The Tennis Shoes Adventure Series is a series of LDS fiction novels written by Chris Heimerdinger. They are most widely read by young adult members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Maps, Directions, and Place Reviews
Titles
There are twelve books in the series so far, with the thirteenth expected to be released soon:
- Tennis Shoes among the Nephites (1989)
- Gadiantons and the Silver Sword (1991)
- Tennis Shoes and the Feathered Serpent (1995)
- Tennis Shoes and the Feathered Serpent, Part Two (1996)
- The Sacred Quest (formerly Tennis Shoes and the Seven Churches) (1997)
- The Lost Scrolls (1998)
- The Golden Crown (1999)
- Warriors of Cumorah (2001)
- Tower of Thunder (2003)
- Kingdoms and Conquerors (2005)
- Sorcerers and Seers (2010)
- Drums of Desolation (2014)
- Thorns of Glory (2017?)
New Tennis Shoes Releases Video
General synopses
The main characters of the series are Jim Hawkins, his sister Jenny Hawkins and Garth Plimpton, and later, their family members and friends. The novels involve people from modern times being transported to the past (at various times and locations described in the Standard Works) by means of a cave in Wyoming called "Frost Cave" (a real cave on the Spirit Mountain in Cody, Wyoming) in the United States. They feature both Book of Mormon and Bible themes.
The first four books feature Jim Hawkins as the main character: first as a teenager, then as a young man in college, and in the third and fourth as a father of three children.
- In book 1, Jim, his friend, Garth, and his younger sister, Jennifer, discover a time passage and spend two months in the time of the Nephites, at the time of Helaman and Captain Teancum around 67 B.C.
- In book 2 (Gadiantons and the Silver Sword), a few inhabitants of Book of Mormon times travel to the present day in search of an evil sword, the Sword of Coriantimur, an infamous sword that continuously pops up in the lives of the family, throughout many of the books. It ends with Jim destroying it, in modern times.
- Books 3 and 4 are two parts of the same story, when Jim Hawkins' 16-year-old daughter, Melody, is kidnapped and Jim takes his other two children, Steffanie and Harry, with him to early first-century Book of Mormon times to rescue her. They are caught in the maelstrom of the Savior's death, while in the Americas and are there to witness Jesus Christ's coming to the people of the Americas after his resurrection. These are also the first books in the series to be written in somebody besides Jim's point of view. The 3rd and 4th books are written in dual person, about half in Jim's point of view and the rest in Melody's point of view.
- Books 5-7 are another multi-part story, in which many members of Jim Hawkins' now-large family visit the land of Israel in late first-century Biblical times.
- Books 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 involve fourth-century Nephite settings, and book 9 (Tower of Thunder), the early-Biblical time of Abraham and Noah (close to 3000 B.C.)
Characters
Protagonists
Antagonists
* People from LDS Church standard works who appear in the series.
+ Characters based on other historical records.
Thorns of Glory and Zarahemla books
In an interview included in The Passage to Zarahemla DVD, Heimerdinger said that volume 11 would likely be published in 2009 and would be called Thorns of Glory.
In an announcement published on his official blog on November 22, 2009, however, Heimerdinger said that because of the complexities involved with the book he is currently writing, there will likely be two more volumes in the current adventure. Heimerdinger said that tentative plans are for book 11 (Sorcerers and Seers) to be published in early fall in 2010, with volume 12 (more appropriately named Thorns of Glory) to be published 6-12 months after book 11.
Later in his official blog, Heimerdinger said that he had submitted the draft to his publisher, and he didn't know how far into the editing process they are. He did say, however, that "as of now the publisher's plan is to release the book this fall -- September, if I understood them correctly. Things can change, but as of now, that's the intent."
In even later blog posts, Heimerdinger stated that the story had gotten even more complex and would culminate in combining the Tennis Shoes Adventure Series with his Passage to Zarahemla series. The volume uniting the two series was Passage's sequel, Escape From Zarahemla. Future Heimernovels will serve as sequels to both series.
In 2013, Heimerdinger posted that "For months I've told fans that the new Tennis Shoes book would be called Thorns of Glory. Most know that this book is long enough that my publisher will likely divide it into two books. I've presumed it would be Thorns of Glory Part 1 and Thorns of Glory Part 2, sort of like the Feathered Serpent books. HOWEVER, I think I've come up with a better title for the first of these 2 books: Drums of Desolation. Let me know what you think. Just know that Book 13 is likely still called Thorns of Glory."
Subsequent posts confirmed that Drums of Desolation would indeed be the title of the next book. It was released on October 1, 2014, though an option to pre-order from Heimerdinger himself was immediately available.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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