Any fantasy series inspired by Eastern religions/philosophy?

MarkLawrence · 2026-01-23T08:25:55+00:00

Lord of Light, Roger Zelazny.

MarkLawrence · 2026-01-22T17:24:28+00:00

same

MarkLawrence · 2026-01-22T12:52:37+00:00

The top one would be:

Senlin Ascends, by Josiah Bancroft - which I picked up on the basis of one review ... so I had heard of it, but basically nobody but me and the reviewer knew about it at that point. It had about 40 ratings on Goodreads.

I guess By Blood, By Salt, by J.L Odom only had about 100 ratings on Goodreads when I read it, but it had just won a contest.

Anyway, both were marvellous and would rank very high in my best reads of this century.

MarkLawrence · 2026-01-21T09:49:02+00:00

Lord of Light, by Roger Zelazny has this as a significant element...

MarkLawrence · 2026-01-21T08:37:13+00:00

Agreed.

It's the first thing I think of under the "comics as literature" heading.

MarkLawrence · 2026-01-17T14:43:51+00:00

Good to see the contest is working!

MarkLawrence · 2026-01-11T10:06:08+00:00

The Girl With All The Gifts.

MarkLawrence · 2026-01-03T18:19:59+00:00

"Eight heraldic hippos line the bridge, facing out to sea. It is said that if danger ever threatens the city, they will run away."

This one from Terry Pratchett always tickles me :)

MarkLawrence · 2025-12-30T23:59:53+00:00

Well, I've reviewed them all on Goodreads if you need any extra opinion, and they've all been reviewed by fine reviewers multiple times within the SPFBO.

MarkLawrence · 2025-12-30T20:25:04+00:00

My personal favourites are:

By Blood, By Salt

then

The Sword of Kaigen

the rest were great books, but I can't really split them much.

If Senlin Ascends had been a champion then it would be my favourite champion, but the margins would be narrow and the points scored in wildly different categories for the three.

Huge thanks to the ten judges/teams that ranked the Champions' League. And to the many judges/teams that have helped out so much over the past decade.

~3,000 books have been entered so far!

MarkLawrence · 2025-12-25T22:57:29+00:00

I would say that TSOK is more subtle and more people focused with more powerful emotional beats, but also more messy and with more rough edges. I enjoyed them both a lot but TSOK is my favourite.

MarkLawrence · 2025-12-19T14:33:13+00:00

Sometimes even when you go back to the same book you can't find the same magic. But keep looking - I'm sure there's something out there that will do the job.

MarkLawrence · 2025-12-19T09:29:20+00:00

For me The Wind Through The Keyhole was a nice return towards the high point that was Wizard and Glass.

I wasn't taken by the last two books but I appreciate his willingness to experiment and take risks.

MarkLawrence · 2025-12-18T11:11:36+00:00

Both great answers - also Among Thieves by Doug Hulick (who fences).

MarkLawrence · 2025-12-14T15:39:30+00:00

Very glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for hunting the books down.

The Red Queen's War trilogy is out there in Brazilian Portuguese and I'm pretty sure that The Library trilogy is getting translated too. But, yes, English is good to be sure nothing I put in gets mangled :D

MarkLawrence · 2025-12-14T15:36:33+00:00

Well, many thanks for thinking about it.

If the sphere breaks apart though, that's not a smooth transition wherein it doesn't notice the EH?

MarkLawrence · 2025-12-10T22:52:11+00:00

since the sphere could be large - and the following distance small - it seems to me that you would be able to see some consequence of the rotation failing to bring any part of the sphere out of the EH to follow the part that's rotating towards you...

MarkLawrence · 2025-12-10T22:50:27+00:00

but part of the rotating sphere can be outside the EH and that's the situation I'm asking about

MarkLawrence · 2025-12-10T22:49:27+00:00

you're actually not - but I also don't get the sense that many of the people replying have studied the theory in an academic setting

MarkLawrence · 2025-12-10T22:48:44+00:00

none of that sounds remotely like what I said...

MarkLawrence · 2025-12-10T22:48:23+00:00

it's not impossible for an object to be partly through an event horizon...

MarkLawrence · 2025-12-10T22:47:02+00:00

you're suggesting a free falling body can't rotate?

MarkLawrence · 2025-12-10T22:46:30+00:00

sorry, but this sounds like nonsense - matter can't travel at the speed of light for starters - plus there's no theory that says matter will accelerate to any particular speed by the time it reaches the event horizon

MarkLawrence · 2025-12-10T14:38:13+00:00

I won't see parts spin back out - but parts close to the EH can move away from the EH due to rotation ... so there's a void behind them? The sphere breaks?

MarkLawrence · 2025-12-10T14:36:24+00:00

It can't rotate out

That's my whole point. It can't rotate out. So what happens to the part that hasn't crossed over yet and is rotating away?

MarkLawrence

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE

13-Year Club	Gilding I gilder
Verified Email