BLURB
This is the way the world ends: with a nanosecond of computer error in a Defense Department laboratory and a million casual contacts that form the links in a chain letter of death. And here is the bleak new world of the day after: a world stripped of its institutions and emptied of 99 percent of its people. A world in which a handful of panicky survivors choose sides -- or are chosen. A world in which good rides on the frail shoulders of the 108-year-old Mother Abigail -- and the worst nightmares of evil are embodied in a man with a lethal smile and unspeakable powers: Randall Flagg, the dark man.


REVIEW
OK, so I've never been one of those people who settles for watching the TVM over reading the book, I always try to have the story in my head before seeing someone else's version of it.
However, I caught the re-run of the mini-series from 1994 - and hope that the book is identical in every way (which isn't impossible as King wrote both the book and screenplay for this amazing four part series)!

Post-apocolyptic chills, the ultimate battle between good and evil (and apparantly Randall Flagg has been a long term evil incarnate within King's work), the end of the world, sacrifices left, right and centre, and all this without even peeking in the book!

Hope to borrow if from someone soon!

The best of the best!

I plan to read.

I don't blame Stephen King for writing as Richard Bachman. If I put this book out, I wouldn't want my name on it either.

There are some good parts to the story but not his best book by far. Oh, and the movie they made about it is awful. Don't waste your time.

Interesting as a classic, but I really wasn't all that interested in all the symbolism and such.

Very interesting. My first journey into the world of Kafka. He takes the metaphor and turns it into reality. Gregor, described as "verminlike" actually becomes a vermin, something similar to a cockroach. I'm not sure, however, what the point is supposed to be, and like many critics, I am left with more questions than answers. Why does Kafka hate Gregor so much in the first place? Granted, he is just a traveling salesmen - but he is working for a slimy manager in order to pay back his parents' debts, and he plans on sending his sister to a music school. I found little so "cockroach-esque" or unappealing about Gregor - but he is forced into this vermin body and his family turns away from him. I'm not sure. I suppose I'll have to read more about Kafka's intentions and theorists' interpretations before I settle on one feeling about this novel, if that's even possible at all. It was good, though. Philosophically interesting - I just wonder why Kafka inserted such an average, generally decent and well-meaning guy to play the role of the vermin. Seems the manager would be more suited for that role.

Great Book! Loved '1408'!

One of his better books. The plot was paced until the chaotic climax near the end. The characters were very fleshed out, I really felt as thought I knew them in real life. I highly recommend this book, although I suggest you don't read the ending without anyone else in the house at night!

Duma Key, an Island of Floriday is the setting for this book about a very successfull business man named Edgar Freemantle who's life is drastically changed after he has a near fatal accident on a building site. Finally after recuperating from severe head injuries and the loss of his right arm, his wife announces that she wants a divorce. This leads Edgar to make the decision to leave the life he knows and start another on Duma key, in a rented house he christens Big Pink.

However life on Duma Key is not what he expects it to be, he uncovers a talent he never knew he had in the form of painting, and proceeds to produce many startling, terrifying but wonderful works, with strangely supernatural powers.

I quite enjoyed it, especially the latter quarter of the book, however one thing that quite annoyed me was the amount of repetition in the novel. This is quite unusual for Stephen King as he is normally never short of words, however I found myself reading sentences like "if only I knew it was the last time I would talk to her/see her/she would smoke a cigarette". I see what he was trying to do, but surely there are other ways of saying these things!!

Apart from that the only other thing to complain about it the unexplained ending, we never really got the full story, so for anyone who hates being left hanging, best to avoid this.

Name: Stephen King
Born: 21st September 1947
Died: n/a
Nationality: American
Most Famous Works: The Shining, The Stand, It, Carrie
First Novel Published: Carrie

11/2008 Audiobook

Excellant audiobook!!!!

This was an interesting book

BLURB

Robert Neville may well be the last living man on Earth . . . but he is not alone.
An incurable plague has mutated every other man, woman, and child into bloodthirsty, nocturnal creatures who are determined to destroy him. By day, he is a hunter, stalking the infected monstrosities through the abandoned ruins of civilization. By night, he barricades himself in his home and prays for dawn....

REVIEW

I was so disappointed by this book. I bought it for Horror Day last year and loved the first part of it. It was fantastic! The bad guys were nice and twisted (as horror characters should be), the plot was fleshing out nicely with no predictability but then the ending came. It wasn't suited to it I don't think. That and it had too many religious connotations for my liking, it just turned the book into a joke. It was such a dud ending I felt deflated after finishing it.