Alma

Alma



H.B. Moore



King Noah is thundering with rage. The former high priest Alma has vanished from the city of Nephi, and every night more of his believers manage to escape. The king blames Amulon and threatens certain punishment unless Amulon recaptures Alma—a seemingly impossible task. But Amulon has a plan. An equally valuable prisoner is at his fingertips: Noah’s wife, Maia, whose newfound faith means bitter humiliation for the king and an opportunity for Amulon to seize power. Amulon’s disavowed daughter Raquel has plans of her own. Despite her grief, she is determined to begin a new life in the colony Alma and his followers are building. When Lamanites plunder and burn her settlement, Raquel and her young son are forced to flee to the waters of Mormon. Drama and danger escalate as Alma the Elder organizes the Lord’s Church and baptizes its members, bringing an outpouring of divine grace and power. But even as they rejoice, the believers have profound and perilous trials to face, from the outward threat of Amulon’s treachery to the inward threat of pride and disobedience.



Ok, because I have read The Book of Mormon more than once, and attend Sunday School class with regularity, and I even graduated from Seminary, I knew the ending of this story before I ever opened the book. But I wanted to read it anyway. I was dissapointed when I missed commenting on Heather's blog in time to get a review copy of the book.



Heather is a really sweet person, in addition to being a great writer, and she sent me a book anyway. But that has nothing to do with the fact that I am going to say good things about this book.



So, back to the fact that I knew the ending of the story at the beginning. I just didn't know the route Heather would take to get there. It was a great trip with beautiful scenery and only a few sidetrips.



Amulon- what a horrible person he is and Moore does a perfect job of showing us just how horrible and evil he is. I never want to meet him and feel sorry for the daughters of the Lamanites. Showing us the possible way he manipulated and schemed his way into the good graces of the Lamanites and into power.



Alma- used to be best friends with Amulon and sunk to deepest, darkest place of his life before he chose to leave King Noah's court in Moore's earlier book, Abinadi. (but you don't have to read it to understand Alma)

He is now a prophet and leader and at odds with Amulon, who later becomes leader of Alma and his people.



I would have liked to see more of Alma's transformation from repentent man to humble servant of God and less of the match making of Raquel's and Helam's mothers.



I loved the story that Heather has weaved around and with this familiar scripture passage. I love the way she makes the familiar names become real people. I love the way she has imagined and portrayed all the what ifs and whys and maybes that are left out of the scriptures and they feel real as if that is the way it could have happened.



Heather's next book will be about Alma's son, a newborn in this book, Alma the Younger. I am looking forward to the journey she will take us on with him.



Buy the book here



Product details

Linda Curley Christensen, artist

6” X 9”

336 pages

ISBN 978-1-59811-864-3

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Indeed.