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"The Adventures of Marvin Finster" by Unknown Author (adolescent
fantasy). Crimson Dragon: 10, 7, 8
"The Adventures of Marvin Finster" by Unknown Author. Guest review by Crimson Dragon (dcrimson@yahoo.com) You'll have to bear with me - this is my first review and I'm writing it at 1:30 in the morning. Probably not a good combination. Wasn't Finster a character on Bugs Bunny? Baby-faced Finster? Never mind ... probably no relation and it's late ... This story is a simple recollection of complex adolescent voyeurism turned into a little more. Our hero, Marvin, is going through the usual trials and tribulations of adolescence complete with unusually (or perhaps usually) high sex drive driven by raging testosterone. His school is filled with unattainable nubile young beauties which apparently inhabit his dreams it, his school is remodeled in such a way that he finds a secret chamber that gives him a nice view of the girls shower. In this way, he finds his testosterone relief that he so desperately requires. All he needs to do is lay some intricate plans to get himself out of class once in a while to see the one girl he really wants, and perhaps a few extra sights along the way. This story does manage to capture some of the trials and confusions of an adolescent school boy, with some humour thrown in to lighten the mood. I can't say that there is a lot of depth to the story, but I'm not sure it was necessary. The author does spend an inordinate amount of time explaining his intricate plans to find and make use of his secret room. It adds to the "realism" of the piece, but it doesn't have a lot to do with sex other than the ultimate goal of it all - spying on the girls. The plans weren't a problem for me, but to be fair, I ought to mention them. If you are looking for realism, I found the last part of the story a little unbelievable, but that could have been me. It simply seemed odd to me that the author would take the time to set up the scenarios to get into the secret room in such detail, and then provide unlikely, though erotically interesting, encounters at the end without any real explanations as to how they came about. Perhaps a better look at Mattie's character would have helped me understand her motivations. Overall, the build up was interesting and flowed reasonably nicely, but I found myself asking questions about the ending which probably ought to be better explained in the story. Perhaps the questions will be dealt with in Volume 2, though there was an Epilogue that might have been used more effectively to deal with what happened to the main female characters as well. Epilogues usually try to answer more questions than they raise. The story itself was reasonably well written. I didn't spot any obvious English errors, but I wasn't really digging for them either. I found that I was distracted occasionally by intentional errors that were there for the humour aspect, but they weren't numerous enough to take points off for, and other readers might find them cute. Overall, this was a decently written voyeuristic journey which probably captures the spirit and fantasies of nearly every school boy on the planet. I've tried to use Celeste's standard for marking here, though I have to say it's hard second guessing what she'd have given, except on the appeal mark which is all mine. Ratings for "The Adventures of Marvin Finster" Athena (technical quality): 10 (no obvious errors) Venus (plot & character): 7 (a touch more depth needed in the female character, and more plot advancement at the end would have been nice) Crimson (appeal to reviewer): 8 (a better than average adolescent fantasy) |