spiritNOTdemon Mite
26 Jun 11 - 20:59
Hi Mr. Stroud!
Like nearly everyone else on this forum, I suppose I'll start by saying I'm a huge fan of your books :) I finished reading The Ring of Solomon a few months ago (it was fantastic) and it's only now that I've thought of a question, so here goes...
In the Ring of Solomon, I noticed that although there are magicians who rule, there is still a lot of talk about gods and goddesses, and, well, religion. Both the Queen of Sheba (Balkis) and Asmira believe themselves to be "daughters of the Sun", and while Asmira makes her trek to Jerusalem she disguises herself as a High Priestess of the Sun. Anyway, it got me thinking about the trilogy, which takes place in an alternate (modern day?) London. Obviously if the royal family has been long gone before the AoS then religion would never have been much of a factor in society, would it? King Henry VIII wouldn't have had the chance to create the Church of England.
To get to the point, my main question is this: does religion exist at all in the same era as the trilogy, or have the magicians completely wiped it out? Bartimaeus mentions something about being enslaved by religious zealots at one point or another, but I wondered if religion would be able to co-exist in London as it did in Solomon's Jerusalem. It seems that the magician's in Parliament would probably frown upon organized religion, because it would give the commoners the impression that they needn't rely on the magicians for everything.
Hope this isn't too out of bounds, bringing up religion... :ermm:
From,
An Overly Curious Fan
Like nearly everyone else on this forum, I suppose I'll start by saying I'm a huge fan of your books :) I finished reading The Ring of Solomon a few months ago (it was fantastic) and it's only now that I've thought of a question, so here goes...
In the Ring of Solomon, I noticed that although there are magicians who rule, there is still a lot of talk about gods and goddesses, and, well, religion. Both the Queen of Sheba (Balkis) and Asmira believe themselves to be "daughters of the Sun", and while Asmira makes her trek to Jerusalem she disguises herself as a High Priestess of the Sun. Anyway, it got me thinking about the trilogy, which takes place in an alternate (modern day?) London. Obviously if the royal family has been long gone before the AoS then religion would never have been much of a factor in society, would it? King Henry VIII wouldn't have had the chance to create the Church of England.
To get to the point, my main question is this: does religion exist at all in the same era as the trilogy, or have the magicians completely wiped it out? Bartimaeus mentions something about being enslaved by religious zealots at one point or another, but I wondered if religion would be able to co-exist in London as it did in Solomon's Jerusalem. It seems that the magician's in Parliament would probably frown upon organized religion, because it would give the commoners the impression that they needn't rely on the magicians for everything.
Hope this isn't too out of bounds, bringing up religion... :ermm:
From,
An Overly Curious Fan
