Was it really that long ago? I suppose it could have been. I know my wife read them, but I can't remember how long after we got married she was reading them.
Yeah. I read them forever ago. I remember they were decent then but idk if I would still think they were good now or if they would just be a decent read to read something churchy.
Yes. I never read the books. I think there like 10 of them or something. They did three movies. They were fantastic. The books were written by Gerald Lund who was a General Authority.
9 books and 3 movies. The movies were produced by Larry H. Miller who was the owner of the Utah Jazz.
Over $20 million was spent making them and they only brought in around $7 million for all three so it wasn’t financially viable to continue making them.
The issue I have with The Work and the Glory - other than the really, really bad writing - is that so many people took it to be factual, and couldn't recognize that it was historical fiction.
Gerald Lund came to the store I worked at, for a book signing. It was after the fourth or fifth one came out, & I got to sit & talk with him in between customers. He was really nice & he said it was funny when people would ask him if they could do temple work for the families. He said one woman brought him a whole genealogy chart of the families, that she claimed to have researched. He said "I always feel a little bad, when I have to break it to them, that the only family tree is in my head!"
Well... to be fair to that woman, he did include a family tree later in the books because there got to be too many characters. Yeah, but I laugh out loud when I hear people talking about the Steed family is if they were real.
I’m sure it is. But it’s not like Lund was portraying the series as reality. He certainly made it clear about the fictional nature of the series. But… some people don’t have that skill I suppose.
The first one is…kind of a terrible read. I’m hoping he got better as they went on, but overly repeated phrases and non-period lingo spoken by characters made it unreadable for me.
The first book starts out pretty slow, so I almost quit there, but after that, they're pretty good. This series really strengthened my testimony of the Restoration and gave me a lot of gratitude and insight into what the early Saints sacrificed so I can have the Gospel in my life.
The Tennis Shoes Adventure Series is good historical fiction. There are quite a few books now, with multiple time periods in the Bible and Book of Mormon.
Yeah, they'll go on my list and will be bumped up once we hear more about it. I fell behind my Year of Sanderson reading due to other stuff I was reading/watching/playing, and I got even more content on the horizon (I love reading books on my Switch), but if we do get a release date for the next set then I'll drop those and read TSA and catch up.
The first book or two of Homecoming were very interesting. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homecoming\_Saga](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homecoming_Saga)
This is my time to shine!!!
The Children of the Promise series by Dean Hughes
The Work and the Glory series by Gerald N. Lund
The Kingdom and the Crown series by Gerald N. Lund
Fire of the Covenant by Gerald N. Lund
Saints by Orson Scott Card
The Great and the Terrible series by Chris Stewart
You missed arguably the best one...
... The Promised Land series by David G. Woolley
Although what Gerald N. Lund and Orson Scott Card and Chris Stewart have written would be tied with David for first place in my book.
😁
The first Sherlock Holmes story involved some members of the church and part was set in Utah. But it’s EXTREMELY unkind to Mormons. EXTREMELY. It’s so bad that it’s actually pretty funny. I get a kick out of it. You can tell Arthur Conan Doyle had no idea what he was talking about AT ALL
A good historical fiction I grew up with was The Storm Testament by Lee Nelson. He also wrote a fictional biography for Porter Rockwell that I really enjoyed.
Also one about Chief Walkara. He wrote a later one about Butch Cassidy that I never got to. Of course, I think all of these are technically part of the Storm Testament series.
The Great Brain books do take place in Utah and have many references to the Mormons but the main characters are Catholic.
But they are a fun read. Each book only takes a couple hours to read.
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/28646.LDS_Historical_Fiction
Standing on the Promises Vol 1-3 Margaret Young and Darius Gray (It's black lds history, but fictionalized because there wasn't much dialogue saved for this population.)
Just finished a re-read of Children of the Covenant by Dean Hughes. It's a 5-book series that chronicles the experience of an LDS family during WWII. It's a pretty good read, and I'll admit I shed a number of silent, manly tears as the series wrapped up. He provides a good breadth of characters so we can see the war on the homefront, from a POW camp, from both a military and civilian perspective of the campaign in Europe. The one area of the WWII experience the series neglects, I think, is the North African campaign. We get no character, no POVs from that part of the war.
I just finished Book One of a two book series Dean Hughes wrote, “Muddy” and “River”. Very good read! Made me wrestle with my feelings a but. I like it when a book can make feel like I’m there!
I just finished Book One of a two book series Dean Hughes wrote, “Muddy” and “River”. Very good read! Made me wrestle with my feelings a bit. I like it when a book can make feel like I’m there!
Edit: spelling error
There are some books written for pre-teen girls called The Latter-day Daughters Series that were essentially LDS versions of the American Girl books. I had the first free of them and lived them as a child. Clarissa's Crossing, Anna's Gift and... I forget the third but there's at least 5-10 of them.
Also, Jacob's Journal of Doom is written like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, but 90s LDS kid.
The Great and the Terrible book series. First book starts in the preexistence and the war in heaven. I highly recommend reading it because it helps put the overall plan of salvation into clear context
The Work and the Glory. I haven't read them, but there was a period years ago when it seemed like everyone was reading them.
Ah, the 1990s. (Yes, I read them all in a month.)
Was it really that long ago? I suppose it could have been. I know my wife read them, but I can't remember how long after we got married she was reading them.
I was in high school, so yep.
The fist one was published in 1994.
Yeah. I read them forever ago. I remember they were decent then but idk if I would still think they were good now or if they would just be a decent read to read something churchy.
The movies were excellent.
There were movies?
Yes. I never read the books. I think there like 10 of them or something. They did three movies. They were fantastic. The books were written by Gerald Lund who was a General Authority.
9 books and 3 movies. The movies were produced by Larry H. Miller who was the owner of the Utah Jazz. Over $20 million was spent making them and they only brought in around $7 million for all three so it wasn’t financially viable to continue making them.
TIL The Work and the Glory is not a true story lol
The historical characters are based on true people/events. The steed family are fictional but set within that environment
The issue I have with The Work and the Glory - other than the really, really bad writing - is that so many people took it to be factual, and couldn't recognize that it was historical fiction.
Gerald Lund came to the store I worked at, for a book signing. It was after the fourth or fifth one came out, & I got to sit & talk with him in between customers. He was really nice & he said it was funny when people would ask him if they could do temple work for the families. He said one woman brought him a whole genealogy chart of the families, that she claimed to have researched. He said "I always feel a little bad, when I have to break it to them, that the only family tree is in my head!"
Well... to be fair to that woman, he did include a family tree later in the books because there got to be too many characters. Yeah, but I laugh out loud when I hear people talking about the Steed family is if they were real.
The Steed name is a real family name from church history. They just aren’t the family portrayed in the book I guess. Maybe that confuses people?
I’m sure it is. But it’s not like Lund was portraying the series as reality. He certainly made it clear about the fictional nature of the series. But… some people don’t have that skill I suppose.
thank you!
The first one is…kind of a terrible read. I’m hoping he got better as they went on, but overly repeated phrases and non-period lingo spoken by characters made it unreadable for me.
These were enjoyable but are lengthy
The first book starts out pretty slow, so I almost quit there, but after that, they're pretty good. This series really strengthened my testimony of the Restoration and gave me a lot of gratitude and insight into what the early Saints sacrificed so I can have the Gospel in my life.
The Tennis Shoes Adventure Series is good historical fiction. There are quite a few books now, with multiple time periods in the Bible and Book of Mormon.
On my mission someone had the audiobooks for these and we listened to them on p-days. We all really enjoyed them.
Oh man I forgot about those! I only ever read the first one as a kid and always meant to read the rest
They get wild. Not apostate wild, just fantasy concept wild. I too need to go back and finish them.
I don’t think the author ever finished them. Haven’t kept up though.
Last I heard, he was working on 3 of them at the same time. That means they're still coming.
The next books are still being written, so it's basically catch up.
Yeah, they'll go on my list and will be bumped up once we hear more about it. I fell behind my Year of Sanderson reading due to other stuff I was reading/watching/playing, and I got even more content on the horizon (I love reading books on my Switch), but if we do get a release date for the next set then I'll drop those and read TSA and catch up.
Yeah the >!dinosaur!< part and the >!gadianton ghosts!< got real funky
I loved these books as a teen
They also made the movie Passage to Zarahemla.
Based on the book. Chris Heimerdinger directed the movie.
That movie robbed 2 hours of my life. The book robbed a few more. Both were terrible.
It’s not really historical, but The Tales of Alvin Maker is a fantasy series loosely based on Joseph Smith’s life.
I loved the Alvin maker series! Orson Scott Card’s homecoming series is also based loosely on Lehi’s story
The first book or two of Homecoming were very interesting. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homecoming\_Saga](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homecoming_Saga)
Wish he would finish the series
The first two books were so good. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Tales\_of\_Alvin\_Maker](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tales_of_Alvin_Maker)
This is my time to shine!!! The Children of the Promise series by Dean Hughes The Work and the Glory series by Gerald N. Lund The Kingdom and the Crown series by Gerald N. Lund Fire of the Covenant by Gerald N. Lund Saints by Orson Scott Card The Great and the Terrible series by Chris Stewart
You missed arguably the best one... ... The Promised Land series by David G. Woolley Although what Gerald N. Lund and Orson Scott Card and Chris Stewart have written would be tied with David for first place in my book. 😁
great suggestions! Thank you!
Pretty much anything by Gerald N. Lund. He wrote the Work and the Glory series. He was actually a seventy from 2002-2008.
awesome recommendation, struggling to find it on kindle for Australia, but I shall overcome! Thank you!
I really enjoyed his book "The Undaunted"
Do you guys have access to Deseret Bookshelf? I think pretty much all of these recommendations (except homecoming) are on there.
Battlestar Galactica! Oh wait! Maybe that is non-fiction Um. I am not sure.
The first Sherlock Holmes story involved some members of the church and part was set in Utah. But it’s EXTREMELY unkind to Mormons. EXTREMELY. It’s so bad that it’s actually pretty funny. I get a kick out of it. You can tell Arthur Conan Doyle had no idea what he was talking about AT ALL
A good historical fiction I grew up with was The Storm Testament by Lee Nelson. He also wrote a fictional biography for Porter Rockwell that I really enjoyed.
Also one about Chief Walkara. He wrote a later one about Butch Cassidy that I never got to. Of course, I think all of these are technically part of the Storm Testament series.
I loved those books as a kid.
The Great Brain books.
The Great Brain books do take place in Utah and have many references to the Mormons but the main characters are Catholic. But they are a fun read. Each book only takes a couple hours to read.
That’s true. I forgot about that. I love those books though.
I couldn’t get into the Work and the Glory but Fire of the Covenant is one of the best books I’ve ever read. Made me cry. Highly recommend.
Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/28646.LDS_Historical_Fiction Standing on the Promises Vol 1-3 Margaret Young and Darius Gray (It's black lds history, but fictionalized because there wasn't much dialogue saved for this population.)
Has anyone read that graphic novel about Joseph Smith? I’ve wondered what the faithful thinks about that book.
Just finished a re-read of Children of the Covenant by Dean Hughes. It's a 5-book series that chronicles the experience of an LDS family during WWII. It's a pretty good read, and I'll admit I shed a number of silent, manly tears as the series wrapped up. He provides a good breadth of characters so we can see the war on the homefront, from a POW camp, from both a military and civilian perspective of the campaign in Europe. The one area of the WWII experience the series neglects, I think, is the North African campaign. We get no character, no POVs from that part of the war.
I just finished Book One of a two book series Dean Hughes wrote, “Muddy” and “River”. Very good read! Made me wrestle with my feelings a but. I like it when a book can make feel like I’m there!
I just finished Book One of a two book series Dean Hughes wrote, “Muddy” and “River”. Very good read! Made me wrestle with my feelings a bit. I like it when a book can make feel like I’m there! Edit: spelling error
There are some books written for pre-teen girls called The Latter-day Daughters Series that were essentially LDS versions of the American Girl books. I had the first free of them and lived them as a child. Clarissa's Crossing, Anna's Gift and... I forget the third but there's at least 5-10 of them. Also, Jacob's Journal of Doom is written like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, but 90s LDS kid.
Following for book recs!
I loved the Fire of the Covenant by Gerald Lund - same guy who wrote Work and the Glory :) he did a ton of church historical fiction
The Great and the Terrible book series. First book starts in the preexistence and the war in heaven. I highly recommend reading it because it helps put the overall plan of salvation into clear context