Vanishing Act

VANISHING ACT is the second of John Feinstein's young adult mystery series centered on two budding sports journalists. Unlike the first book, a story about tennis is easier the fictionalize. There are so many players in the game that the writer doesn't have to worry about introducing new and different characters. So there is no reliance on fake teams interacting with their real counterparts that he had to use in LAST SHOT.

The story reads well enough and there were enough twists and turns to keep me interested. What I do find bothersome are the title references. The last shot in LAST SHOT is the key moment in the book, but it doesn't explain the mystery. VANISHING ACT, on the other hand, refers directly to the central mystery and in some ways can be seen to spoil it.

The book is still fun and the mystery is intriguing, and I look forward to the next book.

The Magicians

So I read George R.R. Martin's blurb for THE MAGICIANS and I thought this will be an excellent read. Never judge a book by it's blurb.

Lev Grossman took the concepts raised by Harry Potter and the Narnia books, added a heavy dollop of Donna Tartt's THE SECRET HISTORY, a liberal teaspoon of Dungeons & Dragons, and came out with a perfectly serviceable story about magic and it's role in the world. However, the story is not all that pleasant and probably a little more world-weary than the usual urban fantasy.

Grossman seems preoccupied at first with the notion that this is how a school for wizards would really be and peppers his descriptions with digs at the Potter series. His characters swear, molest, fornicate, badger, bully, and drink with abandon. They don't really care about magic or learning, but with their own selfish natures. As the story evolves, it becomes apparent that these lost souls will be just as lost when they graduate as when they started school.

At this point, the characters jump into the Narnia-like world that is the underlying current of the novel. There they get to act out their heroic fantasies only to find that reality and dreams are completely separate from each other. All in all, the point of the book seems to be that life never really lives up to what we would like. A noble sentiment, but one I've read enough to make this book seem like a chore.

I truly respect what this book attempted to do - to re-take the fantasy genre from the youth market. However, I had many stops and starts with the book and even had to use two different libraries to get through it due to the amount of holds on the title. I'm surprised this book isn't generating the chatter that other mainstreamed fantasy books did upon their release. Perhaps the subject matter too closely mirrors the Harry Potter phenomena to draw in the public imagination.

In the end, I have mixed feelings. I enjoyed some of it, but other parts seemed too derivative. It's not a bad book, but it is not my cup of tea.

Last Shot

In the midst of reading THE MAGICIANS, I left it at work and so picked this out of my library pile. Needless to say it was a couple of days until I went back to the other book. I have read John Feinstein's THE LAST AMATUERS and have listened to his commentary on radio and TV, but never thought to look at his YA mystery series. Then I read a review of the latest one and was intrigued. And here we are.

Stevie Thomas and Susan Carol Anderson are teenage journalists who win a writing contest and get to cover the Final Four. While there, they stumble across a plot to fix the series and of course they must do something about it. The weaknesses of the book are the "Scooby-Doo" plotline (I would have gotten away with if it hadn't been for those darned kids) and the obvious fictional school which will be the focus of the plot. In this case it is Minnesota State, a nominal Big Ten team. The first point is a common weakness of all teenage mystery stories and is difficult to transcend. The second is just too obvious to anyone who knows sports. Minnesota State was the fictional college on the TV show COACH because there was no such school. However, there is now a Minnesota State University. It is my mom's former alma mater, Mankato State. And there is no way Mankato State could be in the Big Ten. I have to wonder at the continual use of a fictional team in sports films and books. It can't necessarily be trademark because other real teams are named, but our heroes always have to belong to a fictional establishment. In this case, it takes away some of suspension of disbelief.

However, this is a fun novel because the author knows so much about the sport and the craft of sports journalism. It also skips the dominant crime of the mystery genre - murder. No one is killed in the commission of the crime and this is very refreshing. LAST SHOT is a fun novel and I'd easily recommend it to middle school readers and up.