Reviews and Comments

So let's talk Bachman.

1 [Rage] - I know Stephen had this one pulled from publication and I totally understand why he did it. I wouldn't argue with that at all. But, I will say, if you can find it... read it. It's excellent. Briefly we tag along with an adolescent who takes a classroom at his school hostage. Not the only time King has written about something like this, but I think this is the best. We really do get to ride in the mind of the shooter. Seeing and hearing and feeling the things he sees, hears, and feels. It's not a story that makes him sympathetic, but of the few stories I've read in this vein it feels the most real. The least sensationalized if that makes any sense. 4.5/5

2 [The Long Walk] I wasn't sure about this one when it started. It has this weird Wily Wonka/Hunger Games thing going on that I wasn't sure about. Thankfully we don't spend a lot of time with that and we get to the Long Walk, which is a literal Long Walk. If you step out of line, stop, or a handful of other things, you don't make it to the end. It's a story about relationships and, I dare say, about growing up. 4/5

3 [Roadwork] - I wasn't sure what to expect with this one. I heard someone once describe it as a Twilight Zone episode and I can't say I agree. Alfred Hitchcock Presents maybe though. Let me explain. Our hero isn't really very heroic. He's an every man that's kind of tired being an every man you could say. His house is going to be torn down to make room for a new road and he's got some plans to keep it from happening. We learn about his job, his family life, how he plans on getting this road stopped, it ends up with a stand off with the police. 3.5/5

4 [The Running Man] - If you're thinking that the Arnold movie was taken directly form this story. Well you should really know better. If they'd made the movie based on this I'd have liked it a lot more. The Arnold version is a little action movie. This doesn't feel like an action movie. It's more drama, it's more thrilling, it's less explosions and more cloak and dagger. Essentially the idea is the same, a man has a bounty put on him and he's got to evade capture/death for X hours and he wins. Except in this game, the house always wins. Or does it? It's excellent. 4/5

5 [Thinner] - Oddly enough this is one of the Stephen King stories that made it to the big screen with very little editing. If you've seen the movie, you know the story. But if you haven't an opulent man, named Bill, accidentally kills an elderly woman with his car. The father of the woman places a curse on Bill which causes him to physically waste away. Bill wants to stop this curse, obviously, but he doesn't go about it in a nice redemption arc kind of way. 3.5/5

6 [The Tommyknockers] - Stephen has said that he doesn't really like this one anymore. I happen to enjoy it quite a bit. I remember seeing the made for tv version of it when I was a kid and it kind of always stuck with me. Probably the rhyme, you know the one. The book tells the same story of course but it almost feels like parts of It and Salem's Lot. One thing I enjoyed in both of those other stories is that the places, the towns, are characters. They live and breath and effect the story and are effected by the story. As this story goes on it really starts to feel the same to me. It's a little different as it's not the town itself but the people in it, but the vibe is the same and I love that. It is a little heavy handed with the metaphor. In fact I'd go as far to say that it's not a metaphor at all. If you every wanted to read a Stephen King anti nuke text... here ya go. 4/5

The Willows is an early version of what you could call cosmic horror. It's not anything quite like what Lovecraft would do with his indifferent outer gods that wouldn't miss us if we weren't here at all, but it's not totally different from that either.

The setup for the story is great. A couple dudes going on a little cannoning trip though Europe. They arrive in a little village and get that "Oh no one goes in there, strangers. It's cursed." kind of warning from the villagers, but these are our heroes and they don't need to superstitions.

Eventually our heroes find themselves stranded on an island but, really, could be the top of a hill somewhere as the river has flooded and is raging pretty hard. They take shelter on this little landmass and that's when things start going wrong.

I don't know if this was the first story ever to have the "what sounded like claws running along the canvas of the tent" idea, but if it wasn't the first it's one of them. Our nautical pals start hearing things, not quite seeing somethings, and very obviously seeing others. They're not alone on this island and whatever else is there is very interested in them, their supplies, and their boats.

This is one of those stories that tells you about the horror but doesn't ever really let you see it, and I really want to see it from this book more than most others I've read like this. I don't know what it is about the story but I want more of the extradimensional beings. I want to learn more about them, where they're from, why they're here, and what they want.

Still, it's a really enjoyable read so long as you don't need all the answers. It's short and paced well. Great for a little afternoon on the couch kind of thing. Even better on a camping trip on a windy night.

The Wendigo is one of those stories where the legend really could be greater than the reality. It's got that kind of aura surrounding it. But unlike a few other examples of said legends, this really can back it up.

The writing is very of it's day and time. Nothing flashy, nothing fancy. But there's a story there and it tells it efficiently and competently. The setting is well established, our cast of characters all have a reason to be there, though some are smaller than others, and the horror ramps up pretty steadily till we get the big reveal at the end.

What makes this story good and what gives it that legend status is that it really was one of the first of it's kind to tell such a story in such a way. It was a weird time when different types of horror were blazing new trails or holding firm to old traditions. I feel like The Wendigo does both.

This is a book that was recommended to me by a friend. I can understand why they suggested it to me, it's in line with a few things that I'd probably enjoy. Unfortunately I couldn't really enjoy this one. It's been a while but I'm new here so if I get a few things wrong it's not intentional.

Anyway.

I like the premise of this book. I like the world that was created. I like a lot of the characters. There's a "Dark Tower" ness to it in the sense that the world has "moved on". Know what I mean? The world feels rough. Ugly. Ruined in some way. Not in a Mad Max kind of way but in a "we sucked all the life out of it" kind of way. In my mind everything, even the water, is gray. Ya follow?

There's pirates, a floating city, a government run agency looking for people, scientists, religion, different races, steam punk cyborgs, a very odd sword that could have come from a Frank Herbert book, a race of people with sphincters for mouths, vampires... Sounds pretty good right? And it really is.

However...

The writing is good but I feel like it's overly showy. I understand that China is a linguist and it felt to me like that was the whole reason for the books existence. To flex the linguist muscle. Imagine a book written by a race car driver. When it comes to talking about the racing it's gonna be great. Everything else... well... not so much. That's how I felt about this book.

I'm not going to spoil anything specific here but for the most part the book trudges along just fine but when there's a change it's very jarring. Some 75% through the book we suddenly shift perspectives completely with no explanation or reason given. It lasts about a page. It doesn't do it ever before that, or again after.

For me the writing felt like it was trying to gatekeep the story from me by giving so little of it so often. There's a few moments in the book where we get a decent plot dump and some character development and then there's a lot of drudgery in between.

I liked it. Not enough to read anything else. I didn't hate it, but it was bad enough for me to not really want to search out more.