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Johnny Dixon #5
The Eyes of the Killer Robot
While looking through the window, Johnny Dixon sees that insane Evaristus Sloane's creation of a baseball-pitching robot is almost complete, except for its missing eyes, and when Johnny feels he is being followed, he becomes rather nervous. Reprint.
176 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
26 people are currently reading
401 people want to read
About the author
John Bellairs
63 books560 followersJohn Bellairs (1938–1991) was an American novelist. He is best known for the children's classic The House with a Clock in its Walls (1973) and the fantasy novel The Face in the Frost (1969). Bellairs held a bachelor's degree from Notre Dame University and a master's in English from the University of Chicago. He later lived and wrote in Massachusetts.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews
March 25, 2018
As far as John Bellairs and Johnny Dixon goes, I felt this was weaker. Still a good story, but the whole baseball element felt very forced. I enjoyed the 3 book arc the previous story had. It was a great story. This one did not live up to it.
All the gang is back in this one and now there is a evil voodoo Robot running around basically. Johnny is being kidnapped. He has suffered some trauma, not wonder he is so jumpy at this point. It is spooky and creepy and a great story overall.
I love Johnny Dixon and I will continue on with the series.
All the gang is back in this one and now there is a evil voodoo Robot running around basically. Johnny is being kidnapped. He has suffered some trauma, not wonder he is so jumpy at this point. It is spooky and creepy and a great story overall.
I love Johnny Dixon and I will continue on with the series.
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October 18, 2016Gothic horror for children. Bellairs was one of my favorite authors when I was a kid, but this is my first time reading this particular book.
The problem with reading Bellairs as an adult is that it seems unbelievable when the characters don't seem to learn anything from book to book - Johnny gets a bad feeling about something and they all brush it off every time, and yet every time this happens, something terrible follows. No lessons are learned.
But this was one of the things that was great about reading these books as a kid. It didn't matter that the characters followed the same pattern every time, because that's why you were reading the books. Something bad would happen involving wizards or witches or magicians or ghosts or curses or some other vague occult something, it would be scary, but you knew it would be okay in the end.
One thing I appreciate about Bellairs is that none of his characters are conventionally attractive in the slightest. Most of them are described in pretty unattractive terms, including the heroes of the story. Professor Childermass is "short and elderly and crabby-looking, with wildly sprouting muttonchop whiskers, gold-rimmed glasses, and a nose that looked like an overripe strawberry." Whereas Johnny is shy, nerdy, and nearly friendless; and Fergie is "a gangly, droopy-faced kid with big ears and a blunt-ended nose." No handsome heroes here. I think it made the characters more relate-able for me when I was a kid.
The problem with reading Bellairs as an adult is that it seems unbelievable when the characters don't seem to learn anything from book to book - Johnny gets a bad feeling about something and they all brush it off every time, and yet every time this happens, something terrible follows. No lessons are learned.
But this was one of the things that was great about reading these books as a kid. It didn't matter that the characters followed the same pattern every time, because that's why you were reading the books. Something bad would happen involving wizards or witches or magicians or ghosts or curses or some other vague occult something, it would be scary, but you knew it would be okay in the end.
One thing I appreciate about Bellairs is that none of his characters are conventionally attractive in the slightest. Most of them are described in pretty unattractive terms, including the heroes of the story. Professor Childermass is "short and elderly and crabby-looking, with wildly sprouting muttonchop whiskers, gold-rimmed glasses, and a nose that looked like an overripe strawberry." Whereas Johnny is shy, nerdy, and nearly friendless; and Fergie is "a gangly, droopy-faced kid with big ears and a blunt-ended nose." No handsome heroes here. I think it made the characters more relate-able for me when I was a kid.
August 7, 2009
Bellairs at his finest. Iconic imagery of the baseball-playing robot with stolen human eyes. The creeping danger Johnny faces. I love how Bellairs gives the villains a lurid goal - to steal Johnny's eyes - and couples that with a gradual invasion of his life, successively removing the blanket of comfort and safety he thought he had.
The climax is particularly gratifying. Unlike some of Bellairs' books, where the conflict resolves in a passive way (or an off-stage way) this features a climactic physical showdown that gives Prof. Childermass a chance to shine. The plot is tight and the cliffhangers are convincing. I think it is his best book since The House with a Clock in its Walls.
The climax is particularly gratifying. Unlike some of Bellairs' books, where the conflict resolves in a passive way (or an off-stage way) this features a climactic physical showdown that gives Prof. Childermass a chance to shine. The plot is tight and the cliffhangers are convincing. I think it is his best book since The House with a Clock in its Walls.
December 17, 2015
The fifth Johnny Dixon book is as big improvement over the previous installment. In this book, Johnny, Fergie, and the Professor have to defeat a supernatural mechanical menace with links to Johnny's Grandfather's past.
There are some good, creepy moments here, and the writing is back to Bellair's effortless storytelling. The characters are sharply drawn, and the story moves along nicely. With this being a YA novel from the 1980's, there's nothing terribly nightmare-inducing, but it's still suspenseful and eerie enough to appeal to readers who like that sort of thing.
Highly recommended!
There are some good, creepy moments here, and the writing is back to Bellair's effortless storytelling. The characters are sharply drawn, and the story moves along nicely. With this being a YA novel from the 1980's, there's nothing terribly nightmare-inducing, but it's still suspenseful and eerie enough to appeal to readers who like that sort of thing.
Highly recommended!
August 11, 2011
I love Bellairs' scary mysteries. I loved them as a child, too. They were just scary enough so I would make a running leap for the bed in the darkened room, but not scary enough to keep me awake. I also feel like he takes his young characters seriously. That even when the young mind is passionately irrational, it is still real.
I read the copy with Edward Gorey's perfect illustrations. Really, he's the perfect choice.
I read the copy with Edward Gorey's perfect illustrations. Really, he's the perfect choice.
October 21, 2007
Serious, can you get a better title that that?
February 10, 2012
"Scary" was my one-word description in grade 7.
November 2, 2011
childhood favorite....I Loved all John Bellairs' books!
September 19, 2013
This has to be one of my favorite books. It is such an exciting, lip biting book. I was on the edge of my seat every second, and it just gets better every page.
February 17, 2016
I read this book long, long ago when I was young, and I wasn't able to sleep after.
August 6, 2015
Kindle Unlimited Free Trial | I think Bellairs missed a great opportunity in this one:
February 10, 2016
Eye-Opener
I only vaguely remember reading this one, but I think I found the passage that explains why I identify with Johnny Dixon. I was severely near-sighted, which constantly progressed. I lived in fear of blindness my entire life. When I re-read this passage, I remembered why I loved Johnny Dixon: "Since he had poor eyesight, Johnny was afraid of going blind, and he often tormented himself with fears of what it would be like if the world around him was just a wall of blackness."
I only vaguely remember reading this one, but I think I found the passage that explains why I identify with Johnny Dixon. I was severely near-sighted, which constantly progressed. I lived in fear of blindness my entire life. When I re-read this passage, I remembered why I loved Johnny Dixon: "Since he had poor eyesight, Johnny was afraid of going blind, and he often tormented himself with fears of what it would be like if the world around him was just a wall of blackness."
June 2, 2011
The entire book has a sort of retro feel, as though it inhabits the same sort of historical cul-de-sac as the Peanuts comics and Ray Bradbury stories. I had to explain to my son certain technologies that have since become obsolete, and at three months old he is not expected to know them.
The premise is interestingly off-kilter. The bad guys build a killer robot in order to win a baseball contest.
The premise is interestingly off-kilter. The bad guys build a killer robot in order to win a baseball contest.
January 17, 2008
This book rocks. This book scared me so much I was hiding in my bedsheets. This book is the typical Dr. Frankenstien book. i would love to review this book. LOL. I am. Oh well, read this book. I triple doggy, dare ya!
June 24, 2009
The creepy baseball-playing killer robot with human eyes scared me senseless as a kid. The dark Edward Gorey illustrations capture the mood perfectly. But like most John Bellairs stories (which were written mainly for kids), it was such a quick and fun read, that I wish there was more of it.
April 9, 2016
Have you ever played a sport with a robot or some kind? Well in this story in a old school baseball team they used this robot which's called the Sloane. This book overall is 5 stars because its really interesting and really explains things. This book is fiction and has some horror parts in it.
April 19, 2009
I read this book when I was about 10, It freaked me out! I always loved that about John Bellairs' books. (not all of them did this, but the writing always sucked me in)
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December 21, 2016A helpful ghost and a creepy married couple and some robots and baseball.
I'm really enjoying reading these in order of publication--you can see Bellairs getting a little wilder with his plots. This book is probably the most topsy-turvy of the series so far, and I'd be surprised but Trolley to Yesterday--my favorite of the books despite being the most ludicrous--is next.
I'm really enjoying reading these in order of publication--you can see Bellairs getting a little wilder with his plots. This book is probably the most topsy-turvy of the series so far, and I'd be surprised but Trolley to Yesterday--my favorite of the books despite being the most ludicrous--is next.
September 29, 2012
What a quirky story, a possessed robot! This time Johnny's faced with an evil man trying to use him as a way to hurt his Grandpa! The story dragged a bit in the middle but in general, the oddness of the entire concept made this in interesting read.
December 18, 2017
I'd read this as a kid, probably in 4th or 5th grade and some of the scenes really stuck with me over the years. Reading it now, it seems moderately goofy. There are some fairly spooky bit, but it never really falls over into scary.
September 8, 2007
this one is great
November 27, 2007
The fifth book in the Johnny Dixion series. Don't let the cover deceive you, there is a more interesting story in this book than it would lead you to believe. I was pleasantly surprised.
October 3, 2009
Slower paced and less scary than some of his other ones, like The Curse of the Blue Figurine.
November 12, 2008
More Bellairs! So fun...
April 10, 2009
Grades 4+ Johnny Dixon is kidnapped by an evil scientist who has invented a horrifying robot that requires human eyes.
August 11, 2009
Spooky! Hilarious dialogue! Fun!
November 6, 2012
My 4th grade teacher read us this book and I still remember it!
October 9, 2013
From my childhood, I remember reading the Bellairs novels. I'm going to give it a tentative nostalgia-filled 4 stars... I'll come back and rate this and others as I re-read them.
June 17, 2014
obviously still supernatural, but not as much as some of the ones immediately preceeding this
November 14, 2025
This was my choice for a book published in 1986 that I had never read before and was, technically, my book for the month of October. I'd planned it to be a nice spooky read for Halloween, but ended up getting delayed in finishing my 1985 book, so this one got pushed out a bit. It was a bit disappointing, to be honest, and maybe that's because I haven't read any of the Johnny Dixon books written between it and the first one, which I read back in July. It felt less like reading a spooky Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys style book and more like a Nancy Drew/Scooby Doo hybrid that . I did end up enjoying it and even though I probably won't be reading it again, I will likely look at picking up some of the other books in the series eventually.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 58 reviews