Why Fantasy Football Matters: (And Our Lives Do Not)

Shhhhh, don't tell your wife that!

You would think a book based off of a fantasy football league, which is also an attempt to educate people on what 27 million fanatics obsess over on a yearly basis, would be right up my alley. As I obsess over sports almost as much as I do stories. Yet this book did not really interest me in the least little bit. Why would I want to read a book based on a fictional league trying to teach the game I have been playing for years?

I can tell you that was 4 years ago. How things have changed. The pages are stained, the cover is bent and contorting away from the pages, the binding is slowly unravelling. This has become my bible, at least in a football sense. Reading Why Fantasy Football Matters: (And Our Lives Do Not) before each season helps me prepare, get in that mental mindset, for the long gruelling haul of arthritic fingers (and strained bloodshot eyes) required for scouting my next championship team (at least I’m hoping it is).

Written by Max Handelman and Erik Barmack, who run the weblog Beyond Bowie about the Portland Trailblazers, Why Fantasy Football Matters is loosely based off their own experience playing in a fantasy football league. They break down a single season of the “Bush League” from beginning to end. We follow a few of the team’s owners as they start their yearly rituals.

This book is not just for fantasy football fanatics. If you ever wanted to understand why so many people have this obsession to crunch statistics they can not control, this book explains that. Through a comedic year, from draft to championship, the writers also introduce many habits and aspects of fantasy football that make it so much fun.

Not styled like a typical novel, Handelman and Barmack help us look through the narrator’s eyes as if he is one of the unnamed owners of the Bush League. We are privy to read the email chains created from smack talk, the banter of two owners attempting a trade and the camaraderie of the Sunday (and sometimes Monday) night get together, to watch one team dominate the another.

Creating (or maybe modeling) the characters after the many different personalities you encounter in fantasy football leagues really separate the viewpoints of each character. Intriguing as they may be, each character seemingly reminds you of certain owners that could be in your own fantasy football league. If you have never been in a fantasy football league then this gives you a distinct perspective of what to expect when joining your first league.

Handelman and Barmack write this book with the love for the sport and display their own experiences with great knowledge of football. The history aspect of the sport of football (and a few other sports as well) add another element to the book that is already loaded to the brim with information.

A well crafted story based around a single season creates a comedic tale that informs the reader (be it a fantasy football player or not), not only about the obsession but why it has become such an obsession. If you are part of the many fantasy football alumni, then you may regale in past glories as this book, at times, feels like it is reminiscing about your past. I warn all the fantasy football fanatics, if you pick this book up, expect to have a new “bible”, to read before each upcoming season.

5 out of 5

Guillermo Del Toro Writes The Strain

With a little help from Chuck Hogan

BY COLIN ENQUIST

The Strain is a novel co-authored by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan and was released June 2nd, 2009. The Academy Award-winning creator of Pan’s Labyrinth and the Hammett Award-winning author of Prince of Thieves bring us an epic tale about the horrifying battle between man and vampire. It is the first instalment of what will be a trilogy of novels.

When I heard Guillermo Del Toro was writing a prose novel, well, I might have shrieked. Guillermo Del Toro is fast becoming one of my favourite writer/director and his imaginative mind could only bring us a fantastic story, right?

I will get to the novel in a moment. First I want to say that all I knew about this book was the name of the author(s), the title and the release date. When I received my copy of the book in the mail I did not even read the dust jacket. Tossing the jacket aside, I was flying completely blind into the novel. I was giving Del Toro (and Hogan!) the complete benefit of the doubt of telling a compelling story. Hopefully they would not disappoint.

The novel opens with what seems to be an all too common scenario since 9/11 for starting a story. A plane, loaded to the brim with passengers, has some strange misfortune at JFK airport in New York City. The writers do something a little different though, when the plane touches down on the runway, blackness envelops the plane, killing all the electronics. As the plane stalls in the middle of the runway, no movement comes from inside. Airport security calls in for emergency help. After consideration if this is some kind of terrorist attack, CDC (Centers for Disease Control) is called in and we are introduced to Dr. Ephraim Goodweather. Looking for a biological weapon, a fellow agent and Ephraim board the plane, dead, on the tarmac. They discover that everyone on board is pale and now a corpse. The puzzles are starting to pile up and Del Toro has me fighting my chores because I do not want to put the novel down! Almost the entire first section of the novel has you wanting to keep reading, hoping something will arise on the next page.

As Del Toro and Hogan start unravelling their story we are given hints through a few interludes to what exactly Ephraim and his fellow CDC agents are dealing with. The interludes bring us back into Nazi Germany, during the war. We are introduced to a young Abraham Setrakian (he was vaguely introduced earlier in the novel) and his battle to stay alive during the Holocaust in a concentration camp. To my surprise, Setrakian is more frightened by the monster that is hunting the weak in the concentration camp. We soon learn that this monster is actually the monster from his grandmother’s story that she told Setrakian at the start of the novel. These interludes are explanations throughout the novel to flesh out not only Setrakian’s story but also a good chunk of mythology that will be used later in the book (and possibly the series).

Shortly after a couple interludes, Del Toro and Hogan join Ephraim and Setrakian’s stories. Once the two meet up, questions really start to get answered. The ideas used by the writers actually made me second guess what I thought was happening. I was correct in my theory (but I was not confident about it!), vampires are active in this novels’ world.

Del Toro and Hogan created something new, building off the already existing (but underused) myths about vampires. Not only do they make the vampires seem highly original but the writers vivid imaginations cause them to be scary, disgusting, almost zombie like creatures that have no remorse for human life, truly treating us like a food source. Part of me wonders if cows think of us like this. If you have watched Blade II then you are already imprinted with some of Del Toro’s take on vampires. The visuals from that film really help generate the image your mind creates when you read the words on the page.

The one weaker side to this novel was the introduction to so many characters. Aside from Ephraim and Setrakian, not a single character felt fleshed out. An exception could be made for Ephraim’s son, Zack, who seemed interesting but was merely used as a plot device to direct some of Ephraim’s actions. Some characters play pivotal roles but are left without much use, popping up only when needed, silently waiting in the background for when called upon. The writers will hopefully expand more on one of the minor characters (an exterminator) in the next two novels who was featured very little in the novel but is a compelling character from what we read.

A gripping conclusion brings us to the end of act one, of the seemingly apocalyptic story, with an epilogue that is absolutely chilling. This novel was very intriguing but it is not the greatest stand alone story. More answers on the mythology will probably help to make this story a little more cohesive as well. You must know ahead of time that you will be required to read the next two chapters in the coming future (titled The Fall and The Night Eternal which will be released annually) to understand the entire story.

4 out of 5

Odd Thomas Review

Written by Dean Koontz and was released in 2003 I am clearly behind on this series. With 3 sequels and a graphic novel prequel released over the next few years. The author has stated “god willing, there will be 6 Odd Thomas novels”. I am not new to Koontz and his work. I find most of his books to read extremely fast and most are usually based around a single character. Other times like the novel Strangers, Koontz uses a plethora of characters which leads to a slow read with a slightly different writing style that doesn’t grab my attention and I have to force myself to finish them. Odd Thomas however is written from the first person perspective for most of the story only straying on occasion. We follow our protagonist Odd Thomas, a short order cook with other worldly powers to see the spirits of the dead walking among us. Odd can interact with them to an extent that they cannot speak but mouth words and make signs to get his attention. Odd uses these powers to help the Chief of police solve crimes if possible as learned in the first few chapters. This also includes a brief introduction of most of the main characters. Odd then senses something quite big is going to happen very soon that will culminate in the deaths of many.

We get a lot of detail about the city Odd lives in, Pico Mundo. Like most of Koontz’s novels it takes place in or around southern California. The supernatural used in the book feels like it is commonplace the way that Koontz incorporates it into this world. Koontz uses a lot of strange description through most of his works and it continues in this book. As well as his many references to poetry and literature from Shakespeare to Mark Twain. With deep themes of unconditional love and the unknown of the nature of evil, this character driven story takes you through all the emotions. The macabre is offset by Koontz’s talent to make dark humour out of these horrible situations he thrusts upon his protagonist. This is a thrilling story with lots of tension and frequent plot twists.

4 out of 5
Colin Enquist