Whew... There's a lot that I want to say about this book, and I'm not really sure where to start. I first read this book back in... oh, 2002 or 2003, maybe, and I can absolutely say that I did NOT get much out of it. Sure, it's still a thrill ride, still entertaining, but it was definitely not his best, in my, somewhat oblivious opinion. But see... I was something of a King Re-reader back then. I had my favorites - 'The Stand', 'The Shining', 'The Talisman', 'Needful Things' - to name a few, and I read, and re-read, and re-read those favorites, so, I wasn't as well versed on my King Universe back then as I am now. Now, having read many more of King's "inter-related" books, I see the threads that bind them all together. Reading this again now was like... well, kind of like meeting a cool person at a bar, having a really interesting conversation with them, and then 7 years later finding out they are a long lost relative. That feeling of recognition is the same, although probably toned down a little since this is a book and NOT a long lost relative. Many, many times though, my eyes popped open and I'm like "OH! That's a reference to...!" or "WOW! I see where he's going!" etc. For instance, the number 19 crops up many times, as does the color red (or crimson, if you like that better), as does the theme of children bonding for life and for better or for worse, no matter where their adulthood may take them, King's own accident, etc. But in addition to the many references to King's other works and life (which I've barely even touched on), there are references here to many external things that I never recognized before. Things like twice calling Duddits a "tribble", which is a reference to Star Trek, or like the red growth that is very reminiscent of the mossy red flora from 'The War of the Worlds' by H.G. Wells (and speaking of, Dean Koontz borrowed the idea for his semi-recentish book 'The Taking'), or the "Turn the dial up to 11" line from the movie "This is Spinal Tap". Aside from all of these references, the story itself was a "pisser", as Beaver would say. Three parts sci-fi, one part fantasy and a tablespoon-full of tongue-in-cheek prophecy, it's definitely a rollercoaster. I mentioned to friends when I started this book (or maybe I just wrote it down, I dunno) that it reads like a movie. Lots of King's books do, which is possibly why so many have been adapted, but this one especially felt that way to me. I would set the book down for a minute, to freshen my drink, or move a cat-paw that was creeping oh-so-subtly onto the page because everyone knows that cats can't sleep next to a reading human unless they are obstructing the view in some way, and it would be just like I pressed the pause button. When I pick the story back up, I'm right back where I was, like the interruption never occurred.We start out meeting Pete, Beaver, Jonesy and Henry as adults, and then throughout the story we find out about their childhood and what (and who) bonded them together. Beaver is my favorite character. Dubbed such an appealing and cool nickname due to his habit of always chewing on a toothpick, he has a foul mouth and a heart of gold. I love the way King describes Beaver, and shows us his general character in three sentences: "His glasses started to unfog then, and he saw the stranger on the couch. He lowered his hands, slowly, then smiled. That was one of the reasons Jonesy had loved him ever since grade school, although the Beav could be tiresome and wasn't the brightest bulb in the chandelier, by any means: his first reaction to the unplanned and unexpected wasn't a frown but a smile." This passage makes me love him too. He's got a bit of innocence about him... and a kind of raunchy purity. I'm not going to go into the rest of the guys, that would take a long time... but I would like to talk about the characters. Suffice it to say that each of the friends are perfect and flawed in their own ways, but none of them are as dear to me as Beaver. I love Duddits too, who is really innocent perfection epitomized. He's got Down Syndrome, and with that a kind of extrasensory ability that makes him special- probably more special than anyone else. Roberta Cavell, Duddits's mom, is another of my favorite characters. She's got very small parts in this story, but each and every one of them touch my heart. The woman is almost saintly! When Duddit's leaves with Henry, and Roberta crumples, it just breaks my heart. King spent barely two pages on this, but I felt it as if it was happening to me. Abe Kurtz, the main military madman, is plain old crazy like a fox and as unpredictable as a tornado. Owen Underhill is Kurtz's right hand man, but one who happens to still have a spark of humanity in him. And speaking of humanity, this brings me to Mr. Gray...Mr. Gray is an alien life form whose sole purpose is to survive by any means necessary. Not just himself, but his race. These aliens are alien in every sense of the word. They are inhuman, don't understand humans, don't understand our emotions or thoughts or anything. They just seek to continue to exist and emotionlessly do what it takes to ensure that. They are smart, but in a wily, calculating way. Mr. Gray finds and infiltrates Jonesy's body, in a kind of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" way. (This happens quite early in the story, so I'm not giving anything away, don't worry.) What happens then though, to Mr. Gray specifically, is very interesting to me. King is really a master at showing us what humanity looks like. All parts of it. His stories are all people stories in which horror or gore or whatever is used to bring out the best and worst in us. If King ever had a theme, that's it. But here we have an inhuman, emotionless, calculating being who has none of that - only a relentless will to propagate. And then King shows us how this being starts to become human. And this I find fascinating, because it's one thing to plumb the depths of someone's soul and find out who they really are, but it's something else entirely to watch someone becoming that person. "Becoming" is usually depicted as that which we know turning into something we don't know, something that terrifies or horrifies us. People turning into monsters, vampires, or werewolves are the most common supernatural cases. But slowly slipping into madness is another case, and 'The Shining' comes instantly to mind as Jack becomes more and more unstable and dangerous. But here we have an alien becoming human - craving food, thrilling in the human emotions that it's never before experienced, enjoying curiosity for the first time, feeling the rush of adrenaline and wanting more and more - and I thought it was fascinating to see humanity being the unknown and feared trait... to see things from the other perspective.Anyway, I really did enjoy this story this time around. I enjoyed it the first time, but this time I feel like I got so much more out of it. This book is entertaining in its own right, but much much more so for the Constant Reader who can spot all the references embedded within it. :)
so I had a dream last night where Graham and Brian and Steve and I were all back in Seattle, and it was like it was before, four friends who were different from each other but still really connected, like brothers, and we were having adventures and serious talks and stupid talks and good times and bad times and it was all just so sweet and real, like things had never changed. of course things change and these are still my friends, but change is change and so Brian and Steve still aren't talking when they should both be bonding as fathers and leaders in their fields and as men, but change happens and now they can barely be in the same room together. and Graham - I still love him of course, I still love all of them, but I can't even remember the last time I saw Graham. these days I feel closer to Dave and to Jill, which is odd to consider because honestly back in the day they felt like satellites of the four of us. oh the small little tragedies and realities of life, the changes and the sweet memories and the never going back.so there's a book called Dreamcatcher and it is about four friends and their histories together and the long times apart and their annual hunting trip. four great friends who were different from each other but still really connected, like brothers. four friends who grew up together; four individuals who are deeply characterized like they are all people the author knows, or maybe all different pieces of the author himself, made separate. or maybe both are true. it is easy to see your friends as a kind of extension of yourself, different but similar, four different sides of a square that is still one basic shape, one thing.Dreamcatcher is not just about those friends but I sort of wish it had been. it is Stephen King's second version of an Aliens Attack! story and there is a lot to enjoy and speculate about, the telepathy and the strange forms that the aliens take and the government overreaction and spores and infections and two hilariously over-the-top villains. King is a great writer, he can craft a solid, fast-paced narrative and turn it into a great big tome without making it feel especially bloated. I like a thrilling adventure filled with horror and action, sure. but I really wanted to read more about those four friends and their lives together and apart. when one died it felt much too soon because I totally got him and yet there was still so much more to see. then when another died I felt genuinely sad - and not even because of the death itself, which made narrative sense - but because now there was a second story, a second life, that was all finished up in the book and that I still wanted to go on. King's humanism and his skill at giving you characters who the reader can implicitly, deeply understand almost works against him in Dreamcatcher, at least for me. I found myself wishing that this was a different book, one that wasn't a novel about an alien invasion but was instead all about these four friends, their histories and their futures, their annual hunting trips where they could be their true selves. I wanted all of that instead of aliens.still, good book. and the cover is awesome, meaningful even:
What do You think about Dreamcatcher (2002)?
I've got good news and bad news. The good news is, Dreamcatcher is not just a rehash of It. The bad news is it's a rehash of The Tommyknockers, too, which is perhaps my least favorite of all of King's works.All right, maybe that's not quite fair. Dreamcatcher does involve aliens, a secret in the woods, and telepathy, but it's not exactly a carbon copy of The Tommyknockers. It re-uses pieces of many of King's works. There's the "adults who bonded as children and did a great thing" theme from It. There's also the "child with a great secret power" trope from The Shining and/or Firestarter. Granted, Duddits is technically an adult, but he is retarded and therefore retains, quite literally, the mind of a child, as evidenced by everyone calling him by his childhood name. Duddits is also reminiscent of Tom Cullen from The Stand, as another example of the sweet and noble retarded person who, after enduring great hardship, saves the day, or at least a piece of it. Speaking of The Stand, let's talk about a nasty, virulent disease that wipes out around 99% of the population. Granted, in this case the "disease" is actually a creature, and the affected area is relatively small, but within that area, the terminal rates are about the same. So what's the big deal, you ask? King has always re-used certain themes in his work: kids in danger, life in Maine, narrators who are writers; why am I harping on this one book in particular? I'm harping on it because he doesn't bring anything new to plate this time. In the past, these themes were simply a framework of familiarity to hang a new story on. It was fun for long-time readers to get the references to previous characters and stories, and to feel like they knew the territory. We've been to Derry and Castle Rock so many times it feels like we belong there. But in Dreamcatcher, it doesn't feel like King's using similar elements. It feels like he's telling the same stories, albeit in bits and pieces and mixed around some. You know how you feel when you watch a movie adaptation of a Stephen King book? With a few notable exceptions, they just don't get it right. The casting is a little bit off or the script keeps the wrong parts of the story (or loses the wrong parts). The bones of the book you loved are there, but the mad doctor put them together all wrong, attaching a femur to a vertebra, or the skull to a kneecap. That's how Dreamcatcher felt to me: right pieces, wrong place.King is an amazing storyteller; he always has been. Even the books I didn't particularly like, I finished. I find that I get caught up in his stories despite myself, and I have to follow through to the end. Maybe that's the crux of my displeasure with Dreamcatcher; I know King is capable of so much more. Authors aren't perfect. Some books are going to be better than others. You just hope that over the course of a career, the good books outweigh the weak ones.
—Peggy
Épico. No tengo nada malo que decir sobre este libro.La narración me encantó. Stephen King tiene una manera de contar historias que es magnífica. La manera en la que describe escenarios y personajes... es genial. Es un grandioso escritor.El libro, en si, esta lleno de escenas épicas de acción. (view spoiler)[MMDDMe gustó como King desarrolló esta historia sobre una invasión alienígena. Además, en la historia el objetivo era salvar al mundo y eso también estuvo muy bien desarrollado.Tengo que decir que el Sr. Gray es un personaje muy interesante. Este extraterrestre que no tiene conciencia aprendiendo poco a poco sobre el mundo (y disfrutandolo) es genial. Me recuerda un poco a Frankestein, que llego de la nada al mundo. También tuvo sus cosas graciosas, hay que admitirlo. Jonesy me gustaba mucho, también. Estaba encerrado en su propia mente y siempre luchando contra el Sr. Gray de alguna forma u otra. Quería que venciese sobre el alien.Pete y Beaver me agradarón los dos. Pero sus muertes, fuera de lo gráficas que fueron, no me afectarón. De hecho, la muerte del Sr. Gray me llegó más.Y Henry, de los 4, el mejor de todos. Me gusta el personaje: su historia, sus acciones, sus monólogos internos... Es genial. Que las ultimas palabras de Duds fuesen hacia él me pareció apropiado.Me gustarón muchas lineas del libro, obvio, pero esta de aquí fue de las ultimas y es genial:"Si tiene que disparar, dispare. He salvado el mundo. Adelante, pagueme el servicio con la tarifa habitual." Y el final, en el tubo 12. ¡ÉPICO! Me encantó, joder. Hubo disparos y explosiones y traiciones y muertes (tantas muertes) y todo eso escritó por King. Excelente.Tardé algo en terminar este libro, porque paré para leer "Eso" porque quería entender una referencia que había. No me arrepiento, "Eso" es muy, muy bueno y valió la pena detenerme solo por entender la referencia. (hide spoiler)]
—Leonardo
I've put off writing a review because Becky wrote the review to end all reviews and said it all! It's my resolution to review all the books I read this year so I have to make the attempt. Here goes...I read this the week it first came out in 2001 because I always read his books as soon as they come out. At breakneck speed more often than not. I tend to re-read and savor the books later, but the first reading is like a "fix" I have been Jonesing for, so taking my time is not really an option. I was especially happy to get this particular fix because I had been so devastated when King had his accident. This book was proof he had not left us.This is one of the few I never went back to re-read. Until now. I couldn't even think of this book without flenching my glutes, so my aversion was understandable. This time around I wonder what took me so long! Yes, I giggled through the horrendous gas and "birthing" of the poop weasels, but once I got over that I really enjoyed this densely layered book.I always love when King writes about aliens. In Dreamcatcher, aliens have been present on our world for a long time. The military is very aware of their probes and visits. The book starts with 4 childhood friends, all grown up now, meeting for their annual hunting trip in a cabin dead center of ground zero. Needless to say, with them being King characters, they all carry a lot of emotional baggage. The guys share a LOT of history that King peels like an onion in flashbacks thoughout the story. At the onset of a huge storm, the aliens arrive, en masse, in thier ship. They are broadcasting, in highly recognizable human voices, English and French, "There is no infection here.". Has an ominous ring to it, huh? Fortunately they land in the woods in the middle of just about nowhere. Not quite so fortunate is the fact that it's hunting season. The military swoops in to contain the "virus" the aliens have introduced, (guess they were lying about the "no infection" part) and begin these efforts by rounding up all the hunters and corralling them. These particular aliens seem intent only on survival. They aren't out to wipe out mankind...unless humans interfere with said survival, that is.In addition to the "grey boys" we've come to expect of aliens, there is a red, mosslike growth of a virus humans can become infected with AND a small creature, the aforementioned poop weasels that incubate in the human digestive track, eventually eating thier way out. Our four hunting friends end with the fate of the world, literally, in their hands with the help of thier very, very special fifth friend from childhood.One of the effects of close proximity to the aliens is ESP. Our friends have shared a bit of a mental bond and heightened perception since childhood, and this just ups their mental abilities to the nth. It may sound cool to be able to read your neighbors, family and friends minds, but if you carry that thought to the final conclusion...it's not! It causes havoc, distrust, hate, fear and above all panic. I felt panic was the tone of this book. It takes place over the course of just 2 days, and beginning to end is constant action at breakneck speed. It is NOT a slow boil.
—Kandice
