Dreamcatcher by Stephen King
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

For all those people who call this a shitweasle of a novel, I would like like point out that it does exactly what it sets out to do. Maybe the usual King fan comes to the chopping block expecting nothing but detailed flawed characters and some rather heartwrenching stuff before a paranormal beastie chomps down.

But I would like to posit that SK IS a fan of Science Fiction. :) Sure, a few of his SF tales like Lawnmower Man and Tommyknockers might not get the love that they deserve, but remember, he also wrote that little epic called the Dark Tower. :)

So let's break this down a bit. We literally get to the heart of the novel through our guts at the beginning, Shitweasels and all, playing on all the paranoid fantasies of... um... SO MANY PEOPLE... by bringing in anal probing aliens. With a particularly gross twist, thank you very much, Mr. King. And then we get into the whole telepathy thing, the Aliens-type setup, and even a Theodore Sturgeon *More Than Human* homage with a very special special person holding this group of old friends together.

For the longest time I got the idea that it was kinda a Tommyknockers part 2, but then I laughed aloud when we got a massive direct reference to the boys and girl from IT, including Pennywise, and then I started seeing a lot more combined references to all his other novels. As per usual, but nicely solid and world-buildy. :)

In the end, I'm frankly rather amazed at what King pulls off here. Massive military action, chases, alien invasions and spore people and shitweasles and more, we even get a Battle For Your Mind. :) Dreamcatcher, indeed.

What is this book? A traditional horror as per usual? Nope. This is a great mashup that builds on the full Crimson King mythology, thank you very much. :) Pretty hardcore, too.

So why does it get a lot of hate?

Parts are juvenile and crass and other parts are free-range weird. But I like both on ocassion, so this is something I can snuggle up to. *ahem* or stay on the pot with. :)

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