Review: A moralistic work that should appeal to a YA audience
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 8, 2014
ZYLAN'S MESSENGERS is a well-intentioned book that bears an interesting message about the possibility of intelligent life in outer space, but its central message is closer to home. At its heart this novel looks at the hearts and minds of the human race and what it sees isn't pretty.In terms of that message, ZYLAN'S MESSENGER is a book that would benefit being read by young adults. There is one sex scene and there is a great deal of dying that takes place, but I don't believe either of those are graphic enough to cause a great deal of worry. Indeed, the deaths are not at all graphic, and are very necessary to the meaning of the story itself.In this respect, I think the novel is worthwhile for young people to read. My only other caution to parents of young adults is that ZYLAN does spend some time questioning religions -- ALL religions, not just one. That's a fact that is important to note: the novel looks at religion from the point of view of an intelligent alien viewing the war and the damage done by zealots of all cloths, and seen through their eyes it is easy to question the oxymoron of those who kill in the name of any faith, all the while touting its inherent moral code.This is why I encourage ZYLAN'S MESSENGERS for young readers with open minds.Still, I've noted there have been several reviews which deride the author's writing style, even though this is his debut as a writer. While Mr. Goodman's work is unpolished, it's still a work that does go to some length to be welcoming to the reader...he does not depend upon ten-dollar words to tell his story, or use gratuitous sex or violence.To be sure, there is some room for enhancing Mr. Goodman's prose. Certain story elements are at times repeated over and over, the omniscient narrator's phrasing  is often awkward ("He and Tramal had been in love for a long time but thought it best to keep it on the down low..."); and  he uses the "taboo" second-person often ("Zylanians...had two or three arms, depending on how you count...").One thing I found odd was that an important character named Jason who dominates the last half of the book was described as having an IQ of 340 (Einstein's was about 170), yet there was nothing about him that made him seem all that intelligent. While many passages showed him to be a nice guy, I never got the sense he was behaving like a man who trumped all the greatest minds who have ever lived...in fact, I found him to be remarkably pedestrian.For example: "...Jason snapped out of his dreamspace as the two-foot thick walls of his bunker were glowing red, and the metal was sloughing off. It can't be too long now, he thought. I need to brace myself for what comes next. They can't kill me, but the(y) can imprison me for life ... and that is a long, long time."Regardless, ZYLAN'S MESSENGERS is a novel that should appeal to YA readers, and rest assured there are a couple of really good twists along the way. In fact, one of them involves a real-world occurrence whose cause has indeed baffled the best minds of our own planet, and Mr. Goodman's explanation is as good as any.Overall, I enjoyed ZYLAN'S MESSENGERS - it's a fast read, and the story is entertaining throughout. Though it has not been marketed yet as a YA novel, I believe Mr. Goodman could find that he has a ready audience out there.