Product Description
The last of the Richard Bachman novels, recently recovered and published for the first time. Stephen King's "dark half" may have saved the best for last.

A fellow named Richard Bachman wrote Blaze in 1973 on an Olivetti typewriter, then turned the machine over to Stephen King, who used it to write Carrie. Bachman died in 1985 ("cancer of the pseudonym"), but in late 2006 King found the original typescript of Blaze among his papers at the University of Maine's Fogler Library ("How did this get here?!"), and decided that with a little revision it ought to be published.

Blaze is the story of Clayton Blaisdell, Jr. -- of the crimes committed against him and the crimes he commits, including his last, the kidnapping of a baby heir worth millions. Blaze has been a slow thinker since childhood, when his father threw him down the stairs -- and then threw him down again. After escaping an abusive institution for boys when he was a teenager, Blaze hooks up with George, a seasoned criminal who thinks he has all the answers. But then George is killed, and Blaze, though haunted by his partner, is on his own.

He becomes one of the most sympathetic criminals in all of literature. This is a crime story of surprising strength and sadness, with a suspenseful current sustained by the classic workings of fate and character -- as taut and riveting as Stephen King's The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 142 reviews)

Fantastic Book

Absolutely incredible! It is impossible to put down. It didn't take me any more than three nights to read it. There isn't one boring sentence in the entire book.
October 01, 2008

What a writer!!!

Steven King is the absolute best writer that ever was. He stands right next to Edgar Allen Poe!!! If you want a book that you can't put down I recommend that you purchase any one of the many books that Steven King wrote!!!
September 26, 2008

Simple, Touching Storytelling

I read at work, but one day I left my current book at home. A co-worker brought BLAZE in case she'd finished her current book during the night shift, and I was much obliged to borrow it when she offered to have something to read.

From the above paragraph, you can probably tell it was more a matter of circumstance than desire that I set to reading BLAZE. Now I like Mr. King, the book I left was actually a DARK TOWER book, it's just that this looked like another one of King's 'over a weekend' works. Not to call it 'throw away' by any means, but somewhat uninspired work like THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON. Compulsively readable mind you, but insubstantial in concept.

Anyway, I was more than pleased to find BLAZE, a 'Trunk Novel', an emotionally sweet and simultaneously heart wrenching story. Sometimes What bothers me most about King is the idiocyncracies of his writing, such as his many parentheses, and his colloquial New England speech. These were fine to me at first, but as I have read close to 30 of King's books, it has begun to mildly detract from my enjoyment. Consider it like a roommate you have lived with too long and who's habits irritate you where you once thought they were charming. You like them just fine, but need a break sometimes so as not to let the annoyances ruin an otherwise good respect for them.

In BLAZE, King attempts to write in a more clipped - read Noirish - style, and consequently left out many of those attributes that I stumble over. It's King, but with an altered style that allows you to rediscover what a gifted and moving writer he can be rather than just trying to scare you.

The Protaginist, Clayton 'Blaze' Blaisdell, who's IQ has been irreparably altered by an abusive father, gets by on sheer luck for most of the novel, in attempting a kidnapping even though the 'brains' behind the operation has died prior. His luck never feels like a lazy plot device, however; Instead it is more like Karma paying back a man who has been dealt a terrible hand by society, if only until luck eventually runs out.

In one chapter, a summer at a farming camp is described with the bittersweet nostalgia of one perfect moment in youth that can never happen again. It actually teared me up, which is something that King rarely does to me. Towards the end, it becomes apparent that 'Blaze' has other forces at work in his brain, and the story takes a dramatic (although believeable) turn as antagonists other than the Police attempt to change Blaze's plans. I won't spoil it, but it's is rather chilling. Thats how I would sum up how this book excells so well at moving the reader; it is from one chapter to the next uplifting, funny, and heart-wrenching. King changes the resonance from one to the other elegantly, and it never clashes.

I would urge anyone who enjoyed King's RITA HAYWORTH AND THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION, or THE BODY, to give BLAZE a chance. It is an uncommonly touching and moving story, while never being emotionally exploitative.
September 12, 2008

blaze

Blaze arrive in a timely manner, and was in excellant condition. It was packaged very good. I really enjoyed this book I recommend it to all Stephan KING FANS.
August 26, 2008

Dusting off an old tale for the pleasure of his readers

Good little story from Stephen King's dark vault of early unpublished writings. There's quite a bit of balance, nuance, and sophistication for an almost four decades-old story that Mr. King waited until now to publish. For instance, the tribulations of Blaze's early life create sympathy for the title character, but not to the point where we want to excuse or forgive Blaze's later criminal career. In other words, I felt bad for the guy but still wanted him to get caught by the F.B.I. once he crossed over into child kidnapping.

I also liked how, in the story's earlier going, we see that Blaze's friend George was good for him in many ways, but things got mucked up because George was a career criminal and encouraged Blaze to refine and deepen his own clunky (and, until then, mostly harmless) criminal past.

Complex, ironic situations like these deepened this engaging story, making it more than a simple crime-laced morality tale.

I also enjoyed Stephen King's lengthy introduction to "Blaze". In it he talks not only about the history of the book in question, but the many things that were going on in his professional and personal life around the time of the book's writing. It's a fun and interesting piece in itself.

I listened to the 7-CD unabridged audiobook version of "Blaze", which features a wonderful, skillful performance by actor, writer, and frequent audiobook narrator Ron McLarty. However, you don't get the bonus short story, "Memory" which accompanies the print editions of the book.
August 14, 2008

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