Doctor Sleep by Stephen King
an audiobook review by Dale Darlage
Dale has reviewed almost 250 audiobooks and he can unequivocally say that this was the best performance he has ever heard on an
audiobook. The accents, the pacing, the nuances were all perfect. Whether Will Patton is voicing an elderly black man from Florida or a
crusty old New Englander or an evil woman who likes to torture young people for their souls or a middle school girl or an old
Italian grandmother or a panicked small town mom -- he nailed it.
11.22.63 by Stephen King
reviewed by Sandra Scholes
The premise of this book is one that may have been on people's minds for a considerable while. If you could go back in time
to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy, would you? As with anything to do with time travel, there is cause and effect,
consequences of any actions done by one person, and this book is about just that. The 22nd of November 1963 is one of the most
famous dates in modern history, and many have pondered what they did on that day.
The Dark Half by Stephen King
reviewed by Steven Brandt
When promising young novelist Thaddeus Beaumont began to suffer from writer's block, he took the cue from one of his
favorite writers and decided to try writing under a pen name, George Stark. Unlike Thad's earlier books, Stark's
novels were darker and more violent, something the public seemed to crave since Stark's books were much more
popular than Thad's had been.
The Tommyknockers by Stephen King
an audiobook review by Steven Brandt
While walking through the wooded acreage of her Haven, Maine home, novelist Bobbie Anderson stumbles across something
very interesting -- literally. After picking herself up off the ground, Bobbie looks back to see a thin piece
of metal jutting out of the soil. Letting her curiosity get the best of her, Bobbie begins to dig, in spite of
the strenuous protests of her faithful dog, Pete. Bobbie doesn't know it yet, but she is about to unearth
something never before seen on this world.
Christine by Stephen King
an audiobook review by Steven Brandt
Dennis Guilder has known Arnie since they were little, and he was with Arnie the first day he saw
Christine. Dennis, more than anyone, is aware of the unhealthy hold the car has on his friend, and
has witnessed first-hand the changes Arnie has undergone. But Dennis knows a few things that even
Arnie doesn't. He knows, for instance, how much Christine's first owner loved her, how he poured
his heart and soul into the car, and how Christine was still the most important thing to him, even
after his wife and daughter died in her. Dennis doesn't understand how, but he is convinced that
the malign spirit of Roland D. LeBay still inhabits Christine, and that now, that spirit is
beginning to take hold of Arnie. When the people that get in the way of Arnie, or Christine, begin to die,
Dennis knows the car must be destroyed. He can only hope that it is not too late to save his friend.
The Dark Tower: The Dark Tower by Stephen King
reviewed by Matthew Peckham
The seventh book in a cycle of seven called The Dark Tower opens with
Jake and Father Callahan in a showdown at the Dixie Pig in New York circa 1999, as Roland and Eddie in Maine circa 1977 attempting
to ensure the safety of a vacant lot that contains a single rose -- our world's manifestation of the Dark Tower. Eventually the
broken ka-tet is reunited, and its members resume their journey along the path of the beam to the place the breakers are
kept. There, they must permanently end the plot to break the beams before the final stage of the journey.
The Dark Tower: Song of Susannah by Stephen King
reviewed by Matthew Peckham
The sixth book in a cycle of seven called The Dark Tower opens with
Susannah Dean fleeing through an inter-dimensional door. Her destination: New York City, summer 1999. Susannah's
companions attempt to follow through the same door. Thwarting their intentions, the door splits them into two groups and flips their
destinations: Roland and Eddie are sent to 1977 where they must locate a bookseller who owns a vacant lot sheltering an
all-powerful rose, while Jake and Callahan are sent to 1999 to prevent Susannah's capture by minions of the Crimson King.
The Dark Tower: Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King
reviewed by Matthew Peckham
The fifth book in a cycle of seven called The Dark Tower opens with
Roland and his companions journeying to a deceptively tranquil village named Calla Bryn Sturgis. Every 20 years or so, great packs
of "wolves" come riding on horses from Thunderclap to raid the village and take its children. The children are eventually returned
to the village, but stricken with horrific mental and physical handicaps. Now the wolves are coming to the Calla in one month.
The Dark Tower: Wizard and Glass by Stephen King
reviewed by Matthew Peckham
The fourth book in a cycle of seven called The Dark Tower is in fact a novel secreted within a novella; the novella
concludes the third book's cliffhanger and progresses Roland's ka-tet a minute distance along the path of the beam toward
the Dark Tower, while the "novel within" is a ripping 496 pages of flashback: the tale of Roland Deschain of Gilead's first
love affair, and the terrible events which first and finally awaken him to his quest to locate the arcane, ailing crux of all
time and space.
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The Dark Tower: The Waste Lands by Stephen King
reviewed by Matthew Peckham
The third book in a cycle of seven called The Dark Tower opens
somewhere north of the Western Sea some months later, in an enormous forest known as the Great West
Woods. Roland has been training Eddie and Susannah to become gunslingers, knights of the ancient ways (a sort of Arthurian chivalric code
grafted onto the American West mythos), whose talents with projectile weapons are only exceeded by their mental discipline.
The Dark Tower: The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King
reviewed by Matthew Peckham
This is the second book in a cycle of seven called The Dark Tower which describes the quest
of the world's last gunslinger -- Roland Deschain of Gilead -- to put right whatever has tainted or "wronged" his rapidly decaying
reality. At the center of space and time is the Dark Tower, a nexus for all realities; Roland believes something has corrupted the
tower and perverted what he thinks of as "love and light."
The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger (2003) by Stephen King
reviewed by Matthew Peckham
Stephen King finished scribing his epic seven-book The Dark Tower series in 2003, producing an estimated 2,500
manuscript pages for the final three books in less than two years (the first four total around 2,000). But instead of resting on his
laurels, he turned a fastidious revisionist's eye back to the first tale, the one that started it all in the October 1978 issue of
Ed Ferman's The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. The result is a greatly improved book that retains the
original's post-apocalyptic-western flavor, while leaving no word, phrase, or punctuation mark unturned.
The Dark Tower: The Gunslinger by Stephen King
reviewed by Matthew Peckham
Like Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, The Dark Tower cycle has been in production most of his writing life,
beginning in March 1970 just before he graduated college, to today and just a few months away from the publication of the final three
volumes (totaling seven) over the next 16 months. Faust was Goethe's chef d'oeuvre, and the author likewise refers to The Dark Tower series
as his magnum opus, mining material and characters from several of his earlier works like Salem's Lot and The Stand to
create a self-referential smorgasbord of interlocking ideas and symbolic junctions for sleuthing critics (or iconic dissertation
writers, depending on whom you talk to).
LT's Theory of Pets by Stephen King
reviewed by Trent Walters
The author is probably one of the best readers of contemporary fiction. He has the perfect small town voice to read his own peculiar
type of fiction, with a trace of a lazy, drawn accent that says, yep, you can't get there from here. Some folks put
down audio fiction, but narratives naturally have their roots in an oral, storytelling tradition. Also, listening to
fiction gives the listener better attention skills and utilizes a different set of processing mechanisms to instill
the structure of story.
Dreamcatcher by Stephen King
reviewed by Hank Luttrell
Four high school chums share several moments of heroism with a 5th boy.
Duddits is a simple, joyful soul, and a focus for the boys in a way that allows them
all to acquire extra-sensory perception: precognition, telepathy. As the strands of their fate weave together, these powers
give them a chance to oppose an alien invasion they encounter as adults on one of their regular deer hunting trips.
On Writing by Stephen King
reviewed by Hank Luttrell
In an open letter to the author, Hank begins:
"I just wanted to write to thank you for this book. I enjoyed it, and I will be recommending it to as many readers as I
can. I think your practical, no nonsense approach to writing, and
your advice about what tools are needed and what approach to pursue will be of use to people interested in writing. Your
autobiographical notes will be of great interest to fans of your
writing, and even for those readers who aren't trying to write fiction, it is fascinating to see the gears and levers at
work behind the curtains."
Hearts in Atlantis by Stephen King
reviewed by John O'Neill
A series of four interlinked novellas, this collection begs the question --
is Stephen King still secretly plowing the deep trench of modern horror, in stubborn
defiance of his publisher's marketing team, or has he jumped out into the wider world of mainstream
fiction with no regrets?
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King
reviewed by Georges T. Dodds
In this review, Georges discusses event-based horror versus atmospheric
horror, and draws some interesting parallels between Stephen King's latest
novel and Algernon Blackwood's "The Wendigo," a much earlier story of
something inimical to man, lurking in the woods.
Storm of the Century by Stephen King
reviewed by Duane Swierczynski
The year is 1989 and while the small town of Little Tall, Maine is preparing for a storm, another force of nature is
moseying into town: Andre Linoge, a tall, creepy stranger with a thing for nursery rhymes.
Bag of Bones by Stephen King
reviewed by Pat Caven
It reads like Rebecca meets Bill Gates meets Kramer vs Kramer.
For Pat, this novel served as an introduction into the famed Stephen King mystique.
And after a year of reading Canadian literary writers, it was like being slapped
in the face with a big wet fish.
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