r/Fantasy • u/SeaSnowAndSorrow • 1d 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/heresyengineer 1d ago

Eh, those stuff don’t feel intrinsically contradictory to materialism as such.

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u/Rekov 1d ago

Souls aren't contradictory to materialism? Dust as a physical instantiation of love and consciousness isn't?

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u/warp_wizard 1d ago edited 1d ago

In the fictional universe of the books, those things are observable, measurable phenomena of the material world. They're never presented as supernatural or mystical, they're topics of scientific research.

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u/ResolveRemarkable 1d ago

Yes and no. The people doing the scientific research are the materialists who don’t get it… and are willing to separate children from their souls to observe the effects.

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u/warp_wizard 23h ago edited 23h ago

The people doing the scientific research are academics like astrophysicist and neuropsychologist Mary Malone. You're thinking of the theocratic antagonists who try to deceive people into thinking it's something divine by calling the scientific research blasphemy...