The Great and Terrible, Volumes 1-6 Hardcover Set

THE BROTHERSI just finished reading the first book, The Brothers, and overall liked the writing except for a few things.1. Chris has a tendency to get you bogged down in excessive detail, which slows the read. Yes, I think it is important for a writer to paint a vivid picture of the world he is presenting -- especially if it is one that we have never seen (or can remember in the case of the pre-mortal world), but a talented writer will be able to do that with economy. At times it is almost like Chris is trying to wow us with his ability to write flowery prose. It might impress him, but the end result is that it slows the read. In fact, toward the end of the book I started skimming because he would not stop with the unnecessary descriptions.2. The dialogue. Ok, wow. Chris really, really needs to work on his dialogue. In this book he has the most interesting villain of all time -- satan -- but he gives him dry, on-the-nose dialogue. I can't tell you how many times I cringed when satan TELLS us with his own words that he is a LIAR. That's bad writing 101, never, ever, ever, ever have a character tell you exactly what he is thinking -- ever. It comes across as stilted and unnatural. I think we all know that satan is a liar. He doesn't need to tell us that. ( and oh, by the way, satan would never tell you that)It was also disconcerting that all the other characters sounded the same -- preachy, dry and on-the-nose. Now don't get me wrong, I thought Chris' moral imperatives were well thought out, but they could have been presented so much better.I hope that the dialogue improves in the next books. So far it has been almost fingers-scraping-a-chalk-board bad dialogue. Chris seems like a talented writer, I hope he will consider talking a lesson on how to write effective dialogue that Snaps, Crackles and Pops!3. The resolution at the end with Luke was a little thin. I could understand the twist with Sam, sort of, but Luke's return to the family felt rushed and weak. Perhaps Chris could have spent less time wowing us with his descriptive prose and spent more time on a satisfying ending (yes, I know this is only book 1 in the series and it is not the ending-- but I didn't feel anything when Luke returned to the fold and avoided being cast out into outer darkness... which leads me to the last point --4. Satan and his followers being cast out. Yes, Chris had a monumental task of writing about the pre-mortal existence, but I feel he could have done a better time explaining the logic of satan being cast out. Because, according to LDS theology, satan and 1/3 of the hosts of heaven were cast out to Earth, not outer darkness. So... why did they hold the "excommunication" council to cast out satan (because he was too much of a threat)... only to cast him down to Earth where he would even be a bigger threat? It makes no sense the way it was written. Chris could have done a better job explaining that satan had to be cast down to earth as part of the grand plan. Again, if he would cut out about 25% of his descriptive paragraphs, I think he would find more room to explain the intricacies of satan's rebellion -- which is the reason why this book is compelling. It was the hook that kept the reader going, to find out more information about the rebellion -- but we were left wanting in the end.I understand it is very difficult to write a fictional account of the war in heaven as it is not spelled out in the scriptures, but if you are going to hook us with a huge concept like satan's open rebellion, you must follow through.On the plus side I found many, many valuable insights and lessons on evil vs good, light vs darkness, etc. Chris' writing has a certain wisdom to it that is uplifting and educational.I will continue this review as I read each succeeding book...Ok, just finished reading all 6 books. All and all, not bad.On the plus side: Chris has a good grasp on suspense and character development.Here's what I found lacking:1. The Ammon and Luke characters were somewhat of a disappointment. Chris spent many pages setting them up in the first book ( in the pre-existence) to be the main characters during life on Earth in the last days. But when it came to Earth life, Ammon and Luke were just bratty side notes getting tugged along by all the other characters. To make matters worse, it appears Chris realized this at the end of the last book and decided to give them some "great" task by having them trek to Jackson Co. to help with the temple? What?First of all, the trek was just a side note. Second of all, the whole Jackson Co. temple subplot felt out of place. I mean, the only thing that happened to missouri was a power outage. Hardly grounds for the mormons to move in and claim land that doesn't belong to them. Now if there had been a flood that scraped the land clean so not even a yellow dog remained, well then, that would be different. But as it is Chris did a very poor job with Ammon and Luke, and then made it even worse by adding in Jackson Co.2. I found the writing a little disjointed because the tenor and tone of the dialogue did not match the graphic descriptions of war and destruction. Ok, I understand he was writing to a Mormon audience, thus he had to keep the language clean, but really? I'm not sure why mormons are ok with graphic descriptions like describing someone's head getting blown off, or hand getting blown to pieces, or a very graphic and disturbing description of a man getting burned alive tied to a tree. It felt jarring having a "Golly gee, oh fetch, jeepers" type dialogue with very graphic action. It made it feel, unnatural -- thus very unbelievable.3. I wish Chris would have done book 1 different after reading the other 5 books. He should have spent more time on Sam, and introduced us to Sarah, Bono, Caelyn, and Neil Brighton. As it is Chris wasted an entire book setting up Ammon and Luke who did absolutely NOTHING. Very disappointing indeed.4. Chris prides himself on writing "realistic" scenarios, but in the last book there is absolutely no way an elite special forces unit was going to take Azadah with them. No way. No how. She had no reason to be there, really. They had the Prince's face on their iPod's, they could speak the language, so why did they need her? They weren't even going in near where she lived.5. The dialogue is pretty bad. On a scale of 1 to 10, Chris is at about a 4 (which is High School creative writing quality). My daughter has better dialogue skills than Chris and she hasn't even published yet. Writing on-the-nose dialogue is like dragging your finger nails down a chalk board. I'm not sure why his publishers and fans gave him a free pass on this. How in the world did his publisher or agent think his dialogue was ok? This is a mystery to me.The bottom line is that Chris can write a story but his dialogue is unreadable. Therefore I would not recommend this book or another work of fiction of his. Until he quits writing lazy dialogue where characters tell us exactly how they feel, things they already know and recap things that just happened, I will skip out on any more of Chris' works of fiction.

This is the best series of books you will read. Definitely gives you a lot to think about. You may even choose to read it more than once.

If you wonder if miracles are still among us, this book will give you hope. Though it is fiction, like a all good fiction, it is fact based on the knowledge and understanding that despite the raging of evil all around us, evil will fail and God will come to bring His children home. Until that day, we do not stand alone. Those who loved us before love us still and work to give us hope help, and peace in the battle.A great faith building series I am so grateful was written.

This is a serious of books I have read several times. Bony chillingly accurate in how likely this scenario could be for the end of the world. I really appreciate the weaving of spiritual interactions that help tell the whole story that most authors miss. There is always another side motivating and supporting actions for good or evil. We just have to tap into the power for good to find success and happiness.

I first read these books as they came out 1 at a time every so many months. Since then, I have read them 2 more times and listened to the CD s. If you like books about the fight between good and evil; books that make you laugh and cry; and wonder how evil people can destroy the world, you will love these books too!

This book was recommened to me by my oldest sister. I am LDS and found this series interesting and at times exciting. However, my understanding of the scriptures (I call your BOOKS 'scriptural fiction) - anyway, I could not fathom our spirits feeling cold, or rain, or trudging up steep paths to contemplate, or having several of the other things mentioned that we fought so hard for to experience here on earth (Brothers).For me, there was too much military explanations of flight machinery and aviation experience that was too over my head. And lastly, why did you bring Bono back? It would have been better for Cailyn and their daughter Ellie to know they would be with their husband/ father in the here-after. They had already started working on healing.But all-and-all your series was a good representation of LDS beliefs and how it included several representations of different religions and people I especially liked!

The complete series took a long time to read but there were many jewels all through the book; it probably took less time than reading each separate book.It shows the importance of listening for God's directions and how important service and helping others are. It was well balanced between the darkness of Satan and the light of God.One of the problems we have is trying to visualize what heaven in like. I thought Chris Stewart did a credible job of the fallen angels. I definitely felt the presence of God throughout. While he describes evil whispering in our ears constantly to make us fall, it truly brought home how often we are tempted and don't listen to God and not do what we know is right.A negative, if you will call it one, was that I would have preferred other faiths be portrayed as strong as the Mormons. I am not familiar with the Mormon Saints or prophets but all religions have their own known saints and prophets so that didn't really distract.I am truly impressed with the Mormon's strong belief in families and the way they help each other. Many other faiths do the same but it seems like the Mormon faith is much better at this than any of the others.I do not normally write reviews because my thoughts are probably more superficial than most reviewers but I found myself wanting more especially with world events as they are. It was positive and rewarding.

Definitely a five star for this series I loved every minute of it. Only got it a few months back. I couldn't put it down. I'd recommend this to anyone who likes studying about the last days and who wants to feel the spirit of the eternal plan of God.

A great story. Made me think about my own preparations. A little too much American propaganda though . I had never heard of EMP before. Wow!