Book Review: The Night Room by E.M. Goldman

[This is an old review I've moved over here that uses my short-lived and now defunct rating system and review format. It's been modified just a bit but mostly retains its old format.]

The Night Room
by E.M. Goldman

Publisher: Viking Penguin
ISBN: 0670858382
Format: Paperback
Pages: 216
Genre: Young Adult/Sci-Fi
Source: Purchased at Dollar General
Time to read: 3 days
Amazon Link: The Night Room

| Enjoyability: 5 | Readability: H | Characterization: 3 | Overall: A- |
(Traditional Rating: 4.5 Stars)

Summary

Seven high school juniors are selected to participate in a computer program project called Argus, a simulator that thrusts each individual to their tenth high school reunion.  By combining lifestyle patterns obtained through student interviews, the students get a glimpse of what could be their futures.  As frightening and enlightening as that is, they also discover that one member of their group is missing from the reunion, a memorial plaque revealing her date of death.  Each successive student's experience with Argus adds another layer to the building suspense as Ira and the others try to figure out what happened to her and what they can do to stop it.  Through it all, the students discover more about themselves, their relationships, and the value of living.

The story in third-person narrative mainly follows student Ira Martinic, with a few side stories involving other members of the teen test group, as well as some behind-the-scenes drama with people directly involved in the production of Argus. 

My Reaction

When I saw that Goldman dedicated the book "To the Crew of the Starships Enterprise" and read her bio, I figured I would fit right in with her style of writing.  Throughout the book, the characters refer to Argus as a version of the Holodeck from the Star Trek series, and it was a fair approximation without being a complete copy of the idea.  The copyright date of 1995 placed the book in the timeline of when Star Trek: The Next Generation was a current series, which incidentally was the same time I was young and watching the series.  I related to this book well.

Although the 11th grade characters were a small sampling of typical school caricatures (school paper reporter, all-around nice guy, chick everyone wants to date, jock), Goldman did a good job of rounding them out as they reacted to their simulated future selves.  The background story involving the Argus developer and her assistants adds sufficient information to the story, as well as more interest in their characters.  In fact, I think I would really enjoy another book focusing on some of the college students' experiences with Argus that led up to the high school experiment.

Though written for the secondary school age bracket, The Night Room I think appeals to anyone who has been in high school and can remember those moments when planning for an adult future was all at once exciting, frightening, and intriguing.  Fans of Star Trek: TNG will also appreciate some humorous parallels.

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Book Review: The Ruthless Realtor Murders by David A. Kaufelt

[This is an old review I've moved over here that uses my short-lived and now defunct rating system and review format. It's been modified just a bit but mostly retains its old format.]

The Ruthless Realtor Murders (A Wyn Lewis Mystery)
by David A. Kaufelt

Publisher: Pocket Books
Release Date: 1997
ISBN: 1416502998
Format: Paperback
Pages: 244
Genre: Mystery
Source: Purchased at Dollar General.
Time to read: 12 days
Amazon Link: The Ruthless Realtor Murders

| Enjoyability: 3 | Readability: H | Characterization: 2 | Overall: C- |
(Traditional Rating: 2 Stars)

Summary

Wynsome Lewis is a thirty-something realtor in fictional Waggs Neck Harbor, New York, where realty and money are on everyone's minds.  Some shady property deals have led to two women being strangled to death with pantyhose years earlier; now another realtor is dead, and the killer is still at large.  As one of the "Ruthless Realtors" connected to a particularly questionable real estate venture, Wyn discovers that she is very likely on the vengeful murderer's list.  Lecherous big city Detective Pasko, in an attempt to reclaim public reputation, investigates the town's curious characters to narrow down the potential suspects.  His plan leads to using Wyn as bait, but she would rather try to figure out the case herself.

My Reaction

It took me a long time to get into this book.  Out of the 29 chapters, I didn't really get interested in solving the mystery until about Chapter 16.  Before then, I could barely read two chapters at a time.  I really never warmed up to the main character, Wyn Lewis.  Since this was the third in the series of Kaufelt's Wyn Lewis series, I wonder if perhaps I missed some character development in the previous two books.  By the end of the book, though, I did finally warm up to her.  I really liked her husband more, even though he was basically a male paragon, but the book was not about him.

Pasko had no redeeming qualities about him, and he was one of the "good guys."  The necessary "bad cop" and tough guy from the streets, Pasko was to me more of a bother to have to read.  His diametric opposite, Captain Homer Price, was another character I enjoyed and would have loved to read more about.  Unfortunately, his role in the story fizzled out in the end.  I did find a few of the other characters mildly endurable, but that's about it.

My least favorite part of the book was the way a few of the characters would say "like" as in "Like I need this inconvenience!"  It may be a way of talking in New York, or perhaps I was reading it with the wrong intonation in my head.  But it always seemed to me that the multiple times Kaufelt used that idiom was like hearing your grandmother say "cool" or "internet" with an awkward, not contextually accurate word placement.

I was satisfied with the ending, partly because it did end, but also because Kaufelt did keep the mystery pretty suspenseful throughout, with plenty of twists and turns to keep you guessing.  All in all, it was not a total waste of time to read.  If I could go back, I think I might have read the beginning of the series first.

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Book Review: Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

[This is an old review I've moved over here that uses my short-lived and now defunct rating system and review format. It's been modified just a bit but mostly retains its old format.]

Treasure Island
by Robert Louis Stevenson

Publisher: Penguin Popular Classics
Release Date: 1994
ISBN: 0140620834
Format: Paperback
Pages: 224
Genre: Classic Fiction; Adventure
Source: Purchased for 39¢ at the local Goodwill store.
Time to read: 9 days
Amazon Link: Treasure Island

| Enjoyability: 5 | Readability: H | Characterization: 4 | Overall: A+ |
(Traditional Rating: 5 Stars)

Summary

Treasure Island was Robert Louis Stevenson's first full-length, published novel, which began as a story for his stepson.  The main character and the narrator is a boy named Jim Hawkins who lives and works in his parents' Admiral Benbow Inn.  A drunken buccaneer has been living at the inn and causing quite a scene among the locals.  After he receives a black spot (an item representing pirate judgment) from an old, blind pirate named Pew, the buccaneer dies, leaving behind an unpaid room and a seaman's chest.  Jim and his mother open the chest and find a bag full of coins of all different nationalities and a document containing a map.  They escape the inn just before a band of pirates begin to break in and search for the map, which leads to an island containing Captain Flint's buried treasure.

Jim takes the map to Doctor Livesey and Squire Trelawney, who then immediately embark on a voyage on the ship Hispaniola, hiring Captain Smollet and a crew recommended by Long John Silver.  Silver and most of the crew he brings with him were part of Flint's voyage to Skeleton Island, unbeknownst to Livesey and Trelawney.  At sea, Jim finds himself in a barrel of apples and accidentally overhears plans for mutiny from the pirates, which he soon relays to Livesey, Trelawney, and the Captain.  Soon to land at the island, Jim Hawkins and the rest of the trustworthy crew plan a way to make it off the island with the treasure and their lives.

My Reaction

Until I read this book, I did not realize how much I already knew about it simply from references in popular culture. International Talk Like a Pirate Day could very well have been originated from a group of readers fond of this classic tale of pirates, treasure, and island adventure.  In fact, I found just about everything I think about when I imagine pirates in this book.  (The only thing Stevenson left out was a few hundred uses of the now ubiquitous pirate word "Arr!" but that may be anachronistic.)  This alone I think demonstrates the far-reaching influence of this book as it applies to the popular view of pirate caricatures.

Normally when one thinks of reading "classic literature" one expects a laborious trek through hundreds of pages of archaic phrases and unfamiliar circumstances.  Treasure Island is a refreshing reminder of why there are "classics" and has encouraged me to seek out others to read.  Despite being over one hundred years old, it is easy to immerse oneself in Jim Hawkins' place throughout the action.

It took me a few pages to get used to some of the nautical terminology and Stevenson's use of apostrophes and phonetic spelling to illustrate the way the pirates were talking.  However once I figured out what he was doing, the characters' voices in my head were clear.  The action and suspenseful moments kept me turning the pages.  I even jumped a bit in the part when Jim accidentally ended up with the pirates in the middle of the night.  Descriptions easily laid out the setting of Skeleton Island.  In fact, some of the more bloody scenes were surprisingly descript considering this was a tale aimed at young boys, but nowadays the target audience has seen more than that in a single video game.

I was also impressed with the character development within the novel.  This was truly a coming-of-age type of tale for Jim Hawkins, learning nobility and honor practically as he fought to keep his and his party's lives and dignity.  Long John Silver was mostly the star throughout because of his interesting mannerisms ("and you can lay to that") and his manipulative character.  Just when I thought I figured out Silver's motivation, he pulled out another trick.  The rest of the characters were distinct and multi-dimensional, with only one or two archetypes (Pew being one of evil villain, though he doesn't last long in the book).

Overall, as many other reviewers have said, Stevenson did not waste any words in writing Treasure Island.  Everything written had purpose and added to the story.  I highly recommend it to anyone wanting a fun exciting page-turner, as well as to anyone wanting to get started reading the classics.

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