Good End-Times Fiction

[EmmaLee]

Another interesting end-times fiction book is this one written in 2010 by Orson Scott Card -

http://www.amazon.com/Folk-Fringe-Orson ... lks+fringe" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"Only a few nuclear weapons fell in America-the weapons that destroyed our nation were biological and, ultimately, cultural. But in the chaos, the famine, the plague, there existed a few pockets of order. The strongest of them was the state of Deseret, formed from the vestiges of Utah, Colorado, and Idaho. The climate has changed. The Great Salt Lake has filled up to prehistoric levels. But there, on the fringes, brave, hardworking pioneers are making the desert bloom again."

[RanMan]

Hi I am new but have been following LDSFF for ages. However because I wanted to post I have registered.
I have read the books by Kenneth R Tarr about the last days and really enjoyed them. I recommened them to family and church members and all who have read them have likewise enjoyed them. The titles are "Gathering Storm" "Pioneer One" "End of the World" and "Promised Land"
I hope this helps.

Thank you for the suggestions.

[RanMan]

I thought the Richard and Jessica Draper Seventh Seal series was pretty good. It was long however, lots of characters / story lines. They seemed to represent the future events in a believable and accurate, scriptural based way.

His book The Opening of The Seventh Seal (non-fiction) is probably one of the best commentaries of John's Revelation there is.

I'll have to check them out. Thank you.

[RanMan]

Try the "Great and Terrible" series by Chris Stewart. All from a Mormon background written buy a guy who was a former Air Force pilot:

http://www.amazon.com/Great-Terrible-Co ... ble+series" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Loved the books.

I know this is a popular series and gets predominant display space at the local LDS book store. I read the first book in the series and didn't care for it very much. But hey, everyone has different tastes in what they like. Thank you for the suggestion.

[RanMan]

Do any of you read fiction on the subject? And if you do are there any books that you find to represent the subject well?

The book that most realistically represents what I think things will be like (before the Lord starts preaching his own sermons - and to get an idea of what that will be like, read the Old Testament) - is One Second After by William R. Forstchen. It's not for the faint of heart though (but then, the last days won't be either ;) ). And I see that Forstchen has recently come out with another book, One Year After - off to buy that right now! I'm not a fan of Mormon last days fiction (much too pollyanna-ish and not at all realistic of what's coming, IMO). A good end-times fiction series is James Wesley Rawles (Patriots, Survivors, Founders, etc.) - http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_ ... ley+rawles" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I am familiar with those books. Excellent suggestion.

[RanMan]

Another interesting end-times fiction book is this one written in 2010 by Orson Scott Card -

http://www.amazon.com/Folk-Fringe-Orson ... lks+fringe" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

"Only a few nuclear weapons fell in America-the weapons that destroyed our nation were biological and, ultimately, cultural. But in the chaos, the famine, the plague, there existed a few pockets of order. The strongest of them was the state of Deseret, formed from the vestiges of Utah, Colorado, and Idaho. The climate has changed. The Great Salt Lake has filled up to prehistoric levels. But there, on the fringes, brave, hardworking pioneers are making the desert bloom again."

I love that book and happen to have a signed copy of it in my home library. Very good writing and I think it is a classic example of the genre.

[RanMan]

Do any of you read fiction on the subject? And if you do are there any books that you find to represent the subject well?

The book that most realistically represents what I think things will be like (before the Lord starts preaching his own sermons - and to get an idea of what that will be like, read the Old Testament) - is One Second After by William R. Forstchen. It's not for the faint of heart though (but then, the last days won't be either ;) ). And I see that Forstchen has recently come out with another book, One Year After - off to buy that right now! I'm not a fan of Mormon last days fiction (much too pollyanna-ish and not at all realistic of what's coming, IMO). A good end-times fiction series is James Wesley Rawles (Patriots, Survivors, Founders, etc.) - http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_ ... ley+rawles" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

For non-LDS, The End of the World as We Know it, fiction I would also highly recommend both The Pulse series and The Darkness After series by Scott B. Williams. Williams is an outdoorsman from the Southeastern United States and he very accurately portrays the specific issues with survival in that region.

As much as I like the Patriots series by Rawles, be aware before starting that he is very anti-Mormon and every single one of his books includes at least one attack on the LDS church or its doctrine.

Thank you. I will have to check them out.

[h_p]

As much as I like the Patriots series by Rawles, be aware before starting that he is very anti-Mormon and every single one of his books includes at least one attack on the LDS church or its doctrine.

If you can handle LDSFF, you can handle his books.

[Silver]

EmmaLee, communicating with you was one of the things I missed the most while I stayed away from LDSFF. Your comments above are powerful and align with my experiences. Thanks for being such a stalwart saint. Blessings on you and yours.

[iWriteStuff]

Try the "Great and Terrible" series by Chris Stewart. All from a Mormon background written buy a guy who was a former Air Force pilot:

http://www.amazon.com/Great-Terrible-Co ... ble+series" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Loved the books.

I know this is a popular series and gets predominant display space at the local LDS book store. I read the first book in the series and didn't care for it very much. But hey, everyone has different tastes in what they like. Thank you for the suggestion.

Yeah first book is rather tedious. The rest are hard to put down.

[Syn]

Empire and Hidden Empire Duet by OSC is great and actually has some interesting tactical elements to it. Orson Scott Card knows what grand sized warfare is. (don't be turned off by the cover art). I mean it's OSC, so expect great characters, plots, and writing.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003GY ... TF8&btkr=1

The Great and Terrible Series by Chris Stewart is fairly well done. I read all five books. It starts in the pre-existence and follows the characters throughout the last days. At moments he really captures the atmosphere and characters seem real and fluid. Some parts were drudgery, some characters were flat, but overall was worth the read.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002R2 ... TF8&btkr=1

[BTH&T]

I thought the Richard and Jessica Draper Seventh Seal series was pretty good. It was long however, lots of characters / story lines. They seemed to represent the future events in a believable and accurate, scriptural based way.

His book The Opening of The Seventh Seal (non-fiction) is probably one of the best commentaries of John's Revelation there is.

I have also read, and highly recommend "The Savior's Prophecies: From the Fall of Jerusalem to the Second Coming" by Richard Draper
(This is "Non-Fiction" but written to explain simple, hidden truths.)

[BTH&T]

.

[LDS Physician]

I enjoyed the Left Behind series very much. Ya...it's based on the Rapture which isn't how things are going to work, but the rest of the premise is fun to read and very entertaining. Gives you a good insight into how our Protestant Christian brothers and sisters think as well.

[EmmaLee]

Do any of you read fiction on the subject? And if you do are there any books that you find to represent the subject well?

The book that most realistically represents what I think things will be like (before the Lord starts preaching his own sermons - and to get an idea of what that will be like, read the Old Testament :-ss ) - is One Second After by William R. Forstchen. It's not for the faint of heart though (but then, the last days won't be either ;) ). And I see that Forstchen has recently come out with another book, One Year After - off to buy that right now! I'm not a fan of Mormon last days fiction (much too pollyanna-ish and not at all realistic of what's coming, IMO). A good end-times fiction series is James Wesley Rawles (Patriots, Survivors, Founders, etc.) - http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_ ... ley+rawles" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

To add to this recommendation, the author of One Second After, and One Year After, William R. Forstchen, has written a 3rd book in the 'John Matherson' series, called, The Final Day. Waiting for my copy now, and reading the other two again in the meantime. For good end-times fiction, it doesn't get much better!

https://www.amazon.com/Final-Day-Novel- ... year+after" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[braingrunt]

The only end-time fiction I am aware of is written by Chad Daybell, his Times of Turmoil series and Stand in Holy Places series.

I read The Great Gathering, book one of the five book Stand in Holy Places series, and didn't like the book enough to read book two of the series.

Use Amazon's Look Inside feature to read the beginning of Great Gathering or Evading Babylon (book 1 of the three book Times of Turmoil series) before purchasing either book.

I've read all of Chad Daybell books you mention. I would not call him a great author, nor would I vouch for his ideas... he's kinda into Rowe I believe.

BUT, I found the "Stand In Holy Places" series fun, quick and easy. Recently my patience and attention span for books has been unstable and generally short; so I appreciated the quickness and easiness. I'd recommend them to anyone who'd like a quick fun fiction in the SHTF genre.

The "Evading Babylon" series is kinda a disappointment in comparison... it is not a finished series yet, and it tries to cover the same story arc as "The Stand in Holy Places" series, in greater detail and from different perspectives; and I still have enough fun that I'll be happy to keep reading them as they come out, for now. But, sometimes they spark a little more of that impatience in me, and I'm like, cmon, write faster, of more (they are still quite short), or go back to writing faster paced novels. His follow up series also makes, what i'd call a really dumb mistake, of writing in more current events which occurred after the "Stand in Holy Places" series. Further references to reality feel awkward to me, I think he should just continue with his original vision and let the fiction flow.

PS I like "Folk of the Fringe" but it really takes a sci-fi angle with little if any religious inspiration.

[brianj]

I've read all of Chad Daybell books you mention. I would not call him a great author, nor would I vouch for his ideas... he's kinda into Rowe I believe.

I believe Daybell runs the publishing company that had published Rowe, Sosa, and a few others. He seems to have really bought into the ideas expressed by those people and his writing seems to be another way for him to try to prepare people for the idea of an eventual gathering.

As bad as I thought The Great Gathering was, it could at least be a good rebuttal to those who like to mislead by claiming that anybody who believes in a gathering thinks we'll all be living on mountain summits above the tree line. If I recall correctly, in this book the people initially gathered in the base of a canyon and later moved on to the Sanpete valley.

[EmmaLee]

I've read all of Chad Daybell books you mention. I would not call him a great author, nor would I vouch for his ideas... he's kinda into Rowe I believe.

I believe Daybell runs the publishing company that had published Rowe, Sosa, and a few others. He seems to have really bought into the ideas expressed by those people and his writing seems to be another way for him to try to prepare people for the idea of an eventual gathering.

Yes, Chad Daybell has published all of Julie Rowe's books and Hector Sosa's, as well. In fact, Daybell is the one who put stars in their eyes and strongly encouraged them to write books, via his publishing house, of course. He also has admitted on AVOW that his own books are labeled as "fiction", but the events therein are actually what he, himself, claims to have seen in vision/dreams, etc. I would take any book written or published by Daybell with a huge grain of salt. He's made a good living from LDS people off of it though. :ymparty:

[Zion2080]

"Visions of Glory." Pretty interesting how one random man saw a bunch of stuff only the president of the church would probably see.

[brianj]

"Visions of Glory." Pretty interesting how one random man saw a bunch of stuff only the president of the church would probably see.

Why do you think nobody but the president of the church could see the things that Spencer claims to have seen?

In First Nephi, Nephi asked to see what his prophet had seen and was shown all of it. He was even shown things that John would see hundreds of years later on Patmos, but he didn't write that. And he taught his brothers that they could learn by asking God.
In Alma, 12:9-10, Alma taught that it is given to many to know the mysteries of God.
The scriptures also teach that God is not a respecter of persons, and saying only those with respect of office can have those revelations is saying that God is a respecter of persons.
Doctrine and Covenants 46. Some are given knowledge (18) and some are given the gift of prophecy (22). Nowhere in that section, or any other section, are statements that certain gifts are only for general authorities.
The last argument I will provide here is a reference to James 1:5-6. Where in James are we told there are restrictions on what shall be given those who ask?

We do have restrictions. Worthiness is a big one, as is faith. Sometimes information we seek would be harmful to our progress. But otherwise, we can ask and often receive.

[EmmaLee]

We can - and SHOULD - ask and be ready to receive - and we can receive anything God wants to give us, in any form he wishes to reveal it. Then publishing that personal revelation for all the world to see is when it (and the motives behind the author, and the 'revelation' itself) become questionable. Many have seen what John the Revelator and Nephi, et al, saw. You can, too. Ask, and if it's God's will that you know these things, he will give it to you - then keep it to yourself.

Back to the topic - Alas, Babylon is a wonderful classic of good end-times fiction.

[Zion2080]

"Visions of Glory." Pretty interesting how one random man saw a bunch of stuff only the president of the church would probably see.

Why do you think nobody but the president of the church could see the things that Spencer claims to have seen?

In First Nephi, Nephi asked to see what his prophet had seen and was shown all of it. He was even shown things that John would see hundreds of years later on Patmos, but he didn't write that. And he taught his brothers that they could learn by asking God.
In Alma, 12:9-10, Alma taught that it is given to many to know the mysteries of God.
The scriptures also teach that God is not a respecter of persons, and saying only those with respect of office can have those revelations is saying that God is a respecter of persons.
Doctrine and Covenants 46. Some are given knowledge (18) and some are given the gift of prophecy (22). Nowhere in that section, or any other section, are statements that certain gifts are only for general authorities.
The last argument I will provide here is a reference to James 1:5-6. Where in James are we told there are restrictions on what shall be given those who ask?

We do have restrictions. Worthiness is a big one, as is faith. Sometimes information we seek would be harmful to our progress. But otherwise, we can ask and often receive.

With all due respect,

While anyone can be given revelation, it is important to know that dreams can be "inspired by the devil." And if God were to show a mortal human such events, would he tell or not tell the receiver to share their vision or not? There are tons of soothsayers out there who will claim "revelation" from God. Who just goes around preaching imminent doom (ex:Julie Rowe)? If Spencer were to see what he saw, and he was that faithful, would he be like unto Moses who parted the Red Sea with his faith in God? Personally, if I received such lengthy and vivid vision like Spencer's, I would write it down in my journal and keep it a secret and study it out of my heart because my Bishop and ward members would call be nuts. I would wait for it to happen in my lifetime. And if it doesn't, I won't look stupid and be dubbed a false prophet...