Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Eric James Stone Recommendations

In May, I recommended an Eric James Stone story called "A Great Destiny."

Today is apparently Eric James Stone appreciation day, so I'd like to take a moment to recommend a few more of his stories.

"Loophole" is a relatively early story of his that shows that Mormon comedy can actually be funny. I especially recommend it to fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

"The Ashes of His Fathers" is the one I personally find most moving. It brings old, epic values of sacrifice, the search for dignity, and heroic compassion into a tidy, bureaucratic futuristic setting. Beautiful and unexpected. It's also wonderful for showing how a character can find meaning in his faith without requiring any kind of faith from the reader. That's a gift of Eric's that shows up in several of his other stories as well.  

And of course, I have to plug "That Leviathan, Whom Thou Hast Made," which explores what Mormonism might mean to aliens far older and more advanced than us. And what it's like to be stuck without a date in the middle of the sun. 

In all seriousness: I think the stories we dwell on help us think through and refine our views of life and morality. And so I think it's worth paying attention to and supporting great writers like Eric James Stone who come from our community and aren't afraid to artfully share some of their insights with us and the rest of the world.

2 comments:

  1. Hi, I am the associate editor of ldsmag.com. I enjoy your writing and POV and would like to invite you to write for us sometime. We are open to a wide range of topics and welcome your ideas.
    Also, I have started a new website that I thought you might enjoy. It is called Mormon Books and Authors (www.mormonbooksandauthors.com). I hope to be able to serve independent/self-published LDS writers through the site, and help readers who are looking for quality, clean, enjoyable literature. The books on the site are both fiction and non-fiction, and both mainstream oriented and LDS specific. There are many great LDS writers out there who just can't reach their audience and I hope to help them do that.
    I'd like to invite you to submit your book to the site. (It's free- a service to the authors.) If you would like to do so, send me an email at mcbridemarketing@gmail.
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