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on 17 April 2017
Although Salem's Lot is my favourite novel, this novel is far more emotional, you really get to know the characters as there are far fewer characters than in Salem's Lot. This is only the 2nd time I've read this book, last read 20 or more years ago, and I appreciate it more now than I did then. A vampire town, a haunted and possessed hotel, this is more subtle, less scary monster, but far more scary in its own way.
on 13 September 2006
In On Writing, Stephen King says that The Dead Zone is one of the few plot-driven novels he's ever writen -- meaning he had the whole story thought out before he started writing it down. I don't know if that's what makes this one SUCH a winner, but it really stood out, to me, as a wonderful book.
Forget the film. What's brilliant about the book is that we get inside both the lead character's minds -- Johnny Smith, a typical all-American "good guy" who has the limited ability to see the future because of a childhood accident; and Greg Stillson, a bonkers nutjob who is campaigning to be the next US president.
When Johnny shakes Greg's hand at a political rally, he has a vision of Greg becoming the President and sparking World War III. Everyone else loves Greg -- Johnny is the only man who can stop him...
Does that sound corny? The way it's written is ANYTHING but. Several scenes at the end made me cry as I'd become so attached to Johnny Smith.
This is my favourite Stephen King book by a (Green) mile. It isn't his horror stuff -- nobody turns out to be a huge spider at the end -- but a wonderful, character-driven, gripping story.
Buy it!
Forget the film. What's brilliant about the book is that we get inside both the lead character's minds -- Johnny Smith, a typical all-American "good guy" who has the limited ability to see the future because of a childhood accident; and Greg Stillson, a bonkers nutjob who is campaigning to be the next US president.
When Johnny shakes Greg's hand at a political rally, he has a vision of Greg becoming the President and sparking World War III. Everyone else loves Greg -- Johnny is the only man who can stop him...
Does that sound corny? The way it's written is ANYTHING but. Several scenes at the end made me cry as I'd become so attached to Johnny Smith.
This is my favourite Stephen King book by a (Green) mile. It isn't his horror stuff -- nobody turns out to be a huge spider at the end -- but a wonderful, character-driven, gripping story.
Buy it!
on 7 March 2011
I thought this was a really entertaining and gripping story but not on a par with 'Needful things' which I couldn't put down. However, this is still King at his best: master story teller. Having recently read 'Bag of Bones' it was great to read a book written in the fast paced, gripping, articulate style of King's early days, albeit spoilt every now and then by typical King crude and unsophisticated language. I found the last one hundred pages boring which is why I didn't give this book five stars. I actually skipped them and still understood the ending, but the ending is really good and the moral of the story original, thought provoking and haunting. Overall an excellent read.
on 30 April 2017
James Franco brings a real sense of Americana to the story and has a great way of delivery.
The story is a Stephen King Masterpiece
The story is a Stephen King Masterpiece
on 25 March 2017
As usual a great read. Great characters, especially like Johnny's dad. The story was superb.
on 23 March 2017
Stephen King at his best, love this story
on 15 April 2017
King a his best, for me he is a superb storey teller first and foremost, the horror element to many of his books is secondary. The dead zone is a wonderful yarn, couldn't put it down.
on 13 December 2002
There are always those who do not want to read Stephen King because they simply do not like horror novels. They do not want to read about killer cars or killer clowns, vampires or the walking dead, or any of that fun stuff that many of us absorb like candy on Halloween night. Fortunately, King does right other tales from time to time, which, ironically, tend to get their names changed when they are made into major motion pictures that refrain from prominently mentioning the authors name in their television commercials (which, of course, is how we know when it is a "good" movie of a Stephen King story). Of all those "safe" Stephen King books (relatively speaking), "The Dead Zone" has the virtue of still being fairly representative of King's entire body of work. That is why when people shy away from reading his work, I insist that "The Dead Zone" is the Stephen King book for people who do not want to read Stephen King.
Like King's epic "The Stand," the story of Johnny Smith takes as its genesis the idea of "not the potter, but the potter's clay." Johnny Smith is just a young school teacher out on a date with Sarah Hazlett at the cheap carnival that has come to town. Things are going well for the couple when they stop to play the wheel of fortune and Johnny predicts the number that is going to up next, time and time again. The experience upsets Sarah, but things go from bad to worse: on the way home Johnny's cab is in a horrible accident and he goes into a coma. When he comes out of it five years later he discovers the world has changed: Nixon has resigned, Sarah has married someone else and there are strange new devices called Flair pens. But Johnny has changed too. Now when he touches somebody he can tell them things, such as where they lost their wedding ring, that their kitchen is on fire, that their long lost mother is alive and well. Johnny Smith is an ordinary man with an amazing gift that terrifies not only others but himself. Certainly, this is an engaging premise: if you were a mind reader what would you do?
But what makes this one of King's best novels is that he ups the ante for his reluctant hero. At a chance meeting during the New Hampshire primary Johnny shakes hands with Greg Stillson, a political thug who is running a low brow populist campaign. In that moment Johnny knows, he absolutely KNOWS that Stillson is going to become President of the United States and start a nuclear war. "The Dead Zone" now becomes about the fact that with great power comes great responsibility as Johnny has to convince himself not only that he should act, but that doing so would be any good. The narrative/argumentative structure of this novel is one of King's best as events concerning Johnny's power lead him step by step to his fate. This is a compelling tale, well told (with the exception of an unnecessary mention of "Carrie"), and more than adequate evidence of why King is one of the best selling authors on the planet.
Like King's epic "The Stand," the story of Johnny Smith takes as its genesis the idea of "not the potter, but the potter's clay." Johnny Smith is just a young school teacher out on a date with Sarah Hazlett at the cheap carnival that has come to town. Things are going well for the couple when they stop to play the wheel of fortune and Johnny predicts the number that is going to up next, time and time again. The experience upsets Sarah, but things go from bad to worse: on the way home Johnny's cab is in a horrible accident and he goes into a coma. When he comes out of it five years later he discovers the world has changed: Nixon has resigned, Sarah has married someone else and there are strange new devices called Flair pens. But Johnny has changed too. Now when he touches somebody he can tell them things, such as where they lost their wedding ring, that their kitchen is on fire, that their long lost mother is alive and well. Johnny Smith is an ordinary man with an amazing gift that terrifies not only others but himself. Certainly, this is an engaging premise: if you were a mind reader what would you do?
But what makes this one of King's best novels is that he ups the ante for his reluctant hero. At a chance meeting during the New Hampshire primary Johnny shakes hands with Greg Stillson, a political thug who is running a low brow populist campaign. In that moment Johnny knows, he absolutely KNOWS that Stillson is going to become President of the United States and start a nuclear war. "The Dead Zone" now becomes about the fact that with great power comes great responsibility as Johnny has to convince himself not only that he should act, but that doing so would be any good. The narrative/argumentative structure of this novel is one of King's best as events concerning Johnny's power lead him step by step to his fate. This is a compelling tale, well told (with the exception of an unnecessary mention of "Carrie"), and more than adequate evidence of why King is one of the best selling authors on the planet.
