Sorcerers and Seers

Sorcerers and Seers
By Chris Heimerdinger
Covenant Communications, 2010. 491 pgs. Young Adult

The Hawkins and Plimpton families (and friends) are back in the eleventh enstallment of the Tennis Shoes among the Nephites series. Jim and his sister Jenny are in Jerusalem and encounter Jesus Christ during his final week on earth, while Garth, Joshua and Marcos have been sent by Mormon to hide the gold plates. However, old enemy Akish shows up and steals the plates, which he says he'll return when Joshua returns his evil sword. Soon, Marcos and Joshua find themselves on a new adventure, mixed up with the Jaredite women and King Omer, who are trying to stay safe as Omer's descendants battle for the kingdom. Meanwhile, Meagan, Apollus, Becky, Harry, Pagag, Ryan, and Steffanie are accompanying Moroni as he tries to make it back to his father Mormon at the Hill Cumorah, where the Nephites are preparing for their final showdown with the Lamanites.

As with earlier books in the series, there's a lot going on and lot to keep straight--as evidenced by the 10 page cast of characters that opens the book. With the long delay since the last book, readers might not have as clear an idea of what's going on as they'd like. (This could probably be solved by rereading the other ten books, but I didn't have enough time or care quite enough about the series to bother.) However, the story starts to feel familiar after a few chapters. There's lots of descriptions, some really interesting thoughts about what effect time travelers could have on history, and some good action scenes, and some uplifting moments as well. However, at the end of nearly 500 pages of text, I was ultimately left with the feeling that very little actually happened. Nothing is accomplished; the characters are pretty much in the same situations at the end of the story as they were in the beginning. This might be a setup for a great next novel...but we'll probably have to wait a few more years to find out. Undoubtedly some readers will love it, but others might be irritated by the lack of any sort of conclusion, and some might not care enough to wait around for the next book to see what happens.

AE