Religions in Space!

[neotoma]

Apropos of conversations with friends this week, which SF novels deal with modern human religions in future/space-faring settings? I'm mean seriously deal with religions, as in they are integral to the setting and at least some characters motiviations and identity.

The example that comes to my mind is Sarah Zettel's Fool's War, where one of the main characters is identity as a Muslim is as important as her identity as a merchant spaceship captain.

Rec me others?

Edited for clarity: I'm interested in stories dealing modern day religions in current or lightly extrapolated forms, and really want recs for non-mainstream-Protestant religions and characters. Stories about Orthodox Christians IN SPACE, Mormons IN SPACE, Wiccans IN SPACE, Sikhs IN SPACE, Buddhists IN SPACE, etc etc.

Comments

[executrix]

Doria Russell's The Sparrow and Children of God (mostly Catholicism).

I've been really enjoying Jo Walton's blog on Tor.com, and I know she has at least one post on religion in SF.

[neotoma]

I've heard a bit about Russell's books -- they also deal with first contact and the disasters thereof, right?

[ellen_fremedon]

I own them both if you want to borrow them. They're-- well, the parts that were deeply unsatisfying when I read them are still deeply unsatisfying. The parts that were mysteriously tremendously compelling are much less compelling, and not the slightest bit mysterious, since I discovered fanfic.

But, yes, they are about first contact where everyone on all sides has the best of intentions and everything still goes horribly-- which I would find a stronger argument if it didn't rely on everyone on both sides having to pass the idiot ball constantly-- but the aliens are fascinating and the human characters are wonderful.

And they feature a beautiful and brilliant priest being mutilated and raped and angsting a lot about it, if you like that sort of thing.

[neotoma]

Hmm... a story featuring a lot of idiot balls? That may or may not work given the example of actual history.

I could certainly take a look at the book -- angsting sometimes works for me, and sometimes I want to drown the characters to put them out of my misery...

[executrix]

A REALLLY disastery disaster. I can't put my hands on my copy of The Sparrow but you can have my copy of Children of God absolutely free by e-mailing your wallet name (which I used to know but have forgotten) and snail addy to dshilling@verizon.net. Most people like CoG a lot less than The Sparrow, and I'm one of them, explaining why it's on offer.