Dreamcatcher

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining for the most part
Review: I've always been intrigued by the work of Stephen King, and I have to admit that I've never actually read one of his books up until this point. Aside from the practically non-stop cursing in this book, it was an enjoyable read for me. Would it make me want to read another of King's books? Yes.

The Stephen King that I imagine in his works, came to me at the beginning of the novel where the four friends are either at Hole in the Wall, or in the Scout. What I wasn't expecting from this book was the military aspect of it. What frustrated me most about the book was the constant jumping around of characters, as well as the somewhat confusing idea of the dreamcatcher (as an ornament) in relation to the story. Maybe it's just me. I felt myself sighing at points where I had to read through Kurtz dialogue. Kurtz, in my opinion, is just a useless afterthought thrown into the story. But hey, I'm not a bestselling author, so don't take my word for it.

Now you're probably wondering why, after all this complaining, I gave the book a 4 star rating. Aside from the boring parts (far between), this book really shines. The characters, along with having their own inner problems, are faced with an even bigger problem, and they don't even know about it until they are stuck right in the middle of it all. Fear of the unknown is experienced by all within this book. Whether it be telepathy, aliens, the monster in the toilet bowl, or fear of one's own mind, that is what drives this book. And there is just something really creepy about a woman sitting in the middle of a isolated road, while in a blizzard, and not moving even after a near-hit with an oncoming car.

Plain and simple, Dreamcatcher will catch you and make you want to keep reading right to the end.

Rating:
Summary: Steve has not lost it!
Review: Nowadays Stephen King bashing seems to be in vogue, especially among fans of his earlier books (those written in the 70s and 80s). While I would go so far as to agree that SK circa 2002 is not the Golden Age SK of a fifteen or so years ago there is still more talent in one of his little fingers than a horde of your average horror writers. King still has that uncanny knack of transporting you from your humdrum environment into the world of his imagination. Obviously that is the job of all writers of fiction, especially in the SF/horror/fantasy genre, but how many of them can do it as effectively as King?

One particular aspect of Dreamcatcher that I really like is the humor, the way jokes, satire and witticisms are woven into the story, the novel gave me a good laugh from time to time without becoming entirely farcical. There are also some thoughtful passages about the nature of friendship and what it means to be human. Those who are just looking for a good scare will also find gruesome scenes of the alien "weasels" making their spectacular exits from their human hosts, and an alien's ghastly methods death dealing. The battle for supremacy in the host body between Jonesy and the alien Mr. Gray is also tremendous entertainment.

My only complaint is that the novel is something of a retread, King has done something similar before, in IT (friends against weird monster) and Tommyknockers (aliens). This is what prevents it form attaining "classic King" status it is too short on originality for that, but then it would be unreasonable to expect that every novel he writes is a classic. All I ever ask of him his sheer entertainment and II got my money worth in that department!.
As far as this SK fan is concerned Dreamcatcher has enough merits of its own to justify its existence, and for Mr. King to keep writing more novels for as long as he is able.

Rating:
Summary: Junk food for the mind
Review: Reading this, I remembered why I stopped reading Stephen King several years ago. It is not simply that he hasn't had an original idea in years - maybe decades - though that is a factor. Dreamcatcher is a recycling of bits from The Stand, It, Tommyknockers, and other novels, most of which were better - though Tommyknockers was pretty awful, come to think of it. Moreover, the characters are wooden, flat, cartoonish stereotypes. Kurtz, the villain of the piece (discounting the amorphous "Mr. Grey"), is so predictably fascist and megalomaniacal he is almost laughable. (I'm reminded of one of the most memorable lines from the old Dr. Who series: "You megalomaniacs are all alike.") Megalomaniacs are easy villains to write. You don't have to do very much in the way of character development.

What is most troublesome is the fact that his novels have become mired in vulgarity. As a writer, King seems to have an adolescent's fascination with bodily functions. The aliens of Dreamcatcher inhabit the intestinal tract of their potential victims, and when they reproduce, it's in the most graphic and stomach-churning terms. Where some writers spend a lot of time writing about sex, King prefers to write about people vomiting similar types of unpleasantness. Vulgarity spills over into the dialogue. Nearly all his characters, again like adolescent boys trying to shock their parents, pepper their dialogue with the standard collection of "f", "s," "c," and "p" words.

I have no truck with censorship. I am not arguing that vulgarity is never permissible, should never be used. But at some point vulgarity becomes a cliche, a substitute for thought, or for thinking about and carefully selecting words for their emotional effect. This is the problem with a lot of King's writing: it is so uniformly vulgar in style and content that it becomes tedious for any reader who looks for a little more from a novel than more of the same. And much of King's more recent material is "more of the same." King has stopped writing novels and is writing "product." His books are the equivalent of fast food double cheeseburgers. Go into any fast food chain across the country and you know exactly what you are getting. Pick up any Stephen King novel and you know exactly what you are getting. There are no surprises. I'm not saying that King doesn't have talent. No writer becomes as successful or continues to be as successful as he is without talent. But I sure wish he'd start writing books for grownups.

Rating:
Summary: King Returns with Style
Review:
From alien abductions to telepathy to carnivorous intestinal parasites, Dreamcatcher is another fascinating voyage into the strange, and sometimes frightening, mind of Stephen King. Told mainly from the perspective of four lifelong friends-childhood residents of the ill-fated town of Derry-the story follows an attempted alien invasion and its aftermath.

Henry, Pete, Jonesy, and Beaver, returning to Maine for their annual hunting trip, find themselves caught in a medical quarantine. Trapped at their cabin, Jonesy and the Beav encounter a lost hunter, sick and disoriented, and offer him shelter. Not too far away, Pete and Henry are nearly killed when they come across a second hunter comatose in the road.

It is quickly discovered that the hunters are not sick; they are infected with an alien parasite, and a hungry one at that. This turn of events concerns even the aliens, who want to control humanity, not destroy it. But for some inexplicable reason, Earth's climate is inhospitable to them and its residents are highly resistant to their control. Jonesy is the first person they encounter immune to the destructive effects of their byrus. Possessed by an alien intelligence, trapped within his own mind, Jonesy is forced to aid the aliens in their assault on Earth.

Henry leads the efforts to save Jonesy-and humanity-from destruction. Battling not only the aliens but a fanatical military commander, Henry must draw on the special bond the four friends share and on Duddits, the Down's-syndrome boy who had been their childhood friend and the cause of their finest hour.

Though far from King's best work, Dreamcatcher holds the reader's interest. The story has all the King standards: bullies; people from (and drawn back to) that terrifyingly-tragic region of Maine; and children, reunited as adults and strengthened by their unity, forced to deal with unbelievable nightmares. It also contains a few delightful references to King's earlier works-some overt and some carefully hidden.

Dreamcatcher, soon to be adapted into a feature length film (and likely ruined in the process) does have a few flaws. The excessive cursing and stream-of-consciousness writing, which I found so cutting-edge in my youth, is far less intriguing to me now. As usual, uncensored descriptions of violence and references to various abuses are plentiful, so plentiful it can make a reader doubt that any of us had happy childhoods. And as a whole, the story lacked King's usual power, leaving me satisfied, but not necessarily wanting more.

Rating:
Summary: Not one of Stephen King's greater triumphs
Review: I am an admirer of Stephen King's works. Both his fiction and non-fiction books. Infact his book "On Writing" was one of the best treatments I have read on that subject.

In his novels , he normally combines interesting characters caught in a fascinating plot and delivers it with his unique narrative. Unfortunately this was not true of "Dreamcatcher".

It is long, laborious and the characters lack the usual King flair for development. The four friends who are caught in a web of horrific circumstances in the woods of Northern Maine are well described in the beginning of the book, but their personalities don't evolve as the story moves ahead.

The general theme of the book is fairly sound. Aliens are the "bad" guys and so are some of the people we entrust to remove them. Good wins over evil. The analogy of the "growth", the "byrus", to a cancer and the military to chemotherapy is clever. The play of the immune humans (assumedly the healthy cells) being attacked by the military as part of the treatment is also well conceived.

He also brings in telepathy and mind control, but does not go nearly far enough in developing these themes. For example, how life could be more interesting and certainly more challenging if people could read others minds. I am sure that in a room full of people if each could read each others' mind, the mayhem that would ensue would be unbelievable. Half would be dead within an hour.

In general I like the stories that Stephen King creates but, with "Dreamcatcher" the backtracking and dreamlike sequences disrupt the flow of the story and make it a struggle to keep up. Infact you would have to read the book in one sitting to maintain the flow. The paperback runs to almost 900 pages therefore a one-day read would be a tall order.

I like mysteries and psychological thrillers. I also like most of Stephen King's works, many of which I have read more than once.

Dreamcatcher incorporates some great ideas and undeveloped opportunities but I won't read it twice.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Book
Review: Contrary to what most people have said about this book, It quickly became one of my favorite Stephen King books. I could not put it down and finished in only a few days. I would highly recommend this book to any King fan. I'm glad I did not pay attention to the bad reviews and went ahead and read the book. This is definitely not a book to pass by.

Rating:
Summary: Long
Review: Why always so long. Good story with excellent ideas and some very well written elements. But seriously rambling in places. King seems to believe the quality of his books is proportionate to the length. Disagree.

Rating:
Summary: Not King's Best
Review: For some reason I get to read all King's books at night, and so, it is always a lot scarier. Don't let the title mistake you, this book had kept me on my toes, and gave me goosebumps. However, King can do a lot better. The charecters in this book are really shallow and not really interesting, unlike the deep and complex charecters that King can build with his master hands. The plot is pretty good. The idea of using articles about UFOs in the begining was cool, and fits to the time of the writing of the book, when the UFOmania spread around the world. However, the plot is sometimes silly, and the horror is "Freddie Kruger" style. King is focusing in groosom, blood and disgusting things, rather than his usual psychological terror, like the one in "Pet Sematary" for example. On the other hand, we must remember that King was passing an uneasy time when he wrote this book, and I guess it has effected him. It is a nice book, but he can do better.

Rating:
Summary: Stephen King's DREAMCATCHER...
Review: A group of four lifelong friends head out every November to a cabin in the woods of Maine to hunt and catch up on each other's lives. They share a strong bond that was originally strengthened by a noble cause they had faced as children. Now as grown men they gather for another year of laughs. But something crashes into the woods, interrupting their trip. Before long they are surrounded by dangers both human and inhuman. And if any of them are to get out alive they need to reach a fifth childhood friend to ride the dreamcatcher and destroy the mounting tension that threatens not only them but also the human race.The first full length novel written by King since almost losing his life when he was struck by a van. When King went down to the injuries sustained in his accident many people were worried that he might never write again. It took time but as he has always done once again he proved his critics wrong. One would think that the experience would change King when reading DREAMCATCHER. The novel measures up to the style and substance that he has consistently whittled into a distinct voice. At the same time there is a feeling of indifference in DREAMCATCHER. It is a great body in and of itself but the blood in this body doesn't seem to flow. Because of this the reader is left with a feeling of emptiness. As if they have missed something in the story. A decent read but not recommended for those attempting to acquire a taste for Stephen King.

Rating:
Summary: Try reading this book twice...
Review: I have read and (for the most part) enjoyed S. King books for 25 years. But Dreamcatcher was way too easy to put down. I never got into any of the characters, which turned out not to matter since most of them were killed off early in the novel anyway. I picked it up again last week and read it one more time with a bit more comprehension. But still, the aliens were straight out of Roswell...incredibly cliched.

Remember the good ol' days of "Cujo" and the like? Even though those characters were flawed, they were real people! The characters in Dreamcatcher are extremely two-dimensional by comparison.