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| View Larger Image | Desperation
by Stephen King
| | List Price: | $7.99 |  | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours | | | | | Sales Rank: | 6781 | | Studio: | Signet | | | Binding: | Paperback | | Number Of Pages: | 560 | | Publication Date: | August 01, 1997 | | Publisher: | Signet |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
There’s a place along Interstate 50 that some call the loneliest place on Earth. It’s known as Desperation, Nevada. It’s not a very nice place to live. It’s an even worse place to die. Let the battle against evil begin. |
Amazon.com
A notice to those who feel that Stephen King has lost his magic touch: Desperation is the genuine goods. The ensemble cast of ordinary Americans thrown together by chance, including a disgruntled alcoholic writer and a child who is wise beyond his years, may be a bit too familiar. But the nearly deserted Nevada mining town with an enormous haunted mine pit and an abandoned movie theatre where the survivors hang out makes for a striking battleground, and the grisly action rarely flags. Best of all, though, are the characters of Tak, the ancient body-hopping evil who emerges from the mine, and of "God"--whom the New York Times describes as "the edgiest creation in Desperation. Remote, isolated, ironic, shrouded behind disguises, perhaps 'another legendary shadow,' this deity forms a sly foil, and an icy mirror, to Tak." |
Amazon.com Audio Review
Kathy Bates, the award-winning actress who has starred in two film adaptations of King's work (Dolores Claiborne, Misery) showcases her storytelling talent in the audio version of Desperation. In nine chilling hours of narration, Bates brings to life the story of two doomed travelers headed down Highway 50, a.k.a. the loneliest highway in America, in the brutal Nevada desert. Her even, full-bodied voice has the remarkable ability to sound monotone, sinister, and inviting all at once--a marvelous, engaging match to King's prose. (Running time: nine hours, six cassettes) |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 599 reviews)
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Pretty Good Read 
This book concerns a number of travellers trapped by what appears to be a maniac cop, in a mining town called Desperation, and their attempts to escape.
As Stephen King books go, I did not think this was one of his better ones, but was a pretty good read, nonetheless. I felt the characters in the story were reasonably good, and kept you interested in them, for most of the time, anyway, as it should be pointed out, that this book is slow moving in parts, by this author's standards.
The main drawback, I felt was that the whole 'Tak' thing was weak, and got slightly boring at times. It also could have been explained a bit better.
August 05, 2008 | |
First King Experience 
This was the first Stephen King book that I ever read. I saw it at a 2nd hand store and figured for $5 I couldn't go wrong. Well I have to say when I opened it that night after work I could not put it down! This book was amazing! The intese details paint a perfect picture. Definately a good read.
July 10, 2008 | |
Flawed, but still good 
Once again a novel about the classic battle of good vs. evil, but King (as usual) does a good job of coming up with original material. This keeps the reader involved, as the suspense comes from trying to figure out just what/what the bad guy is and what he wants.
That said, even when writing a horror book about the unreal, it is not justifiable to throw all logic out the window, and sadly King forgets logic in both the details and the overall plot.
For instance, in one scene a main character is looking at a WALLET-sized photograph and is able to clearly identify not only three men, and the baseball cap that one of them is wearing, but also the name of the club on a sign behind them. If this isn't bad enough, it should be mentioned that the photograph is 30 years old. (I guess they don't make photos like they used to.)
Flaws in the plot are also clumsy: in another scene hero David makes another one of the main characters empty his pockets to make sure that the guy isn't carrying any "evil rocks". But when does he do this? Not after another lady is found with evil rocks, when it would be logical. Instead, the pockets are emptied in fact much later: RIGHT AFTER David declares that this guy has had a "change of heart" and is now certainly on the good side.
Most embarrassing is the overall theme. All through the book, the main characters all determine that "God must be cruel" to let so many people die in the town. But on the last page of the book, it is once and for all decided that "God is love". What happened during this time for the main characters to change their minds? The evil guy decides to let the main characters escape, but God commands them to destroy the evil guy, which leads to the death of 2 of the main characters in the process.
Flaws aside, overall the book is entertaining. However, in between the action, King for some reason has some of the narrative recounted by hero David (who tells the background story after seeing it in a vision) rather than just having flashbacks in the story. This leads to a book that would be equivalent to a fast-paced action movie that is inexplicably interupted up by 10-minute sequences of dialogue.
July 02, 2008 | |
Weak writing, not scary at all... 
Above all, the book is poorly written. The plot is formulaic and forgettable. The author's attempt to be suspenseful and scary fell flat. I'm not a Stephen King reader but I was sorely disappointed by this book.
June 14, 2008 | |
If you don't like this then you don't like Stephen King!
This was King at one of his best. I loved the book and think anyone who likes Stephen King will love this book. As my title states, if you don't like this book then your are simple not a Stephen King fan...
March 17, 2008 | |
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