Simon Tyssot de Patot

A fairly dry travel story with the usual assortment of shipwrecks, savages, slavery etc. The middle third is set in a lost kingdom which i guess you could call utopian but its little different from the real world.
Perhaps a little more orderly but only in the way ancient china could be considered orderly. They still have bloodsports, multiple wives and a king. But no deathpenalty, just hard labour for life... is that supposed to be better? , they also don't pray or believe in an afterlife although they do worship.

The adventure elements are interrupted by frequent scientific and religious discussions, on why we have calenders, gravity, how we know the sun is big and that the earth revolves not the stars etc. Some of the physics stuff is quite hard to follow in 18th century language... although i might have a hard time with it even in modern speech ;) .

The main elements of the book however definitely seems to be the religious arguments. The author not wanting to be burned alive, has the protagonist usually take up a very pro religious stance defending even the stuff which contradicts all the other stuff.
However he then has other characters use logic and reason to attack dogmas and religious minutiae.

The whole thing is an odd assortment of bits and pieces but it held my attention well enough.… (more)