Customer Reviews

Desperation/Regulators, The 2-copy combination package

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I really enjoyed Desperation and it was good to see King get back to his horror "roots". I wasn't sure about Regulators at first because, although I knew it somehow tied in to Desperation, I thought it might get too corny. And although it is a tad corny, the way King has created two completely different stories with the same characters is amazing and ingenious. I recommend them both. (Remember Cynthia Smith from Rose Madder?)

First, let me say that there is much I like about King's work. His time and place settings (childhood in Maine) are fantastic, his themes provide perfect escapism, which is what I look for in fiction, and his books are long -- when I shell out my $25, I know I'm gonna get more than two night's entertainment. But, as King's career goes on, it is all the things that I do NOT like about his writing that come to prominence, crowding out the good in the process. This happens with many authors, of course, especially those who put out three or four books a week. What I don't like, and what Desperation and The Regulators are full of: 1. Gore, slime, and muck passing for horror -- Swarms of spiders eating eyeballs, vultures plucking out eyeballs, arms and legs being ripped off by animals and/or gunfire, throats being torn open by giant lizards who bathe in the resulting fountains of blood. This is gore and excess, and not even remotely scary. Sometimes it's even laughable. How about when the house trailer is moved through the desert by thousands of coyotes! "It must have taken hundreds! Maybe thousands of them!", King writes. See, it's hard to write something that is SCARY, that's why King hardly ever does it anymore. Actually the opening scene of the Desperation, where a couple driving through the trackless wastes of the Nevada desert is menaced by an unseen policeman from his fast moving cruiser was quite chilling. But once again, that kind of thing (realistic, believable situation made terrifying) is not easy to do, hence its scarcity. 2. Kings fascination with vulgarity, especially masturbation and diarhhea -- Anybody who has ever read King knows that he loves this stuff. He can't get enough of it. Remember the book or short story where the hero (an author) is sitting on the toilet wracked by diarrhea spasms, and he begins to muse on the fact that no author that he had ever encountered before had ever written of the experience?! The odor, the pain, the release. Well thank you, Mr. King for being the first! 3. The Political Correctness -- This was REALLY on display in The Regulators. The scene where mother and daughther "just two white girls riding out the storm" refuse to help the others, -- as if letting your friends and neighbors perish in times of trouble is somehow a "white thing" -- the way their selfishness is compared to ignoring the homeless, refusing to give to panhandlers, and the deforestation of the rainforests, (how many forests have vanished only to reappear later in bits and pieces with the name "Stephen King" stamped on them, I wonder) the scene where the white woman begins hurling racial slurs when things get ugly, (she gets killed of course), the incredibly, forced, patronizing, predictable, and oh-so-cute scene where the black man offers his back as a stepping stone for a white man to climb a fence and they sit around laughing about the "liberal's worst nighmare, where a white man climbs to the top on the back of a black man", etc. etc. Bottom line: if you're a King fan, go ahead and read this one, otherwise rent a slasher movie, listen to junior high school boys locker room talk, and watch network television for the same thing.

I got even more than I wanted and on time even though the seller had to send the package priority mail. I really appreciate the extra effort!

After reading both books, I was glad to see that the Stephen King I know, love, and have been reading for upwards of twelve years is back.. Gone is the commerciality of previous books. Your imagination has to do some twisting to be able to fully reap the satisfying rewards of this set, but reap you will!! Wonderfully gruesome, expertly written, and marvelously mind twisting. Highly recommended!!

I gave these books 4 stars but Desperation alone would probably get 2 from me. The Regulators displayed that fantastic twist I loved so much. And how the horror mixed in with the peacful suburban backdrop...wow! After reading the other reviews on this page, I realize not a lot of people will agree with me, but I don't care. The Regulators is up there with The Stand, Thinner and Misery. Stephen King/Richard Bachman's reign lives on.

I read "Desperation" first, and didn't even know what "The Regulators" was about when I picked it up. I stumbled on the tie between the two, and was hooked. Read "Desperation" first. Half the fun of "The Regulators" is the way the characters from the first book end up with completely different outcomes to their lives. I thought it was an amazing experience.

I bought Desperation and The Regulators when they first came out, two years ago. I tried to read The Regulators, i found it ridiculous... so I just assumed Desperaton was the same, and forgot about the books for two years. A couple of days ago I decided to read Desperastion, boy was I wrong!! This was the best book I've read in a long time. It was written so cleverly. I could hardly put the book down. It took me about a full 24 hours to read the book. I totally recommend Desperation.

Desperation was a truly wonderful novel, You'll never read anything like it! The Regulators is a slightly different novel, but both are great! Some of King's best!

The way that it tied tyhe two books together was tyotally awesome. At first it was kind of confusing because I found that I have to read them in a certain way to make sense and I had read them backwards, but I am reading them again and I read Desperation first and now I am on the Regualters and it work great that way.

Desperation was awesome. It took me 4 days to finish it and I could hardly put it down at all. It's like King was sleeping for a while and he just woke up in the middle of the night with a great idea. He's really outdone himself!!!