Rating: Summary: Not too original but Stephen King at his best! Review: This book is great. It caches your atention from the very begining. The language is amazing. I have read many Stephen King book(I am a huge fan) and I think this is one of the best. It is a lot like The Tommynockers but I liked that book so I dont care.
Rating: Summary: Excellent story but! Review: I am a King fan and have read most of his books. I really enjoyed this book, especially the history these men had growing up and as others have written Duddits. My only complaint with this story was that it could have been told equally as well minus all the profanity!!
Rating: Summary: I expected more from King, much more Review: I am an avid fan. I have read each and every book that King has written. This book was a TOTAL disappointment! I was so excited when I noticed his book in the bookstore. I purchased it immediately. Well, I can't get past the first 100 pages.
Rating: Summary: mishmash Review: At some point in this long novel King describes the dreamcatcher as a collection of things past, present and future. A perfect description for this work that references the real and fictional from the real world, his past work, and the movies. The best of his work allows us to identify with a character or situation. Only in one aspect, the plight of an accident injured character do we really believe. Mr. King has returned to the long involved works that we have loved in the past, but this time the story feels too drawn out, the alien too gray, the characters cartoonish. Bring on the next one.
Rating: Summary: Boring As Hell Review: I wish the man would just tell the damn story. I couldn't wait to get my hands on this book--bought it the first day it was available, made no week-end plans, announced that carry-out food only would be served for the following days while I plunged into the pleasure of a Stephen King. About halfway through the book I gave up--a major yawn and somewhat irritating to try to read. I imagine Hell to be a road trip with this book being on the tape deck.
Rating: Summary: Old Haunts, New Tales Review: Stephen King is back. DREAMCATCHER is at once mesmerizing and terrifying, gentle and genuinely human. A novel that falls someplace between "The Tommyknockers" and "It"; "Predator" crossed with "The Deer Hunter", but wholly King at his chilling and storytelling best. Riveting. Oh boy, is he back... Gary S. Potter Author/Poet.
Rating: Summary: Nowhere near " Stephen King at his best" Review: After Bag of Bones and Hearts in Atlantis, I was hoping for a truly well written book. I know he is still capable as the Green Mile and Wizard and Glass have proven. So what is this? Not his worst book. Remember Tommyknockers or Needful Things? But certainly nowhere near his best work. There is some great dialogue and neat concepts in this book, but not enough to save it. Wait for the paperback edition and save some money if you really must read it. I will not buy another King book right after it has been released. I am that disappointed.
Rating: Summary: Weird, weird, weird! Review: This book is a cross between "Tommyknockers" and "Aliens" (the movie with Sigourney Weaver). Though hard to follow at times, the reader MUST maintain focus on the novel in order not to lose the thread that weaves it all together. It is a hard novel to keep up with, yet an act of brilliance so glowing in insanity and typical Stephen King that you will love both it's simplicity and it's complexity. Yes, folks, the aliens have landed once again, and where else but in Maine? This time, though, the aliens have and can give telepathic powers, as well as lay eggs and reproduce. There's a little bit of Stephen King's accident there too, which plays well with a character he calls Jonesey, but "Duddits" is our main character, and Duddits is a local retard boy that four local boys become friends and bond with. Years go by, and passages of time as in every lifetime, yet somehow, the master artist once again weaves it all together with a "dreamcatcher", and when the world goes crazy, as it always seems to do in Stephen King's books, the dreamcatcher may be the only way out. You will love this book, and you will add it to your vast Stephen King library. Just remember not to lose the thread.
Rating: Summary: "IT" has a little brother. Review: I snapped Dreamcatcher up the minute it it the shops because i, unlike most other king readers have not lost faith in him due to his lack of literary success recently. So when i saw Dreamcatcher i was ready to be enthralled. The book didn't dissapoint me but neither did it excite me in the ways that many of kings earlier works have done. Although the story is rather cliched in itself the twists that take part within the psychological element of the tale are riveting. Also the clear definition between good and evil is a refreshing change in a literary world where the new gfad seems to be to blend characters into a mix of both bad and good. The real gem of the story though is the depiction of the relationship between the boys and their disabled friend duddits. Although slightly naive when discussing their childhood; the love that the men share in their adulthood is truly heartbreaking to read. I am not being pretentious when i say that the book nearly made me cry in several places. In this story king has tried to recapture the golden youth that he found so well in IT. He has not managed to truly find the same quality that he did with that book partly because he tries to make the childhood seem TOO perfect, it is still a heartwarming try however. The book is a definite read if you are a king fan, however if you are not then i suggest that you begin with a simpler book such as geralds game or misery because the surrealism within this tale, as in the shining can be hard to grasp at times. The book is darker than a lot of kings work, perhapsh due to his accident which is obviously prevelant in the tale, but there are several undertones which break the grimness of the talke and truly do make you want to live your childhood to the fullest, or live it again. The book is a horror story but like it, the horror is only the part of the tale which surrounds the real story, that of a friendship. It is this friendship and the trials that the friends go through which really make the book stand out. I warn you though, if you read this book, proceed to reading IT. You will find that Dreamcather is merely a little brother to the larger work.
Rating: Summary: Still great, but not King's best Review: Fans of Stephen King's earlier work seem to be very happy with DREAMCATCHER, which bears a lot of resemblance to his earlier work. As a King fan for years, I really looked forward to this novel, but upon completion, I found that it was not as good as his past work, and it truly pales in light of his most recent, excellent works like BAG OF BONES and THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON. Many King fans enjoy his writing because of the wonderful character development; we feel like we KNOW these characters by the time the last hundred pages arrive. DREAMCATCHER, unfortunately, seems to be lacking that character development - one never gets to know the characters outside of the present and the past circumstances which affect the present in some way, shape or form. As a cohesive element, Duddits Cavell is not nearly as believable as the pariah status of the Loser's Club (IT) or the Little Bald Doctors (INSOMNIA), King's previous (and excellent) novels about Derry. In addition, the human antagonists (namely Kurtz and the soldiers following his lead) seem formulaic and predictable. The story might have been better served had they left the tale far earlier. I did enjoy several elements of the story. Beaver Clarendon was a very interesting character, especially his interesting and very amusing talent for obscenity. The relationship formed between Mr. Gray, the alien, and Jonesy, his human host, was very interesting and deserved more illumination. The idea that human emotion could be intoxicating for those who have never experienced it was a new one for me, and King as usual explores the possibilities in a very unique and enlightening fashion. There are also moments of heart-rending sweetness between the four heroes and Duddits, their friend; the fact that it seems ALMOST too good to be true but isn't is a reflection of King's ability to give us very human characters. What works in DREAMCATCHER is what is on the page, for the most part; the villian Kurtz could be left without a huge sense of loss. What might have drastically improved this novel is what King has often done in the past - showing how the actions of the central characters affect the peripheral characters, and giving us more background information to make the central characters more alive, more interesting, more human. Stephen King's latest is a very, very good book, but it is not as good as I was hoping it would be.
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