Warriors of Cumorah

Tennis Shoes #8

by Chris Heimerdinger

When Becky and Josh Plimpton are kidnapped by Todd Finlay, Megan and her two suitors, Ryan and Apollus, attempt to rescue them, but through the mysterious powers of the Rainbow Room, one group ends up in nineteenth-century Jerusalem and the other in central America hundreds of years after the visitation of the Savior to the Nephites.

Genres: Lds Fiction, Lds, Young Adult, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Religion, Fiction

394 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2001

About the author

Chris Heimerdinger is an author and member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) who has presently written sixteen adult and young adult novels, most of which center on religious themes familiar to LDS members. Most are published with Covenant Communications in American Fork, Utah. One title, A Return to Christmas was also picked up by Random House/Ballantine in 1995. When the title was released by Ballantine in 2004, it was republished by Covenant Communications.

Reviews

[Shayla Salazar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another great adventure following a few new characters! I also appreciate the chapter notes and the things we learn from them!

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Up until now, each book has been a stand alone story, or a 2 part story. But this is the first of a not-yet-finished adventure (book 13 still has the family lost and divided throughout time, starting here, with book 8).
Megan, Apollos & Ryan are in Lamanite lands a few years before the destruction of the Nephites.
Mary, Joshua & Becky are in Judea in the early 1800’s.

[Makenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was really good. I like how they switch points of view of characters.

[Kerrin Mountcastle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is so amazing! I wouldn't change it at all!!

[Karen Rowley · Rating 5 out of 5]

#6 “Warriors of Cumorah” written by Chris Heimerdinger is a fantastic, adventurous story. This is a book where there are many different people who are in some way apart of this family, telling their side or part of the story. These people are traveling through time to a bunch of different places and different times. They keep splitting up and then getting back together. Everything always seems to be getting in the way. I LOVED this book! It’s a story that makes me want to always keep reading. I love how there are so many different genres I guess you could say, to this book. There is definitely adventure, but there is also a little mystery, and a little romance. I feel like every book in this series has somebody falling in love. But it doesn’t go into to much detail which is a plus. I love how this book is clean, no swearing or crude references, or anything like that. One of the parts that I didn’t love though were some of the war parts of it. For me it was just kind of confusing. I didn’t understand all that was going on. One of my most favorite things about this book though was I felt like I was or could be every single character. He explains every character very well, how they are feeling what their objectives are. There is a forty year old and a ten year old, and many other ages in between. But no matter how old they are or what their backgrounds are, you know exactly what it feels like to be them. The one thing that I have a love-hate relationship with is the ending. Because it is definitely a cliff hanger, so you have to read his next book. I think the theme of this book is, keep going. Because they go through some really hard challenges. But if they keep fighting and keep believing in what they know is right they always make it through. This book was so amazing to read and I cannot wait to read the next book in the series!

[Marsha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book does not stand on its own as a lot happens and nothing resolves. It is setting the stage for a major transition in the story. It was not my favorite as Joshua and Rebecca are way to young to be able to figure out the stuff that they do. Rebecca is 10 and a totally unrealistic character. All that being said, the story does pull you in and you get caught up in all that is happening. This is a must read if you plan to continue the series but you need to go into it while completely letting go of reality and preconceived ideas regarding the age of the characters.

[Tim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the beginning of a book arc that will last probably seven books. So will it be a slog? We will see.

This starts out pretty solidly. Everything is set up nicely. The Sword from book 2 rears it’s ugly blade. It seems that everyone is converging on Cumorah. That’s gonna be pretty exciting.

But some people are heading to the Tower of Babel. The love triangle between Apollus and Meagan and her new boyfriend intensifies. But by the end it’s Apollus and Meagan for life.

Not as great as the last bunch of installments but I still found myself enjoying it.

[Aaron Ashton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finished listening to the audiobook version. Incredible adventure! Now, the next generation of Hawkins and Plimptons are traveling through time through ancient America and the Middle East. They meet old enemies, make new enemies, use amazing artifacts, rescue historical heroes, and fight for their lives. Incredible story.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

Should have stopped at #7! I thought that arc had a great ending, so was unsure where the story would go next. The choices for narrator weren't great here, and there was a lot of worldbuilding that seemed pointless and not interesting. There were still some great moments, and I understand that this is the first book in a new arc so might not be the best storywise. However the author seems to have taken a break on this series so I wouldn't get a satisfactory end to the arc anyways, so I think I'm done with this series for now.

[James Biser · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is another great story of modern members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints who go back in time to Israel and ancient America to help scriptural prophets and heroes. This volume is excellent as it includes meeting and saving the life of Moroni. This is a great read!

[Anita · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good story as always. Ends on quite the cliffhanger. Will definately continue in the series. used for the prompt read a book with the butterfly effect (this effect is actually talked about in the beginning of the book)- 52 books summer and read a 5 star prediction (read with allison - summer)

[Nicole Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this to my family out loud & they loved it! The moment I finished they wanted to know if we could start the next book. For me it wasn’t my favorite of the series, but still intriguing & adventure filled!

[Steve Center · Rating 4 out of 5]

Off on another exciting adventure. This is the most complicated storyline thus far.

[Renae Rockwood · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this one was a much better pace, but could the plot please stop being driven by kidnapping? It's like every other chapter someone was kidnapped which gets old really quickly.

[Dean · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really tried to like this book, but by this point the stories we're becoming more and more outlandish, and not in a good way. The focus was more on preaching than building believable characters.

[Lorilyn Andrus]

Excellent adventure, I read aloud to my husband. We both enjoy very much.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

god book

[Jacque · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Tennis Shoes adventures continue to entertain the family-especially on long car trips! It is fun to see the children of the original characters take over the story.

[Stephen Greco · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was ok. I feel like know I have continued reading the books in this series just because I feel that I invested the time in reading the previous 7 books that I really enjoyed. I am to the point were I feel like I am going through the motions now. Probably a combination of me getting older and the book being less exciting the the previous books.

[Jesse Whitehead · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually enjoyed this one much more than the last few. The action and situations felt a little more realistic than before. The old formula is still there but this time it’s twisted and turned over on itself so that it’s only obvious if you’re looking for it.

Rebecca actually makes a convincing nine-year-old girl and Apollus has just the right amount of anachronistic thoughts and actions that make his point-of-view interesting. Meagan is still the smart-mouthed teenager she’s always been and this time her point-of-view sounded enough different from Melody that she didn’t sound like a cutout female character. Heimerdinger still suffers from the delusion that all females think the story is about who is in love and all males want to talk about is how cool they are.

This book has better characters, more realistic situations, and is generally better written than it’s predecessors. The tension is much greater with the reintroduction of some people and things from Jim’s past (another part of the formula) and the family being separated across time and space.

There are things in this book, though, that make it drift away from historical fiction and into the realm of fantasy. The Tennis Shoes books have always bordered on the fantastical and depending on how you look at time travel may have always been there. The fantasy is couched heavily in gospel lore and is consistent with the fictional universe that Heimerdinger has established previously.

If you’ve gotten this far you’ll read this book anyway. If you enjoyed the early books the middle ones might be worth trudging through in order to get to this one. I really enjoyed it. I hope that the succeeding books – four more total – are at least as good.

[Kimberly Fields · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another fun action story in the Tennis Shoes series. Chris Heimerdinger is always good at keeping me on the edge of my seat as I read-- there's never a dull moment in his books. There are some way overly cheesy parts (namely, the conversation between Meagan and Apollos at the end of the book). I wish he'd stick to adventure and leave the cheesiness out of it-- his first 3 books did a much better job at that than the rest. Also, I get tired of the constant sarcasm from a lot of his characters. It was toned down a lot more in this book than in the last few before it (seriously, I was so sick of Meagan's attitude!), which was good, but I still didn't think the characters had the strongest of personalities. I also wish Heimerdinger hadn't felt the need to drag Ryan into the story, just to create a love triangle. He did keep the romantic tension a little more raised, but he mostly was superfluous. I also don't like that Heimerdinger keeps creating more romances between the modern protagonists and people from ancient worlds. It's just too unbelievable that they could bring that many ancient people into the modern world without problems. Unfortunately, I think it's a pattern that's likely to continue.

So yeah-- read this book, but don't take it too seriously. Enjoy the action and overlook its flaws-- it's a pretty enjoyable book overall.

[Rebecca Dehart Ellis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heimerdinger switches between perspectives a lot in this book. I understand that it's necessary in order to tell the whole story but I'm not quite sure if I like it. It's not that it's badly written, far from it. Each character has their own distinctive voice and they vary greatly. Heimerdinger displays a lot of talent and insight when he can make me feel as though the story is actually being told by an ancient Roman soldier or a modern 10 year old girl, but I'm not sure how much I like the perspective changing as often as it does. I think it was also a challenge to use the perspective of someone in the ancient world with no understanding of the time travel concept and that hadn't been previously introduced at all, and Heimerdinger executed it very well. Again, the character had a distinctive voice and was a necessary plot device to tell the complete story. I still love these adventures and for me they fulfill the purpose that the author had when he created them. They lead me to the scriptures to find out more for myself.

[Lisa Brown · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the beginning of a new adventure for the Hawkins family. Two years after the last book left off, things seem to be going really well for everyone, that is until an enemy from Jim and Garth's past resurfaces. Tod Finlay, intent on finding the sword in another time, kidnaps Garth's children. While trying to save Becky and Josh, things go wrong, and everyone not only ends up in a different time, but in different times from each other.

Although I enjoyed this story, I didn't like it nearly as much as some of the others. I am not quite sure what was missing for me this time. Also, this book leaves you completely hanging, and so you have to keep reading for the resolution.

[Charissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

The plot just keeps twisting and getting more and more complicated (which I love). That's why I've read about four of these books in the last two weeks. They are so fun. The scriptural background given at the end of each chapter is just as intriguing as the story itself. This takes Josh and Rebecca (Garth's children) and involves a ton of the family eventually. Fun, fun, fun! I can't stop reading these books. My son is mad at me because I've left him behind in the dust because he stopped to read Lost Hero or something from Riordian. I can't stop this story. I'm almost to the new books I haven't read yet and am so excited!!!

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not that stupid sword again.

I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would, but I think that is due entirely to my desire to read something fluffy. And I suspect Apollus might have something to do with it. . . . Otherwise, the Becky, Josh, and Mary arc was frustrating, uninteresting, and unnecessary—I enjoyed the arc with Apollus, Meagan, and Ryan immensely more.

I also had a realization that might explain somewhat why I'm still reading the series despite its poor writing/editing at times and its proclivity to recycle its plots: it's just fun to live through these characters as they meet the legends I've learned about since childhood. Historical fiction is cool that way.

[Francie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Once upon a time I read this series and really enjoyed them ... until the series never ended and the author started taking upwards of 10 years between volumes. These stories have too many characters and story lines to be expecting the reading audience to stay current with things with these kinds of publishing dates! Maybe if he ever really truly finishes the series, I might start again at 1 and read right through to the end. Then I can enjoy them again, like I used to when I first started. :)

[Robyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was a little more disjointed than the other books and hard to follow. All the books jump back and forth between past and present and some of them also follow two different people in the same adventure but this story not only jumps back and forth between present and past and follows different people sharing the same adventures and also different adventures in two different time periods and countries. I found it hard to keep track of both stories and should have just read one story line and then gone back and read the other. Still I am invested and will finish out the series.

[Em · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is where Chris started to get into the research of things. You could tell that he'd really gone and done the work. I think there was a fair bit of research in the other books, but I think because there's so much that's unknown about the Nephites and Lamanites before the coming of the Savior, he could go off the basis of fiction, but this is the book where I think a bit more research came into play. It's so well done. This book was so stressful and I felt like I had no idea what was coming next. The tension was insane. So good though!

[Stephanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have really liked this series, but this one was hard for me to get through. I found some of the story line confusing, and it dragged on. Yes, there were parts that captivated me, but not as much as I would have liked. I do like the author's writing style and how the story is told from different character's point of view. I will stick with the series because I do want to see how it all wraps up. It does, doesn't it?!?

[Aaron Hubbard · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am done reading this series. All of the books have the same plot line which makes them extremely repetitive especially if you have read the previous books. The book is written with multiple narratives which makes it annoying. Every character in this series has the exact same personality and voice. You could rearrange the names and the story would be the same. I could go on and on with everything I dislike but it is not worth my time.