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review by Chris Bigelow
Author: Chad Daybell
Title: The Great Gathering (Standing in Holy Places, Book One)
Publisher: Spring Creek Book Company
Date: August 1, 2007
Paperback
200 pages
ISBN-10: 1-93289-879-4
ISBN-13: 978-1-93289-879-8
$14.95
I've been doing some Mormon last-days story reading, and I just finished reading this book that Andrew Hall reviewed several months ago and thought I'd weigh in.
Bottom line: The book didn't work well for me as literature, but it did work as a teaching tool.
First, the literature side. The book is quite short but still covers a lot of plot and characters. The reason it's short is that it's quite sketchy; it reads more like a summary of a plot that is only just starting to get fleshed out than as a fully developed novel. While quite readable, the style is very plain, and there's just something flat about nearly all the characters, settings, and plot points, with very little sensory detail or exploration of the characters' inner lives to bring it to life. The author takes a very low-key approach to emotions, so even when rather amazing things happen, the response of the characters is quite muted and perfunctory. Characters such as Satan and one of the Three Nephites don't come to life in a satisfying way, and the Mormons are all pretty bland and predictable as well. I don't know if the author was too hurried or worried about being too graphic or what.... The one character who gave me some glimmers of interest was Tad, a guy with some real human flaws and angst and the book's only real interesting character arc.
As far as plausibility, this is the last days and so lots of very wild stuff happens, from earthquakes and hailstones to nationwide chip implantations and invasion by a coalition of Russia, China, and Islam. I think the author did a pretty good job with lots of it, but there are places that stretch one's credulity or don't seem fully thought out. Still, I felt that a fair bit of creative imagination went into it, and I found myself reading with interest to see what would happen next. I believe the author took care to follow actual scriptures and prophecies, and I enjoyed learning about some of those through the form of a reasonably engaging story.
So yes, the book did overall work pretty well for me as a teaching tool that reminded me of possible last days scenarios, alerted me to bad trends in society and bad attitudes among Mormons, and made me question my own level of obedience and conformity. In recent months, home teaching has been driving me batty because it seems to come so often and feels like a big chore that interrupts a precious day off, but yesterday after finishing the book I found myself doing my home teaching a little more willingly, because I don't want to turn out like Tad and maintain a mindset that makes me miss getting onto the ark. So if the author had a didactic purpose, which I'm sure he did, he managed to break through my worldly cynicism and have a positive spiritual effect on me as a fellow Mormon, probably much more so than if I'd heard him give a sacrament meeting talk about signs of the times or whatever.
I will definitely pick up the sequel, because I'm curious to see where the author takes it next and because, frankly, for me it's one of those books you read to reassure yourself that you can write something at least as good, if not better in some ways (OK, I admit that one of the reasons I picked up the book now is that I'm at a point of insecurity and hesitation about my own last-days novel project right now). However, if lots of other Mormon fiction is like this Daybell novel, I'm not interested. One of the last Deseret/Covenant/Cedar Fort-mode novels I read, Jeff Call's Mormonville, had a lot of the same limitations, and in that case it felt like a waste of my time because it didn't even bother to teach me anything new or interesting, let alone stand as satisfying literature.
Another Mormon last days book I've read is Linda Adams's Prodigal Journey, which I found to be a big overstuffed fruit cake of a book, sort of the opposite problem of Daybell's over-minimized approach but still strangely compelling to keep reading. I read its sequel, Refining Fire, in prepublication manuscript form, and if I remember right it sort of devolves into more of a romance than a last-days story, but I admit it's been a long time since I read it.
And I recently read Orson Scott Card's Folk of the Fringe, which has some good writing and storytelling in it but I admit didn't really capture my imagination like I'd hoped as far as the last-days setting, which is really just a backdrop for exploring some characters and situations that could have been treated equally well in any other number of possible settings. I was reading Jessica Draper's novel Hunting Gideon at the same time, and I honestly found that Jessica's book engaged my imagination and came to life for me better than the Card book.
Influenced largely by reviews here on AML-List, next I'm going to read Stephanie Black's The Believer and then probably Wendie Edwards's Millennial Glory I: Hidden Light.
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Rank: AML Member
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Location: Denton, TX
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(My old review appears to have disappeared with the old aml-list, so I am reprinting it here.)
Title: The Great Gathering (Standing in Holy Places, Book One)
Author: Chad Daybell
Spring Creek Book Company, 2007
Paperback, 189 p.
I am fascinated by Mormon last days novels. I am intrigued by the idea of imagining the train of events, but I have almost always been disappointed because of bad writing, unbelievable premises, and frequently nutty social or political ideas. Red Moon Rising was excruciatingly bad. Seventh Seal was not much better. Pam Blackwell’s series starting with Ephraim’s Seed certainly was imaginative, with its funky Tibetan-Mormon connections, but the prose gave me a headache, and I gave up after two books. I have heard mixed reviews of Chris Stewart’s series, and generally good reviews of Linda Adams’ series.
Stories that include the second coming itself too often become a devotional recitations of the big events. While these kinds of portrayals can be satisfying in their happy ending, they rarely are very dramatic. My two favourite Mormon-future books so far have been dystopian, but not eschatological (dealing with the end of the world). They are Orson Scott Card’s Folk of the Fringe, and Stephanie Black’s The Believer. In the first American society has fallen apart because of atomic war, while in the second the people have allowed evil men to destroy the freedoms granted in the Constitution. Mormons are shown trying to cope with there dire situations, with no second coming on the immediate horizon.
Chad Daybell’s The Great Gathering is the first in a series on the last days. While it is a stand-alone series, the three main couples were leading characters in Daybell’s four earlier novels, the Emma Series, a trilogy of time-travel books, and Chasing Paradise, about angelic help from beyond the veil. It is a short novel, and a very quick read.
Daybell does a fairly good job creating an interesting picture of a dire future. The ultra-violent sport Conquest, which becomes a national pastime, is a nice touch. Too often he strains credulity, however. He has the government introduce a microchip to be installed in everyone’s body giving them the ability to more easily shop and be observed by the government (a common enough trope for last days novels, as it is a plausible fulfilment of the Mark of the Beast). What is not plausible is how much the population seems to roll over in agreement to the plan. Daybell has the secular East Coast lead the country in applauding the new technology, but it is secular civil libertarians who I would expect to object to this kind of policy more than anyone else. The invasion of the US by foreign powers is also not well explained. He does not persuade me that these countries would prefer to occupy a ruined US rather than continue to gain wealth through trade. Daybell does not spend much time fleshing out the details of these future events in general American society, rather he zips along, focusing on the Mormon retreat into the hills.
Daybell’s description of the reaction of the Mormons to world events is both triumphant and pessimistic. He portrays the Church organization as always a step in front of events, with Mormons the only ones in the country able to ride out the storms. He is pessimistic, however, about Mormon society, or at least Utah society. The bulk of the novel is set in Wasatch Front cities, which he portrays as full of nominal Mormons, the vast majority of whom fail to respond to the extraordinary calls by the leadership to leave their homes and retreat to mountain camps. Many of those who do follow counsel return to their homes under pressure from their children for a return to their cell phones and other material goods. The friendly but inactive neighbour who gives a pleasant farewell one week is seen chasing his neighbour with an axe the next week.
Daybell’s prose is clean and unannoying, but does not go beyond that. He is telling a quick, uncomplicated story, and real character development, believable dialogue, or illuminating reflection are not on the menu at all. The point of the story is to prepare oneself, live worthily, and follow the Brethren with exactness. These are all great messages, and yet the thinness of the packaging weakens the impact, and makes me uninterested in continuing with the series.
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