Insomnia

Rating:
Summary: Love it or hate it...
Review: I was surprised to see so many negative reviews for Insomnia on Amazon and so many criticisms saying the plot is directionless, that nothing ties together, and that the story is too unorganized. Insomnia is an extremely long read, clocking in at almost 800 pages and does take time to develop certain things which some readers may not have the patience for, but if the story can keep you reading and interested as it did for me, it only adds to the buildup and mystery of the story which King is weaving together.

On the one hand King hands us his signature style of mystery, paranormal, and hypothetically terrifying in the most human of circumstances plots, which concern an old widower named Ralph Roberts who begins losing his sleep gradually after the death of his wife. After finding no remedies for his insomnia, he begins to see "auras" or "colors" around people, ultimately serving as gateways to their lives, life-spans, and souls. After discovering a female friend of his also suffers the same symptoms, Ralph is entwined in King's fantasy writing of fighting off The Powers That Be. Ralph and his female friend Lois then discover that a local wife-beating maniac named Ed Deepnau, who was once a loving husband, is involved in serious hyper-reality and mind-blowing passages into other dimensions and the book then takes off on a journey in which the two old-timers try to put a stop to what is essentially the fate of 2000 innocent people.

The plot is interesting and hooking enough for any fan of Stephen King's fantasy writing as in Eyes Of The Dragon or The Dark Tower series or any of his terror-filled, horror shock-fests such as It or Pet Semetary, satisfying both camps instead of just one, but the story also touches on other, deeper issues such as old age, death, abortion, domestic abuse, and the question of free will or destiny, all without being biased on any of them. Throughout Insomnia King weaves all these into one and the results are outstanding, with a plot, events, and climax which shouldn't leave anyone disappointed, but obviously did so to many reviewers anyway.

The book is a long haul and a great deal to read, but this is not unusual for Stephen King as most fans should know, and you should know within the first 200 pages whether you want to finish it out. But I can honestly reccommend this to both the new reader not quite ready for something as chilling as Pet Semetary as well as the dedicated fan and completist.

Rating:
Summary: Stephen King is more the king of weird.
Review: His books are hypothetically terrifying concepts, but for the most part, I think a lot of his books are just down right weird. It's good for a weird story, but I don't think it's scary. This book is among his weirdest. One observation I would like to make is that Derry, Main is the fictitious town where "It' occurred a number of years earlier.

Rating:
Summary: "Zone" clone
Review: I liked this book the first time I read it -- WHEN IT WAS CALLED "THE DEAD ZONE". Really, the "innocent-psychic-stumbling-upon-political-assassination-plot" storyline was interesting once, but not twice. King writes too much, and it's no wonder he has the reputation (in some quarters) as a verbose [writer]; and this self-plagarizing, recycled piece of rambling nonsense backs that accusation up in spades....

Rating:
Summary: I'll refrain from the hackneyed "it's a cure for"...
Review: If INSOMNIA was a stock instead of a book, you could short it and make it a lot of money.

My sincerest apologies upfront for such a negative proclamation, but I'm afraid this particular piece warrants such baleful analogy. To take the metaphor further, King found himself in a creative bear market when he took up the task of putting a tale behind such a fantastic title; INSOMNIA is, after all, an effusively evocative moniker, especially useful to the composer of the fantastic and the Grand Guignol. What could possibly happen to a hapless character suffering from the anti-somnolent affliction in King's dexterous hands?

Unfortunately, not a whole lot.

Well, let me rephrase: a lot happens, but none of it is necessarily transfixing. INSOMNIA follows the latter-stage life of recent widower Ralph Roberts, citizen of Derry, the Maine municipality which, at one time, was terrorized by a sadistic, shape-shifting clown from the dark bowels of reality. Ralph is having difficulty sleeping, and try as he might, he cannot seem to find a panacea which would afford him a proper night's rest. But his sleepless nights become even more restless when he begins seeing strange visions outside his window, the so-called "little bald doctors"- what are they, and what are they up to? Are they, good, evil, apolitical? Ralph also seems to have developed an extrasensory perception of the world around him, his eyes detecting colorful auras attached to people- what are these ribbon-like palettes, are they representatives of people's spirits, their souls?

But there are other concerns brewing in the cauldron of Derry. Susan Day, staunch pro-choice activist, is coming to town, bringing with her one heck of a polemic catalyst. Edward Deepneau is acting kind of crazy, and Dorrance Marstellar is running around uttering cryptic aphorisms like "done-bun-can't-be-undone". Ralph's female friend Lois is also undergoing a similar transformation as he himself, and together they find out what the trio of elfish creatures are and what roles they play in helping to maintain the homeostasis of existence and the productive distribution of destiny; they also do chivalrous battle with a sinister, frightening creature known as the Crimson King, a demon which is determined to confer its chaos.

INSOMNIA is not so much a book of plasma-chilling horror as it is a study in Dungeons-and-Dragons-like fantasy...a diluted kind, to be sure. In fact, a Lord-Of-The-Rings motif is threaded through the text, quite apt for today's marketplace. But the problem is the narrative never quite reaches critical mass, no fusion ever takes place, and we are left with a story full of characters and plot and concepts and well-meaning prose which can never be summated into anything grand, no matter how many sigma symbols we place before it. King even called the book's primary draft not fit for publication in an interview, saying that he was waiting for the "sparrows" to make it fly (he had a similar situation with THE DARK HALF, whose initial attempt lacked the hook of the sparrows, making the story less than vibrant; once he came up with the sparrows notion, a winner was born). I believe the birds which gave wing to INSOMNIA was the linkage between the conundrums in Derry and their relationship with Roland's parallel world in THE DARK TOWER series. Although it is arguable that this additional element did indeed add pizzazz to the manuscript, I'd offer counterpoint and say that whatever amount of gain King scored, it was insufficient to avoid a net loss in overall effect. (I'd also add, somewhat irrelevant to the current topic, that his consistent insistence on turning many of his previous works into subordinate chapters of the Tower series diminishes their value; I myself like it when pieces stand alone are not dependent on the rules and regulations of another universe [unless, of course, they were meant to in the first place]; just my personal preference.)

There is no question that King is an ace storyteller; his achievement at the craft is manifest in INSOMNIA. That's what my two stars are for: his writing is competent and poetic, he has a gift for metaphor-alchemy, his characters exist in several fleshy dimensions- here there be no bag-of-bones cast. But sometimes, ability can not cast a long enough shadow over banality, and I think INSOMNIA is one of those times. Reading it will not be such a bad decision, especially if you are a fan and if you desire to be exhaustive in your coverage. The book is an underperformer in King's literary portfolio, but one that still beats the broader market at large...

Rating:
Summary: Promising start, but ultimately a let down
Review: King wrote Insomnia in the early 90's, when he was still trying to transition away from adolescent-driven horror stories (like Christine, Carrie, and It) and move into more adult fare. This book comes across as a hybrid of the two. King addresses serious issues such as growing old and abortion rights, but the story itself is pulp horror comedy, complete with troll-like demons, magic rings, and evil spirits that can take human and animal shapes.

The characters are well-developed, and the story is fun, especially at first, but it is not good enough to carry its 800 pages. Unlike other King milestones-like The Stand or Dark Tower series-this book becomes tedious and repetitive. In the end, it's about an elderly couple trying to save 2000 people from getting killed by right-wing fanatics who are unwittingly being manipulated by supernatural forces. Even the protagonists don't seem to care too much whether they succeed. For Dark Tower fans, there is also a small event near the end that will affect the story of Roland the Gunslinger.

My recommendation is to skip this one. King has written many other, more entertaining novels.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful limited edition for the King collector
Review: This review relates to the limited edition from Mark Ziesing.
This version of the book is definitely worth investing in. The oversized book comes in a beautiful slipcase. The book itself is printed on heavy paperstock, has a smythsewn binding(for a lot longer durability) and contains severel color illustrations by Phil Hale. The book is not signed, but who cares, when everything else is topnotch!!! The 3 stars are given for the story which is not SK's best. Should i only rate the production of the book, it would get 5 stars!!!!

Rating:
Summary: Latent darkness with an aural light at the end of the tunnel
Review: Judging from other reviews I've read, this seems to be a book people either love or hate. I loved it.

As Stephen King matures, so too do his interests. This is one of his least gory works, and it has an unusually political backstory. King masterfully navigates the shoals of America's abortion debate, managing to make it an integral part of the scenario in which the story unfolds without exhibiting bias towards either the pro-choice or pro-life camps. This in itself is a masterful accomplishment, if you believe (as I do) that fiction writers should tell a story and that messages are for telegrams.

Ralph Roberts is a widowed septuagenarian who can't sleep. A retired travelling salesman and bookkeeper, he shares a duplex home with a retired schoolteacher. At first glance he would hardly seem a literary hero in the traditional epic mold. Yet in King's hands Roberts exhibits a quiet dignity, a serene determination that gives him inner strength when he needs it the most. Roberts is willing to stand up for what he believes is right, and does so without being corny. The human characters around Roberts are fully developed before the first hint of the supernatural appears in his life. When it does, the writing is vintage King: his imaginative descriptions of characters' auras, and the ways they change in different circumstances, create vivid images in the mind's eye. Evil forces ARE at work here, no doubt about that. When Ralph and his sidekick Lois finally make it into the lair of the sinister Atropos, the latent darkness of the moment is comparable to that found in King masterpieces such as "It".

From a storytelling standpoint, I felt this one of King's strongest works. Some of my favorite King books and stories over the years have been those which were as much sci-fi as horror, such as the short stories "Word Processor of the Gods" and "The Jaunt" in Skeleton Crew. This book fits nicely into The Big Picture that King is working to shape his works into - you'll find a few familiar surnames in extremis, such as Funderburke and Creed. You'll find a work which clearly shows the care its author put into creating it for over three years of his life. Most of all, you'll find a compelling story that you won't want to put down at night.

Rating:
Summary: King's Best!
Review: Perfect to read when you have insomnia! King has created a creepy world that only the sleepless know...

Rating:
Summary: DARK TOWER ---LOOK OUT!
Review: Okay, I really liked this book. King appears to be, over the last few years, tying every book in with the dark tower series. I dont mind this. I really want him to finish.
In case you dont know, King is retiring after finsishing the Dark Tower series. It will be his penultimate climax of every book and every story he has ever written. How many other writers do you know that can tie every book they've written into one crossover series? The man is smart. If you read all his books you will want to read the dark tower series -if you read the dark tower series, you will want to read all of his other books. Genius.
Anyway, this story is not so much about Insomnia, but more about The Powers That Be. Originally I did not pick up this book because I thought it was one of King's dark horror stories that he wrote about the time his mother died. (The long walk, Roadwork et al) and didn't even give it the time of day. With a name like Insomnia, how could it not be? The book is about much more than that, and its not all that dark. Actually is pretty uplifting. King's characters still do things that make no sense to me, they always have, but he knows how to weave a story, and he knows how to build a character. KA!

Rating:
Summary: My vote for King's all time worst.
Review: Insomnia is a mixed bag of story ideas that never quite come together. You have an elderly man coping with his wife's death as well as a worsening case of insomnia that is causing him to see...things. An underdeveloped subplot on wife beating. Supposedly pro-life terrorists plotting to destroy a family planning clinic. And, finally, you have the powers of both The Random and The Purpose (New Agese translations being Random = Evil, Purpose = Good) battling to sway the outcome to their favor because, you see, someone in this big mess has serious, Big Picture connections to Roland and Company's quest to save The Dark Tower.

Sounds good, doesn't it? Well it isn't. Insomnia is overlong (taking hundreds of pages to over development rather simple ideas) , prone to needless subplot digressions (in the midst of one important scene we stop for seemingly endless amounts biographical data on every item in Ralph's closet while he searches for binoculars), and, worst of all, it's treatment/development of the female characters borders on the misogynistic.

King constantly amazes me with how he can take dozens of characters, make each and every one them important to the plot, and crosslink seemingly random events in even the smallest of stories to create the illusion of epic meaning. But in Insomnia he fumbled the narrative horribly, creating an embarrassing failure to be avoided.