How the Thoenes Books Tie Together

I’m sure I’m not the only one who’s wanted to see a post with all of Brock and Bodie Thoene's books (at least, that I’ve read) tied together. So therefore, I’m attempting to do one. I’m writing this foreword after beginning the post, and am discovering that doing this is much harder than it looks. :P It’s mostly clear in my head…it’s the getting it onto paper thing that’s hard. However, I enjoyed organizing all that information, and hope it helps you. Any questions, please ask. I’m very sorry if some doesn’t make sense! Like I said, it’s complicated. We’re beginning with a list of the series that they’ve written, plus one stand-alone book. (The book is the last one)

The Zion Chronicles

The Zion Covenant

The Shiloh Legacy

The A. D. Chronicles

Saga of the Sierras

“Twilight of Courage”

Okay, that’s a good start. Let’s start with The Zion Chronicles series. It holds five books: “The Gates of Zion,” “A Daughter of Zion,” “The Return to Zion,” “A Light in Zion,” and “The Key to Zion.” Incidentally, if you’re just starting to read the books by the Thoenes, I recommend that you begin with this series – it’s a good foundation.

The Zion Covenant series ties in the most closely to the Zion Chronicles and contains six original books: “Vienna Prelude,” “Prague Counterpoint,” “Munich Signature,” “Jerusalem Interlude,” “Danzig Passage,” and “Warsaw Requiem.”  Then I think it has three more books, but I haven’t read these yet, so I’m not 100% sure. Everything points to them being part of it. If they’re part of the series, they are: “London Refrain,” “Paris Encore,” and ”Dunkirk Crescendo.”

Now that we have two series out there, let’s tie them together. J Zion Covenant comes chronologically before Zion Chronicles. The latter is set in about 1948, shortly after WWII. Covenant is set in about 1936. I believe it continues through the early 1940’s, but I’m not sure on the dates there. It introduces a few of the characters from Chronicles as children. Probably, you won’t catch this unless you read Chronicles first, like I did. Of course, there are also a bunch of people in Covenant who never show up in Chronicles.

Moving on… The Shiloh Legacy at first appears to be totally separate. It has just three books: “In My Father’s House,” “A Thousand Shall Fall,” and “Say to This Mountain.” However, as you read on, you meet one of the main male characters in Chronicles as a child…about 10 years old, I believe. Also, you get to know the parents of another main character. Which is really really neat. J This series also ties into Saga of the Sierras, but I’ll get to that later.

The A.D. Chronicles contain 12 books. Yes, really. But it’s a wonderful series and worth reading. The books are: “First Light,” “Second Touch,” Third Watch,” “Fourth Dawn,” “Fifth Seal,” “Sixth Covenant,” “Seventh Day,” “Eighth Shepherd,” “Ninth Witness,” “Tenth Stone,” “Eleventh Guest,” and “Twelfth Prophecy.”  Here, the primary part of the story itself doesn’t tie into any of the other books. But the catch is that each story has an opening chapter (as in, somebody’s reading the story in the rest of the book from an old scroll, and you get to know who’s reading it – the stories are old, from Jesus’ time – sorry if this doesn’t make sense). The people in those opening chapters are related to the people met in Chronicles. In fact, if my memory serves me right, they’re the children of one of the two primary couples in Chronicles. Incidentally, I believe there are also a couple from the last Covenant book. Which is just too cool. At least, to those of us who love that series. :)

Finally, we have the seven book Saga of the Sierras series, which I believed was totally unrelated to the rest of the Thoenes books until I read the last one. The books are: “The Man from Shadow Ridge,” “Riders of the Silver Rim,” “Gold Rush Prodigal,” “Sequoia Scout,” “Cannons of the Comstock,” “Year of the Grizzly,” and “Shooting Star.” The seventh and final book is the only one that ties in. It begins with the same chapter that the third book in the Shiloh Legacy series began with. In the chapter, an old man is writing the foreword to a book including the adventures of his life…he signs the book over to his grandson, a primary character in Legacy. In “Shooting Star,” it begins with that same chapter, but then tells one of the adventures from the book, instead of the grandson’s story (which is in “Say to This Mountain”). Understand?

And the last book I mentioned is “Twilight of Courage.” It fits neatly in-between Covenant and Chronicles. I loved the details. For example (and if you haven’t read the books, this will make NO sense to you)… Yacov, a semi-main character in Chronicles. We hear about his family a little bit there, but only as he remembers, or his grandfather and older sister tell him. His older sister is Rachel, who is a primary character in that series. In Covenant, we hear a bit about Yacov and Rachel’s family life before they were captured by the Nazi’s. In “Twilight of Courage” we hear the middle stuff. And in Chronicles, we hear about them as older kids. It’s really neat. And that explanation totally butchered it. My apologies.

Now, there are a few other books by the Thoenes that I haven’t mentioned. In fact, that I haven’t read. One is “Ashes of Remembrance.” Then it looks like there’s a series called the Wayward Wind series. My guess is that this series ties in as well, but since I haven’t read them, I’m not sure. Rest assured that when I do, you’ll get the reviews! J

Anyway, hope this has made you interested in reading the books mentioned here! My favorite series is The Zion Chronicles but the others are all good as well. Enjoy them! And please comment and tell me what you thought, both of this rather complicated post, and of the books, if you’ve read them (or if you plan to). J

P.S. Note that I have reviewed many, but not all of these books. Okay, maybe not even half. But search for reviews, and you will find some. :)