US OPEN TENNIS

Tower of Thunder (Heimerdinger, Chris. Tennis Shoes Series, 9.) Customer Review: Fun as always
This book is almost an apology for the so-so predecessor “Warriors of Cumorah”. It introduces plenty of that classic Tennis Shoes adventure and awesome characterizations as it explores that crazy time period of the Tower of Babel and the days before that final battle of Captain Moroni. Again, Heimerdinger goes overboard with some hokey plot devices, but it’s all so well-written that I was able to forgive him.
Customer Review: Like the Tower of Babel, these books are becoming simply TOO spectacular.
I’m sorry, but I have to admit it publicly: I’m starting to be disappointed with this series. Blasphemy, I know. How can I possibly remain a faithful Latter-day Saint and have such an opinion? I don’t have an answer to that.

However, as to why I didn’t really care for this book I DO have an answer. The book on its own is a fun ride through ancient Jewish tradition, ancient Jewish myth, and the scriptural accounts of Genesis and Mormon. The characters we’ve all known and loved are still there, and the pacing is tight and fast. What’s not to love?

Well, for me the story is simply TOO big and TOO fast. The first book in the series presented a story told with attention to detail and archeology. To me, the most impressive idea behind both the first and second books was the author’s attempt to portray the Nephite civilzation as both small and barely into the Iron Age (which would be accurate for the time periods invovled).

Over the next books, however, we’ve seen a continuing change between using archeological records to using cultural traditions. In the first book we see that most of the Nephites are poor agriculturalists with few urbanites. We are told about how they grind corn, how the cloth they wear is simple, and how their swords are nothing more than wood and volcanic glass. It seems the most impressive building Jim and Garth see on their journey is the Temple of Nephi, which was basically a large box of a building (no offense is meant by that, either).

Contrast this with the city of Jacobugath with it’s nearly impossible architecture and the Hollywood-sized pyrotechnics of the destruction of said city. Compare this to the Tower of Babel being so high that the air at the top is thin, with a base so huge in area that it takes DAYS to walk around it. Compare this to a huge flying City of Enoch that seems to circle the Earth every few months.

In Holywood, in order for sequels to be monetarily successful they must be BIGGER, BETTER, FASTER, and just plain MORE than their predecessors. In my opinion, Mr. Heimerdinger has fallen victim to this line of thinking in his books. No longer must the past be somewhat accurate, it must be AMAZING. We’re no longer dealing with what people have studied, dug up, or what we think we know about the people of the past; we’re dealing with what ancient Jewish myths have said about the past. Suddenly we’re no longer protecting Captain Moroni from a secret combination (something that we know could have easily happened), we’re protecting the only copy of a Gospel from destruction, we’re saving the Baby Abraham from destruction by his father and by the all-powerful Nimrod, who apparently rules the Entire World with an Iron Fist (and flying machines!). I’ll give you that all of these situations could be *possible*, but for me I’ve lost the respect I used to have because they are no longer even *probable*.

Mr. Heimerdinger, if you ever read this, please don’t think that each book must contain a hundred million more dollars worth of special effects than its predecessors. I read these books because I want to see how modern saints react to going into the actual past as far as modern archeology knows, not into the mind of an imaginative third-century-BC rabbi. I read them because I like the characters, not because I want to be blinded with the idea of “Wow! That idea is SO COOL!” I’ve been blinded so much that I’m starting to not see the point.

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