Dreamcatcher

Rating:
Summary: www.SFReader.com Review
Review: Review by Lynn Nicole Louis

Stephen King has always generated mixed reactions for me. I think his best form is the short--he's written some truly wonderful short stories and novellas. In my mind, his success with book length fiction has been somewhat spotty. Note that in this case I'm not defining success in terms of financial gain, but in how much I enjoyed the book.

The Stand is one of my all time favorites. Sure, it has it's problems, but as far as end-of-the-world books goes, it's top notch. Other King works have been less successful for me, and some (such as The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon or Gerald's Game) were just downright bad.

Still, I must be infected at some level with the King virus, because when a new book comes out, I dutiful wait for the paperback and then buy it....

...Dreamcatcher tries to be a story about friendship and survival, but it's worth noting that one of the main characters is recovering from a serious automobile accident, as was King at the time he wrote this. King's anger about the event is easy to see; perhaps writing this book is one of his ways of coming to grips with what happened to him. But we all know that good truth doesn't necessarily make good fiction. King's... er, the character's complaints, moans and gripes wore thin after a while.

Overall? My recommendation is to avoid this one unless you're a King fan. It's a long book, takes a big investment of time to read, and ultimately has a low return. There are a lot better alien invasion books out there.

Lynn Nicole Louis
Read the full review at www.SFReader.com

Rating:
Summary: Subpar
Review: Critics jokingly refer to King's "loggorhea", his ability to churn out several lengthy tomes of new material each year, but the underlying implication is that this is one of the signs of his greatness. Pardon me for dissenting, but when every other novel (and sometimes several in a row) are of as poor quality as "Dreamcatcher" maybe it's time to take a laxative and kick off the shoes for awhile.

This book is cookie cutter King at his worst. Not only does he bite heavily from other writers and filmmakers, constantly quoting other superior works that deal with similar themes and plot elements, but he's guilty also of ripping off his own material. We have shipwrecked aliens that use mind manipulation techniques to control humans (Tommyknockers), recurring flashbacks to life altering events in the characters' childhood (It), an intellectual infant who turns out to hold the key to everything (too many books to count)... the list goes on. Unfortunately so does the book. I suppose it's King's matter-of-fact storytelling that makes some fans feel every word that spills out of his typewriter is priceless, but it's rather obvious to the more objective reader that very little he's churned out in the past 10-15 years (at least) couldn't use some judicious editing. Most of the back story in "Dreamcatcher" is mildly diverting but not at all necessary. Not to mention it smacks of that old "Moby Dick" ploy of heightening the suspense by tossing in chapters unrelated to the current narrative at key moments. Problem is, Melville employed this technique with expertise and finesse, rarely overstaying his welcome, whereas you get the impression with "Dreamcatcher" that King just doesn't have much of a plot to work with and is padding out the opening segments with excess exposition in a vain attempt to achieve some sort of balance with the later parts of the book. This "balancing" means the novel takes over 300 pages to really get going.

I hate to even expand too much farther on my thoughts here, since most people reading this review will probably be diehard Stephen King fans and the ensuing carpal tunnel syndrome will be all for naught, but when that "4 out of 162 people found this review helpful" eventually appears above the byline I want to make sure I've earned the right to protest (after all, rating a review is not supposed to be whether you agree with the writer's assessment, but rather how well they've elucidated their opinion and given someone who hasn't read the book an idea of what they might expect).

So what else do we have here? First of all, as others have already mentioned, King's penchant for namechecking pop culture icons and including snatches of classic rock tunes in his work used to be cute and quirky, but after thirty years of publishing it's now only indicative of his inability to get up off his laurels and try something fresh.

Furthermore, though King has long been known for his realistic portrayals of children (particularly teenagers), he also has a tendency to take advantage of their youthful uncertainty to make them do things that would seem plausible to an adult. In "Dreamcatcher", the pivotal event in the lead characters' life comes when, as 8th graders, they come across some high school bullies tormenting a mentally disabled kid and intervene. That in and of itself is not all that unbelievable, but the fact that they befriend this kid (Duddits for those keeping score) for life seems like an act of charity unbefitting these capricious youths. I say this because, frankly, Duddits as written is not all that endearing a character. I'm sure his enthusiasm and baby talk were meant to be cute, but instead he comes off as a complete caricature that is bordering on offensive in and of itself. The bottom line is he's portrayed as a challenged individual that would be more likely to be tolerated for his inadequacies than embraced as a joy to be around. Furthermore, I'm getting a little sick of these "innocence as salvation" motifs in King's work, but if it had to continue here he could have at least fleshed out the whole telepathy aspect a bit more, maybe explore the possibility that Duddits' mental deficiency is tied in with his telepathic abilities, etc. And speaking of fleshing out character arcs, one character's drinking problem is mentioned repeatedly but only serves to force him into making one dumb decision that helps to drive the plot forward (deus ex machina, anyone?). Another character's accident the previous year is introduced as a psychically tramautic event but only gives King an excuse to introduce the element of intrusive thoughts before the aliens swoop in and give them something of their own to think about.

I could go on but I'm held to 1000 words and I've gotta be getting close. Hopefully I've managed to convey the depth of inadequacies in this book without beating anyone over the head, but the various levels of failings in "Dreamcatcher" do warrant more than a brief "thumbs up/down" synopsis, especially in light of King's reputation and prior body of work. I'm sure he'll bounce back (and forth), but in the meantime he might consider the idea that not everything he sits down to write needs to see the light of day. There's another book entitled "The Lost Writings of Stephen King" that I was perusing recently, and I noticed that the lion's share of unpublished fiction was either written in his younger, pre-published days or in those first 5-10 years of semi-stardom, when his work was judged strictly by it's quality and not just because it had King's name on the cover.

Rating:
Summary: Great Book!
Review: 25 years after saving Duddits- a child with Down's Syndrome- from bullies, four friends, Beaver, Henry, Jonesy, and Pete go up to Maine for their annual hunting trip. While up there they see strange things happening, and witness, for the first time, creatures beyond their imagination. After they put all the clues together, they find out that they are taking part in an alien invasion. These aliens were not friendly. They came to Earth to contaminate our water supply with a disease called Byrus. Two friends die during the book- Pete and Beaver. The other two friends- Jonesy and Henry- save the day along with the U.S. Army and Navy. At the end of the book they found out why they were successful in the defeat of the aliens, because of their "Dreamcatcher," Duddits.

Rating:
Summary: Unfocused and Strained
Review: On the recommendation of a friend, I read this, my first Stephen King novel. For the first 100 or so pages, I was hooked. But the novel began to drag. What starts out as the gripping tale of four hunting buddies encountering strange happenings outside their cabin, devolves into a wandering, unfocused and bizarre piece of writing. By page 400, I had lost all interest in the book. But, since I dislike not finishing a novel, I struggled on. Unfortunately, by page 500 (3/4 of the way through it) the writing was so terrible, the plot so absurd, and the characters so cliche, I had to put the book down. Whatever originality or imagination King once possessed is gone. He now relies on co-opting characters from other genres. For example, he names a sadistic, unbalanced Army General "Kurtz" after the sadistic, unbalanced Army General in Apocalypse Now named "Kurtz." King consistently refers to movie director James Cameron, as if the two are enjoying some inside joke, which detracts from the story. While I didn't anticipate great writing, I expected first rate story telling. The writing was high school level at best. I'd skip it.

Rating:
Summary: Just Simpy Mr. King at his Absolute Best
Review: Jonesy, Beaver, Henry and Pete are four young friends who save a boy named Duddits, who has Down's Syndrome, from some older bullies. From that day on they become his protectors, much to the delight of the boy's parents.

Somehow, from the day of the rescue, the five are bound together by a some kind of telepathy, which carries on into their adult lives. Then Jonesy has an accident and barely escapes with his life. The accident changes him. Beaver, Henry and Pete also undergo life-changing experiences. But, sadly, unknown to them, Duddits has developed a form of leukemia. He cries out to his friends, but his mental cries go unheard.

For nearly sixty years aliens have been visiting Earth, but the United States government has been keeping a lid on it. Then our four friends go hunting when a spacecraft is shot down. The government puts the military in charge of the area.

A hunter, with a strange fungal growth on his cheek and an even stranger growth in his belly, seeks help from the four friends as soldiers round up civilians in the area. Their god-fearing commander takes his crusade to a personal and terrifying level and, as a three-way battle ensues, it becomes obvious to the friends that only Duddits can save the world, but Duddits is dying.

DREAMCATCHER is Stephen King at his absolute best. Reading this book was like it was all those years ago with I first read IT or the TOMMYKNOCKERS. I just can't give it any more praise than that. If you're a fan of Mr. King's, you know what I'm talking about. And if you're not a fan, you should be.

Reviewed by Devon Adams, the Cool Kid

Rating:
Summary: Not quality King.
Review: Like a previous reviewer, I nipped and nibbled at this book with only marginal enthusiasm that slowly diminished as I neared the end. The characters were more interesting as they each recalled their childhoods than they were as adults, meaning that the plot in the book's present time was not that exciting. Poor character developement for the antagonists is partially to blame, but I also feel the story could have been told in a series of at least three books that may have fleshed out several of the characters along with the overall story. Try reading some of King's older works instead.

Rating:
Summary: Dreamcatcher
Review: This book is for mature audience only, but it is very captivating and it is better than the movie. People won't be able to put it down.

Rating:
Summary: Not so dreamy... nor exciting...
Review: Knowing the again rising reputation and writing talent of Stephen King, I decided to take a shot at reading Dreamcatcher (did not see movie). The story promised a very gutsy plot. As I read on I became slightly bored with the story that didn't seem to be going anywhere. Then all of a sudden, about 1/2 way through the book, the plot weaves more suspense.
Boyhood friends from Maine visit the cabin known as Hole in the Wall for one of their annual jaunts. All 4 boys have grown up with differing problems in their midlife crises. Enter a stranger McCarthy and one begins to get the idea of an alien invasion of his body. And then a woman in the middle of the road...another victim of alien invasion...and mental horrors produced by these alien beings who aren't very huge in size --- weasel-like creatures, but they can do a heck of a number in a human's body. Incorporated into this writing is King's own addictions and the first book he has written since his near-fatal accident.
Although mid-average entertainment, this story does not challenge the reader to turn pages fast --- there have been better King writings. A character named "Duddits" with Down's Syndrome is the focus of a psychic connection between the four main players. This book is an average novel and a very confusing read with wimpy military involvement!

Rating:
Summary: Good return for Stephen King
Review: Dreamcatcher is a very good book that tells the story of four childhood friends who are now all grown up; Henry, Jonesy, Pete, and Beaver. When they were kids, the four of them saved a mentally retarded kid, Duddits, from bullies. This event changes the four boys for the rest of their lives by uniting them in a special way. Twenty-five years later, the four friends take their usual November hunting trip at Hole-in-the-Wall, not knowing what they have stepped into. A hunter, McCarthy, stumbles into their camp unleashing something that they have no idea what it is. I won't go into details, but the rest of the story is very interesting throughout.

The best part of Dreamcatcher is most definitely the main characters. Stephen King has always been able to create well-developed characters, and he does not dissappoint here. As a reader, I found myself deeply interested in the characters. The frienships among Henry, Jonesy, Pete, and Beaver are fully believable. The story is that much more enjoyable because I was emotionally involved with the characters. The actual storyline is different from what I expected, but it was still good. Be forewarned, this is a huge book, 879 pages, but it is worth it. Also, if you like the book, check out the movie which was pretty good too. Check out Dreamcatcher for an exciting read that keeps you riveted throughout!

Rating:
Summary: A No Brainer
Review: Henry, Pete, Jonesy and Beaver are regular teenage kids. That is untill they meet Duddits. Duddits is mentally retarted but has a special gift that these boys after spending much time with him will inheret. The gift is called "Seeing the Line." It will unite and change these boys throughout their lives.
It all starts when a popular football player is trying to make
Duddits eat poop. It is his crying that brings them to him. The crying drives them crazy. They stand up to the football player and his 2 cronies. Beaver sings a song to Duddits that calms him down.Aliens attack the earth and the Jefferson Tract(Jonesy, Pete, Henry and Beaver's hunting place). Find out what happens next by reading
this horrific science fiction book.
When I read this book it was almost impossible to put down. I read this book day and night. Stephen King is a truly amazing author and I would reccomend this book to anyone who like sci-fi, horror, or just likes good books. This book is in my opion one of Stephen King's finest. Creating a very nice connection with the characters. A must read!