What are you reading right now? (possible RotE spoilers)

[danieladamsmith]

Ahh Christian Literature.

I myself am a humanist but there are many writers whose work is considered part of a canon of religious literature that I like. Lord of the Rings was considered this...Orson Scott Card has taken this badge...many things. I think one can be an atheist or an agnostic and still think about good vs. evil or the survival of our species...

While I think the Noah's Ark story is a fable and a fairy tale is an interesting concept. Even in the 50s you had films like THIS ISLAND EARTH that were take offs on this theme. And perhaps someday we will have to use Noah's Ark as an actual blueprint when this race has to leave the planet...

[FoolishGirl]

Ahh Christian Literature.

I myself am a humanist but there are many writers whose work is considered part of a canon of religious literature that I like. Lord of the Rings was considered this...Orson Scott Card has taken this badge...many things. I think one can be an atheist or an agnostic and still think about good vs. evil or the survival of our species...

Agreed. No complaints here about LOTR, Tolkien is one of my favorite authors. I had a great love of CS Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, etc., as a child. A fantastic writer is a fantastic writer, no matter their belief system. I just wish to avoid those authors who feel they need to hit the reader over the head with their personal religious beliefs...

[Albertosaurus Rex]

Ah, now that's something I can understand. As I said, sublety is very important. That being said, I still don't know Chris Adrian.

[joost]

Agreed. No complaints here about LOTR, Tolkien is one of my favorite authors. I had a great love of CS Lewis's The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, etc., as a child. A fantastic writer is a fantastic writer, no matter their belief system. I just wish to avoid those authors who feel they need to hit the reader over the head with their personal religious beliefs...

CS Lewis is hitting pretty hard in 'The last battle'. It's the only book in the Narnia series that I don't like (well, and 'The silver chair' but that's not because of the religious tone, but because it was a mediocre story).

I don't have much time to read these past few weeks, so I'm still reading Orthe (about 40/50 pages/day, which takes a long time with a slightly under 1000 page book...).

[Albertosaurus Rex]

I haven't read much by Lewis, but I find both the fiction and non-fiction he wrote deeply fascinating. I have never read Narnia as a child, though, so when I read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe a few years ago I wasn't all that impressed. However, his SF novel Out of the Silent Planet... wow!

[redchild]

I suppose as a kid I did notice the Christian themes throughout the series, but they never really distracted me from the story. But I did notice the racist/orientalist undertones and persistent "othering" of the religion of Tash/Islam. It's why I liked the Horse and his Boy so much as we finally get a closer look at Calormen, even though nearly every Calormenian(?) character has their faults put out on display while the Narnians and Archenlanders are faultless and superior. Still, it was a product of its time and I wouldn't want it changed in any way for political correctness.
I liked the Last Battle....until I got to the end. It's quite strange and I think was rather forced.

Spoiler

The "...And they all went to heaven, everyone else went to hell, your sister is a sinner and you shouldn't have any say about that, and look! everyone gets a cameo-- the end." didn't really appeal to me. Everything before the ending had been building up to a great climax but I don't think the ending did the series justice.

Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials is like the anti-Narnia. I read it much later (towards the end of high school) than I did when I first read Narnia, so I picked up on the anti-institutional-religion vibes much better than I did in Narnia's pro-Christian themes. I remember there was such a stink when the Hollywood film was being released. It's probably one of the reasons why it doesn't have a sequel. The controversy of the first film may have brought in a large audience out of novelty but doing it again will probably just drive them away.

[joost]

Joss Whedon et al - Buffy the vampire slayer: Tales

About 30 short comics based on Slayers (present, past and future) and vampires. I knew about 60% of the stories already (part of the Tales book is a reprint of Tales of the slayers and Tales of the vampires, which I already owned), but the other 40% is new stories. I love most of the stories.

['thul]

These being read through the "green rider" books by "Kristen Britain" these past three days...
(Green rider, First rider's call, High King's Tomb, Blackveil)

Fairly good books, with good stories that build up towards interesting events in future books... If you want spoilers, please ask, and 'thul can issue some minor ones (that wont spoil the series should you read it)

~~~~~~~~~~~

As for the religious themes in certain books (narnia / dark materials), these beings have not noticed too much of that, and are rarely affected by such. They never read beyond the first couple of narnia books for some reason or other, but they are not sure why...

[redchild]

Finished Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman and got my grubby hands on What Do You Care What Other People Think? by Richard Feynman.

[Albertosaurus Rex]

Having finished Northwest of Earth (Which was ultimately a disappointment because of the repetitive nature of the stories, but still interesting as a piece of SF history) I'm now going to read Wizard of the Pigeons. I don't think I can do the hyper-detailed "progressive spoilers" that Farseer does so well, but I'll be sure to let you know what I think.