Dreamcatcher

Rating:
Summary: The catcher next (sequel and end)
Review: 5- The military men who are in charge of the cleansing operation against the Extraterrestrials reveal themselves as brutes, beasts, led by a crazy man who has decided that his objective is to kill all the ETs, all the human beings who have been infected or who have witnessed the operation, including women and children, then all the soldiers who have taken part in the operation, except maybe some of his elite tropps, when it is not only himself. Many references are done to other operations of the type : Haiti, Bosnia, Croatia, Irak, etc. This is a strong criticism of the US armed forces and of their objectives. How can such bodies of people have wandered away from any ethical values ? And even the only one who is going to be instrumental in the final epiphanic chase, does it only because of an old and deep feeling of guilt coming back from his childhood. He is not « good », he is just trying to repair his old « badness ». This theme is of course common in Stephen King's books. It is the famous Shop. Or is the very starting point of The Stand (military experimentations on biological warfare) or in The Talisman (the nuclear research in Nevada). But here it is pushed to an extreme limit that is absolutely frightening. And is there any escape or redemption possible ?

6- The book is strongly anti-republican by the clear and repeated criticism of a certain narrowly elected President. He is rejected as an opportunist who never tells the truth but only manuipulates the masses. This is particularly disquieting. How can supreme power in the US lay in the hands of a man who is shown as a puppet, a dangerous puppet. This has some antecedent in The Dead Zone, but the antidote is never to be found in the present book : the antidote of the press, the free press, like in The Dead Zone or in Firestarter, to quote two books. In fact the rare visions of radio people given at one particular time in the book is that of irresponsible people totally dominated by the ambition to please their audiences even if it creates a panic. That is quite different from the vision we had at the beginning of The Stand, of an anchorwoman who dies in her studio, killed by military forces, but who goes on, till the end, giving what she thinks is the truth. In this book those irresponsible « radio-jockeys » are not even reprimended by anyone. They are free to be irresponsible. At this level the book regresses on many other books.

7- The influence of the cinema is extremely important in this book. It seems to be a rewriting, or a remake of many not films but genres of films : the science-fiction of the fifties and teh sixties with the systematic invading extraterrestrials, and the western films of Ennio Morricone or Clint Eastwood. Two characters are informed by such a deep knowledge of such films : one is one of our heroes, and the other is one military man who will end up very badly. These constant film references give to the book a very attractive value : we are introduced to a world of knowledge that enables those who know those films to get a new pleasure out of their knowledge and the book : the second level of reading that is thus introduced. This has commonly been used in Stephen King's books, though most of the time it was more references to pop music like in Christine for example. This strong emphasis on 'pop'-cinema is new. But at times, and this is totally willed and desired, the narrow limit between film-fiction and reality is erased and some characters are directly taken out of such films and behave like the characters of these films.

To conclude, we have to say that Stephen King is entirely on one line : urban paranoia. He explained this concept in length in Danse Macabre. But here he puts it into action from beginning to end. This cuts the world into two halves : the good Americans and the bad ones (anything that is bad and cannot thus be American). And the aim of the good ones is to destroy the bad ones, and vice versa at times. But this is short of The Stand where the bad ones were destroyed thanks to a « christian » sacrifice of some good ones and thanks to the very destructive forces this sacrifice brought out among the bad ones. The destruction came from inside with the intercession of the « christian » martyrs. Here nothing of the type. Just plain conquest on the bad side, destruction on the bad side, and the answer to this destruction is also to destroy on the good side. But there is nothing Christian in this book. Bad versus Good and that is all, and to the finish. Of course Good succeeds. But why and how ? That is the book. You'll have to read it if you want to discover the answer to this final question.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, Parid Universities II and IX.

Rating:
Summary: Stephen King is back
Review: It's nice to see Mr. King return to his roots. This novel was every bit as good as his earlier books. I found his charactes plausible, his storyline riveting and the conclusion weird but fasinating. Would highly recommend the book to anyone who like me who liked the earlier King novels.

Rating:
Summary: Doesn't Deliver on the Hype
Review: After hearing so much about King's first post-accident novel, I was anxious to pick up Dreamcatcher. After all, the book jacket said: "Not since The Stand has King crafted a story of such astonishing range--and never before has he contended with the heart of darkness so frankly." Sounds good, doesn't it?

Well, don't believe everything you read. The Stand is considered by many to be a classic work of fiction--arguably well-respected and long-remembered. Unfortunately, Dreamcatcher isn't going to be one of those books that "stick" the way The Stand did. It's a mediocre novel--at least for Stephen King--and a forgettable one.

King's strength lies in his characters. He doesn't disappoint when he introduces us to four long-time friends: Henry, Jonesy, Beaver and Peter. It doesn't take King long to make us care about these guys, and to show us that, although their lives seem fairly mundane, they're far from ordinary.

Despite some likeable characters, Dreamcatcher seems a bit manipulative. The character of Duddits, a boy-man with Down's syndrome, feels like a tool to hook us into adoring the four men (the book's main characters) who were kind to him as Junior High-aged kids.

All the X-Files imagery didn't work for me, either. Perhaps it's that we're overloaded with media images of little gray men with big, onyx-colored eyes, or maybe it's just because news of UFO's and foo lights in the sky seems, well, old hat. Either way, Dreamcatcher had a sort of been-there done-that feel.

I expect a good Stephen King book to hold me captive so that I just can't put it down. I want to be kept awake reading past 3 a.m. (I believe I read in an interview somewhere that this is a goal of King's--to keep his readers up nights, not because they're frightened, but because they just can't put his book down.) I read Dreamcatcher a chapter or two at a time, and then put it back on the bedside table. I may have kept nibbling at the bait, but I was never truly hooked.

Rating:
Summary: FALLS BELOW EXPECTATIONS
Review: The more time that passes since reading this book, the more disappointed I am. Although a fast and compelling read, I can't shake the feeling that all I've done is read the outline of a much better book.

Readers will naturally draw comparisons to "IT" because of the life long friendship, anchored by a life changing experience in adolescence, of the four main characters. But what King did with such skill and beauty in "IT", drawing us into the make up of the individuals as well as the group dynamic, he merely pays lip service to in "Dreamcatcher". King sets us up with the key elements, but fails to deliver. We get only one course of the meal King has taught us to expect.

This book made me want to re-read "IT", which I am currently doing with great pleasure.

Rating:
Summary: WASTE OF TIME
Review: Don't waste your time or money on Dreamcatcher. This is definetly not King at his best. This book shouldn't even be mentioned in the same breath as The Stand.

Rating:
Summary: Dreamcatcher Gross Out
Review: I am an avid Stephan King fan and have read almost everything written by him and I thought this book was horrible. The initial story About the five friends is interesting but the description of the aliens being born out of people's butts is disgusting. I was so grossed out by the persistant description of flatulence accompanying the births too. This was also the most profane of his books with the F word on at least every page and the S word almost as much. It has too many unnecessary characters that are described in detail and then killed off 5 pages later. It was gory, gross, laden with profanity and mental plot lines that didn't make sense. Of course I did finish it being such a fan of his but I would not recommend anybody to waste their time reading this 600+ page book.

Rating:
Summary: Familiar Plot
Review: While Stephen King exhibits expert writing tactics, with vivid descriptions and creative plot twists, I cannot help but be reminded of Stand By Me. A good read, not his best work, but his worst either.

Rating:
Summary: What a letdown-Come on, Steve, you can do better than this.
Review: I had a free weekend coming up and decided to pop for the hard cover price of Stephen Kings latest effort, Dreamcatcher. My advice to hardecore SK fans is to save your money and wait for the paperback.

Plotline is such. We have childhood friends on a hunting trip who have a certain bond(remember IT)from their childhood experiences and space aliens who take over bodies (remember The Tommyknockers) with the storyline moving back and forth from the friends' childhod to the present and the so called threat to the world from the aliens.

This book, unlike most of SK's previous efforts was not scary and even a bit tedious in places making it hard for me to keep my concentration much less interest.

If you like to read about alien controlled bodies with a bad case of flatulence and something growing inside (Remember Aliens 1,2,&3), then this book is for you.

This book feels like an effort to fullfill a contract requirement. It is a mismash of two of SK's previous efforts i.e. IT and The Tommyknockers, which I enjoyed and the "Alien" movies with Sigourney Weaver

Rating:
Summary: King: Undisputed Master of the Vernacular
Review: In "Dreamcatcher" King shows a mastery of the use of the vernacular that is the hallmark of his writing. Let us not be mistaken in that King has no intent on writing literature in his work, despite the surreptitious reference to "A Clean Well Lighted Place" while discussing the "Hemingway Solution" for self-termination. Nor is King's plot in this book original through the first 550 pages. And King makes no bones about it, he reveals outright through the dialogue of his characters that the plot is really just a basic science fiction movie, he most often compares it to "The Invasion of the Body Snatchers."

But, it is neither King's intent to write literature, nor to create a unique plot in this case, but rather, to get a message across to millions of people through a masterful use of common language. His construction is such that his pictures are crystal clear mental images. And, behind all that imagery, is King's message.

That message is interwoven in the intricate explanation of the mental processes that King dissects within the book. In fact, I felt the book read a lot more like "Insomnia" than like "Desparation" or "The Regulators." On a very basic level, King tries to express the idea of emotional telepathy and even some actual verbal and image telepathy. Except, as a vehicle to increase its reality to the reader, he uses the device of the foreign invader and its infection to increase telepathic levels to way beyond normal human conditions.

In brief, most King fans will find the book enjoyable and rewarding. I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of that genre, either by King or others.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful Read!
Review: While I know it sounds trite, this novel was a bit like King getting back to his roots. Not just in theme, either, but in overall "feel." I just couldn't help but think that King was having fun again; writing for the sheer joy of telling a good 'ol page turner. Not his most intellectual work, but surely one of his most enjoyable. Though the text comes in over 600 pages, I still found myself lost in the struggle of the wonderfully drawn characters, and page-flipping pace. An old fashioned sci-fi extravaganza, told a la King-style. In DREAMCATCHER, King once again creates memorable characters, and one of the most memorable is Duddits. Duddits was not only the glue that held the gang together, he also served to hold the book together as well. Familiar themes that include friendship, good vs evil, and an exploration into the human psyche make this one fun read. Throughout, King begs us to answer: who are the real monsters? Them or us? A must read for King fans and those new to the author.