Dreamcatcher

Rating:
Summary: Below average for Mr. King
Review: In my opinion, Dreamcatcher is below average for Mr. King. The characters are not likeable; the plot is silly; and the book drones on and on. Indeed, had Mr. King shorted this book by 300 pages, it would have improved it.

I'm a fan of Mr. King's writings, but this isn't a book I enjoyed.

Rating:
Summary: You'll need a dreamcatcher if you read this book at night
Review: Dream Catcher is the first of Stephen King's novels that I've read, but I'm resolved to read more after this experience. The book absolutely grips the reader's attention and forces the reader to pay exclusive attention to what is going on. Never boring or excessive, every line is essential to the vivid picture King creates. Being an avid reader, I've read quite a number of books over the years, among many different genres, but never has a book scared me the way this one did. In many different parts of the story, I found my heart racing along with the characters. An excellent piece of work, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: one word: ok
Review: this book had an interesting plot, but it took way too long to get to the point. It would spend like fifty pages explaining boring and inconsequential events and details. Good plot, but 875 pageswas way too long. lots of love!

Rating:
Summary: Good Characters, Good Plot, Good Story. Bad Length
Review: I needed a thick book for school, something that could get me an A in the reading department. So I brought this without reading the reviews or even what it was about (it didn't matter, it was already a movie when I brought it). Within the first week I had read 100 pages into it (a record for me) and really enjoyed it. And although the middle of the book kind of got boring at times I still stuck with it. The characters were realistic, the plot was more of action than horror (I'm not complaining though) and overall the story was really good. And that's what I thought of the book before reading all the reviews about 'how King's lost it' or 'Don't Believe The Hype'. There is, however, one flaw in the book: The Length. The hardcover is roughly 600 pages, and the paperback is roughly 900. Now usually I don't care about the length of books as long as there are good, but this length caused the boring parts I mentioned before. Other than that I recommend this to any reader, I do however not recommend the Epilogue, I found it confusing and pretty pointless.

Rating:
Summary: I dreamed that this book would be better....
Review: Upon realizing that Stephen King has decided (allegedly) to stop writing books, the first thing I did was to cancel my membership in his book club. I have all of his books in hardcover now anyway - so is there really any point in staying a member?

The next thing I did was to look at my bookshelf to determine whether I still have any of his books in the "unread" category. I realized that Dreamcatcher was one of those books so I picked it up and was soon sucked in.

The beginning of the book tells the story of four guys who have known each other since they were kids. Although it is not clear why (and never really becomes that clear), they each have some sort of telepathy which allows them to communicate with each other, find lost things, etc. We also learn about how, as children, they saved some retarded kid, Duddits, from getting beaten up by some older boys.

Like most of King's more recent stories, the book starts off on a high note as the four men have a run-in with aliens while on their yearly hunting trip. Then we are introduced to the team of individuals assigned to stop the alien threat, and things slowly start downhill... Thus, the book goes from an A to a C+.

The following chapters involve the story of alien gray people and alien worms that eat people and the alien(s)' efforts to infect the world. Of course, telepathy plays a role and for some reason, Duddits is instrumental in keeping the peace. It is not clear how the symbiotic relationship between alien gray people and alien worms makes a difference. It is a heck of a coincidence that the telepathic guy happens to be around to serve as a viable host for alien life. Heck, there a lot of things that are not clear but I don't want to give away the story so my summary ends here.

That being said, based on what I know about King's personality, I am 100% positive that he reads these reviews posted about him. How about finishing up The Plant? One of your best books in recent years and it remains incomplete. EXTREMELY DISAPPOINTING.

As for The Dreamcatcher, I consider it average . . . yet entertaining. Worth reading at least.

Rating:
Summary: Dreamcatcher
Review: This book was excellent, as soon a you open the book you're plunged into this riveting story. The story line goes: Four childhood friends reunite every year for a deer hunting trip. A stranger stumbles into their camp and something inside him eats it way out. Soon the creature begins spreading a virus that they call Byrus, or Ripley. Near by an alien force is taking over Jonsey, one of the four friends and uses his body to spread the Byrus. A downs syndrome child named Duddits is a childhood friend of the four boys. He helps them when they are on the run to get Mr. Gray before he contaminates New England with the Byrus.
This was an extraordinary work of art that had me on the edge on my seat the whole way through, from start to finish, through all 870 pages. The story had quite a lot of gore in it in my opinion, but that didn't take away from that. I vastly recommend this book to any one who is just getting into Stephen King, or any other fan.

Rating:
Summary: Dreamcatcher
Review: The book Dreamcatcher, by Stephen King, deals with the mind more than any physical trait. Even so, the plot jumps from place to place and left my head spinning. And man, some of the concepts that are stated in this book I have never heard of before. I couldn't really keep up with all of this and had trouble figuring out what was going on. Like the weasel like creature, I would have never thought of that in a million years. Stephen King has a great mind and putes it to use in this book.

Rating:
Summary: Sprawling Monstrosities
Review: Stephen King has a proven track record as one of the world's most popular fiction writers; unfortunately he is also one of the most self-indulgent. His books are gigantic sprawling blobs, rather like the rapacious alien fungus set to devour the world in Dreamcatcher. Sometimes he can't even contain himself within even a trilogy--the Dark Tower series advanced its plot not at all in his fourth installment. In his continuing battles with the publishing world, his fans often come out the losers. It is they who ended up paying three times as much for the six installment version of The Green Mile than if King had originally released it as a traditional novel; and anyone who had faith in King and bought the internet version of The Plant simply got ripped off, as he never finished it.

Dreamcatcher continues along this self-indulgent path. Although there's a good story under all the fatty layers of excessive prose, it is a story King's fans have read before--sort of Stand By Me meets The Tommyknockers. King's style is full of self-reference--I counted at least four completely irrelevant references to other King books. He loves to bury the reader in detail; at its best this technique brings the characters to life, but too often simply distracts from the storyline. Although no one could truthfully say that his books are predictable, King is so fond of foreshadowing that we know well in advance what is coming. He also uses a changing point of view that allows him to move the story around from the original four characters to a situation completely unknown to them about one-third of the way through the book--a lurch I found quite awkward. I wonder how different, how much more compact and perhaps more compelling the book might have been if it had been told only from the viewpoint of the four friends, without ever introducing the one-dimensional, almost cartoonish villain Kurtz. (Given that some of those original characters die early on, it might have been quite a challenge!)

But King fans are all familiar with these foibles, and they seem to forgive him all. He knows how to reward his readers with little pats on the back for keeping up with him--the self-references are surely there for his die-hard fans as much as for himself, and asides like "Gray" and "Gary" being anagrams, or Kurtz as a pseudonym from Apocalypse Now and The Heart of Darkness make the astute reader feel just a little bit special.

In his afterward, King talks about the book as a vehicle for his pain; it seems to me that there is quite a bit of anger there too, and even contempt. The presence of these emotions, though, gives the book some strength that puts it above much of his other writing. Still, I have to hope that his pain will burn away some of the excessive gigantism; I far prefer the leaner, more intimate King of works like Misery and Thinner.

Rating:
Summary: Encompasses All Of King's Stories
Review: Stephen King is an amazing writer and few dispute that. Although the film adaptation of this novel was highly criticized, it is no less a highly suspenseful, frightening and endearing story (yes, endearing). Although many of the subplots seem repeated or at least some of the themes reemerge from previous stories, they are still with great value.

Similar to "Stand By Me", in that, four boyhood friends bind by accident with a fifth (who has unique powers) in the early portion, it progresses into an 'all hell breaks loose' plot. Now the men, all adults, engage in an annual hunting ritual in the Maine woods, when an alien spacecraft crashes. Bring in the military! The consequences and unquestioned loyalty that emerges from these five men is dramatic and King presents it as absolutely normal, despite the unusual circumstances. King is good at bringing out the hero in his male characters. The plot is complex and the characters are real, so despite any time in the story when things seem like what they are, a wild twist emerges and King stings you again with a fantastic surprise. I won't even attempt to spoil you with details, but they are shocking.

Friendship, loyalty, masculinity and humanity are the stars in this novel, despite the crazy military portions and the alien aspect. Of all of King's stories, I felt this to truly be one that pulls full circle with plot, characters and a well balanced conclusion. Mind you, it is suspenseful and gory as hell, but isn't that what Stephen King is all about?

Rating:
Summary: Good, but flawed
Review: Engrossing, thematically complex, but at the same time strains the "suspension of disbelief" more than many of his other works. I'll not bore you with a synopsis; you can find that by scrolling up.

The biggest problem to me in this story, and the one that cripples the narrative impact significantly, is King's treatment of the secret military unit assigned to deal with the invaders. These aspects of the book fell victim to either King's lazy or incomplete research, as well as some rather sloppy editing. The Black Ops CO is blatantly cartoonish, and Chinooks are big, slow transport helicopters, not attack helicopters. Whatever they might be flying, when on an attack mission, pilots don't have the Rolling Stones or any other music blaring from their headsets--how the hell are they supposed to coordinate a precision attack with the radio blasting? Moreover, helicopters are not flown with a "yoke," only airplanes are.

Some might accuse me of being nit-picky, but details do matter, especially in a work of this scale.

Overall a decent story, but King certainly needed a little reigning-in on this one, and his editor needs to brush up the credentials.