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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
22 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
The reviews? Funny. The book? Errr....,
By skytwo "skytwo" (Boston) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Mazes and Monsters: A Novel (Hardcover)
I haven't thought about this book in years. I was in elementary school when a made-for-TV version of it came out (if memory serves, Tom Hanks was in that, poor bastard...). I was about ten years old, I guess. Whatever the case, for some reason I became very interested in reading it. And I did. I have a vague memory of being proud of myself for reading a 'grown-up book' in a very short time, but the fact that a ten-year old could mow through this loser should tell you something, and in retrospect, I had nothing to be proud of. At the time, I was pretty much mystified by the whole thing. A guy who goes insane from playing the title game? D&D as the ultimate decadence for idle rich kids? It just left me a little confused back then, but reading these reviews brought a smile to my face, as I rethought what was obviously a cheap way to cash in on a headline-grabbing topic of years gone by.
So in retrospect (some 20 years later?), what you've got is indeed a WASPY, suburban, once-semi-pertinent, novel about some college kids who play a game, with (cue the scary music) dire consequences. Which is just as goofy as it sounds. Yep, it's pretty much a pointless warning to alarmist suburban moms, and it belongs firmly in the 'time capsule' department, right next to all the other sensitive treatments of problems that never quite seemed to materialize.... On the other hand, I learned the word 'coprolite' from this book, and for some reason remember something called the "Graven Eye of Timor(?)," that caused Tom Hanks some real problems. I think. And there's an expensive watch that plays an important role. I think. So obviously something stuck with me, even if it was just petrified dinosaur doo-doo. Rona Jaffe, you stink. In fact, you're nothing but a coprolite. And I swear it by the Vengeful Poobahs of Forgotten Mediocritus... Whew. But seriously, it's easy to laugh now that the long national nightmare of D&D-induced insanity has finally come to an end. It cost an extraordinary number of lives, and we'll never forget the tragedy. Let's just be thankful that there continue to be authors brave enough to deal with genuine threats to the nation such as this. Run-- don't walk-- to your nearest Salvation Army outlet, and pick up a copy of the book that might have saved your child's life, had it actually had anything to do with actual threats to America's youth twenty-plus years ago!
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Blame Individuals, Not Scapegoats.,
By
This review is from: Mazes & Monsters (Paperback)
I read this book a few years after it came it out. Granted, I haven't re-read it recently, but I disagree with some of the other, more-negative reviews.
I actually liked the character sketches that Jaffe used. Finding out about the characters' backgrounds, and those of their parents, did a good job of showing how they became the people they are in the present. And where some of their individual problems came from. With regards to the social events that were going on at the time that this book was written, I have a few thoughts. What many "protect the child" groups miss--whether they're attacking heavy metal music, Dungeons and Dragons, or Harry Potter--is that people don't do bad things because of a book or a song. They do so because they make a conscious choice to act badly. And they arrive at this decision more as a result of their poor upbringing (not being taught right from wrong, plus concern for others) and their current environment (being bullied, being pressured to be an "A" student) than anything else. "Mazes and Monsters" points out that the character of Robbie had problems before he played the game. And if it wasn't the game that acted as the catalyst for his break from reality, it would've been something else. That's something I think that everybody missed.
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Reality Was Better ...,
By
This review is from: Mazes and Monsters (Hardcover)
Google "Dallas Egbert" if you want the inspiration for this unfortunate piece of fiction.
The problem with this book is not that it tries to turn a tragedy into a novel (... after all, that's how Shakespeare got "Romeo And Juliet" ...), but that it does so poorly. In this, I blame the editor, not the author; for an author may become so entranced with what to her may be a novel concept that she needs an editor to insist that the book also include plot, character and/or memorable language. This book has the mark of being rushed to print to suit the news; for example, about half the chapters are simply the character sketches that would have been helpful in planning the book but that should not have been included in it. But do google "Dallas Egbert". Now THAT's an interesting story!
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