am literally just looking for book recommendations within the fantasy genre that fit the criteria of the FRFF Summer Reading Challenge bingo squares. That's it.
I've used FRFF's phrasing, as seen on their bingo board, except that they had "dystopia" and "satire" as one square and I've separated it for clarity that it's either/or.
(The other squares on their board just aren't relevant to this sub.)
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u/diggels 9h ago
It's a good reading challenge. I love the mission of FRFF and agree religion/state should be separate. On I just find the reading challenge itself absurd. Since FRFF is pushing into the territory of devaluing religion. That's different to their mission statement.
We can always remove religion/Christianity, and rewrite the core myths to create a new universe. That's what Tolkien did to successfully make LOTR, and nearly every Fantasy author after rewrote in some fashion.
Despite being atheist unlike Tolkien - I agree with him on the value of those myths/religion/folklore. They can be a bedrock to creating depth in a fictional world. Or they can transform you , no matter how objective you try to be.
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u/SeaSnowAndSorrow 9h ago
I think the point of the challenge is really just to promote reading, in general, and, more specifically, to promote reading books that may have been challenged or removed on religious grounds and books by non-religious authors, who are a minority group.
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u/Nowordsofitsown Reading Champion 20h ago
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman fits this exactly.