The Compass Maker

By: Nate Jensen

Narrated by: Dallin Bradford

On a fateful night that would forever shape Book of Mormon history, someone placed a brass compass of curious workmanship in front of Lehi's tent.

In The Compass Maker, a novel set in 600 BC Jerusalem, a skilled and faithful metalworker named Ezra has a vision of a mysterious brass compass that he is commanded to build. Just before the vision occurs, Ezra has constructed and delivered to the powerful Laban one of the greatest and most famous swords in history - a sword that, in a twist of fate and irony, becomes the instrument of Laban's own death. Will Ezra's wife, who has lost her faith, or the mounting political intrigues swirling around him derail Ezra's efforts to build the compass on time?

The Compass Maker is a story of faith, intrigue, love, and sacrifice in which ancient characters - both real and fictional - take part in the unfolding drama of the beginnings of Book of Mormon history in ancient Jerusalem.

©2021 Cedar Fort Publishing and Media (P)2021 Cedar Fort Publishing and Media

Great for a 1st

This is Nate Jensen's first published fill-length novel, and he does very well considering that. The story concept works well. There are times when outcomes seemed forced or cheaply executed, such as the high priest's realization of his culpability at the end, followed up by no change at all in the character's behavior. It. also bothered me that the writer seemed to not understand that magnetic ore loses its magnetic properties when heated, and I was disappointed that there was no discussion of how steel made its way into Israel at the time of Zedekiah (analysis of existing examples are rare, but the findings are exciting: all are meteoric iron, with a mixture of nickel and other iron originating naturally in meteors). The dialogue also contains anachronisms that just felt weird in the mouths of 7th century BC Israelites. One counter to this that Jensen often employed was to borrow scriptural language, but in a few cases this didn't work well, such as when Ishmael quotes some famous lines by 19th century prophet Joseph Smith. These dialogue borrowings are a bit like Easter Eggs--nods to an audience that knows its LDS canon well. But many times a subtler reference, couched in historically appropriate verbiage, would have worked better. I hope to see more stories by Jensen and see improvements as he grows as a writer.