Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining Book
Review: I know that a lot of people might have thought that the first 200 pages of it were boring and pointless, serving as character development and nothing more, but I do not agree with this assessment, as I believe that the first 200 pages or so are, in their own right, important to the story. After all, it is in the first three or four chapters that Anderson finds the ship and begins to dig it out of the ground with her dog Peter. Granted, Chapters 5 and 6, and perhaps 7 and 8 as well, to a certain extent, were only for character development, but hey, Gardener was the protagonist of the story, so obviously we're going to want to know a few things about his background and what he is all about. Besides, I was intrigued by Chapter 5 when Gardener was talking about various nuclear disasters and such, being the morbidly curious person that I am. Not saying that I am glad that that stuff happened, but it was interesting and disturbing nonetheless, even though it had no direct bearing on the story itself.The character of Jim Gardener was interesting to say the least. He is the very definition of a flawed character, and perhaps a tragic hero had his flaws lead to any great fall from grace, yet in his own way is somewhat likeable and still at least trying to be a good person. Even Roberta Anderson, despite her changing into one of the "tommyknockers" was still described by Gardener's perspective as an endearing character, who, despite becoming quite evil, was at one time a loving, caring person and a good friend and lover to Jim Gardener. Neither Gardener nor Anderson played a huge role in Part Two, which in a lot of ways reads like a collection of related short stories (which I found strange, to say the least), but they still show up from time to time and are mentioned as well. And Part Two did a great job at illustrating the effects of the ship on the town of Haven itself while Gardener and Anderson dig the thing up. Nothing like watching one of Stephen King's small towns slowly go completely insane. A lot of the books good points are the really bizarre twists and elements that this book incorporates. Of course, we would expect such sickness and bizarre situations from Stephen King (one of the things I like about him). I also enjoyed the cult-like mentality displayed by the citizens of Haven toward the latter half of the novel, which was certainly a nice, creepy touch. All in all, I'd have to say that I thoroughly enjoyed the book. It had its weak points, such as some of the events not being entirely in chronological order toward the end, which made for a bit of a predictable ending once you got to Book Three--Chapter 09--but was still a very entertaining read and among my list of favorite Stephen King novels.
Rating: 
Summary: tommy is entertaining
Review: this book has a very good opening. a woman finds an object in her garden soon it begins to influence locally. people get smarter, more callous, and physically transformed. can anyone stop them. some people are still human, but they have the odds against them. the transformed are coming together, plotting. it was an entertaining read. pearticularly enjoyable was the opening, and the inventions (i liked those very much). but the plot was sort of lost at times. i guess this novel should have been cut down. there were a few sidetracks here that took up too much space, being irrelevant to the plot. entertaining. don't expect too much plot.
Rating: 
Summary: Terrible
Review: I'd never read any Stephen King books before, but given all the hype around his works I decided to give it a shot. Tommyknockers was at the library, so I checked it out in spite of its forbidding size. At first I was enticed by the book, as the characters were intriguing to me. However, the further the book trundled along the less I liked the book. By the time I reached the end I was desperate to reach the last page not because I couldn't wait to see what happened next but rather to get it over with (I'd read that far so I figured I'd just push through it). This seems to be an issue with other stories of Stephen King - his movies tend to start out interesting, but the endings are just ludicrous. I know these are fictional stories, but good horror stories have endings that make sense in their own way; Tommyknockers does not. Oh, and another thing: if you really like hearing about throwing up, vomiting, puking, hurling, and EVERY single imaginable form of wretching, then this book is for you. I kid you not - just about every chapter has someone throwing up. It's just silly. Seriously folks, maybe I'm just not into Stephen King's writing style, but I would seriously suggest spending your 752 pages elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: His absolute worst!!!!
Review: King's worst book ever--and I am a huge fan. THis one is long, slow, unbelievable (and unbelievably boring). Not at all scary. Filled with images of the "Stephen King Green" kind- - - an eerie fluorescent green glow---that wears thin almost immediately. Read something else: QUICK!!!
Rating:
Summary: An alien venture for King
Review: While this is a pretty good book, it's not among King's best I'd say. I was wondering if this was King's first novel about aliens, though I guess I'm not enough of a King scholar to know for sure. I'd say it's a little too long for my taste- 700+ pages- as I tend to go to sleep a little with King's longer books, such as this, "The Stand", and "It". As usual with King's books, character development is one of the stronger points of this book; I found these characters eccentric and interesting- perhaps not your standard hero types. I also found the description of the aliens interesting and not really all that scary, though I'm not sure King was trying to scare us too much with this one. Overall, an entertaining read. Avery Z. Conner, author of "Fevers of the Mind".
Rating:
Summary: Good read
Review: I enjoyed this book. While it was long, and a bit slow at parts, there were always plenty of interesting things going on. All the characters were well written, as is usually the case with King, and the plot was interesting.
Rating: 
Summary: Knock knock on the door Tommy....Not
Review: I read this book long ago and i didn't like it too much mainly cuz it was boring for the first 150 pages or so. And the story had a bad ending that was just blah. Not a typical King ending.
There are better King's reading than this lame excuse.
Rating:
Summary: Worthy of the King
Review: Tommyknockers was a truly scary novel that had you continually on the edge of your seat in anticipation. It all begins in the small town of Haven, a town that has always been an uneventful place. That changes when Bobbi Anderson, a local resident, finds a piece of metal sticking up in her yard that she is compelled to dig up. The farther she gets in her excavation, the stranger the town and it's people become. It is soon apparent that this piece of metal is some sort of large space craft, and there's no telling what it's doing.
As if that isn't an interesting enough plot, more and more characters add lots of quirks to the story. These characters interfere with the "invasion of the tommyknockers", a group of body-snatching aliens that plans to take over Haven, then the world. This was a truly interesting novel with a new twist on the age-old "invasion story". Steven King keeps you guessing at what will come next and wondering if the aliens will succeed in their evil plan. I would highly suggest reading this wonderful novel that keeps you in suspense right through to the end!!
Rating:
Summary: A huge book, but keeps you entertained
Review: Well, it is a huge book indeed. I was worried about it keeping my interest, but other than some parts in the middle, the book had me on the edge of my seat. I thought the beginning was very interesting, probably because it's when you are wondering what is going on, how it's going to play out, one of the most suspenseful parts of the book, i think.
This is the first "classic" King book i have read & am looking forward to more!
Rating:
Summary: Glad I Stuck With It, But...
Review:
Pleasant young women, Bobbi Anderson, at her backwoods retreat goes for a walk with her adorable, beloved and aging beagle. Now I love dogs, have two of them now, and one is a beagle. Absolutely marvelous dogs--most people think so. So when Bobbi stumbles over something on her walk--a mysterious something--her curiosity is piqued. Fred (the beagle) doesn't like it one bit. Oh boy, I think, the beagle's gonna get it! Big time! Do I want to read this? King has a habit of creating interesting, fully realized characters, getting you to like them, and then killing them! The main plot of the story owes a great deal to H.P. Lovecraft's subtle "Colour Out of Space." Certain cues in the story lead me to believe that King meant us to understand this. The other major thread of the story might be called "The anti-tragedy of Jim Gardner"--anti-tragedy because, contrary to classic tragedy, Bobbi's old friend and lover Jim is a truly dreadful character who, through a spark of essential decency buried deep within him, rises to redeem his soul by the end. He is "The Shining's" Jack Torrance written even larger--the classic obnoxious individual whose character flaws and alcoholism are in a deadly embrance to drive him ever lower. But unlike Jack Torrance, who is a decent but destructively self-centered person actively fighting his dark impulses, Jim Gardner self-pityingly wallows in them, so it is much harder to kindle the spark of sympathy for Jim that allows us to care whether he lives or dies until very late in the book. But, at the end, Jim's personal redemption resembles nothing so much as Sidney Carton's in "A Tale of Two Cities"--King's emotionally wrenching ending could only have been iced by having Jim quote "It is a far far better thing..." I gave this book three stars. I could have cranked it up to four for the ultimately pulling together of the story line and especially for the truly novel aspects of the alien lifeform at the heart of the story, but I have to let it slip back to three because the book suffers from King's success. In short, he needs an editor--one who will not regard some hacking and sawing as desecration of a sainted writer. The book almost lost me several times in the middle. At 500 pages instead of 750 it might have moved along and been a far more compelling read. Oh--like Mr. King I mentioned a major character at the beginning of the story and then (as in many an old English novel) let you almost forget about him until the end. The fate of Fred the Beagle. Yes, he dies. But were that it were that simple. Or kind.
|
