I think I talked about this on somebody else’s blog last time I read it, before I started my book report, but Lois McMaster Bujold’s The Curse of Chalion really is quite a book. It’s a romance, of course, and a silly one for all that, with lots of sandals and lots of swords. And yet, it’s a religious book as well; it takes its own theology seriously, and its epiphany is meant as a religious epiphany even as it solves the plot problem.
Anybody who reads fantasy, or even speculative fiction, and has an interest in how religion can be portrayed in a complex, naturalistic manner, would likely enjoy reading this. You’ll have to get past “The Lady of Spring give you good morning, sir,” on page seven, and much that’s similar. It turns out all right. It’s less annoying (to Your Humble Blogger, anyway) than American Gods, anyway.
,
-Vardibidian.
What didn’t work for you in American Gods? It mostly worked for me, though it bogged down in a few spots.
I felt that Mr. Gaiman was writing About something, but I didn’t know what it was. Just that Americans have difference fetishes than Europeans used to? He seemed to be trying to say something Important about religion, but didn’t seem to be saying anything about my religion, or my Best Reader’s. At the end of it, I felt that he had created an interesting setting for a few great set pieces, but had been trying to accomplish something but had failed even to tell me what it was.
That said, Mr. Gaiman writes like a sonnovabitch and I certainly don’t regret having spent the time reading the book. I haven’t felt inclined to re-read it, though.
Thanks,
-V.