[ChrisW]

How many fantasy series/books can you name that don't have organised religion. That is no preists and temples and stuff.

[Miriamele]

There's no religion in LOTR, at least not organized.

[Kingslayer]

Not many I would imagine, as so many fantasies are set in a Medieval period where religion was very important.

LotR is the only one that I know of, as well.

[fortytwo]

Here goes...I'm probably going to be shot down in flames but I can't remember religion as part of The Book of Words trilogy

[Nimea]

http://www.plaudersmilies.de/eek3.gif

Dennis L. McKiernan's books? *muhahahahahar*
At least I can't remember any priests and gods. And he 'oriented' his world on Tolkien's.

And there are some others, I think . . . yet, this very moment none come to my mind. Need to think some more about it.

Edited to add: fortytwo, sorry but nope. Don't you remember the fat archbishop? Maybe there was no priestly magic (now I can't remember) but there was an organized religion.

[Warewolf]

I don't remember there being any organized religion in Brooks' Shannara series or Donaldson's Covenant.

[fortytwo]

There I knew it! :o

[Bardos]

Organized religion doesn't exist in many fantasy novels (AD&D books aside), and when it does, it usually sucks (ahem, D&D books), b/c most authors write more about the super-powers of the clerics than of the real religion, a.k.a rites, ritual, ethos, canons, etc.

One GOOD type of religion I remember (though, not too well; it has been some time) is in the Tombs of Atuan by Ursula LeGuin.

I can't now remember another book that portraits ethos and ritual of a religion. Even the Dune novel, that write about religion, are conserned more about the philosophy of it, rather that the typical parts.

[jfclark]

Organized religion, when present, usually is depicted as a sinister or corrupt institution. Either the gods worshipped are of the sadistic sort or the faithful followers are of the maniacal zealot variety.

I wonder whether it's difficult, even for authors who might not be anti-religious, to portray organized religion in a positive light in a fantasy world. If the religion and its god(s) are good, then it's harder to use an outsider as the Hero who accomplishes everything by his own skill/power. It probably is much more convenient to cast the religion as stereotypically evil, bent on obtaining power and imposing merciless dominion over everyone. Now some people (not me) might believe that's the way religions work in the real world, but it's become something of a cliche recently in fantasy literature.

[cgw]

The Amber series and some other Zelazny books.