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Audio CD Description Stephen King fans, rejoice! The bodysnatching-aliens tale Dreamcatcher is his first book in years that slakes our hunger for horror the way he used to. A throwback to It, The Stand, and The Tommyknockers, Dreamcatcher is also an interesting new wrinkle in his fiction. Four boyhood pals in Derry, Maine, get together for a pilgrimage to their favorite deep-woods cabin, Hole in the Wall. The four have been telepathically linked since childhood, thanks to a searing experience involving a Down syndrome neighbor--a human dreamcatcher. They've all got midlife crises: clownish Beav has love problems; the intellectual shrink, Henry, is slowly succumbing to the siren song of suicide; Pete is losing a war with beer; Jonesy has had weird premonitions ever since he got hit by a car. Then comes worse trouble: an old man named McCarthy (a nod to the star of the 1956 film Invasion of the Body Snatchers) turns up at Hole in the Wall. His body is erupting with space aliens resembling furry moray eels: their mouths open to reveal nests of hatpin-like teeth. Poor Pete tries to remove one that just bit his ankle: "Blood flew in splattery fans as Pete tried to shake it off, stippling the snow and the sawdusty tarp and the dead woman's parka. Droplets flew into the fire and hissed like fat in a hot skillet." For all its nicely described mayhem, Dreamcatcher is mostly a psychological drama. Typically, body snatchers turn humans into zombies, but these aliens must share their host's mind, fighting for control. Jonesy is especially vulnerable to invasion, thanks to his hospital bed near-death transformation, but he's also great at messing with the alien's head. While his invading alien, Mr. Gray, is distracted by puppeteering Jonesy's body as he's driving an Arctic Cat through a Maine snowstorm, Jonesy constructs a mental warehouse along the lines of The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci. Jonesy physically feels as if he's inside a warehouse, locked behind a door with the alien rattling the doorknob and trying to trick him into letting him in. It's creepy from the alien's view, too. As he infiltrates Jonesy, experiencing sugar buzz, endorphins, and emotions for the first time, Jonesy's influence is seeping into the alien: "A terrible thought occurred to Mr. Gray: what if it was his concepts that had no meaning?" King renders the mental fight marvelously, and telepathy is a handy way to make cutting back and forth between the campers' various alien battlefronts crisp and cinematic. The physical naturalism of the Maine setting is matched by the psychological realism of the interior struggle. Deftly, King incorporates the real-life mental horrors of his own near-fatal accident and dramatizes the way drugs tug at your consciousness. Like the Tommyknockers, the aliens are partly symbols of King's (vanquished) cocaine and alcohol addiction. Mainly, though, they're just plain scary. Dreamcatcher is a comeback and an infusion of rich new blood into King's body of work. --Tim Appelo

Customer Reviews Imaginative This book was probably the most creative King has ever written, with the most pyscological metaphors and interesting ideas. I would reccommend this book for its imagination, if nothing else. Good:The charachters are sufficeintly likable, and it is not really predictable, the writing is good, the ideas are great, finally the story is engaging and original Bad : Some of the scenes are unnessescary gross and graphic, not really that scary if thats what you are looking for, really long when it didnt have to be Good or Bad ? : Is it just me or does stephen king have an obsession with flatulence........ In Hearts of Atlantis, he devoted a chapter to farting, and in this book, half of it is people passing gas ..................... Overall, this book is creative and compelling, but it has its flaws Four Friends Stephen King's Dreamcatcher is a novel about friendship, and survival. Once upon a time, in the small town of Derry, four brave young boys - Beaver, Henry, Pete, and Jonesy - rescued a mentally ill child from bullies; unaware that their actions would change their lives forever. Now twenty- five years after saving the boy, the friends reconnect in a cabin in Maine for their annual hunting trip. All is well until a stranger enters their cabin claiming that he has been lost in the woods for days. Eventually, the stranger becomes extremely ill and dies having bled to death in the bathroom. To Beaver and Jonesy's surprise, they discover a weasel -like creature emerging from the back of the dead stranger. After much struggle, Jonesy manages to escape from the creature alive while Beaver is killed by it. Jonesy is then shocked to see another mysterious creature that identifies himself as Mr. Gray. At this point, Mr. Gray transforms himself into red dust which Jonesy inhales. By doing so, Mr. Gray is able to take control of Jonesy's body in which he is able to carry out his mission. Meanwhile, Commander Kurtz and his team are set up in the woods and have been destroying the unidentified creatures that have crashed on earth, unaware that one has survived. It is now up to Jonesy, Henry, and Pete to stop Mr. Gray from achieving his goal- destroying all of humanity. The friends discover that survival is hidden in their past and in the dreamcatcher, which has come to represent their bond of friendship. While I enjoyed this book very much, there were parts where it got confusing or when one event in the book carried on for too long. For example, the chase between Jonesy/ Mr. Gray, Henry, and Kurtz, lasted more than six chapters. Another example is when Henry tries to convince a military officer to kill Kurtz and stop Mr. Gray. Other than those parts, I enjoyed reading Dreamcatcher because of the suspense, the terror, and creative approach. Instead of a physical battle, it is a mental battle since the friends have ESP- Extra Sensory Perception- and are able to communicate with one another and the alien. This works to their advantage because they are able to go into their past and present together mentally in order to destroy Mr. Gray. My favourite part is the end, where Henry has to stop Mr. Gray. I would recommend this book to people ages 11 to adult who love having the hair on their back stand up. dreamcatcher Dream catcher by is a very interesting novel which is worth dedicating your time to. It was written by Stephen king and is one of his many science fiction books. The story takes place in current times and the setting spreads from suburban areas to deep in the woods. The author uses excellent descriptions which allow you to visualize the scene as if you were there. The interaction that the main characters have with the setting makes the book even easier to imagine by putting the readers in situation that they have personally been in. All of these factors make the book more enjoyable to read. The setting is not the only well developed factor of the story. Much time was also put into the development of all the stories characters. Each and every character could be looked at as a real person and if u saw them on the street you could walk up to them and have a conversation with them. Most of the characters are friendly and have you rooting for them in the end but a few just get under your skin and have you hoping that there future is not great. Overall the characters are well handled and are a contributing factor to the greatness of the book. The most important feature of the book is of course the plot. The plot of this book would have to be one of my favorites. It feature the adventures of childhood friends And spans to one final endeavor that will prove what friendship really is. It features everything from hunting to special force to aliens and many other things. This book is sure to appeal all audiences and offers something to anyone who enjoys reading. Scot