Season of Sacrifice by Tristi Pinkston

My first book review for my Summer Book Trek 2008 is Season of Sacrifice by Tristi Pinkston.

I have never read a book like Season of Sacrifice before. The closest I've come is Gerald Lund's series The Work and The Glory. However, unlike The Work and The Glory, Season of Sacrifice takes very little creative license with the historical facts.

Season of Sacrifice tells the story of those Mormon pioneers who were called to establish a route between southern Utah and the San Juan valley. They are respectively referred to as the Hole-in-the-Rock pioneers because they had to blast their way through a small crevice in the rock to make a road wide enough for the wagon train to pass through.

In particular, the story follows the lives of Ben Perkins, Mary Ann Perkins and her sister, Sarah--Sarah and Ben are Tristi's own ancestors, so the story was close to her heart and I believe she does it justice.

I enjoyed the book and was fascinated by all the challenges the pioneers were forced to overcome. They lived by the theme that if God had willed for them to cross the rocky desert, He must have provided a way for them to do so. That kind of obedience and faithful dedication is inspiring to me and I enjoyed reading about all the opportunities they had to prove themselves to Father and He to them. They obeyed and He never failed to reward them.

My one disappointment with this book was that I felt that in an effort to not spare any important historical information, Tristi sacrificed some storytelling. There were a few scenes where I felt rushed and didn't have a good handle on what was happening in the scene all around and I wished things could just slow down a little bit and let me feel, see, hear and taste what was happening.

However, if you're interested in Church history, or even just the history of the settling of the west, I would still highly recommend this book. If you're looking for more information on polygamy, A this would not be the book for you: While the topic is addressed, it is done so quite briefly and without any specific information. But as a telling of the epic adventure of a small group of Saints who undertook a death defying trek to obey the command of their God, this is a true star in the heavens. A worthy addition to your collection of 'good books'--Tristi Pinkston's Season of Sacrifice.