conuly

You might like Hilari Bell. It's not overtly anti-religious, but in stark contrast to a LOT of fantasy there's little mention of gods.

Oh, you know what I mean. There's a lot of fantasy where gods manifest in very real and physical ways. This can get a little annoying as an agnostic/atheist, and I'm sure it's no less background annoying as a theist - real-life gods don't ever seem to show themselves as unarguably as the make-believe ones do! Even in HP, we *know* there's a real afterlife, we *know* that there's something beyond death (at least for wizards).

In Bell's work, this is what we have:

Goblin Wood? The gods may exist - but most of the main characters are being persecuted by the church for worshiping a devil they don't believe in. The church is shown to be manipulating events for earthly reasons, to be a hotbed of political intrigue filled with falliable people.

A Matter of Profit? The main character's people gave up on religion when they were enslaved and they got to see that the mountain the gods lived on was barren and empty.

The Farsala trilogy? There are many competing religious systems in the book. One group of people actively mocks the country they're invading (where the story takes place) for clinging to "ignorant superstition", aka "their religion". That ignorant superstition is shown to have been manipulated for political reasons.

The Shield, Sword, and Crown books? Two competing religions. One of our main characters is shown to be an atheist, because he was never helped by any god. The other main characters aren't shocked by this. The persecuted religion (complete with blood libel) is shown to be persecuted simply for political reasons.

The Knight and Rogue books? They DO have gods (which never manifest), but those gods are believed to care only about plants and animals, not about humans, so it's all a bit of a moot point.

It's a refreshing change, I'll tell you, to have your fantasy devoid of spiritual elements.