Rating: 
Summary: Still has a good story in him
Review: This book I can honestly say is very good, not great but good. Again S.K. takes us to Derry Maine where we have 4 friends/hunters since childhood. They go on a hunting trip in the woods, only to discovery that Aliens from another world have landed near by, and start to cause all sorts of problems. One way they do this is by infecting a host (US) with a scary worm like creature that eventually eats you inside out. (If you have a sensitive stomach be carefully before you read) The U.S.Army come to cordon off the area and start the containment process. Actually the U.S. has known about these aliens for sometime and know how to deal with them...(violently.) How ever not as badly as they deal with the people they round up. S.K. brings us images of the Holocaust, and how easily it came come to those conditions when all reason is gone and chaos triumphs.
But to put it in a nutshell, this is a good story, and is so grand in scope, so many characters and events to name. Here S.K. throws everything into the mix except the kitchen sink. We have a space creature, alien ships, human possession, helicopter shoot out with the aliens reminiscent of something from "Black Hawk Down."
The only negative to the book, was it's extreme length and silly dialogue between Jonsey and the Alien creature. All in all much better than BAG OF BONES.
Rating: 
Summary: Dreamcatcher
Review: There came a point--well before the halfway mark--when I felt I was reading some kind of loopy re-shuffling of The Tommyknockers, but where King had disassembled that superior novel and then failed to get the pieces back together right.First, I agree with anyone's contention that this book seems full of cliches. Kurtz, the military bully. The crashed spaceship with the gray aliens. The race-against-time finale. I just felt that all of this had been done before (thankfully, the hoariest cliches not done by King...UNTIL NOW). Second, where are the great Stephen King characters? I never felt emotionally connected to anyone here, except perhaps for some easily-wrung pity for Duddits. Beav's crucial scene on the toilet is probably the best scene in the novel, but even though I felt for his predicament, brought on by his own weakness, it's not like I knew him well enough to really empathize. The characters exist to fulfill functions of the plot, but this is the equivalent of stepping out with a group of people without getting introduced to them properly, and then having a strangely eventful night that prohibits getting to know them any better. Lastly, there's the plot. As it unraveled, I felt it became some kind of crazy-quilt hodgepodge of fuzzy logic...headed for a bit of an anticlimax regarding the alien threat, as far as I'm concerned. Bits and pieces of the past that showcase what nice boys the four friends are, except, mind you, for one telepathically-induced car crash. Jonesy's innerspace conflict with Mr. Gray, where I was never quite sure what the rules were, if there were any. A lowspeed pursuit involving three vehicles oozing along snowy roads that must have dragged on for a hundred pages (a very dull part of the book, if you ask me). Every new development seemed glued on to an already unwieldy mess, that sorta made sense, I guess. I'm not sure. Even if you like oatmeal a la King, this is pretty lumpy oatmeal.
Rating:
Summary: 1 PT. War Of The Worlds + 2 Parts King = Equisite tale
Review: Stephen King must have a fondness in his heart for boyhood friendships and mentally challenged individuals. It is nice to see one such challenged person in the pivitol role. For with out such a character like "the Dudds", Dreamcatcher couldn't possibly exist.
Stephen King takes his twist on the H.G. Wells classic and gives it new life. He makes an already creepy story a lot more scarier, using the old story line and adding his own brand of horror and prose. Although the idea for the book isn't original..this particular version is all King. It is the kind of book that you look back on after having finished it saying, "Man, I'd like to read that again!"
I admitt, I did get lost in some parts of the book...some of it is rather confusing. But, like all his work..at points you can get rather lost, but eventually Mr. King will always point you in the right direction later on down the road. There are over-the-top characters, down-to-earth characters, and, of course, not-of-this world characters. Who is the bad guy? Who is the good guy? All of the characters are quite unique, but yet they are all interwoven into such a dynamic that they work together like a well oiled machine.
There are parts of this book that are genuinely scary to the point of giving you nightmares. The visuals are extremely well laid out, it's like watching a movie at times rather than reading a book. I recommend this one to all fans of King and to all those who loved the original War Of The Worlds.
Rating:
Summary: The Dreamcatcher
Review: This is the first book I read from S. King. So I can't compare it to other books of this author. I wanted to read this book before the movie came out, so I did. The book tells the story of a four: Jonesy, Beaver, Pete and Hendry. Every year they take a short hunting vacation in a cabin deep in the woods.... Untill they get confronted with some thing from another planet! The story is a combination between the movies: Alien and
X-files. The snow and the darkness in the woods adds a great dimension to the story. I don't really get scared from a book so for me it was more like an adventure tale. It's a great book to read in the fall or winter, 4 stars.
Rating:
Summary: STILL HAS SOME LEAD LEFT IN HIS PENCIL
Review: Just a few quick words. I knew that Stephen king, after his accident, would have and interesting tale to tell, and my suspicions were correct. The last SK novel I read was Bag of Bones, which I wasn't too happy with, but Dreamcatcher is a whole new ball game. This book had everything in it except the kitchen sink, we have: monsters, evil government members, parapsychology, flashbacks, action sequences, space creatures, space ships, as usual bad language, Blood and guts, very human characters and some funky space fungus.
This story, starts off well, their is a lot to tell about each member of the group of 5 lead members, as usual SK is able to describe each person down to what color socks they wear. This is good, but can be much at times. I did think Dreamcatcher was very involved, and had many twists and turns in it's story line. SK definitely gives you your money's worth with so much material. Many people think that this novel has to many repeats of his past novels, like Tommyknockers, Lonesome death of Jody Veral from Creepshow, Children having powers since there youth like IT. Well despite it all I don't care what other people think I liked this novel and thought it was a nice surprise. The only 2 things wrong with Dreamcatcher were the parts were the alien was inside Joey's mind and were Joey had created a warehouse in his thoughts...ummm...kind of silly. And 2nd was the length of the novel, at almost 900 pages,it could have been shortened by about 2 hundred pages. I also see that there is a holocaust element involved with this book and that was the scariest part of all. I look forward to the movie.
Rating:
Summary: But the aliens are cool
Review: I'm judging this book having read it once, waited a year, and then read it again, and this book did not survive the journey well. Every plot twist was predicted, every villain was a stereotype, everything, everything in this book could be seen in advance or simply mirrored some other book or story, and served only as a pale imitation of the sources it copied. The only good thing in this book were the aliens. Sorry, better luck next time.
Rating: 
Summary: Catcherdream
Review: Well I have it in audio one night I feel asleep listening to it and I had a dream that I was in a tall building and I was with this guy and I don't know who he was never saw him before and there was a thunderstorm and it was night and a lot of lightning and I was sitting in a chair watching out a window and so was the guy but he kept on making remarks on every lighting bolt we saw and then he said wait a minuet I see something then I saw it to and out of the thunder clouds came a UFO coming straight for the building that we were in and came flying into our room shattering the glass and we were scared then I woke up and I saw a bright light outside and I actually ducked under my sheets and I thought they were here! But it was really day light out I eventually feel back asleep an hour later
Rating:
Summary: THEY'RE HERE.....FOR THE MILLIONTH TIME
Review: One thing I can say about Stephen King is that he's consistent. He's not going to surprise you with any new tricks or ever become a greater writer than he already is. King is going to write well no matter what happens. This is the case with Dreamcatcher, a novel which is not only derivative of other science fiction novels and movies, but also of Stephen King's other works, such as It and The Tommyknockers. Similar to It, a group of 4 friends who shared a turning point in their lives as kids reform as a group to combat a new evil. They have a telepathic link with each other and certain extrasensory powers, such as the ability to track down missing people and items. They call it "seeing the line". They have an annual hunting trip miles away from civilization in a cabin called The Hole in the Wall. It seems to be the only highlight in their miserable lives. This year is going to be different. A man stumbles out of the woods, and in a subversively comedic way which destroys the creepiness of the novel, cannot stop passing gas and burping. And man, do they smell. He can't remember much about how he ended up wandering out in the woods but later, in a combination of Alien and The Thing, we figure out what the real deal is. It turns out that the four men are the only thing standing between the world and an alien takeover. Everything in this book has been done before. I could list a ton of movies that Dreamcatcher borrows from :Alien, The Thing, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, War of the Worlds, etc. The lack of originality really bothered me in the sense that every Michael Crichton book does. This novel seems to be more like an excuse to make a movie than anything else. In this sense it reminds me of Rose Red. I mean, it's good, but King can do so much better. King is such a strong writer that he overcomes this and is able to entertain and scare you. I think he is one of the greatest contemporary writers when he talks about childhood. Like Dickens, King can sometimes make up for his poor plot by excelling at character. The beginning of the book is great as the characters are introduced and the scene at the cabin starts to unfold. As soon as the aliens are revealed and other characters start entering (such as a crazy general named Kurtz who has been sent by the government to eliminate the aliens), the book starts to sink into B-movie mode. It would have been much scarier just to concentrate on the four men isolated at the cabin by a blizzard. Don't get me wrong, I didn't want to put this book down, it's just that in the hands of a weaker writer, Dreamcatcher would've never worked. Nobody else could have gotten away with it except King. I agree with him though, in the sense that he says it's time to retire. His books are just retreading the same tired ground. For example, his new book is basically just Christine redone. Check out Salem's Lot and The Shining for a better read of this author.
Rating:
Summary: "KING RETAINS CROWN"
Review: KING SHOWS HE HAS NOT LOST THE POWER TO DRAW US IN TO,AND MAKE US BELIEVE IN,HIS BIZARRE,UNBELIEVABLE WORLD.THIS BOOK RUINED MY CAMPING HOLIDAY ;I STAYED UP READING IT ALL NIGHT AND WE RAN OUT OF GAS FOR THE STOVE.
I WOULD HAVE GIVEN IT FIVE STARS IF THEY'D HAVE NAPALMED THE ALIENS....MUCH MORE SENSIBLE.
ALSO WHEN YOU'VE READ IT, WATCH THE FILM "THE FACULTY" , I'LL WAGER "STEVIE-BOY" HAD IT RUNNING IN THE BACKGROUND ONE NIGHT IN THE SMALL HOURS WHILE HE WAS SCRIBBLING AWAY.
JEREMY (ALIAS "PEDANTIC-PETE")
Rating: 
Summary: Good read, but wildly uneven
Review: I've only read two other Stephen King books, and this is my least favorite. I felt like King needed to make his book way too long, so he added needless characters, a confusing plot, and mainly, it's just tough to keep interested in the book for 900 pages. It does have some great numbers of suspense (usually when Mr. Gray was at the scene, like in the hospital), but other parts (mainly the military parts), were very boring. He uses some military phrases, and he's trying to impress us with his "vast knowledge" of ideas. If you're just looking for a quick read that you can understand easily, this is not it. You have to think about it (I still don't fully understand it). Also, it seemed like he wanted to tie up everything up in a neat little package by having the survivors talk about it. It didn't make me understand it much more.
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