DiscussMormonism.com

I recently had a failure in my program of recovery from obsession with Mormon-related topics.

I am reading Trish Mercer's "Forest at the Edge of the World" and "Soldier at the Door." Fascinating fantasy fiction. This stuff is good. I also enjoy them because the heroine is a teacher, disaffected with the development of the educational system. As I read, she seemed to hone in in Mormon-related allegory, both pro and anti. I understand that she spent a lot of time writing this, which can explain the unevenness of her attitude. I finally read her bio, and she is a graduate of BYU!

Does anybody know anything about her?

There seem to be a lot of Mormon fantasy authors, and they all seem unable to resist sprinkling their fantasy with Mormonness. Two of my favorites are Brandon Sanderson and Orson Scott Card, both of whom are Mormons and allude to Mormon things in their books (though Sanderson seems both much more subtle and much more theologically progressive than Card). I also recently read a novel by Jeff Wheeler and found myself thinking that a lot of little details seemed to be Mormon references. Sure enough, his bio confirms it.

I haven't heard of Trish Mercer, but I'll have to check out her stuff.

It is good, and much better developed characters-- better than Card! She seems to put herself in the role of Myree. Given that the Book of Mormon is fantasy fiction at its worst, they would enjoy writing in that genre.

I am taking a break from it for a bit, reading a woman's story of being a caretaker for her grandfather who had Alzheimer's.

I found both at http://ebookdaily.com/free-kindle-ebooks/

I tired to get into the series that Sanderson took over, but it is too strange for me. If I want unearthly, I go to McCaffrey, but nothing new there. Her son is trying to take over that series, with uneven results.

Lucy Harris wrote:I tired to get into the series that Sanderson took over, but it is too strange for me.

The Wheel of Time? Yeah, more like The Waste of Time. I hated it. Robert Jordan was a terrible writer, and the only reason I even tried to wade through that series was to get to the Brandon Sanderson stuff at the end. I gave up after about book 5. Sanderson's writings, however, tend to be amazing. The Mistborn series, in particular, is one of the best in the genre.

I'll try Mistborn. Thanks.

There's a novella that won the Hugo in 2007 called A Billion Eves by Robert Reed. It's a weird and haunting take on polygamy with subtle Mormon overtones, set in an alternate universe. I really liked it. There's an online version available here:

http://will.tip.dhappy.org/blog/Compres ... 0Eves.html

The Erotic Apologist wrote:There's a novella that won the Hugo in 2007 called A Billion Eves by Robert Reed. It's a weird and haunting take on polygamy with subtle Mormon overtones, set in an alternate universe. I really liked it. There's an online version available here:

http://will.tip.dhappy.org/blog/Compres ... 0Eves.html

Geez, the things I learn here! Thanks for the knowledge, guys!

Thanks. I moved that one to my Kindle.

I just gotta take a vacation for this stuff every once in a while.

Forest is the second book, and contains many of the more critical allegories. It begins with a condemnation of Chinese society, with the two children per woman and mandatory sterilization (in real life she has a lot of kids). Men avoid that by divorcing and re-marrying. It is almost as if she had been lurking at RFM.

Her revision of Mormon theology (particularly race and the pre-existence) is interesting. The first one is more culturally Mormon (courtship practices) and no alcohol, than overtly Mormon.