Thursday, December 1, 2011

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. :)

16 comments:

Kristi-Anna said...

I'm re-reading the Thoene books. I wanted to read them chronologically... I'm thinking of this order:
Shiloh Legacy
Zion Covenant
The Twilight of Courage
Zion Chronicles

I've not interest in the Saga of the Sierras or the AD Chronicles right now... but does this seem right to you!?

THANKS :)

Kristina said...

Hi , I came across your post as I was looking up more about the Thoene's, and I love that you explained how they're tied together! Like you, I started with the Zion Chronicles and went from there. However, unless you have read them since this post (and I hope you have), there is another whole series you're missing that goes in between Zion Chronicles and the AD Chronicles! The Zion Legacy series - It's RICH and AWESOME, and definitely essential to complete the picture! :)

So thanks for posting this, otherwise I may have never thought to pick up the other books by the Thoene's! One of the reasons I loved this series was because I love Jerusalem and Israel and of course, the Lord, so I Ioved the way it all came together - now I know where I'M missing pieces! :)

Thanks!
Kristina

Tracy said...

Many thanks. I just finished reading the A.D. Chronicles, plus Jesus Wept and Take This Cup. I wanted to read more Thoene novels and wondered where to start. After reading this post, I now have an action plan!
Tracy

Unknown said...

The A.D. Chronicles tie in and are truly inspiring.

Iona Hoeppner said...

Thanks so much for writing this. I've read many of the books but not yet all. I read them out of order as I found them... No planning to read them in logical order. Thanks for your help with that.

Marion said...

I loved ALL of the books I’ve read so far! I visited Israel after reading TheZion Chronicles in 1989. I asked the guide certain things that I had learned from the books and he was amazed that I knew what I knew. Very accurate on what the Jewish people went through during 1948. Now, thankfully, because of this post, I can read them all again in
order! Well done!

Unknown said...

Thank you for posting this. I picked up a series at a rummage sale and was having a very difficult time figuring out if the different series tied together and have only read one book so far. It is Zion Chronicles book 1. Sounds like I have a good beginning. I am trying to get other people interested in these authors as well. So glad to have discovered them and for your input! Thanks.

Unknown said...

Just finished the Twilight of Courage for the 2nd time. Have read many of the others and am looking forward to reading them again. Thank you for lining them up. I don't think I read them in order.

ntsot said...

Thank you, that was exactly the explanation I was looking for. I just started to read the 7th book in the Zion Covenant series and was wondering where to go next. Thanks for your help.

Barbara said...

Yes,I agree with your proposed order of the series and books. I,too, read their works in historical order. I feel it truly brings history to life that way.

Unknown said...

Just started re-reading for the 4th or 5th time after a long break. I remember that I once worked out which Zion Covenant books to start with, before interspersing them with the first Zion Chronicles books, to get the sequence of the story. Has anyone else ever worked this out?

Mr. Danny Miller said...

I am a little confused over the Saga of the Sierras series. It is stated that there are seven books in the series. However, what has become of the 8th book in the series, entitled, The Saga of the Sierras: Flames on the Barbary Coast? What gives? And how can I buy Flames on the Barbary Coast in paperback?

BethBlevins said...

Thank you for this! My mother loved the Thonene books and read all that were available until she passed away in 2017. While I had started one once I just couldn’t get into it at the time, but knew that some day I would come back and read them. 2022 feels like the year for me to do this. I’m so excited that I can read through these books in the coming year. Not only does that give me a clear reading (and collecting) direction for the year ahead but knowing that my mom loved them will make me feel a little closer to her as I read through them this coming year. I had a few collected already and had the #1 big the Zion Chronicles and the A.D. Chronicles. I have searched and searched for someone to suggest a reading order and was so happy to see you suggested starting with the Zion Chronicles which I had some of already.

Anonymous said...

Finished reading Twilight of Courage for the 7th time. A sequel would be nice.

KDSlogic said...

Im so glad you did this. I am a bit confused. I started re-reading the Zion Covenant Then the Zion Diaries 1 and 2. I was lost in 1 bc of the 36 people who live forever. Strange.
Wish I could understand that. Now where do I go. The Twighlight of Courage????? So I have read 1-9, 2 diary books, I wasnt crazy about those. To much repetition of the other books.

Anonymous said...

So then, what's the consensus? While it's nice to read that there is a tie-in, I'd like to see the list of what comes in first and last and in-between.