Rating: 
Summary: Well researched, compassionate and insightful
Review: I am a big Jon Krakauer fan, and when this book came out, I thought it was odd that an adventure writer chose to take on religious subject manner. Throughout the book, I felt Mr. Krakauer demonstrated his talent for objectivity, especially considering the brutal nature of this material. The book was not only a good history lesson of the Mormon faith, but was also a revealing look at the extremes that religions can go to.
Rating: 
Summary: Soapbox material
Review: This is an intelligent author who writes with clarity, can tell a good story and pays attention to the details. However, he beats the reader up with his opinion of religion, not even slightly between the lines. Clearly he thinks that religious faith is about as intelligent as believing in Santa Claus but is considerably more destructive, or potentially destructive. Sure he has a right to his opinion and even has a right to compose a book on the subject. I resent however that he attempts to disguise this opinion in the cloak of journalism. Interesting that he chose Mormonism as his example and only briefly refers to "Evangelical Christians" and Catholics. I think he must have recognized that if he went after faith, rather than a cultic tragedy he would not have sold books and would have alienated too many people. It is too bad that an author capable of solid journalism stoops to such tactics.
Rating:
Summary: The Cult of Latter Day Loonies
Review: This book is perfection from start to finish, and highly educational. If you ever wanted to know how dangerous some religious cults are and what their twisted belief systems can bring about, then read this book. What you are about to read is not what the author intended or was trying to convey in his book, it's what I believe. The mormon religion is the fasttest (and most dangerous) growing religion in the world it is estimated that by the year 2080 it will be the 3rd largest, what a truely frightening future(and vision)this world has in store for it.(Thank God! I'll be in heaven by then). A world where men belittle their women making them subserviant, uneducated, pregnant slaves(not that it's a bad thing) to be used at their whim. The Mormon Church accumulate's wealth at an enormous and alarming rate! money buys Power! and they're using it to bribe senators and congressmen to influence or pass whatever agenda or bill they think best represents their incondite belief system. They should rename their cult "The Church of Divine Profit" because that seems to be the driving force behind it. "You too can live the way of the self righteous! just send $29.95 and we will send you a heart". What I find particularly frightening is there never seems to be a shortage of poor, lonely village idiots who want to belong to any club, regardless of how misguided or depraved. Most fools believe they're so important they belong in a better place when they die. Personally, If I were GAAAWWWDDDD; I wouldn't even bother with the human animal(I'd wonder where this virus came from) I'd pitch all of you kicking and screaming into the fiery pits of hell and start all over again. This time I would add a smaller brain that works on the fundamentals of love, acceptance and understanding(I thought that's what religion was about...HMMM?) instead of ingnorance,intollerance,hatred and wealth. This is what religion all boils down to...FEAR OF DEATH! Enough... READ THIS BOOK you won't regret it and I may even let you in heaven. XXXOOO
Rating: 
Summary: Thorough, but ultimately disappointing.
Review: I must say that I read this book because I have enjoyed Krakauer's other books. I found this dense, and at times repetitive. To me it was not as interesting, nor as readable, as his adventure books. That said, I admire what he has done to a large degree. The book is well researched and well written. I believe that the author tried to present an objective work, because he has lifelong friends who are Mormons and admires their rectitude, as he states in his notes. But as presented, the work does much to condemn Mormon Fundamentalism without saying so outright. If you like dense tomes dealing with religious history and extremism this book is for you, but if you don't, I recommend that you skip this one.
Rating:
Summary: you might want to reread this book
Review: I'm afraid that in their glee at finding a seemingly lucid unflattering investigation of Mormonism that some reviewers here have completely missed Krakauer's point; which is that anyone who participates in a religion is irrational, the extent of their delusion based on the degree of their orthodoxy.This really is an overlong essay, based heavily on anecdotal evidence. Researched using similar tools as in Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code, although better written without the artifice of a silly fictious adventure. Indeed, Krakauer has constructed his thesis by suspending a block in mid air then attempting to support it by adding more air. If you look closely at the origins of any religion you will find serious questions. So what? Just because mom was pregnant when she and dad tied the knot, does that make them less married? Krakauer is an agnostic. He doesn't think Mormonism is any less valid than Islam. He thinks that all religion is bogus. If he had lived next door to Methodists growing up, his thesis would have not changed much, only the cast of characters.
Rating: 
Summary: informative and timely
Review: i stopped through salt lake city a few years back to do a little geneology and try & satisfy my curiosity about the history of the mormon church. it was a somewhat fruitful trip, but i was left wondering what a non-church mormon history would have to say. this is it. to be exact i think this book merits 4.5 stars; the only criticism i have is that there is very little included about the motivation for the U.S. government's harassment of the church. (maybe they were justified, i don't know-- i'll have to find out elsewhere.) was it because the LDS was too radical in its pursuit of polygamy, or was it wholly in response to violence committed by members of the church? i've always been curious about this. was the gov't position based on some kind of pragmatism or was it more ideological? overall, i highly recommend this book. as with his other books, krakauer digresses freely from the tale at hand to present salient chunks of historical background. as someone who takes more than a passing interest in how history relates to current events, i find this style to be very edifying-- and satisfying. if you're one who doesn't like distractions & digressions you may not enjoy this book as much as i did. krakauer has quite a penchant for taking a modern news story and parlaying it into a keen inquiry into larger philosophical issues. keep up the good work jon.
Rating:
Summary: Weekend Warrior Half-way up Everest
Review: I'm reasonably fit: I hike, I jog sometimes. Yet I get the impression, from Krakauer's earlier book, Into Thin Air, that he would not advise me to climb Mount Everest, and from Into the Wild, that he might warn me against living off the land in Alaska.
Krakauer is reasonably fit, intellectually. He's passionate, curious, and a great story-teller. He has studied early Mormonism, and the fanatics whose murders he chronicles, quite well, despite complaints by mainstream Mormons below. (What else can they say? "Official" Mormonism is a strange hybrid: the classic 19th Century blend of guns, girls, gods, and snake oil, evolving in the direction of orthodoxy, but required by corporate necessity to deny both the pagan nature of the original, and the radical nature of changes required.)
The story is bloodcurdling and somber, and fits with Krakauer's other books well. Why do people do crazy things? What weakness besets mortal man, betraying us to unnatural risks and unnecessary deaths? Are we mad, or is it the logic of the human situation that drives us to it? There's a bit of Shakespeare in Krakauer. The fact that the stories he tells are true-life, makes it all the more interesting.
But religion is even more complex and dangerous than ice falls or grizzly bears. Krakauer tries fitfully to parlay his knowledge of Mormonism into an assault on the summit of larger religions, about which he demonstrates little knowledge. To assume that all religions are like the one you happen to study, is the ultimate Weekend Warrior fallacy: "Climb one mountain, and you've climbed them all."
My view is that study of "fundamentalist" Mormonism does shed light on "revolutionary religions": "classical" Mormonism, Islam, Marxism, Peoples' Temple. It is of less value in trying to understand Advetic or Buddhist thinking, (though there are similar cults in Asia) and only confuses the issue in dealing with Confucianism or Christianity.
When Krakauer yields to the impulse to generalize, he often gets it badly wrong. He assumes that religious faith is by definition blind, unrelated to evidence. But most religions in fact offer evidence, good or bad, for their claims. Christian thinkers, including first-rate scholars, never tire of explaining that reason supports faith. Krakauer has obviously never come across any of those explanations, or the evidence given to back it up.
"There are some ten thousand extant religious sects -- each with its own cosmology, each with its own answer for the meaning of life and death. Most assert that the other 9,999 not only have it completely wrong, but are instruments of evil, besides."
This is theology with a butcher's knife. In fact, most religions do NOT claim all the others are "completely wrong." Buddhists agree with Hindus about reincarnation and karma. Islam affirms Jesus as a prophet. Christianity accepts the Jewish Bible, and affirms Muslim faith in God, Taoist faith in the power of the weak, Confucian love of kindness and loyalty, and much that is valuable in Hinduism and Buddhism -- as great Christian thinkers have never tired of pointing out. Actually, it is atheism that assumes all religions are mainly wrong about all the most important facts.
"The impetus for most fundamentalist movements . . . is a yearning to return to the mythical order and perfection of the original church."
Perhaps. But doesn't it matter if the "original church" was founded by a polygamist who conquered the Arabian peninsula with the sword, a treasure-hunting con man, a monk who withdraws from society, or a person who healed the sick, forgave his enemies, and died for his disciples? Joseph Smith was a scoundrel; that doesn't mean Confucius, Buddha, or St. John were. Defining fundamentalism as "return to the original" does not join, it divides, religions, because the originals differ.
It is vital in our day to try to understand religions both respectfully and honesty. I think Krakauer tries to do this, in regard to Joseph Smith and latter-day imitators. He does not, however, squarely face the vast, uber-alpine chasms and icefalls that separate the specificities of human religions. Understandably, perhaps, since to question the convention that all religions are basically the same has become the ultimate heresy. But isn't that all the more recent to go after it? Krakauer climbs a minor peak in the Utah Rockies, and gets a touch of altitude sickness. If he wants to challenge the truly Himalayan fallacies of our day, he should chuck the relativistic cliches and other a priori dogmas like so many bags of twinkies, and go into serious intellectual training.
Still, within these limitations, this dramatic, passionate, and tragic tale fascinates, teaches me a lot about Mormonism, and, like Krakauer's other books, gave me a great deal of food for thought.
christthetao@msn.com
Rating:
Summary: Under the Banner of Heaven
Review: I am seeing a great flaw in every review that is negative of this book. The reviewers are showing that they have not read the book. The book says that the LDS church and the FLDS did not kill in 1980. But their doctrine STATES that this action of having your own revelation is what they believe in. So it is on your own that you must make this conclusion that the LDS, deny it if they will is responsible for these extremist.
This book is about Mormonism, denied by most readers, because Doctrine and Covenants 132 is still in their book.
And as far has the LDS church not killing people...do you know any of the history of Utah and so forth of the church? This book even talks about characters like Porter Rockwell. The man was a savage! Or how about Mountain Meadow Massacre...
There is to large a number of reviews here that are attacking this book, and it is based of their own conclusions reached by being infuriated that someone would write an unbiased history that is has truth to it and doesn't hide it in a mountain.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent read
Review: This book was a fascinating read. It not only describes a murder of two innocent people and the aftermath, but is very in depth about fundamental mormonism and polygamy. I could not put this book down.
Rating:
Summary: Great Book.. somewhat boring
Review: This book was a good description of FUNDAMENTALIST MORMONS... not todays STREAMLINE MORMONS (whatever those really are). I enjoyed this book and couldnt put it down. It got boring in parts where he tried to explain the family histories. (Evangeline chapter etc). I really enjoyed learning more about my own (soon to be former) religion. Many things that I did not know, or knew very little about. Overall if you want to learn about MORMONS, do not read this book. If you want to learn about freaky FUNDAMENTALISTS then read this book.
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