Dreamcatcher

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Summary: Congratulations!
Review: Congratulations to a great writer on his continued success!

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Summary: That's what you get for hunting...
Review: Under the most liberal of interpretations, I would not qualify as a devotee of Stephen King. From time to time he has served as a nice change of pace for me. I found DREAMCATCHER to be a pretty good story and a fun book to read.

It appeared to me King borrowed from a number of others, often paying tribute along the way, but the application of his personal spin deflected any concerns about "I've heard this one before." Two things I personally found creative were the warehousing aspect of our memory storage and the character of 'Duddits Cavell', a sort of Down's syndrome-afflicted Navajo translator of the mind-meld set.

I really cannot tell you if King is back, I never knew he left. All I can say is this is a book that will not disappoint anyone looking for a good old fashioned "us vs. them" scary story.

Rating:
Summary: A good comeback
Review: Stephen King has proven to all his fans that nothing will stop him from churning out his masterpieces of literature.

DREAMCATCHER, King's first full-length novel since his near-fatal car accident, confirms that he hasn't forgotten his roots of pure weirdness. His newfound loves of of the human mind and spirit also shine through.

DREAMCATHER is the journey of four childhood friends on a hunting trip in the remote woods of Maine. The four men are suddenly plunged into a battle against a being from another world when a strange man stumbles into their camp. They find out that their only chance of survival lies in the secret past of their childhood.

This novel has meaning beyond what it says on the pages. Like some of King's other works ("The Body" and HEARTS IN ATLANTIS) it beautifully describes the bonds of friendship and how a person will never have friends like the ones they had as a child.

Each character is equipped with his own complex personality and individual history, which makes reading it fun and captivating.

DREAMCATCHER is an enjoyable and heartwarming book for any avid King fan, though it of course isn't his best (that honor goes to something like IT or THE STAND). It can also be a great introduction to the extremely talented and celebrated author, my God amongst writers, Stephen King.

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Summary: The King of Horror
Review: It's true, after an absence from the wonderful world of horror, the King has returned.  This novel has been promoted as King's return to his roots, it isn't.  This is a brand new King.  One who is every bit as capable of scaring you as the original but the writing is older, wiser, meaner. There are times in this novel when the writing reaches such an intensity that you can't tear yourself away from the book.  The characters are incredibly well developed. They become part of your world as soon as you start reading and by the time you're done, it's as if you've known them your whole life.  The friendship that Pete, Jonsey, Henry and Beaver share is the rare kind of friendship that only children can develop    As they grow into adulthood, their bond is strengthened by the events they have conquered together. The character of Duddits is an almost angelic presence in all their lives, keeping them forever connected to a time when they did something good, a time when they were all beautiful.   Each flashback to the boys' youth reveals more  about the characters, as individuals and as a group. There is a strong undercurrent of emotion that runs through this novel. It is both  heartbreaking and terrifying. It also strikes me as very personal since one of the main characters is recovering from a car accident in which he was struck down and suffered a broken hip.  It's also a very psychological novel and a chunk of it takes place within the characters' minds.The dream sequences and telepathic interactions are fascinating. The main story is nicely summarized in the Amazon description above so I wont dwell on that.  I must add however that the bad guy is very well written and an excellent character. General Kurtz is a diabolical Patton.He is evil, malicious and hides it all under the mask of duty. The climax is 200 pages of fever pitch, adrenaline pounding, excitement. Besides being emotional and psychological, at heart this novel is pure horror.  There are good guys, bad guys, victims, survivors, aliens controlling people, aliens bursting out of people, a fungus that eats people and a saintly savior. And it's oh so good. What more could you ask for?

Rating:
Summary: Caught between 15 and 50
Review: Teenaged horror fans are going to like this book. Middle-aged horror fans are going to LOVE this book. There's much more to this than the usual cross-references to other Derry-centered stories. This book is akin to "The Shining"--the monsters aren't just out there, they're inside us. The older we get, the more aware we become of the nasty microscopic critters dwelling in our guts and souls just waiting for the chance to take over!

My only complaint is the title. I believe "Cancer" really fit this one. (My apologies to Mrs. King) We live our lives with the virus--excuse me, "byrus," of mortality. Together with the contaminating influences of our friends and families and communities, that middle-aged obsession with death just grows and grows. When you hit your 45th birthday you realize those momentous childhood events really WERE more significant than the money you've made or the houses you've bought.

Kudos to King for once again showing us that small town folk get a bad reputation for being narrow-minded. Mental illnesses and differences are tolerated in places like Derry, but not at all in New York City--the supposedly more liberal, hip big city. Many of us have forgotten the unique world perspective of the village idiot and the fact that such a perspective can have mythological ramifications for ordinary humans.

All in all, exciting, frightening, thrilling and reflective. If you're under 30, tuck this one away to read again when you hit 40 or have a close encounter of the deadly kind.

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Summary: Don't ever try ebook !!
Review: Stephen's book is great though. It's my first time to ebook, but my experience was terrible. If you don't have an extremely high resolution monitor, don't ever try ebook. It's hard to read from the screen. Besides, you can not read the book elsewhere other than in the computer you download it. The ebook design should be much better if readers could download the book to a disk and carry it around to read it in whatever computer that is available.

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Summary: The old stories again
Review: Unlike other fans I really liked Bag of Bones and Heart of Atlantis. King found a new way to tell his stories, a more personal and authentic way - and the language really worked like a fine clockwork from Switzerland. "Dreamcatcher" is a step back. In many respects it is an old fashioned book, with characters (like Kurtz) who would fit into a 70s film about civil war in Latin America but are not convincing in the year 2001 and reusing ideas he employed before. The people lose their teeth and are able to read others' minds as in "Tommyknockers". Again we have a gang of children fighting against the bad boys who are still friends in middle age as in "IT". But in the earlier books it worked; it was full of life, gripping and full of inspiration. Now I had the feeling that King had to finish a book without having any new ideas. I can't understand that people say he is back on his best form in this particular novel. The horror in the book doesn't work either; just some images of splattering bodies without the atmosphere which is so distinctive in his earlier work. In "Pet Semetary, for example, one had the feeling how it must be if a loved one is stolen by a terrifying power. The same strong atmosphere is likewise present in the first chapter of "IT" and in the gruesome Marden House of "Salems Lot". To sum up, the loss of amtmosphere, combined with the sometimes rather cheap characters and the lack of new ideas made it impossible for me to finish the book. I'm not an old fan, I'm a new one (and still I am), but I do think King should continue the path he chose in his most recent books and should not try to rewrite the old stories.

Rating:
Summary: Great read
Review: Four elements make Dreamcatcher a terrific read: the long, slow start loaded with foreshadowing; the involving, detailed friendship of the four/five protagonists; the yucko fungus and all that alien stuff (and I thought I wanted to read an alien novel); and Jonesy locked in his own mind--which has some very innovative moments. Not new territory for King, yet it felt as though he was taking chances, both with the bones of the story and the language he uses. There is one military character who drove me nuts, and I agree with the reviewer who reminded us that King isn't Tom Clancy. But I'll bet this character was fun to write. My advice to other readers: Read this book on its own merits and try not to compare it too much with King's other novels. As irrisistible as that might be, considering where Dreamcatcher takes place . . . and what it's about . . .

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Summary: Stephen King makes a comback...
Review: After Hearts in Atlantis and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, I was a little reluctant to plunk down another 28 bucks for a King book. I was pleasantly suprised by this book though. It was like the old Stephen King that I know and love! This book is a good one! Interesting, good story line, just enough thrills and gore to keep you reading and scarey enough to keep you from hanging your feet over the edge of the bed.

I was afraid that he had lost his "umph" after the last 2 fiascos but take heart King fans! He's baaaaack!!!

Rating:
Summary: The Best King In Years!!!
Review: Dreamcatcher is the best King in years! Here he takes us on a wild ride thru the New England woods during hunting season. Having read all of his published works, some of which were less than great, this book makes up for all of those. Kings ability to create characters and flesh them out, so that you can SEE them and KNOW them is unbelievable. Devoted King readers will see some familiar places and names and new King readers will be introduced to things that they will never forget. This book hooked me by about page 8. I plowed through it in 3 days and couldn't put it down. I highly recommend this one, dear readers, Stephen King is back!