Rating: 
Summary: How can you compare this to The Stand??!?!?
Review: It was awful! Boring. Contrived. Stephen King is an expert writer. He can whip out his signature prose right off the top of his head, and you can tell. The only problem is that he has absolutely no interesting story to tell in this book. He gets a good idea..."How about a crazy psycho sheriff" and then he starts adding really stupid stuff just because he can't explain the original idea. Read Kathe Koja. Read Poppy Z. Brite. Stephen King will always be the master of horror, but there's new talent on the horizon. Move over Stephen, the new kids are coming in. You have gotten stale
Rating: 
Summary: Liked "Desperation." Hated "The Regulators."
Review: I felt seriously disappointed, let down, and cheated by "The Regulators." But "Desperation" evens the score. I don't think it's among King's _very_ best. I'd say, don't miss it--but it's OK to wait for the paperback.
I think this is the first King novel that has dealt so explicitly with an almost conventional Christian/religious subplot... King talks about God in this one, not just about generalized vague forces of good and evil. Have to go back and read "The Dead Zone" again... Well, I'm not a conventional Christian, but if I can accept it in C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien I can accept it in Stephen King.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Fu@*%ing Book!
Review: Nuff Said. Tak
Rating:
Summary: The best of King!!
Review: After some disappointing recent works, this book is one of King's best. He is definitly back to his award-winning form. This book is one of his classic good vs. evil battles.
With evil creature Tak, nothing is good enough. It basically
wants to kill everyone! But a Higher Power has other plans.
With a young David Carver as the unsuspecting hero, this book
is a page turner. Be sure to read this book, even if it is the only book you read in the next five years.
Rating:
Summary: Once in Desperation, you can't stop reading till you're out.
Review: Stephen King has outdone himself with this hair raising tail.
Normally long winded and detailed at the beginning, King has
written a book that from the start captures the reader's imagination, instilling fear and hopeful disbelief. In it's
simplicity, Desperation is almost believable, making it that
much more terrifying. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a fast paced horror novel. It is not a typical
Stephen King novel, but fans will love it.
Rating:
Summary: Well written; interesting
Review: "Desperation" is a typical Stephen King book. The good vs. evil theme, the blood and gore, and the intense kick start beginning. However, it is not scary in the way people think of a King novel(i.e. "It", "Pet Semetary"). It deals with something that is, at first, plausible in the real world, and then takes it to another plateau when turning it into that of the supernatural. It's that special twist King is so good at giving. "Desperation" is a good book that is worth the money you spend on it
Rating: 
Summary: Bring on the editors!
Review: What is it with the publishers of King's books, that they
seem content to let him go on and on? Like other reviewers
I enjoyed the start of the book, and the initial stories
of the highway travelers being pulled over were gripping, because, it could happen to you! (characteristic of many
early King novels). A hundred pages in or so and we're back
to King on automatic pilot where the verbage comes thick
and fast. I couldn't be bothered to finish this, making this
the second King book I have read to die of boredom (Insomnia
being the first, and if anything, the cure). King's earlier
works, Christine, The Dead Zone, even IT, were page turning
thrillers. Lately he seems to be just a page churning filler.
Mr. King, get a good editor, and stay away from 'uncut editions.'
Rating:
Summary: Stephen King needs a good editor
Review: When is Stephen King going to learn that ending books
with lame "monsters" is not satisfying? He did it in Tommyknockers, and he did it in IT, and both books took
great ideas and blew them in the last 100 pages. Oh, and
then there is the ludicrous ending of The Stand, when "The
Hand of God" appears. Give me a break. With these tired
endings King takes perfectly good psychological thrillers and
turns them into children's nightmares.
Desperation starts out very well; I was hooked immediately.
However, by the ending I was wondering why I had spent
so much time with a book that wouldn't frighten a first grader. The theme of "God is Cruel" is played out
dramatically, but the further notion that such cruelty is "refining" is completely lost, and thus the
book falls apart, not to mention the completely non-
scarey "monster" who inhabits the last 200 pages. Anne Rice
is much better at coming up with alternate types of beings.
It would be more interesting if King gave us any insight into
the monster's motives. This book could have been half as long and twice as good
if King had cared enough about it. What's even scarier is
that King promises his next book will be about 1500 pages!
The dual nature of The Regulators and Desperation seems
intriguing, but I don't trust King, and I'm not sure
I'm willing to suffer through the remaining 350 pages of
The Regulators.
Rating:
Summary: I was disappointed
Review: These repeated comparisons between Depsperation and The Stand have me wondering if I read the same book. Where are the characters you care about? Where is the pounding prose? What about the plot that grabs you and doesn't let go? The qualities that made King my favorite author are sorely missing in Desperation. About 50 pages in, I had an idea this was yet another epic good versus evil struggle--a sub-genre which he handled so masterfully in The Stand, but which he has copied again and again so hollowly in recent years. Even his trademark scenes of gore and violence seem tired and contrived. Gone are the lively, animated stretches of narrative punctuated by sudden, brutal squirm-in-your-seat action. Instead, King seems caught up in a child's game of gross-out, where each scene is an attempt to out-do the last, but instead serves only to numb the reader. Desperation's companion book, The Regulators is more of the same, except King (sorry, Bachman) is trying so hard to be disgusting that the book approaches self-parody in parts. Do not misunderstand--I try to read everything King writes, and I enjoy a good stomach-churner as much as the next guy, but Desperation--sadly--seemed just that
Rating:
Summary: A great read
Review: After reading Regulators, I was left confused about what King was trying to portray. But after reading Desperation, I was left learning a little bit more about how King's mind works. I've been a little disapointed with some of his latest books, but this one is wonderful. King is at his best when he gives his characters a complete and complex personality
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