Pillar of Light: A Historical Novel (Work and the Glory)

By Gerald N. Lund

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 Pillar of Light

I finally broke down and started reading "The Work and the Glory" by Lund. Ihad to, my wife got me the first three books for Father's Day.

I approached the task with fear and trembling. I have not been very thrilledwith what little LDS literature I have read, and considering how popularthis series is, I expected some hack level quality stuff. I had also readLund's Alliance years ago which, though passable for an early attempt atLDS science fiction, up against mainstream SF could only be categorized asmediocre.

Sure enough, I barely made it through the first chapter and a half, waitingimpatiently for Something To Happen. And I had nearly forgotten about thesemi-amateurish technique of spending a whole lengthy paragraph with thedebut of each character describing in fussy detail what that character lookslike, thinking you had accomplished "characterization," that books in mytender youth had utilized.

But much to my chagrine, after that trying chapter and a half, a terriblething happened. When a discernible plot actually started taking over thehistorical travelogue, I got hooked. Gosh darn it, the story was actuallyengrossing! And what do you know, Lund actually did do real characterizingalong with the superficial first paragraph per character. I ended upfinishing book one in 24 hours and have to confess, with great effortagainst my pride, that the series may deserve the popularity it has achievedafter all.

I also had an unexpected deja vu feeling that brought back the mood I hadwhile reading Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker series. When one enters themade up world of a fine SF or fantasy book, one feels a strong sense of losswhen that book or series is over, because there's no going back to thatcherished world except to reiterate what you have already read. Lund gave mea chance to pop back into that frontier world of early nineteenth centuryAmerica with new tales. Certainly there were a number of differences, sinceWork & Glory is historical fiction and Alvin Maker is fantasy. But the timesand the places and even the background historical basis of the two seriesare the same, so the similarities were enough to make me feel I had comeback home again.

This really puts a damper on my haughty elitist attitude toward popular LDSfiction, but I'd have to say the price was worth it to find something inthat genre that was pleasurable to read.