| View Larger Image | The Dead Zone (Signet) | Mass Market Paperbackby Stephen King (Author)
| List Price: | $7.99 | | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours |
| | Binding: | Mass Market Paperback | | Publisher: | Signet | | Page Count: | 416 Pages | | Publication Date: | August 01, 1980 | | Sales Rank: | 14,599th |
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FEATURES | - ISBN13: 9780451155757
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
John Smith awakens from an interminable coma with an accursed power-the power to see the future and the terrible fate awaiting mankind in...the dead zone. |
Amazon.com Review
In the St. James Guide to Horror, Ghost & Gothic Writers, Gary Westfahl predicts that "King has already earned himself a place in the history of literature.... At the very least, he will enjoy the status of a latter-day Anthony Trollope, an author respected for his popularity and social commentary.... More likely, he will be enshrined as the Charles Dickens of the late 20th century, the writer who perfectly reflected, encapsulated, and expressed the characteristic concerns of his era." If any of King's novels exemplifies his skill at portraying the concerns of his generation, it's The Dead Zone (1979). Although it contains a horrific subplot about a serial killer, it isn't strictly a horror novel. It's the story of an unassuming high school teacher, an Everyman, who suffers a gap in time--like a Rip Van Winkle who blacks out during the years 1970-75--and thus becomes acutely conscious of the way that American society is rapidly changing. He wakes up as well with a gap in his brain, the "dead zone" of the title. The zone gives him crippling headaches, but also grants him second sight, a talent he doesn't want and is reluctant to use. The crux of the novel concerns whether he will use that talent to alter the course of history. The Dead Zone is a tight, well-crafted book. When asked in 1983 which of his novels so far was "the best," Stephen King answered, "The one that I think works the best is Dead Zone. It's the one that [has] the most story." --Fiona Webster |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 199 reviews)
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Early King work falls short by M. Kelley  3 Stars
September 25, 2009
A longtime King fan, I felt The Dead Zone simply falls short. The premise--an average school teacher awakes from an almost 5 year coma with the ability of seeing the future and the question of whether or not he will use this ability for good, is interesting, but the ending is certainly disappointing. This is not what I expected, but by no means did I feel it was a waste of time to read. Not his best, but certainly not a complete waste of time.
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Stephen King pulls you into the Dead Zone! by Marc Axelrod (Potter, Wi USA)  5 Stars
August 31, 2009
Johnny Smith is a twenty something New England school teacher with an attractive girlfriend and a promising future. But a terrible accident leaves him in a 4 and a half year coma. He wakes up to a much different, post Watergate world. But he also wakes up with the ability to see the destinies and the pasts of people he touches. Johnny struggles to adjust to his post coma life. His wacked out ultra fundamentalist mom gives him some sane advice: Don't be like Elijah and Jonah. "Don't hide in a cave or in the belly of a huge fish. God has special plans for your talent."
Stephen King wields an impressive knowledge of the Bible as weaves together a classic psycho-spiritual thriller that you will want to keep reading even when you have other things to do. One of King's classics.
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Excellent characters drive an edgy story by Adam Cohen (New York)  4 Stars
August 25, 2009
"The Dead Zone" is, in many ways, a literary tribute to the similarly-titled TV series "The Twilight Zone," where a normal, average person is placed in an extraordinary set of circumstances and forced to make a moral decision to resolve his or her conflict.
The average person in this story is John Smith (not too subtle, eh?). Johnny suffers severe injuries in a car accident early on and as a result obtains a "second sight"- where he can see something personal about people by either touching them or a personal object of theirs. It doesn't take long for Johnny's talent to be noticed by others. There's a touching series of episodes at first, followed by darker, deeply disturbed encounters culminating in the book's final confrontation.
The fantasy/horror aspects of the story make this book worthwhile on their own. What elevates the "The Dead Zone" to greatness is its emotionally genuine love story between Johnny and Sarah. Stephen King makes a point of placing his characters in the very real world, and "The Dead Zone" is a (now) period-piece set in the American political landscape of the early to mid 1970s. Mixing fictional characters with real political figures works well here- it adds depth and dimension to the proceedings, necessary given the aspirations of the book's main villain, Greg Stillson (a local politico with some deep problems).
I read this book immediately after finishing "The Stand" and I appreciated the pace of "The Dead Zone" a lot. The story was fast-moving without feeling rushed. And while the story is set in the 1970s (when the book was written) it doesn't feel dated or hokey. I strongly recommend this to anyone looking to start King's works. Between this and "Salem's Lot" these are my favorite King novels thus far.
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Good overall, but far, far from King's best by James Seger (The Woodlands, TX United States) 3 Stars
August 01, 2009
I was excited to finally read The Dead Zone (one of the few early Stephen King novels I haven't yet read). I'd seen the David Cronenberg movie, so I was already familiar with the gist of the story: Young Johnny Smith is a popular teacher with a bright future when an accident puts him in a coma for four years. He awakens to find that the world has changed and he has changed. Touching another person will give him uncontrollable psychic flashes, which turns out to be more of a curse than a blessing.
This felt like Stephen King's first crack at a 'mature' novel. The pacing was much more deliberate than in his earlier books. Not to say that the book is boring. Just that King invested a lot more time in developing his characters (something he'd been very good good at since 'Salem's Lot at least), making them feel ever more real.
Johnny's mother Vera (for example) goes through a religious mania in the book, grasping at some pretty outrageous beliefs regarding aliens and U.F.O.s. It would have been easy to make this character comic relief, even unintentionally. Yet King handles her so well, making her very sympathetic even when you become exasperated with her.
The other major characters of the novel; Johnny, his one-time fiance Sarah and his father Herb are all adeptly handled.
Stephen King's writing is in top form here. There's a section early in the novel where he plays a wheel of fortune at a county carnival. This scene is written with the level of page-turning intensity of a heist scene. Though The Dead Zone is less blatant about its horror and suspense than Carrie, 'Salem's Lot or The Shining he was still able to keep me eagerly reading. I would be totally enveloped in the book on a break at work and would be angry that my break was over.
I also appreciate that King seems to have done his homework. When he writes about something, it never feels like he's winging it. For instance, when reading about Johnny's recovery from the coma he puts in enough detail to show that he has done his research and knows what he is talking about. There is enough detail of various medical procedures given to give the book a sense of verisimilitude that is often missing from horror stories. Yet he doesn't bog down in useless trivia.
The Dead Zone seems to be the first novel where SK started openly linking his works. He doesn't bang the reader over the head about it, but fans will spot offhand references to Jerusalem's Lot, Flagg Street, Richard Dees and Inside View, Stovington Prep and of course we pay our first visit to Castle Rock.
Yet for all the good stuff here there was something just... off about the novel. The structure of the novel seemed really weird. As I read it I felt like I was reading a novella that had been uncomfortably expanded into a novel by jamming another novella into the middle of it.
In the beginning we follow Johnny and we follow a deranged Bible salesman named Stillson. Then there's a series of murders in Castle Rock that takes up the middle of the book and goes away again. Then we follow Johnny and Stillson again. The whole Castle Rock section of the book (while interesting) really it could have been cut and the book probably wouldn't have felt vastly different.
King's writing is the saving grace here. Even with the trouble I had the book is well worth reading. But I can see why it isn't mentioned as often as The Shining or The Stand.
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King at his finest by Stefan Yates (Manhattan, KS United States) 5 Stars
February 07, 2009
For some reason, my recollection of reading this book before was very vague. Therefore, I went into the rereading process without knowing what to expect at all. Boy, was I surprised. After finishing it, I think that The Dead Zone is one of King's best novels.
The character development is superb and I think that Johnny Smith is possibly one of King's best developed characters. We also spend considerable time with his family members and the principle villains and these characters are all strongly developed and quirky in their own ways.
The story, while not action packed, takes the reader completely into the world of Johnny Smith, a regular guy with a bit of psychic ability and some incredibly bad luck. A big part of the storyline revolves around the political climate of the 70's but it is written in such a way that it stays interesting throughout. I honestly did not experience any moments of boredom with the story.
As I'm finding with several King books that I've re-read lately, The Dead Zone is not really a horror novel at all. There's a little bit of gore and graphic violence and of course King's choice of language is a bit colorful at times, but really this is a good suspense story with a bit of politics and psychic powers thrown in for good measure.
All in all a GREAT novel. I highly recommend it.
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