Dreamcatcher

Year: 2001

Abstract:
Four friends who have long been connected in more than just purpose by a mentally retarded boy must face up to an invasion from another world. What do the aliens want and can anyone, including the United States government, stop them?

Advanced Mind
Exploration/Quest
Military/Fighting
Horror
Magic
Advanced Technology
Time Travel/Alternate History
Science
Aliens/Beasties
Contemporality

Other books in this series:
None

tyranist's Review
I've been a Stephen King fan for many years and was just as distressed to hear about his accident as the next man. My friends and I speculated that it might be the end of King books as we knew them. As King gradually recovered and news trickled out that he was indeed writing again, we were all relieved.
This is the first novel published after the accident (On Writing was published first, but as wonderful as that book may be it just isn't fiction) and I rushed out and bought it as soon as humanly possible. I had quite high hopes for the novel and while it wasn't part of my beloved Dark Tower series, at least it would be a King fix.
I preface my thoughts about the book with all of the above simply because my experience wasn't the best. I had high hopes and was let down. Not too bad, but enough. If you don't have equally high hopes, then perhaps you'll be okay.
It seems to me that King loses a step (pun unintended) with this novel. The crispness of the world isn't quite there and the characters are never quite likeable enough. The core story, while interesting, often seems to meander into unproductive avenues. I also didn't really enjoy a lot of the material that was explicitly taken from King's recent life and splattered onto the page. I appreciate that when a writer writes, the things at the front of his mind often come out, but really, it seemed overboard here. Perhaps I simply wanted the old King back. Hopefully we'll see him later this year with The Black House.
The novel is very firmly science fiction with the horror being pretty peripheral. In fact, in top form, I don't doubt that King would have constructed this into one of the best alien invasion stories ever. As it stands, the novel falls short of the story's potential.

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