The Tommyknockers (Signet)

I think the polarization of reviews regarding "The Tommyknockers" stems from making the very easy mistake of thinking of the King as a only and constantly a horror writer. While I did enjoy his other more 'traditional' horror and fantasy tales, "Tommyknockers" was a nice little breath of fresh air, incorporating mostly sci-fi elements into the work. Not quite the ideal read if you're looking to be scared intelligent [I hasten to use the word 'stupid'], but as some other reviewers have said, for a [quite] entertaining, well written and thought provoking sci-fi a la Stephen King, you certainly can't go wrong here.

My first reading of this book, many years ago, was aborted. I simply hadn't the patience to wait for the slowly unfolding revelation of the inhabitants of the spacecraft and found myself scanning rather than reading large tracts of the tale.

So my second attempt at the Tommyknockers was a revelation. For the first time, I now appreciate what a truly magnificent writer Stephen King is. I realise now that my initial impatience was prompted by reluctance to engage with the depth of the characters portrayed and the complexity and richness of the human drama surrounding the central tenet of the story.

I think that at times, I have suffered from the dread disease of the 20th and 21st centuries - attention deficit combined with a lust for instant appeasement of my appetite for entertainment. This is no frame of mind with which to approach a literary work of this quality.

For me, The Tommyknockers is a fine piece of literature premised on a simple idea that is shattered and broken like crystal in King's mind, and then reconstructed as a tendrilous and subtle shadow-creature that creeps into the readers mind as the tale unfolds.

The work of a master.

It took me two attempts to finish this book...I wish I had given up the first time. Everything is so over written here that it could easily fit into a novella if King didn't have dierhea of the word processor. To his credit there are some neat sci-fi things in the book, like the inventions and powers that people get from being in contact with the space-ship, but there is little else worth reading.

There are many frustrating scenes of buildups to scares that just fail to be scary. More than once, this book hooked me with the promise of earth shattering revelations or unberable horror around the corner, and then just fizzled out and started building the next scene. To clairify, in this story SK tells you "there's something scary out there," then leaves it up to you to creep yourself out about it. However, once you get to that "scary thing out there," it's just a trick of light. He offers no real horrors here.

It's also really strange to me how he has to put so many possible reasons for the supernatural in his books. This one has the obvious UFO, but he also mentions an indian burial ground, ghosts from mines, all he needed to do to cover all the basses would be to add vampires and telepathy. Odd. Most of these explainations have nothing to do with the story that is going on. So, they just make it longer and more boring.

The worst is the ending. King doesn't have the best record with endings, but this one takes the cake. It is definately not worth reading a novel this long to get to this crappy ending. In fact it's not worth reading at all, because there is little on the way to the ending that is enjoyable.

Had I not read this after some of King's better works (The Stand, It, The Shining, Green Mile..) I would've stopped right away. From his other, better works, I assumed that this long buildup of characters was going to pay-off at some point. At his best King can make enjoyable epics with a large cast of characters. This is not his best, skip it. Don't make my mistake...just walk away.

I don't know why people criticized this book with such scathing reviews. We're always ready to right a wrong, point fingers, blame, ridicule, and negatively comment. I thought The Tommyknockers was an exciting read; in fact, I had trouble putting the book down at night. Or, for that matter, anywhere I went: doctor's office, restaurant, the solarium. And if Stephen King was stoned while writing this bible-size novel, he truly is the best storyteller in the business. I think he's the best anyway.

The Angel Hunter
From the beginning, as Roberta digs around the strange object on her property you know whatever is buried there is way out and wild. King's descriptions of the strange vibrations and energies of the ship itself are tingling. As the book moves on, the technology of the Tommyknockers begins to overtake the town's inhabitants as they transform into what we assume is the likeness of the aliens who once inhabited the long ago buried ship. The relationship between Roberta and "Gard, ol, Gard" is deep, weird, romantic, and parasitic throughout the book. I think it's what makes the two of them appealing even with all the issues around and between them. If you are looking for a sci-fi/horror story that is literary off-the-beaten-path, this may be a good choice. And if you start to notice an eerie green aura growing around your town... RUN! If you wait, you may never make it.