News: Book of Mormon novels

By now most AMV readers have heard of "The Golden Plates," Mike Allred's comic book adaptation of the Book of Mormon -- Dallas Robbins, Dave's Mormon Inquiry, Meridian Magazine, and The Daily Herald have all had coverage.

Although I am somewhat interested in comic books and graphic novels, I doubt that I'll be reviewing this title anytime soon. The problem with the form is that it's often not accessible to the casual fan. The price point is kind of high (which it should be -- if you tried to make a cheap paperback version of a quality comic book or graphic novel the art would suffer) and libraries usually don't acquire such titles (understandable because of durability concerns and the whole problem of dealing with serial publications, but unfortunate -- and they don't give graphic novels as much love as they should).

I am interested, however, in it not so much because of the form or the art, but to see how Allred handles the narrative. In the Meridian Magazine interview (linked to above), Allred says he'll be "telling it straight with visual cues that make everything as clear as we're able to make it." That begs the question of how he'll handle all the preaching. Granted there's plenty of thrilling (and violent!) action in the Book of Mormon, but how will he balance the straight action and the need to give some nod to the actual teachings? And will he even touch Jacob 5?

Allred's The Golden Plates can be ordered online at Premier Comics.

NOTE: As far as I know, this is not a site endorsed by Allred, but it seems to be the easiest way to get issue 1 of "The Golden Plates."

Seagull Book's latest catalog includes two Book of Mormon novels of note

Douglas v. Nufer's The Title of Liberty: A Truly American Novel tell the story, naturally, of Moroni, Helaman and the 2,000 stripling warriors found in Alma 46-62. I don't know anything about the author, but Richard H. Cracroft, BYU professor and a major figure in the world of Mormon letters, reviewed the book (in brief) in the Spring 2004 issue of BYU Magazine: "Douglas V. Nufer, '87, in The Title of Liberty (Granite/Peepsock; 403 pp.; $22.95), recounts imaginatively the heroic saga of the Nephite-Lamanite wars of 76–74 b.c. Nufer offers an exciting tale of the military exploits and strategies of Captain Moroni, who leaves his family and farm to rally his countrymen around the title of liberty. Nufer carefully grounds this adventure in the Nephite chronicles, and his chapter notes point out the differences between history and imagination."

Seagull's catalog has a different blurb (but the same listed source) from Cracroft, but that may be a difference between the print and Web version of the magazine, or the result of a fuller review that was submitted to the publisher but got cut down by the magazine.

What I like about the idea of this novel is that Nufer is taking a small chunk of the Book of Mormon instead of tackling the whole thing -- like Allred is doing and the creators of "The Book of Mormon Movie" planned on doing.

It would seem, however, that Heather Moore is taking the series approach, as Seagull's catalog also includes a listing for her 'historical' novel Out of Jerusalem, Volume One: Of Goodly Parents. What's notable about the work is that, according to the catalog, it "brings the women of the Book of Mormon onto center stage."

ALSO: I admit that I haven't been paying close attention, but judging by Seagull Book's latest catalog, it would seem that along with historical fiction, action/thriller/mystery genre is catching up to romance in terms of popularity in the Mormon market.