cahn

I really liked Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, which Kathy recommended to me. Clarke's got a book of short stories out which I read recently and enjoyed.

Kathy also recommended The Carpet Makers by Eschbach (sp?) which was really interesting... hmm... I can't say I adored it (that's usually reserved for more cuddly books, which this is not) but it was very enjoyable, in a way very vaguely reminiscent of Clarke.

On the religion-book frontier: have you read any Charles WIlliams? I think you'd like his stuff a lot. The last thing I read by him was a history of the Christian church, The Descent of the Dove. He's also done some interesting fiction which I can only describe as theological thriller. Very weird but cool too-- Descent Into Hell and All Hallows' Eve, particularly the latter, are the best. Way better than C.S. Lewis trying to do SF. Also this reminds me of Raymond Brown's Introduction to the New Testament above Asimov -- I really liked Brown and I think I tried Asimov once but didn't like it enough to stick with it.