Customer Reviews

The Grandmaster

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As the Grandmaster makes its rounds, Balasksas is likely to draw comparisons to the likes of Harlan Ellison, Stephen King, and maybe even a contemporary version of Edgar Allen Poe. The Grandmaster is a brilliantly spun tale that does the near impossible, by offering us a fresh and unique take on an issue that has been as widely discussed and written about as any in our collective literary history -- namely, the Holocaust. Balaskas' mind is wonderfully warped and that amazing creativity comes out in the text. His prose is sharp, his dialogue unmatched by anything I've read recently, and he manages to somehow infuse an incredible degree of humanity in his characters, while at the same time taking the reader into a very "other-wordly" type of story. One gets the sense while reading The Grandmaster that these characters and this story do not exist in a vacuum, but rather that we are seeing the literary equivalent of a Big Bang, as the Balaskas universe begins to take shape. Balaskas has created a world that is so interesting and rich, that its potential is literally, limitless. I highly recommend this book for anyone who likes the odd, the underhanded, and the clever. It is a fascinating read.

The first two reviews capture the true essence of this work. The Grandmaster is a creative novella that manages to balance tragedy and hope. This is truly a holocaust story with a twist. The paranormal realm adds weight to the story, and elevates the reader's imagination to great heights. The author captured the horror without being to graphic. I truly believe this is a book for adults and children alike.

I saw an announcement that Peter Balaskas's book, The Grandmaster, won the best Science Fiction Novel category at the 2008 Hollywood Book Festival and received a 5 star review from The Midwest Book Review.

The work's preview intrigued me. The prize for, and the review of, the book tempted me.

Boy, they were right! It's more than worthy! Once I started it, I couldn't put it down till I finished.

All I can say is, WOW! Please, sir, can we have some more?

Paranormal based television series, Hollywood films, and well-crafted novels are proving enduringly popular with the general public. With his superbly crafted novella "The Grandmaster", author Peter A. Balaskas has proven himself a master of the genre with his story of Johann Wagner, the founder of an organization of paranormal investigators and psychologists whose mission is to solve supernatural crimes. A survivor of the Holocaust because of his own paranormal gifts, Wagner is now of advanced years and confronted with a personal horror from his past that threatens to destroy him and everything he's created. A riveting work of engaging fiction, "The Grandmaster" admirably serves to introduce a gifted writer at the top of his creative game.

This is a very fun little book. It combines realistic historical details with wildly imaginative supernatural elements. The action culminates in a surprising and satisfying climax. I hope there is a sequel about Dr. Wagner's work at the institute and his adventures in solving "supernatural crimes."

What I liked most about The Grandmaster is that I was able to fully escape into the book's story in unexpected ways, most notably in getting to know the main character through his emotional aspect. The Wagner character was crafted so carefully, and with such attention to nuance, that I was pulled into each scene with immediacy and sympathy for him. I especially loved that he was a very strong character put into extreme situations. This novel runs the gamut of emotions, and it's written with a purposeful and intelligent voice that will linger in the imagination long after the story ends.

Balaskas' novella works on so many levels: from a well-planned plot to carefully crafted characters, the author has a way of getting to the core of one's psyche - and the fears that lie beneath. This book will stay with you for a long time.

I'm always in the mood for a good horror story, but I must say that now, with one or two exceptions (I love Drew Silver's books), the proliferation of vampires and zombies in supernatural literature have had a draining and brain-deadening effect, if I may offer a couple of cheap metaphors. But genre author Peter A. Balaskas has come up with something entirely different: a novel with a supernatural connection to the horrors of the Holocaust that had me asking questions up to the end.

The Grandmaster is a tale told, ironically enough, in the reminiscing style of Jonathan Harker in Bram Stoker's Dracula. Dr. Johann Wagner is the founder of the Wagner Institute for Mental Treatment and Investigations, established in 1966. His team of psychologists and parapsychologists investigate and solve crimes that have supernatural connections. Each member has a special gift: ESP, telekinesis--the whole psychic pie. But this is Wagner's story.

When the story opens, we immediately learn three things: Wagner is having night terrors apparently caused by a visitation from a demonic entity; Wagner is Jewish; Wagner likes the composer Richard Wagner, over whom a long-running debate over his attributed anti-Semitism has been raging in a number of circles.

The Wagner thing grabbed my attention more than did the demon, at first. How could the music of a debatably Nazi-influenced composer be soothing to a Jewish scholar? And was there some sort of coincidence that they bore the same surname? Both questions, as well as the demon's identity, are answered when Dr. Wagner takes us back to his childhood and youth in pre-World War II Berlin and his eventual days of horror in concentration camps. There, his own special gift made him a soldier and a hero on both the physical and spiritual planes.

Balaskas has done his research well and has provided us with a thought-provoking tale not so much of good and evil but of the constant battle against the latter.

Author: Peter A. Balaskas

Publisher: Bards and Sages

ISBN: 9780615147437

"The eyes of the demon have returned! I cannot believe it. I thought they were finally eradicated from my life, and they had been for many years."

It is with these chilling words that Peter A. Balaskas begins his compelling novella, The Grandmaster. And welcome to the world and life of J.S.W. who chronicles his 69 years with the juxtaposition of his paranormal powers, famous ancestry, and his horrendous experiences in the concentration camps during the Holocaust.

Presented in the form of entries in a journal, we learn that J.S.W., whose real name is not revealed to us until about half way through the novella, is the founder and director of the Wagner Institute for Mental Treatment and Investigations. The institute was created in 1966 and comprised personnel who possessed extraordinary powers such as ESP and other gifts. Unfortunately, J.S.W is very anxious that his colleagues are beginning to lose their control, even their sanity, and this may have a devastating effect on the very existence of the institute.

Moreover, J.S.W. is concerned that although he has described in detail the histories and gifts, both supernatural and non-supernatural, of all of the personnel of the institute, he has not written about himself.

In order to remedy the situation and to provide validity to his findings, he now has decided to write about his past. However, J.S.W. realizes that elucidating his life history in explicit detail would mean writing an entire book that would take years and perhaps be a bore to his readers. Consequently, he decides instead to shorten his autobiography on concentrating on how he used his extraordinary powers, his wits, and his compassion towards his fellow human beings.

Beginning with the day he was born in 1920 in Berlin, Germany, J.S.W. reveals that his father was a medical doctor with extraordinary paranormal powers and his reputation for kindness and goodwill gave him the name, "Der Hoffnung Engle"- the Angel of Hope. These powers and even the moniker were passed down to J.S.W. who had been informed by his parents that they were derived from his father's side of the family. These powers included telepathy, empathy, astral projection, a specific type of telekinesis where it involves simple energy transference from the person to a desired object, resulting in it being animated. As we shall later discover, all will prove very handy in helping J.S.W. to become a healer of both the body and psyche to his fellow concentration camp inmates and in aiding them survive the Nazi atrocities.

J.S.W. eventually divulges the origin of the red eyes that haunt him, German composer Richard Wagner's music, his experiences during the holocaust, as well as his famous ancestor, and Colonel Reinhardt, the vile commandant of the concentration camp, who unfortunately likewise comes equipped with paranormal powers but which he viciously uses. We also encounter J.S.W's dogged refusal to sell his soul to the devil and bond together with Reinhardt in merging their astonishing powers to further the cause of Hitler and his henchmen.

The Grandmaster is a cleverly concocted novella combining tragedy and hope from the bleakest sadness and intolerable cruelty to an unconditional kindness.

The pacing of the narrative is extremely effective, although be forewarned, some of the scenes display an icy clarity that can be rough on the reader.

Balaskas' great writing skills add a certain amount of piquancy and nuance to what might have wound up as just another run-of-the mill novella focusing on supernatural trickery rather than delivering a philosophical punch weaving a human tapestry of love, loss, and survival.