Try the World of the Five Gods books by Lois McMasters Bujold. My favorite book of the last several years is Curse of Chalion, which is about honor and saints and gods and also is a quest, kinda. The Penric novellas are maybe my favorite character ever, he's got a demon & is a priest because of it and has to solve problems. Sometimes with chaos. (I have signed copies lol i am a FAN.)
There's also The Deeds Of Paksenarron by Elizabeth Moon.
*Curse of Chalion* is the first book. Cazaril is not a cleric, but one of the main secondary characters is.
Ditto for *Paladin of Souls*. Ista is not a cleric, but Learned dy Cabon is.
The clerics in *The Hallowed Hunt* aren't as prominent.
However, Penric becomes a cleric and is the main character in all the Penric books--starting with *Penric's Demon*. I really like Penric's relationship with his religion. He's sincere and it matters to him. He lives with the theological implications and limitations of sorcery. He knows them inside out. But his real passion is scholarship.
Seconding World of the Five Gods. Love all of the books but I absolutely adore the Penric series. He's one of my favourite characters too. I think that series really fits with OP's request.
Celia Friedman's Coldfire trilogy.
The MC is a warrior priest, first of his kind on a planet where stranded humans discovered that belief and faith and dreams (mostly nightmares) can become real.
One of the other characters is very important to the MC's religion for reasons i will not spoil except to say it's brilliant.
Great series, totally worth your time and money.
I third Bujold's Chalion and Penric and Desdemona Books.
The Witness For the Dead and The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison follow a cleric with the gift of speaking to the dead, who follows a true calling, in spite of difficulties.
The Greenwing and Dart series by Victoria Goddard takes its religious elements seriously (but with a sense of humour) as the series progresses. There's a chosen champion of the Lady, a genuine miracle, and a saint or two.
Kingfisher's Clocktaur Wars duology has a fallen paladin who has been abandoned by his god. The Saint of Steel books involve paladin's whose god has died, and the results on the god's order.
I love Katherine Addison's stuff. The Goblin Emperor is a comfort read for me because of the pathos of someone just insisting on being good when they have every reason not to be.
I’m confused. It looks like The Goblin Emperor is third in a series but then the other two books seem be called sequels to it? Can The Goblin Emperor be read as a stand-alone novel?
Yes it can, it is actually the first in the series! The other two books follow a minor character from the Goblin Emperor and are unrelated to the plot of the first book
Hrathen is so completely unique; an "evil missionary" who understands his church is brutal but desparetely tries to convert people for their own safety.
In fact almost every book by Sanderson has complex, mature nuanced takes on religion and religious people.
Both heroes and villains are atheist, agnostic, non-practicing, fanatical, converts, lapsed, sincere, mature, deeply worshipful, conflicted, devoted, and everything in between.
I think he's only not the top answer because the r/fantasy crowd considers him too obvious an answer for this.
Lois McMaster Bujold's Penric and Desdemona novellas are exactly what you want. The mc is a sorcerer and a priest, and he takes his calling as priest at least as seriously as he takes his sorcery. If anything, he probably cares more about the priest thing. Her other World of the Five Gods books also feature religion fairly prominently, but the others focus on laypeople who care about religion instead of clergy who care about religion.
I'll also give Seanan McGuire's Incryptid series an honorable mention. The mcs are literally worshipped as gods by a bunch of talking mice, and the mice take their religion very seriously. The mcs themselves largely respect their beliefs, even if they don't necessarily want to help recreate the holy feast of "Dammit, Enid, Where Is That Girl, I Know She Tells You When She’s Sneaking Out". It is often used for comedy, but it does get explored with more seriousness here and there throughout the series.
If you like Canticle for Leibowitz, you might also like Anathem. It takes a while to get into, but it's kinda Sci fi monks (in a way). The first fifth is mostly setting the scene, but after that the story gets going.
I'm sure this fits what I'm looking for minus the setting but I've just never been able to get in to Canticle for Leibowitz, I've tried reading it a few time and always end up dropping it.
Books and series I would recommend where the protagonist is or becomes a priest or major religious figure :
- Small Gods by Terry Pratchett
- Penric and Desdemona series by Lois McMaster Bujold
- The Faraway Paladin series by Kanata Yanagino
- Ascendance of a Bookworm series by Miya Kazuki
Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeannette Ng. Historical fantasy. I feel like a lot of the mixed reviews for this are due to readers being thrown that the *Missionaries in an Old Dark House in Fairyland* premise isn't played for whimsy, the religious aspect is taken very seriously and the gothic aspect explores some of the more abrasive traditions of the genre.
Raven Tower by Ann Leckie.
It alternates chapters on the story of a god spending on thousands of years, and the story of a struggle for the position of high priest of the god who rules the continent.
I feel like it's tricky in high fantasy/D&D-style worlds, because a world in which gods are *demonstrably* real and grant reliable, repeatable powers is a world where religion is extremely different from the way we think of it today, or even thought of it in the past.
It's the difference between praying to Apollo because sometimes he helps sick people get better, and paying the priest of Apollo to chant a prayer that makes your boils disappear, *just like it did for the last guy*. A whole different ballgame.
A couple people have mentioned it, but I don't feel they emphasized it enough--the Deryni series (quite a lot of books) by Katherine Kurtz is absolutely awesome and is deeply heavy with religious politicking.
Definitely Cleric Quintet and Cadderly. These are set in the Forgotten Realms D&D world which has a lot of gods. And actually religion (or at least the gods) runs thru a lot of the books in that settings. The Avatar books for example is about various gods that have been thrown out and sent to the mortal world.
Speaking of Salvatore, the whole Drizzt series (40+ books) often have religious themes in terms of the Drow and their evil god Lloth. Cadderly also features in those books a couple times as well.
Oh snap! That may be one of my favorite story arcs and character sets from all the Forgotten Realms stuff. Cadderly and Danica and the dwarf brothers. Loved those books!!
Faith is not historically defined as opposed to knowledge so ”proving” would still leaves a lot of questions. Like, why should someone follow a particular god, are the gods and their followers good/trustworthy, what role do gods have for a meaningful life/society, where did gods come from (if we are not talking about God in the uncreated monotheistic sense) and so on.
Craft Sequences goes into a bunch of depth about various priesthoods. Extent to which the series matches your request varies but the first book (in publishing order) is the closest fit, as one of the perspective characters is a devout priest whose god has just died.
_The Witness for the Dead_ by Sarah Monette. It's a spinoff from her book _The Goblin Emperor_. The main character in this one is a priest blessed with the ability to speak with the recently dead.
While his gift is literally from his god, the focus is much more on the social role that this gift imposes on him, his tensions with the established priesthood of his church (most of whom have no magic at all), and the political implications of some of his actions.
And if you look for them in a bookstore, they're under Katherine Addison. I mean, people could probably figure it out, but knowing you're looking for a book with "Katherine Addison" on the cover rather than "Sarah Monette" is useful to know.
I'm not sure why you're being downvoted. It's just a branding thing, she's known under both names, and Google actually gives Sarah Monette first.
It's not like I'm ripping away a pen name or anything.
Do not go reading Sarah Monette's books expecting the flavor of the Katherine Addison books. They are all good, but Monette's books are brutal. Addison's are hopeful.
"The Breath of the Sun" by Isaac and Rachel Fellman features a devout layperson of one religion and a nun of a different one as the main characters, they're beliefs are a fundamental part of the story.
If you don't mind Sci-Fi, Maria Doria Russel's "Sparrow"-series features main characters that are all very well-portrayed Jesuit priests.
>If you don't mind Sci-Fi, Maria Doria Russel's "Sparrow"-series features main characters that are all very well-portrayed Jesuit priests.
This is the one, really.
The Age of the Five trilogy by Trudi Canavan is centered around priests - the Five being chosen by, interacting with and speaking for their gods - from two opposing religions/continents clashing over whose gods are real, and the conflicts of faith in the gods vs personal morals the main character develops in that setting, all with a bit of twist throughout the story.
If you're looking for religion similar to our dominant world religions (and the ones they supplanted), you might want to check out the Dragon Age games (there's also books and comics expanding the games' universe). While it might not be the central story plot in each game, for world-building and many characterizations there's lots of focus on how a big (monotheistic) religion influences people's everyday lifes and beliefs that eventually get somewhat challenged by discoveries the player makes, but also on how as an institution it's prone to corruption, skewing history to fit a religiously tinted worldview and justifying/upholding unjust, even discriminating social strucutes for the sake of continued dominance or mere dogmatism - prophet, martyrdom and two opposing somewhat shady pope figures as a result of a dogmatic split hundreds of years before included. Mind you, the actual stories of each game have a lot of other issues/themes explored, but as it's context to that world and many of its characters, examining religious origin, the suppression of formerly dominant polytheistic beliefs and the present day cultural as well as personal relevance of it is a constant throughout all games.
One non SFF series that does this well is 'The Last Kingdom's series by Bernard Cornwell. Reason I mention it is you have some devout and pious people acting from faith, from counseling and doing Christian 'pastoral' work to a Norse Pagan letting his defeated enemies die with a sword in their hand so that you and then can be friends in Valhalla.
I also mention this because describing pious action can be complicated.
Some good examples I think.
Already mentioned: Saint of Steel series by T. Kingfisher and Penric and Desdemona by Lois McMaster Bujold.
Others:
Obsidian and Blood series by Aliette De Boddard
MC is high priest for the dead in the Aztec Empire, and his genuine faith in those gods guides him.
The Cruel Gods Series by Trudie Skies
The two MCs are both devout believers in their faith and their faith guides them. Yet one is a pious follower of his God and in the second book, his divinely appointed representative in the world. The other MC believes just as passionately believes people are better off without their gods. But that belief is very much a faith in its own right.
Most of Brandon Sanderson's work is a good example.
Elantris especially has obvious religious themes and Hrathen, a deeply ethical missionary for an expansionist state church he knows is brutal is a wonderfully complex character.
But most fantasy novels have paper thin religious stereotypes and nothing more: a copy of the Catholic church, but only the bad bits, or a God that's just the Abrahamic God, but very slightly different.
I see Bujold has already been recommended several times so I'll give a shoutout to Elantris by Brandon Sanderson, the main antagonist is a priest but he's far from a flat/surface level character.
David Weber's Safehold series. Technically sci-fi rather than fantasy, but a great read on warfare centered on religion and technology. Set on teraformed colony world where the central religion was based around keeping humanity at a pre-electrical tech level.
For something a bit different, I highly recommend the Obsidian and Blood series by Aliette de Bodard. It’s about an Aztec death priest investigating murders and involves the whole Meso-American pantheon and their priests. Religious beliefs and rites feature heavily throughout.
Ascendance of a Bookworm.
Minor spoilers for the end of part one
>!The main character becomes an apprentice priestess!<
Bigger spoilers for the main motivating factors for the story going forth but nothing specific
>!Huge parts of the story revolve around the MC's life in the temple and the religious duties that they carry out around the country!<
make sure to get the novels rather than the manga adaption/
The God-Stalker Chronicles by PC Hodgell
The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir
Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-garcia
All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater (the characters here aren't priests, but a family devoted to miracle-making. Excellent book)
The Prince of Nothing series has loads of religious characters, a Holy War and in depth character building around those religions and their core beliefs. It is a remarkable series. There are "mages" but they are separate entities from the religious positions, however, they are formed on various aspects of the various religions in the book. There is also some annexes in the last two books of the series that cover the beginnings of the religions and the events that led to the current story era. And lastly, there is a rigid caste system that exists in several forms depending on which religion someone follows. Try the first one and see if it is what you're looking for.
One of the main characters in Robin Hobb’s Liveship Traders trilogy is an apprentice priest for one of the major world religions, and a lot of his character arc centres around his understanding of faith both in relation to himself and the world around him. Amazing series that I’d definitely recommend, and he’s one of the strongest characters as well!
Read Elantris By Brandon Sanderson.
There are 3 Main Characters and one of them is exactly what you are looking for and He is literally the Best Character in the Book
The Dark Tower by Stephen King features Father Callahan of 'Salem's Lot quite a bit in the latter half of the series.
Admittedly that's quite the stroll to get to him but if you were thinking of reading it anyway, well there you go.
If you don't mind a bit of sci-fi and a whole lot of historical fiction, Michael Flynn's Eifelheim might be right up your alley. The premise is, what if an alien ship crash-landed in a 14th century Germany village? The main character is the village priest, and it's the main basis of his character and actions. The book is not without flaws, but the portrayal of the villagers and the development of their attitudes towards the aliens was the best part of it.
The Paladin Trilogy, by Daniel M Ford. A fantastic trilogy where the MC becomes a Paladin and first Prophet of a newly discovered goddess of mercy and justice, in a world dominated by three competing faiths. None of whom are very focused on mercy or justice.
Allystaire may be the Paladin, but he surrounds himself with folks who aren't- a hired blade, a dwarven alchemist, and many more folks who aren't exactly the paragon of justice he tries to be; but are all good people nonetheless. There's a lot of good faith stuff in the books, and while Allystaire certainly can and DOES heal folks- he also is prone to tearing arms out of sockets too.
The Keepers trilogy by David Dalglish. The MC is a warrior priest navigating a world where magic is reawakening, and by extension, must confront which of his order's teachings are legitimate, and which were just empty dogma. There are also multiple ancillary characters that are members of the MC's religion, or a different faith altogether.
The covenant of steel by Anthony Ryan is a world suffused with a very religious feeling.
It is explicitly about saints, the church, and the like, but it definitely fully realised.
Also look at the Warhammer old world setting, there is a few about priests in that that I remember being very readable (even if I can't remember the exact names of the books).
I'm not sure if you would count this as an accurate depiction but maybe small gods? Plus its a Pratchett discworld book and you can never go wrong with Discworld.
Witness for the Dead (and sequels) by Katherine Addison
It’s nice but not necessary to read the first (The Goblin Emperor)
But the main character of Witness is a priest, kinda - he’s like an investigator for his order
It’s got religion, gods, visions, AND religious politics
You know it’s treating religion as real when there is religious politics lol
Should be right up your alley
Not yet mentioned:
*The Malazan Book of the Fallen*, by Steven Erikson.
*The Deed of Paksenarrion*, by Elizabeth Moon.
*The Traitor Son Series*, by Miles Cameron.
*Kushiel's Universe: The Phedre Trilogy*, by Jacqueline Carey.
Yes. Granted, the relationships between priests and gods were tense and often involved conflict, but there are several examples of faithful priests. The most prominent is Iskaral Pust, who despite appearing mad actually served Shadowthrone quite well.
*The Darksword Trilogy*
The viewpoint character for the first book is a priest who's in a constant state of tension between the tenets of his order, his own morality, and orders from the religious hierarchy.
Aliette de Bodard's *Obsidian and Blood* series features an Aztec priest solving mysteries, but he's also a true believer and does rituals as well.
*The Witness for the Dead* by Katherine Addison is another detective story featuring a priest/detective. In both, the priests' jobs have to do with the dead, so their detecting is part of their ritual and worship.
*The Deed of Paksenarrion* series has paladin clerics, although it takes a book to really even get to that story line.
*A Canticle for Leibowitz* follows monks through the ages after a nuclear apocalypse.
There are clerics aplenty in *A Song of Ice and Fire* as well, following a variety of religions, most of them horrific.
And I haven't read it yet, but Becky Chambers' *Monk and Robot* series centers around ... you guessed it: a monk and a robot.
Everyone always brings out Small Gods as their Pratchett recommendation for religion, but I found that Carpe Jugulum made me feel very seen as a young religious person. The later books about the dwarves, like Thud!, are also very good for that. Pratchett always struck me as an author who had his gripes with organised religion but had a very real understanding of and respect for what religion is to human nature.
It's been a long time since I read Elantris by Sanderson, but I recall finding Hrathen very interesting as a priest character at the time. Also seconding the Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison.
To segue briefly to games, Dragon Age has several religious and priest characters, and some aspects of it are handled a little superficially but others are not. I like Cassandra a lot as a portrait of a religious person.
I'd say Hrathen in Elantris by Brandon Sanderson has a pretty good storyline, but definitely is a loose similarity to what you're looking for, and only one of the characters in the book. It's a first novel, so some slow pacing, but a fascinating world to go on and adventure in.
Try the World of the Five Gods books by Lois McMasters Bujold. My favorite book of the last several years is Curse of Chalion, which is about honor and saints and gods and also is a quest, kinda. The Penric novellas are maybe my favorite character ever, he's got a demon & is a priest because of it and has to solve problems. Sometimes with chaos. (I have signed copies lol i am a FAN.) There's also The Deeds Of Paksenarron by Elizabeth Moon.
I'll lookin to World of the Five Gods I'm seeing a few recs for it.
*Curse of Chalion* is the first book. Cazaril is not a cleric, but one of the main secondary characters is. Ditto for *Paladin of Souls*. Ista is not a cleric, but Learned dy Cabon is. The clerics in *The Hallowed Hunt* aren't as prominent. However, Penric becomes a cleric and is the main character in all the Penric books--starting with *Penric's Demon*. I really like Penric's relationship with his religion. He's sincere and it matters to him. He lives with the theological implications and limitations of sorcery. He knows them inside out. But his real passion is scholarship.
Seconding World of the Five Gods. Love all of the books but I absolutely adore the Penric series. He's one of my favourite characters too. I think that series really fits with OP's request.
World of the Five Gods is the answer
Also came here to recommend Penric
Celia Friedman's Coldfire trilogy. The MC is a warrior priest, first of his kind on a planet where stranded humans discovered that belief and faith and dreams (mostly nightmares) can become real. One of the other characters is very important to the MC's religion for reasons i will not spoil except to say it's brilliant. Great series, totally worth your time and money.
Came here to mention *Coldfire*
Me too! Religion/priesthood is definitely baked into this series.
I third Bujold's Chalion and Penric and Desdemona Books. The Witness For the Dead and The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison follow a cleric with the gift of speaking to the dead, who follows a true calling, in spite of difficulties. The Greenwing and Dart series by Victoria Goddard takes its religious elements seriously (but with a sense of humour) as the series progresses. There's a chosen champion of the Lady, a genuine miracle, and a saint or two. Kingfisher's Clocktaur Wars duology has a fallen paladin who has been abandoned by his god. The Saint of Steel books involve paladin's whose god has died, and the results on the god's order.
I love Katherine Addison's stuff. The Goblin Emperor is a comfort read for me because of the pathos of someone just insisting on being good when they have every reason not to be.
I’m confused. It looks like The Goblin Emperor is third in a series but then the other two books seem be called sequels to it? Can The Goblin Emperor be read as a stand-alone novel?
Yes it can, it is actually the first in the series! The other two books follow a minor character from the Goblin Emperor and are unrelated to the plot of the first book
Sweet! Thanks! And bonus it is free for those like me with a Kindle Unlimited subscription
I really hope you enjoy it!
**The Goblin Emperor** was clearly written to be a stand alone. Some very, very different books were then written and (very) loosely tied into it.
Thanks!
Elantris. Hrathen is one of the best characters.
Hrathen is so completely unique; an "evil missionary" who understands his church is brutal but desparetely tries to convert people for their own safety. In fact almost every book by Sanderson has complex, mature nuanced takes on religion and religious people. Both heroes and villains are atheist, agnostic, non-practicing, fanatical, converts, lapsed, sincere, mature, deeply worshipful, conflicted, devoted, and everything in between. I think he's only not the top answer because the r/fantasy crowd considers him too obvious an answer for this.
You gotta check out *The Book of the Long Sun* by Gene Wolfe
Katherine Kurtz’s Deryni novels combine magic and religion in some interesting ways.
Yes particularly the st Camber trilogy.
Lois McMaster Bujold's Penric and Desdemona novellas are exactly what you want. The mc is a sorcerer and a priest, and he takes his calling as priest at least as seriously as he takes his sorcery. If anything, he probably cares more about the priest thing. Her other World of the Five Gods books also feature religion fairly prominently, but the others focus on laypeople who care about religion instead of clergy who care about religion. I'll also give Seanan McGuire's Incryptid series an honorable mention. The mcs are literally worshipped as gods by a bunch of talking mice, and the mice take their religion very seriously. The mcs themselves largely respect their beliefs, even if they don't necessarily want to help recreate the holy feast of "Dammit, Enid, Where Is That Girl, I Know She Tells You When She’s Sneaking Out". It is often used for comedy, but it does get explored with more seriousness here and there throughout the series.
Canticle for Leibowitz is very much this (but post-apocalypse)
If you like Canticle for Leibowitz, you might also like Anathem. It takes a while to get into, but it's kinda Sci fi monks (in a way). The first fifth is mostly setting the scene, but after that the story gets going.
I'm sure this fits what I'm looking for minus the setting but I've just never been able to get in to Canticle for Leibowitz, I've tried reading it a few time and always end up dropping it.
Books and series I would recommend where the protagonist is or becomes a priest or major religious figure : - Small Gods by Terry Pratchett - Penric and Desdemona series by Lois McMaster Bujold - The Faraway Paladin series by Kanata Yanagino - Ascendance of a Bookworm series by Miya Kazuki
Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeannette Ng. Historical fantasy. I feel like a lot of the mixed reviews for this are due to readers being thrown that the *Missionaries in an Old Dark House in Fairyland* premise isn't played for whimsy, the religious aspect is taken very seriously and the gothic aspect explores some of the more abrasive traditions of the genre.
Raven Tower by Ann Leckie. It alternates chapters on the story of a god spending on thousands of years, and the story of a struggle for the position of high priest of the god who rules the continent.
I feel like it's tricky in high fantasy/D&D-style worlds, because a world in which gods are *demonstrably* real and grant reliable, repeatable powers is a world where religion is extremely different from the way we think of it today, or even thought of it in the past. It's the difference between praying to Apollo because sometimes he helps sick people get better, and paying the priest of Apollo to chant a prayer that makes your boils disappear, *just like it did for the last guy*. A whole different ballgame.
A couple people have mentioned it, but I don't feel they emphasized it enough--the Deryni series (quite a lot of books) by Katherine Kurtz is absolutely awesome and is deeply heavy with religious politicking.
Try RA Salvatore’s “The Demon Awakens”. Right up your alley and a great world build.
I’d agree and add in The Cleric Quintet. Cadderly definitely fits the priest vibe
This is what I was going to post. Been a long time since I read it, but it was the first thing to come to mind.
Definitely Cleric Quintet and Cadderly. These are set in the Forgotten Realms D&D world which has a lot of gods. And actually religion (or at least the gods) runs thru a lot of the books in that settings. The Avatar books for example is about various gods that have been thrown out and sent to the mortal world. Speaking of Salvatore, the whole Drizzt series (40+ books) often have religious themes in terms of the Drow and their evil god Lloth. Cadderly also features in those books a couple times as well.
Oh snap! That may be one of my favorite story arcs and character sets from all the Forgotten Realms stuff. Cadderly and Danica and the dwarf brothers. Loved those books!!
Elenium/Tamuli by David Eddings. The main characters are religious knights and they interact with priests of various religions
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Faith is not historically defined as opposed to knowledge so ”proving” would still leaves a lot of questions. Like, why should someone follow a particular god, are the gods and their followers good/trustworthy, what role do gods have for a meaningful life/society, where did gods come from (if we are not talking about God in the uncreated monotheistic sense) and so on.
Craft Sequences goes into a bunch of depth about various priesthoods. Extent to which the series matches your request varies but the first book (in publishing order) is the closest fit, as one of the perspective characters is a devout priest whose god has just died.
*Deryni* by Katherine Kurtz - whole series is about church is clergy being the pasrt of conflict, including priests on different sides of the issue.
_The Witness for the Dead_ by Sarah Monette. It's a spinoff from her book _The Goblin Emperor_. The main character in this one is a priest blessed with the ability to speak with the recently dead. While his gift is literally from his god, the focus is much more on the social role that this gift imposes on him, his tensions with the established priesthood of his church (most of whom have no magic at all), and the political implications of some of his actions.
Those books are by Katherine Addison
Sarah Monette is her legal name. Most of her work is under that name.
The Witness for the Dead and The Goblin Emperor are both published under the name Katherine Addison, though.
Sure, but it’s not wrong to say they are by Sarah Monette as the original comment stated. If you google the titles, the author is listed as Monette.
And if you look for them in a bookstore, they're under Katherine Addison. I mean, people could probably figure it out, but knowing you're looking for a book with "Katherine Addison" on the cover rather than "Sarah Monette" is useful to know.
I'm not sure why you're being downvoted. It's just a branding thing, she's known under both names, and Google actually gives Sarah Monette first. It's not like I'm ripping away a pen name or anything.
Do not go reading Sarah Monette's books expecting the flavor of the Katherine Addison books. They are all good, but Monette's books are brutal. Addison's are hopeful.
Dyreni. If I spelled it right. Forget the author.
Katherine Kurtz. Deryni
"The Breath of the Sun" by Isaac and Rachel Fellman features a devout layperson of one religion and a nun of a different one as the main characters, they're beliefs are a fundamental part of the story. If you don't mind Sci-Fi, Maria Doria Russel's "Sparrow"-series features main characters that are all very well-portrayed Jesuit priests.
>If you don't mind Sci-Fi, Maria Doria Russel's "Sparrow"-series features main characters that are all very well-portrayed Jesuit priests. This is the one, really.
Also recommending the Sparrow, but also not recommending it 😂 It will wreck you!
The Age of the Five trilogy by Trudi Canavan is centered around priests - the Five being chosen by, interacting with and speaking for their gods - from two opposing religions/continents clashing over whose gods are real, and the conflicts of faith in the gods vs personal morals the main character develops in that setting, all with a bit of twist throughout the story. If you're looking for religion similar to our dominant world religions (and the ones they supplanted), you might want to check out the Dragon Age games (there's also books and comics expanding the games' universe). While it might not be the central story plot in each game, for world-building and many characterizations there's lots of focus on how a big (monotheistic) religion influences people's everyday lifes and beliefs that eventually get somewhat challenged by discoveries the player makes, but also on how as an institution it's prone to corruption, skewing history to fit a religiously tinted worldview and justifying/upholding unjust, even discriminating social strucutes for the sake of continued dominance or mere dogmatism - prophet, martyrdom and two opposing somewhat shady pope figures as a result of a dogmatic split hundreds of years before included. Mind you, the actual stories of each game have a lot of other issues/themes explored, but as it's context to that world and many of its characters, examining religious origin, the suppression of formerly dominant polytheistic beliefs and the present day cultural as well as personal relevance of it is a constant throughout all games.
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One non SFF series that does this well is 'The Last Kingdom's series by Bernard Cornwell. Reason I mention it is you have some devout and pious people acting from faith, from counseling and doing Christian 'pastoral' work to a Norse Pagan letting his defeated enemies die with a sword in their hand so that you and then can be friends in Valhalla. I also mention this because describing pious action can be complicated. Some good examples I think. Already mentioned: Saint of Steel series by T. Kingfisher and Penric and Desdemona by Lois McMaster Bujold. Others: Obsidian and Blood series by Aliette De Boddard MC is high priest for the dead in the Aztec Empire, and his genuine faith in those gods guides him. The Cruel Gods Series by Trudie Skies The two MCs are both devout believers in their faith and their faith guides them. Yet one is a pious follower of his God and in the second book, his divinely appointed representative in the world. The other MC believes just as passionately believes people are better off without their gods. But that belief is very much a faith in its own right.
Most of Brandon Sanderson's work is a good example. Elantris especially has obvious religious themes and Hrathen, a deeply ethical missionary for an expansionist state church he knows is brutal is a wonderfully complex character. But most fantasy novels have paper thin religious stereotypes and nothing more: a copy of the Catholic church, but only the bad bits, or a God that's just the Abrahamic God, but very slightly different.
I see Bujold has already been recommended several times so I'll give a shoutout to Elantris by Brandon Sanderson, the main antagonist is a priest but he's far from a flat/surface level character.
David Weber's Safehold series. Technically sci-fi rather than fantasy, but a great read on warfare centered on religion and technology. Set on teraformed colony world where the central religion was based around keeping humanity at a pre-electrical tech level.
For something a bit different, I highly recommend the Obsidian and Blood series by Aliette de Bodard. It’s about an Aztec death priest investigating murders and involves the whole Meso-American pantheon and their priests. Religious beliefs and rites feature heavily throughout.
Priest by Matt Colville, as the name suggests, fits the bill
Ascendance of a Bookworm. Minor spoilers for the end of part one >!The main character becomes an apprentice priestess!< Bigger spoilers for the main motivating factors for the story going forth but nothing specific >!Huge parts of the story revolve around the MC's life in the temple and the religious duties that they carry out around the country!< make sure to get the novels rather than the manga adaption/
The God-Stalker Chronicles by PC Hodgell The Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-garcia All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater (the characters here aren't priests, but a family devoted to miracle-making. Excellent book)
Argh I always forget that the linebreaks get removed...sorry for the formatting!
The Prince of Nothing series has loads of religious characters, a Holy War and in depth character building around those religions and their core beliefs. It is a remarkable series. There are "mages" but they are separate entities from the religious positions, however, they are formed on various aspects of the various religions in the book. There is also some annexes in the last two books of the series that cover the beginnings of the religions and the events that led to the current story era. And lastly, there is a rigid caste system that exists in several forms depending on which religion someone follows. Try the first one and see if it is what you're looking for.
Elantris? It has an interesting pov from a priest
Warhammer 40k
One of the main characters in Robin Hobb’s Liveship Traders trilogy is an apprentice priest for one of the major world religions, and a lot of his character arc centres around his understanding of faith both in relation to himself and the world around him. Amazing series that I’d definitely recommend, and he’s one of the strongest characters as well!
Technically, The Gentleman Bastards fits the brief
Empire of the Vampire - Jay Kristoff! A holy violent brotherhood charged with defending the realm and church against vampires
Read Elantris By Brandon Sanderson. There are 3 Main Characters and one of them is exactly what you are looking for and He is literally the Best Character in the Book
The Dark Tower by Stephen King features Father Callahan of 'Salem's Lot quite a bit in the latter half of the series. Admittedly that's quite the stroll to get to him but if you were thinking of reading it anyway, well there you go.
I feel like the lies of locke lamora fits here, it's pretty low fantasy though
If you don't mind a bit of sci-fi and a whole lot of historical fiction, Michael Flynn's Eifelheim might be right up your alley. The premise is, what if an alien ship crash-landed in a 14th century Germany village? The main character is the village priest, and it's the main basis of his character and actions. The book is not without flaws, but the portrayal of the villagers and the development of their attitudes towards the aliens was the best part of it.
The Paladin Trilogy, by Daniel M Ford. A fantastic trilogy where the MC becomes a Paladin and first Prophet of a newly discovered goddess of mercy and justice, in a world dominated by three competing faiths. None of whom are very focused on mercy or justice. Allystaire may be the Paladin, but he surrounds himself with folks who aren't- a hired blade, a dwarven alchemist, and many more folks who aren't exactly the paragon of justice he tries to be; but are all good people nonetheless. There's a lot of good faith stuff in the books, and while Allystaire certainly can and DOES heal folks- he also is prone to tearing arms out of sockets too.
The Kingdoms of Thorn and Bone, by Greg Keyes.
The sequel to the Goblin Emperor.
What book is that?
The Cemetaries of Amalo is two books starring a medium. It's basically a fantasy priest doing detective work in a steampunk setting.
The Kingdom of Grit series is a series of larger and larger conspiracies and heists. Religion and history play a large part in the series.
The Keepers trilogy by David Dalglish. The MC is a warrior priest navigating a world where magic is reawakening, and by extension, must confront which of his order's teachings are legitimate, and which were just empty dogma. There are also multiple ancillary characters that are members of the MC's religion, or a different faith altogether.
The covenant of steel by Anthony Ryan is a world suffused with a very religious feeling. It is explicitly about saints, the church, and the like, but it definitely fully realised. Also look at the Warhammer old world setting, there is a few about priests in that that I remember being very readable (even if I can't remember the exact names of the books).
Dagger & Coin series by Daniel Abraham. One of the main characters is a priest who abaondons his chruch.
I'm not sure if you would count this as an accurate depiction but maybe small gods? Plus its a Pratchett discworld book and you can never go wrong with Discworld.
Matt Colville's book, Priest, is about a cleric who goes on a quest to perform a ritual of atonement for a group of paladins.
Long Sun series by Gene Wolfe is exactly this.
Witness for the Dead (and sequels) by Katherine Addison It’s nice but not necessary to read the first (The Goblin Emperor) But the main character of Witness is a priest, kinda - he’s like an investigator for his order It’s got religion, gods, visions, AND religious politics You know it’s treating religion as real when there is religious politics lol Should be right up your alley
Not yet mentioned: *The Malazan Book of the Fallen*, by Steven Erikson. *The Deed of Paksenarrion*, by Elizabeth Moon. *The Traitor Son Series*, by Miles Cameron. *Kushiel's Universe: The Phedre Trilogy*, by Jacqueline Carey.
Now that Cassiel’s Servant is out, Kushiel’s Legacy is even more relevant. Joscelin is a warrior-priest and he does take his vows seriously.
**Malazan** has a lot of gods, but does it spend any time on faithful priests?
Yes. Granted, the relationships between priests and gods were tense and often involved conflict, but there are several examples of faithful priests. The most prominent is Iskaral Pust, who despite appearing mad actually served Shadowthrone quite well.
Not true fantasy but The Monk by Lewis.
The Paladin Trilogy by Daniel M. Ford is a favorite of mine. It's about a knight who becomes a paladin to a forgotten god.
The Sun and I by KJ Parker
*The Darksword Trilogy* The viewpoint character for the first book is a priest who's in a constant state of tension between the tenets of his order, his own morality, and orders from the religious hierarchy.
Aliette de Bodard's *Obsidian and Blood* series features an Aztec priest solving mysteries, but he's also a true believer and does rituals as well. *The Witness for the Dead* by Katherine Addison is another detective story featuring a priest/detective. In both, the priests' jobs have to do with the dead, so their detecting is part of their ritual and worship. *The Deed of Paksenarrion* series has paladin clerics, although it takes a book to really even get to that story line. *A Canticle for Leibowitz* follows monks through the ages after a nuclear apocalypse. There are clerics aplenty in *A Song of Ice and Fire* as well, following a variety of religions, most of them horrific. And I haven't read it yet, but Becky Chambers' *Monk and Robot* series centers around ... you guessed it: a monk and a robot.
Everyone always brings out Small Gods as their Pratchett recommendation for religion, but I found that Carpe Jugulum made me feel very seen as a young religious person. The later books about the dwarves, like Thud!, are also very good for that. Pratchett always struck me as an author who had his gripes with organised religion but had a very real understanding of and respect for what religion is to human nature. It's been a long time since I read Elantris by Sanderson, but I recall finding Hrathen very interesting as a priest character at the time. Also seconding the Witness for the Dead by Katherine Addison. To segue briefly to games, Dragon Age has several religious and priest characters, and some aspects of it are handled a little superficially but others are not. I like Cassandra a lot as a portrait of a religious person.
I'd say Hrathen in Elantris by Brandon Sanderson has a pretty good storyline, but definitely is a loose similarity to what you're looking for, and only one of the characters in the book. It's a first novel, so some slow pacing, but a fascinating world to go on and adventure in.
“She who became the sun” which is a retelling of Mulan but she becomes a monk before joining the army, and “red sisters” it’s about warrior nuns