by | Jan 1, 1970 | Write Here Write Now

In Twelve Days by Steven Barnes, an anonymous group vows death to all, starting with one person on the first day, then doubling until all humans are dead, and naming certain world leaders to die on specific days. True to their word, unexplained deaths begin to occur and targeted individuals are dying. No one is sure if other deaths are occurring among the non-famous, but based on the documented ones, people begin to wonder about the end of the world.

Against this backdrop, Olympia Dorsey is trying to raise her autistic son Hannibal and teenage daughter Nicki. She takes Hannibal to an unusual school where they show a great interest in him, but her life begins to change when she meets Madam Gupta, the school’s leader. After attending an amazing martial arts display, accompanied by her on-again off-again boyfriend ex-Special Forces Terry Nicholas, Olympia’s son starts to show incredible progress and Terry’s abilities increase exponentially. Olympia is thrilled until she realizes that everything is not as it seems.

Action, intrigue, and an end-of-days scenario mixed with a bit of romance make Twelve Days one hell of a read. Characters are well-developed and heavily nuanced from Tony and Olympia to Hannibal and sister Nicki. Barnes combines fantasy and thriller into a well-made book.

by | Jan 1, 1970 | Write Here Write Now

November 22, 1963 is a date many of us remember or recognize, the date that John F. Kennedy was assassinated. In 2011, Stephen wrote a book entitled 11/22/63, a time travel novel where the protagonist goes back to that time. I only recently read the book, spurred on by a friend now immersed in the new Hulu series based on the novel, but I’m glad I did.

In the book, Jake Epping, at the urging of his friend Al Templeton, goes to the past to try to prevent the assassination. An interesting thing about Al’s time portal is that if someone goes to the past, changes something, then later returns to the past, everything resets and is the same as it was before. That gives the time traveler a way out if he makes a mistake.

Jake starts out on September 9, 1958 because that is where Al’s time portal leads, which means he will have to live five years in the past before he can take action. After a couple of experiments, he’s in for the long haul. But as Al explains, the past doesn’t want to be changed, so whenever he goes to change something, he hits one roadblock after another. But he persists. Of course, a lot can happen in five years. What Jake doesn’t count on is falling in love with a school librarian in Texas in the 1960’s.

One fun thing about this book is that King, like in many of his novels, makes references to one of his others, in this case, It. When he first goes back, he is in the town of Derry, Maine shortly after the events of the first part of the book and actually meets two of the kids who have moved on from their adventures. It has little to do with the story, but is fun for a fan like me, especially in light of the new It movie having recently come out.

This book really engaged me and may be in my top 10 King novels. It has everything — love, suspense, pathos — plus, of course, time travel, which King does extraordinarily well. If you like King, if you like time travel, you will enjoy this book.

by | Jan 1, 1970 | Write Here Write Now

Dreamcatcher is a book by Stephen King published in 2001, and I read and enjoyed it around the time it came out. I recently saw the 2003 movie and was pleased to see how closely it followed the book (at least the parts I remembered from that long-ago time.) It is the story of four men vacationing in a cabin in the woods. These men have a particular bond. In addition to being friends from childhood, they share a psychic connection they obtained after meeting a mentally challenged boy named Duddits. They helped him escape from bullies, then befriended him, and he gave them their abilities as a gift. Once in the woods, they rescue a man who has been lost and appears very ill. Later, they find him in the bathroom split open by a lamprey-like creature now hiding in the toilet.

This book/movie is part horror, part science fiction, involving alien contact and government cover-up. It held my attention all the way through. Even having read the book, I was on the edge of my seat most of the time. The cast is excellent, including Morgan Freeman as the commander of an anti-alien group who is morally challenged.

Since I liked it so much, I was surprised to learn that the movie got fair to poor reviews when it came out. I’m one of the worst critics of Stephen King movies, being disappointed when they do not accurately reflect the essence of the book. (I’m one of those who hated the movie The Shining because too much was changed from the book.) That said, I really enjoyed Dreamcatcher and would recommend the movie to any Stephen King fan and others who like horror/scifi.