Alma
By
H. B. Moore
Reviewed by
Kathleen Dalton-Woodbury
On
10/31/2009
Covenant Communications Inc., 2009
Quality Paperback:
308 pages
ISBN-10: 1-59811-864-1
ISBN-13: 978-1-59811-864-3
Price: $16.95
In the subculture of science fiction and fantasy fans and readers, there
are those who like to write stories with no intention of professional
publication, which they call "fan fiction." Included in fan fiction is
a vast collection of stories written by those who want to "fill in the
blanks" of their favorite books and movies, and these include works by
viewers of Star Wars and Star Trek as well as readers of such fiction as
the Darkover (Marion Zimmer Bradley) and Pern (Anne McCaffrey) books and
Lord of the Rings (J. R. R. Tolkien). Such fiction can be problematic
for the original creators because of the risk of copyright infringement
and plagarism, but as long as the "fans" respect the wishes of the
originators, a lot of interesting "what if" stories can result.
I bring this up, because H. B. Moore's Alma seems to qualify as a "fill
in the blanks" story of what has already been given to us in the Book of
Mormon. This is a sequel to Abinadi and uses several characters created
for that novel to fill in blanks in the Book of Mosiah, and Moore uses
them very well.
While Alma (the elder) serves as one point of view character, most of
the point of view characters who tell his story are people Moore has
created herself, such as Abinadi's widow and a wife, and later widow, of
King Noah. Moore also gives relationships and personalities to people
like Amulon and Helam who, with their perspectives, richen and deepen
the events told in the Book of Mosiah. All of these characters are used
to good effect, and the motivations and actions as the story progresses
provide explanations for incidents only glossed over in the Book of
Mormon, such as how and why the daughters of the Lamanites could plead
for their kidnappers' lives when their people finally found them.
This book is an exciting and interesting exploration of the followers
and enemies of Alma and how they might have been involved in and
affected by what happened. Not only do they struggle to survive, but the
characters love and mourn and laugh and misunderstand and grow together,
or apart, as the case may be. Moore is true to what is known about that
time and place, and this book offers worthy speculations of what
surrounded those events.
I suppose that the next book might be about the sons of Alma and Mosiah,
but I hope that Moore will consider calling one of the sequels Limhi.
There is a lot of potential for filling in the blanks of that story as
well, and Moore could do it justice.
Copyright
2009