Dear Chris Stewart:
I don't know how to contact you. I'm sure you'll never read this. I don't know why I have this great urge to give you feed back. Here it is:
I finished reading the 6th book of the Great and Terrible series.
I loved the subject matter and the research of the US military, other nations, political leaders and geography of the events in your books were excellent.
However I couldn't help but get the feeling that you were rushed and under pressure with dead lines to finish the books that most of your time was spent on building the characters (whom I loved) and the political story.
There were soo many conversations left out and put to the reader to fill in the blanks. When I read Anna Karenina I realized how very important conversation is. We had to assume during the many many days they were pent up in that apartment in Chicago that they talked, but the reader doesn't really know. Didn't Sam and the others change after the miracles of the blessings? Did they not talk about it amongst themselves? We as latter-day saints have to rely on the spirit and our own imaginations to understand how a healing by the priesthood power may take place. Couldn't we visualize your imagination as the writer to explain to us what was said and how it worked? Did not these people pray together? Wouldn't they have prayed before they finally ventured out of the apartment? I wanted to know more about what the Saints were doing to help each other. Could Azedah have spoken a little more and told her story to the others? Could we have witnessed the love grow more between Azedah and Sam? I think that Ammon and Luke although almost 19 would have had enough maturity and character to not have to say "dude" so much during important moments. I still wondered with Teancum: was that The (Eternal) Father he was with sometimes? Or was the Father always Neil?
I really enjoyed the perspective of the evil angels. The first book of the spirit world was VERY interesting. The war in heaven was fascinating and made me ponder a lot about it. It helped me realize what I have already been feeling with the war we are dealing with here on earth between good and evil and our family relationships. Thank you so much for that.
What happened to the guy who had the millions for Azedah? Many times when you opened the chapter it took so long for you to tell us who you were describing that I would have to go back and re-read it to visualize it correctly. I am left after reading the books wanting much more. I think it must have been very difficult to accomplish what you have done and thank you for taking this subject on. Now I know that I need more guns and water storage!
Thanks for the Ride,
Julianne
