I'm reading The Atomic Sea series by Jack Conner. I'm about a third into the 10 book set and a lot of it reflects stuff that is discussed here.

Spoilers:

Spoiler

The "gods" in the book are different kinds of extra-dimensional beings that have an amoeba-like form with pseudo-pods and tentacles.
They are modifying the Earth to fit their needs starting with the oceans.
Feeding humans seafood from the modified oceans infects them with extra-dimensional energy and mutating them.
Turning the humans into food for the gods.
Combine this with the creation of a religion that worships the extra-dimensional "gods"...

Quote from: Tod13;953828I'm reading The Atomic Sea series by Jack Conner. I'm about a third into the 10 book set and a lot of it reflects stuff that is discussed here.

I just bought a copy of the first book based on some recommendation I read... I can't recall where.

As with Lovecraft's cults, it sounds like 'gods' being worshiped by people who are largely mistaken about the true nature and intent of the beings they're propitiating... but based on direct evidence/experience of some god-creature... rather than being an imagined personification of natural forces.

Quote from: Simlasa;953851I just bought a copy of the first book based on some recommendation I read... I can't recall where.

As with Lovecraft's cults, it sounds like 'gods' being worshiped by people who are largely mistaken about the true nature and intent of the beings they're propitiating... but based on direct evidence/experience of some god-creature... rather than being an imagined personification of natural forces.

Pretty accurate--especially for just the first book. I found it when I was looking for steampunk stuff that sounded good. Most of the stuff just sounded bad or the preview turned me off. The Atomic Sea has interesting characters, good writing, and an interesting storyline. YMMV.

If you read on Kindle and have Prime, the entire series is available on Unlimited.

A few ideas:

Try Lord Dunsany, if no one mentioned it yet.

There is also Raphael Chandler's Pandemonio for an awesome look at demons., gods, etc.

And here is my take on a lawful-but-not-nice deity generator.

Although it features profoundly unweird gods the Curse of Chalion books by Bujold might still be useful as they're the best treatment of bog standard fantasy I've ever seen, by miles and miles. The thing that could be useful here is just how different the priorities of the gods are from human priorities. Basically, they care about the proper life cycle of souls and flip out when that's disrupted but they fundamentally don't give a shit about plagues, famines, war etc. etc. Making sure that gods have different priorities than humans works wonders to make them seem otherworldly. The other bit that could work from that series is what saints are. They basically are people who for one reason or another have a big gaping whole in their ego which leaves and empty spot for the god to feel up with their presence. That could be the reason why fucked up people are the ones communing with their gods. They're fundamentally lacking something that normal humans should have and that leaves space for the divine. The entropy demons from hell are pretty cool too.

The Chalion gods are pretty benign but the same stuff that makes them work well in that series could be used just as well for more fucked up gods.