Rating: 
Summary: Realistic. Spellbinding. I couldn't put it down.
Review: I took Dead Man's Chest with me on vacation. Essentially, my planned vacation activities were put on hold until I completed reading the book. Roger Johnson related the characters' thoughts, actions, and words so clearly, and the story locations so realistically, that I truly suspect that he might really have found historical documentation of actual events. I hope Mr. Johnson will continue writing and publishing novels of this high caliber.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating Journey!
Review: I've always loved adventure stories about pirates and treasure and now to have the story of Treasure Island continue is a real treat! It's wonderful to follow the intrigue into later years. I would like to see this made into a movie!
Rating:
Summary: Dead Man's Chest - The Sequel to Treasure Island
Review: I've wondered what might have happened when Long John Silver and Ben Gunn pulled away from Dead Man's Chest in their small boat finally escaping death. Now I know because Roger Johnson, in his wonderful telling-the-tale way, moves the reader, through the adventures of John Paul Jones, back to Dead Man's Chest with bone-chilling encounters on land and on sea. And Long John Silver surfaces along with other pirates, providing us with stories within stories finally bringing us to a momentous conclusion. Would that Roger's tale become a movie.
Rating: 
Summary: Two books by the same title
Review: If you are looking for this book at a used bookstore or the library, be aware there is a second book by the same title (author is Rankin, I think) which is a chronicle of the travels of Robert Louis Stevenson, not a sequel to Treasure Island. Don't know if this will happen to anyone else, but I checked out the wrong one. Be sure you know which one you're getting!
Rating:
Summary: Long John Silver & John Paul Jones?
Review: It seems that writing sequels to "Treasure Island" has become something of a cottage industry. That doesn't shock me, for any good and interesting book invites its readers to speculate about what happened to the characters after it ended. This particular sequel posits the idea that Long John Silver helped John Paul Jones obtain his commission in the newly-formed Continental Navy, and also helped the colonists to acquire the cannons needed to carry on their war against England. The naval aspects of this tale are excellent, and the characters are fairly well drawn. The plot is a bit far-fatched, but interesting all the same. My only quibble is that there's really not enough about Jim Hawkins, who only appears as a minor character. Long John himself doesn't appear to be the same fellow we remember from the original book, but it's the author's right to do with his characters as he wishes. The story is enjoyable aside from some minor lapses in plot, so it is worth reading if you enjoy pirate and adventure yarns.
Rating:
Summary: Terrific story, great writing, lousy editing job
Review: This is a very well written book with a great story. I am enjoying it immensely, but the editor ought to be fired. There are so many typos and other errors that it's hard to believe. Take note publisher: spend a little more time making sure your books are error free.
Johnson's writing is excellent and deserves better care from the editor and publisher!
Rating: 
Summary: Dead Man's Chest - AVOID IT!
Review: What a stinker ! After a perfunctory 'interview' with Royal Navy Lieutenant James Hawkins, it's off to the Caribbean with Long John Silver, who escapes the Hispaniola with not just a bag, as Stevenson told us, but a whole chest of specie.. Silver settles into a routine as a pub owner in a Caribbean port, gets married (his 'woman of color' being somehow forgot) names his pub Silver Jack's, and takes a new name. Oh, and he has a brother and a young nephew, too. Skip nine years. Enter Captain John Paul, lately having skewered a locally-popular fellow who just happened to try to lead a mutiny on John Paul's late ship, moored, wouldn't you know it, on the same island where Silver lives. John Paul befriends Silver's nephew, and after lots of confusing dialogue (did you know Silver attended Oxford?) Silver, still burning for the remainder of the treasure (did I mention there was another whole untouched cache? What else didn't Stevenson tell us about?) but somehow unable in nine whole years to obtain passage to nearby Treasure Island, is somehow convinced that Captain Jones is just the ticket to get him, Silver, the treasure, with the help of his nephew David, against his brother's wishes, who doesn't want the boy to go to sea. Wouldn't you know there's a ship to be had, so John Paul, now Jones, sails off, nephew David in tow, for the Colonies, rumoured to be starting a Continental Navy, in 1774, long before any Declaration or anything. Confused? Just wait. Our hero Cap'n Jones goes to sea in a small schooner with only six crewmen, including David the nephew. They encounter some weather, crack a crosstree and split some sails, and are dead in the water when a known bloodthirsty pirate vessel, well-manned and captained by Joshua Smoot, Flint the pirate's bloodthirsty son, is sighted, and gives pursuit. So at this crucial juncture Captain Jones naturally goes below and falls asleep, apparently so he can have a meant-to-be-shocking blade-bared dream about Smoot, who he has never seen. Upon his waking, we hear that the pirate vessel is in cannon range. Rather than working like dogs to escape, we get a half-page of 'salty' chest-beating dialogue between Jones and his men. Remember we're talking six men vs. 150, and I quote an excerpt: Crewman: "Our powder be dry an' the linstocks is burnin' bright, Cap'n Jones, jest like ye showed us!" Jones: "And those muskets, are they loaded also?" Crewman: "That they be, Cap'n! An' every jack man (sic) o' us be totin' a brace o' pistols, fer close-in fightin'!" Another crewman: "And we got our cutlasses an' daggers besides!" Arr. Matey. Arr. There's more, which I will spare you. Don't worry about me spoiling the 'plot', all the just mentioned goings-on occur in the first 30 pages. For me, a Stevenson lover, and more recently a real fan of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin novels, this age of sail novel has all the period authenticity we've come to expect from the Fenimore Cooper Deerslayer novels. Please see Mark Twain's "On Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses". Twain skewers his target far more effectively than I ever could, and every offense Cooper commits has its twin here in Johnson's "Dead Man's Chest". Avoid it at all costs.
Rating:
Summary: Dead Man's Chest - AVOID IT!
Review: What a stinker ! After a perfunctory `interview' with Royal Navy Lieutenant James Hawkins, it's off to the Caribbean with Long John Silver, who escapes the Hispaniola with not just a bag, as Stevenson told us, but a whole chest of specie.. Silver settles into a routine as a pub owner in a Caribbean port, gets married (his `woman of color' being somehow forgot) names his pub Silver Jack's, and takes a new name. Oh, and he has a brother and a young nephew, too. Skip nine years. Enter Captain John Paul, lately having skewered a locally-popular fellow who just happened to try to lead a mutiny on John Paul's late ship, moored, wouldn't you know it, on the same island where Silver lives. John Paul befriends Silver's nephew, and after lots of confusing dialogue (did you know Silver attended Oxford?) Silver, still burning for the remainder of the treasure (did I mention there was another whole untouched cache? What else didn't Stevenson tell us about?) but somehow unable in nine whole years to obtain passage to nearby Treasure Island, is somehow convinced that Captain Jones is just the ticket to get him, Silver, the treasure, with the help of his nephew David, against his brother's wishes, who doesn't want the boy to go to sea. Wouldn't you know there's a ship to be had, so John Paul, now Jones, sails off, nephew David in tow, for the Colonies, rumoured to be starting a Continental Navy, in 1774, long before any Declaration or anything. Confused? Just wait. Our hero Cap'n Jones goes to sea in a small schooner with only six crewmen, including David the nephew. They encounter some weather, crack a crosstree and split some sails, and are dead in the water when a known bloodthirsty pirate vessel, well-manned and captained by Joshua Smoot, Flint the pirate's bloodthirsty son, is sighted, and gives pursuit. So at this crucial juncture Captain Jones naturally goes below and falls asleep, apparently so he can have a meant-to-be-shocking blade-bared dream about Smoot, who he has never seen. Upon his waking, we hear that the pirate vessel is in cannon range. Rather than working like dogs to escape, we get a half-page of `salty' chest-beating dialogue between Jones and his men. Remember we're talking six men vs. 150, and I quote an excerpt: Crewman: "Our powder be dry an' the linstocks is burnin' bright, Cap'n Jones, jest like ye showed us!" Jones: "And those muskets, are they loaded also?" Crewman: "That they be, Cap'n! An' every jack man (sic) o' us be totin' a brace o' pistols, fer close-in fightin'!" Another crewman: "And we got our cutlasses an' daggers besides!" Arr. Matey. Arr. There's more, which I will spare you. Don't worry about me spoiling the `plot', all the just mentioned goings-on occur in the first 30 pages. For me, a Stevenson lover, and more recently a real fan of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin novels, this age of sail novel has all the period authenticity we've come to expect from the Fenimore Cooper Deerslayer novels. Please see Mark Twain's "On Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses". Twain skewers his target far more effectively than I ever could, and every offense Cooper commits has its twin here in Johnson's "Dead Man's Chest". Avoid it at all costs.
Rating:
Summary: I'm not much of a reader, but I couldn't put it down!
Review: While passing through Crescent City in early July 2001, I purchased a signed copy of Dead Man's Chest as a gift for my wife, since I'm not the reader in the family. As we stopped in Roseburg, Oregon, I decided as a fluke, that I would read just the preface. That was all it took because I was unforgivenly hooked. I began reading at 11:00 AM, and fourteen hours later I had read all but the last two chapters. I was so impressed that I insisted we drive our motorhome back to Crescent City to speak with Commander Johnson and to get a photo with him. I can tell other readers that this is by far the best book I have ever read, and am convinced that it must be made into a movie. Anyone who loves a great mystery, or an action/adventure story with strong characters and an intriguing plot must get a copy of Dead Man's Chest! And don't worry that it's a pirate novel. This is an instant classic that will be read for generations!
Rating:
Summary: In the Grand Tradition ....
Review: With justification, generations of readers have come to regard Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island as the quintessential pirate yarn. Now, after more than a hundred years, author Roger Johnson has taken up the thread to provide its logical successor, Dead Man's Chest. The theme bears slight resemblance to its 19th century parent--quest for hidden treasure--but new wrinkles fairly abound. While we are long familiar with the likes of Long John Silver, several additional colorful characters are introduced into the equation, such as the schemer-turned-good fellow, David Nobel and the malevolent Joshua Smoot. Serving as historical backdrop are the crisis days of the American Revolutionary War, and a formidable cast of familiar figures has been assembled, including Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, and most notably, the redoubtable John Paul Jones. Building upon a platform of solid factual research, Johnson tantalizes us with the prospect of what might have occurred in those hectic days had the fictional figures had opportunity to match wits with their historical counterparts. Needless to say, the possibilities are endless, but the proffered model makes an entirely plausible and illuminating case for "what might have been". Johnson has evidently done his homework and knows the subject, both inside and out. He exhibits a ready command of established facts, and the jargon comes thru with a zest as real as the salt air. The result is a compelling story line which holds our attention and can easily be described as cracklin' good!
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