Best-selling author Gerald Lund is planning to do something he has never done before — take the characters from one series and introduce them into another series.
Lund's latest two historical fiction novels, "Only the Brave: The Continuing Saga of the San Juan Pioneers" (Deseret Book, $21.99, 272 pages) and "Fire and Steel, Vol. 1: A Generation Rising" (Deseret Book, $21.99, 279 pages) were both released in late 2014. In a note to readers at the end of "Only the Brave," Lund revealed his surprise.
"I hope my reasons for doing so will become obvious as readers see how two families from rural southern Utah … merge with one another and then eventually cross paths with a family in southern Germany," Lund wrote.
"Only the Brave" is the sequel to "The Undaunted," the story of the Hole-in-the-Rock pioneers who settled in the four corners region. Although Lund writes the tale through the eyes of a different family in the new book, the overall story is based on the true events of what transpired in the 1880s for about 250 Mormon pioneers called by leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to establish a community in the harsh country of southeastern Utah.
"Fire and Steel" takes a similar approach, but with a fictional German family and the events leading up to and through World War I. Readers get to know Bavarian dairy farmer Hans Eckhardt, his wife, Inga, and their son, Hans Otto. When young Hans Otto shows he's been blessed with unique gifts and abilities, his parents sacrifice to provide him with educational opportunities that will hopefully allow him to improve his station in life. At one point, they meet two Mormon missionaries. But one fateful decision takes Hans Otto away from school and places him in the trenches of the Great War.
In his next book, Lund promises to start bringing the families from both books together.
Lund served as a member of the LDS Church's Second Quorum of the Seventy from 2002 to 2008. He previously served for 35 years in the LDS Church Educational System. He is the author of 29 books, including fiction and nonfiction.
Both books have no swearing, sexual content or described violence.
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