Wow, this is fascinating. One of my favorite BoM characters turned into a masterful work of fiction and deceit! Poor Hagoth must be rolling in his (undoubtedly well-built) casket.

Can fiction be inspiring? moving? engaging? spiritual? enlightening? You bet. Just read the Work and the Glory series. Does that make it true? Nope! Mr. Landis is a talented and creative guy. I'll give him that much. So was J.R.R.Tolkien, does that mean that there really was a Shire? Nope.

Mr. Landis, I'm sorry to join the growing chorus against your claims. But may I suggest that you simply tell the truth and release this material as the work of fiction it is? I bet you'd get a lot more readers that way. Something about how you continually, in every one of your posts, try to discredit the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is very telling about your true intentions.

There is absolutely ZERO similarity between you and Joseph Smith, and the fact that you have tried in several posts to draw comparisons is incredibly disrespectful, and dare I say, evil. Point 1) Joseph Smith had no "secret translators" as you claim to have. He and his scribes did the work themselves, and never hid the origins of the Book of Mormon. What you have told us is that you have some mysterious 5 translators who keep dying of various strange causes. Who are they? Why hide them? Oh yeah, because they don't exist. Point 2) When Joseph Smith restored the church, it had to be done because it wasn't on the earth at that time. Now it is. So why would the Lord work through some agitator like you to reveal his truths instead of through the organization that HE established?

Folks, I don't think Mr. Landis is actively responding to these posts, so I'm leaving this message, not so much for him, but for whomever follows me in stumbling upon this very interesting thread. Bottom line, enjoy reading what Mr. Landis has written, but please 1) don't quote it in your next Sunday School lesson, and 2) remember that if the LDS church truly is God's church, then he'll use it and it's ordained leaders to let us know when some new bit of real scripture is worth our reading.

- DPA