Rating: 
Summary: Contains one of King's finest short stories, hands down.
Review: Stephen King has done once again something he has only done once before-- he managed to get four books out in sixteen months. Okay, he cheated a little, releasing a screenplay as his first book of 1999, but then one of the books during the 86-87 deluge was the re-release of The Stand, so who's counting? Not the fans, who were certainly all too happy to pay the [money] and change for all four books. And were they worth it? Sure, if you're a Stephen King fan. But, just as in the last deluge, there are bound to be some disappointments. I closed the cover on The Eyes of the Dragon all those years ago saying "huh?" And while that wasn't my foremost thought after finishing Hearts in Atlantis, it was up there. First, when it comes right down to it, it's yet another book about Vietnam, and we don't NEED yet another book about Vietnam, especially not yet another book of fiction about Vietnam. To play devil's advocate, however, the amount of time King actually spends in the jungle in this book is at a blessed minimum, about the same as Rex Miller does in _Slob_ (or, to cross genres, a little less than the film time the jungle got in _House_). When Vietnam is used as a stage setting, or an excuse (as it was in the aforementioned film), it works better than it does as a weapon of injustice. We've seen it too many times. We've all watched The Deer Hunter, Platoon, and another hundred thousand movies that tell us we royally screwed up, in one way or another, and even the most misguided loyalheaded mindless patriot who still believes the idea was right (read: me) is willing to admit that some really big screwups happened along the communication trail. So be it. Now it's a part of history, thankfully, and as such it makes a good backdrop for novels set in the sixties. A better backdrop than love-ins and peace-outs, that's for sure. Point two (is there a point two?), and this one goes on the plus side: we've seen both conventions taken in these stories before, but never done in quite this way. They read like an odd conglomeration of _The Nick Adams Stories_ and Robert Altman's short-lived TV series _Gun_, but with interesting twists thrown in. The object that passes from story to story is almost never in the hands of the person who passes from story to story. The person who does so is never the main character; the object is almost always completely incidental. A thing of beauty. However, a clever way of wrapping a bunch of stories together is just that, if there's not all that much meat to these, and despite the five-hundred-plus-page bulk of this, there really isn't. Not to say there isn't some fun here, and there's the usual round of "spot the characters form the other books" and the like, and one of the stories, "Blind Willie," will send you into the thousand-yard stare, wondering how King could take such a simple idea and turn it into something so astoundingly brilliant...In any case, these five stories (actually, we'll call them two novellas and three short-shorts-- at least, they're short-shorts for King) cover forty years in the life of one person, as seen by friends, lovers, etc., in a kind of impressionist way. We're never completely sure what happens during those times our subject is out of sight, and neither are the other characters, but that doesn't stop them from going about their lives in interesting and usually destructive ways. Of course, we are left at the end with more questions than we'd like to be, but isn't that the way with most King novels these days? Everything ties into everything else. We know we'll get the answers somewhere down the line. I guess I can't help comparing this to Bag of Bones and Tom Gordon, thanks to the timing. And given those two, I have to rank this one at the bottom of the batch. Not that it's a bad book, not at all; I'd still rather read King than much of what's on the bestseller list at any given time. But in the past sixteen months King has delivered a one-two punch of his best work this decade, possibly in all of his career; it's hard to imagine anything would stand up to that. Still, I'm not sure I'd recommend this one to any except those who need it to follow along in a series (for DT aficionados, as I mentioned, this is a must-have, and I'm wondering if some of the unanswered questions won't end up tying into the what-the-hell-was-THAT? thing at the end of Bag of Bones).
Rating: 
Summary: Hearts in Atlantis
Review: A wonderful book, showing the maturity of the the author Stephen King. Known mostly as a horror writer, this book, I think, once and for all proves that Stephen King can write about any subject and make it interesting and enthralling. He talks about "Getting Over" not "Getting over it." He took me to a place I have never been, and most possibly, a place I will never forget. This made Vietnam a real place for me, and the war's meaning a little clearer. May we all "Get Over."
Rating: 
Summary: Another fantastic book!
Review: Hearts shows a continued progression of change in King's novels. It tells several stories each one takes place in a different time from the early sixties to today. Each story is connected to the other in a subtle way, but yet is a key to each story. The stories are written each from a different perspective, giving you a different feel with each one. I have read several of Kings books and find his new trend to be refreshing and quite interesting, as with "Bag of Bones" King continues his fantastic writing with a new style and flare. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: Love and Peace
Review: If you grew up in the 60s as I did, this is a must read for you. I really enjoyed the entire book but my favorite parts were "Low Men..." and "Heavenly Shades...". I have not read King's Dark Towers series but will be purchasing it to get a better understanding of Ted and the low men. It seems this must have been a very difficult book for Mr. King to write, the Viet Nam parts were gut wrenching for me and hopefully cathartic for him to write. I could not stop crying while reading "Heavenly Shades...", especially the paragraph about magic and the purpose of childhood. It was a magical novel and I was sorry to see it end. Peace.
Rating:
Summary: King succeeds with a very serious novel.
Review: With Hearts in Atlantis, Stephen King has managed to accomplish two impressive things. First, he has written a horror novel where the horror is on the backburner. It waits ahead in the future for Low Men in Yellow Coats, it's happening outside the smokey dorm rooms in the title story. And it's a distant memory buried within the spirits of men in the final three stories. Second, King has written a book about Vietnam without it conforming to the cliches that make this subgenre so dispicable. His characters are well crafted, act unpredictably (even to themselves at times), and have different feelings about the war. Essentially, the war happens, but they happen too. I find Stephen King's ability to provide us with this kind of book, after 30 some odd bestsellers behind him, utterly remarkable. Despite some of the criticisms he recieves for being a "popular" horror writer, I believe he is one of the most important writers of our time. If you've never read King, and aren't into "monsters", then Hearts in Atlantis is a good place for you to start.
Rating:
Summary: King's standout look at the past.
Review: Stephen King returns with a melancholy look at growing up in the shadow of The Vietnam War and the 1960's. HEARTS IN ATLANTIS consists of 5 pieces of fiction, all tied together with characters appearing in different selections. The book is told in chronological fashion, starting with 1960 and ending in 1999. "Low Men in Yellow Coats" is a 254 novella that introduces us to Bobby Garfield, an 11 year old growing up without a father figure. The tale meditates on the themes of whom to trust, who the real threats in life are and that you can never go back to a time when things seemed similar. Bobby meets a new tenant in his building, a Ted Brautigan, who shows up from seemingly out of nowhere to befriend Bobby. Ted shows and tells Bobby that Low Men in Yellowcoats are following him and for Bobby to keep out for signs of their coming. Bobby does this but it doesn't stop the inevitable finding of Ted by these Low Men. Bobby eventually loses his innocence in this story and moves on. As a side note, followers of King's DARK TOWER series will see some interesting and familiar trappings in this story. Up next is the title story, which shows us Bobby in college six years later. He gets mixed up in the addicting game of Hearts and his grades go south. More importantly Bobby and his cohorts find out that they have the power of protest, be it the war or addressing their own scholastic fates. 1983 is the year that "Blind Willie" takes place. We follow an old nemesis of Bobby's past, Willie Shearman, as he goes through a three person transformation. He goes from Bill, dutiful husband to Willie Shearman, a hard working joe to Blind Willie, a panhandler. It is the most depressing and moving piece due to the effects of guilt, war and lack of respect have on Bill. John Sullivan is the central character in "Why We're in Vietnam". This starts off at a fellow Vietnam Vet's funeral where the past is too much to take for John. He meets up with some other soldiers from that time and he notices certain commonalities among them all. This is a sobering look at what our government exposed our boys in Viet Nam to and the effects it has on them all. The ending of this story connects directly with the last part. The third to the last paragraph in "Why We're in Vietnam" sums up this book. Look it up, read it and hope we don't fall to the same Fates that that generation did. "Heavenly Shades of Night are Falling" is the end piece of this work. It ties up all the loose ends...almost. Bobby comes back to his hometown of 1960 to notice the changes, meet up with old friends, and discover what he and the rest of his generation accomplished...or didn't accomplish. A bit of hope at the end of HEARTS IN ATLANTIS makes this book a standout. King accomplishes something unique: an entertaining but thought provoking heart tugger piece of fiction. Highly Recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Awesome beginning - Disappoiting ending!
Review: Hearts in Atlantis starts out like a true Stephen King novel. Vivid characterizations,intriquing plot and all the supernatural elements that keep us reading till 3am! But what happened to parts 2 - 5. Gone are the horror and suspense to be replaced by two dimensionel charactors and political rhetoric. I felt cheated out of an ending. And though part 1 makes reference(s) to THE DARK TOWER series, I never read those (tried to - but found them plodding and uninteresting!) Did I miss something? Is the real ending somewhere in THOSE books?
Rating:
Summary: SHOULD'VE KEPT 'LOW MEN' AND THROWN AWAY THE REST
Review: I don't know why Mr. King felt the need to chime in on his Sixties views now, after more than 25 years of popular writing. I'm sick of hippies and their sob-stories--"oh how will we get over, man? How? No more college, man. No more protests, man. No more tie-dyed, rose-colored acid trips, man." Who cares? Do hippies really care at this point? I'm guessing no. What Mr. King should've done was keep "low men in yellow coats", the books first and longest story (and one of the author's best, I might add; in the same league with his early masterpieces, like The Body) and thrown away the rest. They're all monotonous, mirky and miserable--and in one case, just flat-out stupid. Mr. King needs to be a more efficient editor of his work.
Rating:
Summary: Masterfully told story!
Review: I had put off listening to the unabridged book on tape because it's rare that I truly enjoy short novels, short stories or anthologies of that nature. This book amazed me because even though it does consist of five distinctly different stories, Steven King brilliantly wove them together in such a way that the powerful threads snared me. I became ever more entangled emotionally in the stories as they progressed and secrets were artfully revealed. We do discover in the first story that THE DARK TOWER still stands and that the gunslinger is still hard at work (good for us fans to know who have been waiting forever for news of those exploits). That is pure, fun genius. King is at his best. Delightfully sly! The only complaint I really have is about the swearing. Particularly in the final story, the obscene language spoken in dialog between two Vietnam buddies just became outright boring listening. That said, the book closed graciously and still haunts me with sweet tenderness. Being a Baby Boomer myself, the book brought back many almost-forgotten memories. It also allowed me to see certain events and activities differently and perhaps with more open-mindedness. While each story had its own distinct 'flavor', together they satisfied in a way that is difficult to explain. Steven King makes characters live and breathe in that unique way of his. The book spoke to me on many levels, but most memorably, it spoke of innocence and of our loss of that innocence. Entertaining!
Rating:
Summary: Worth the money
Review: H.I.A. is worth the price of the book for just the first story which is half of the book. I loved it. HJK
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