Robert Gentel’s Blog

I don’t have a lot of options in way of reading material here in Costa Rica. The English-language literature sections usually comprise one or two shelves in the biggest bookstore chains. So I picked a familiar name in Steven King. I’m not a big King fan. I think he’s underestimated as a writer often but the typical King fare isn’t my bag. I liked the books I read in his Dark Tower series a lot and The Shining well enough and figured I’d give this Dreamcatcher a try. That it was long was part of the appeal, given that paperbacks are almost double the price here and at the rate I was reading I was on track to spend a couple hundred in books a month. I figured a nice long one would keep me busy a while so I picked it up.

This may well be the worst book I’ve ever read. And at nearly 900 pages it may have actually made me dumber. He could have done so well with it, he had great touches and I still maintain he is a great writer. But the alien invasion plot was just so incredibly stupid that nothing could make it a good book.

King is a good writer who needs someone (Tabitha?) to smack him upside his head when he gets a ridiculous idea like the “shit weasels”.