The Tommyknockers Mass Market Paperback – August 30, 2016

One of the best used books I have ever received!!

I read this as a child years ago and after reading recent reviews, I wondered if it was as good as I remembered. It definitely was. I know King himself doesn’t like it and he was allegedly hopped up on cocaine the whole time he wrote it but he’s wrong. Solid narrative, excellent characters and a very innovative take on the UFO genre. I’d rank this in the top 10 of King books whether the critics agree or not.

The ending was good and happy, but a lot of people died. I got this bookin September and it took me a month and a half to read it. It was fun and somewhat fast paced to read, bit I had to slow down or Mr. King slowed me down to read the details and the batteries and some of the towns folk.The build up was great as I was wondering why people were losing their teeth,but I soon caught on in the middle. The town and what happened to it caught me off guard a bit; it's ending was similar to Salem's Lot if I'm correct.If you like a good alien story then this is for you despite the final fight scene and chapter being odd and strange.

Lo bueno: La historia es muy interesante. Entidades extraterrestres, toques de horror, personajes complejos y bien desarrollados, y un escenario de pueblo perdido y decadente, típico de King. El final me pareció bien elaborado y entrega respuestas.Lo que no me gustó: Hay capítulos del libro con excesivo detalle, opiniones filosóficas o relatos sobrecargados, que podrían perfectamente eliminarse o disminuirse, para darle más fluidez a la historia. Se hace pesado a ratos, perfectamente el libro podría tener unas 100 o 200 páginas menos.De todas maneras, leer a King es siempre sorprendente y un camino de terror o ciencia ficción contemporánea. Saludos de un lector constante.

This is my second time reading this book. Read it when it first came out. It’s a good quality but because I drag this book to work everyday and read at lunch I am constantly pulling it out of my bag and putting it back, then back home I pull it out again and then back in my bag. Halfway through the book and it looks like I beat the tar out of it. Lol. But on a whole I am very happy with it. And well the story itself is pretty darn good too !

I read this in 2020. The story was set in 1987. As this book has technology at the heart of the tale, it was interesting to consider what high-tech was considered to be 32 years ago. There were no grand gaffes or anything it was just genuinely interesting.As a story, it was standard King fare - a page turning story with likable characters having weird adventures in Maine. I don't mean that to diminish the story (or King) as I think people expect this and it's part of the appeal. I certainly enjoy it.The only thing that was off-note was a scene when one of the central characters goes on a harangue about nuclear energy at a dinner party. It was so clearly King using the character as a conduit to voice his own concerns - understandable given how proximal the Chernobyl disaster was to the time of this writing. Nonetheless the naked advocacy is transparent and discordant. And long! Man, he went on for what felt like a whole chapter with his diatribe. It felt amateurish, frankly, and reminded me of the closing chapter of Upton Sinclair's The Jungle in which Rudkus meets the communist party leader and the reader is pummeled with a lengthy, zealot's accounting of the miracle of communism/socialism. King (and Sinclair) and myself share similar ideological leanings so it's not the perspective I took issue with, it's the brazen unsubtle attempt to use the character to beat the reader about the head it. I was so annoyed I literally almost put the book down but instead paged forward to when it seemed like the speech was over. After that everything was back on track, and stayed there.Other than that though, like I said, a fun, spooky, scary, witty tale right in the mold of The Master.

Controversial, but only for slow readers.The deal is, I'm a pretty fast reader. I tear through books. It is often that a book will be disappoint me because I can clearly see the gaps in plot, or areas where perhaps the author set the manuscript aside, only to return and forget nuances crucial to the development of the story.This book, one of King's most hotly debated, almost reads like two books: a before, and an after. The first is pure character development, the second all action. I engage with both because they are King trademarks. I don't mind reading about the characters, the minutiae of their lives, of the mundane, because I know that King will deliver in the end. I never got bored, or lost my place. King writes in a fury that shows how dedicated he is to the plot, and he is one of the very few authors that do not disappoint my voracious reading appetite. I enjoyed 'The Tommyknockers,' perhaps not his best, but far from his worst. Besides the extensive 'intro,' it is classic King through-and-through. Reading 'Tommyknockers' now, after reading some of his most recent work, is like returning to your childhood home. A little predictable, familiar, and like the same ghost story told again and again, it's all in the anticipation of what you just know is going to happen.Why you should read it: if you love vintage King, the good ol'-fashioned Maine backwoods King. Because you love his crazy characters.Why you shouldn't read it: if you are a slow reader. If you are impatient, and lost to subtlety. If you don't care for well-crafted prose and instead like edge of your seat action without stops.The story is solid, you just have to be dedicated.

I struggled in the beginning of the book and almost gave up. But, I stuck with it and happy I did. Not my favorite Stephen King book but it reeled me in and couldn’t stop reading it.

The Tommyknockers has something of a reputation as a drug-addled mess. It's the novel that King wrote before finally checking himself into rehab and the one which the author himself has dismissed as a pretty rotten outing. However, despite this rather damning criticism, I wanted to read a King novel that was entirely unfamiliar - having read the more famous works, such as IT, Cujo, Pet Semetary etc.Unfortunately, The Tommyknockers is disappointing for several reasons, but I think King sums it up best with his comment that somewhere within the 1,000 or so pages is a good novel struggling to get out. The opening chapters are genuinely intriguing and have all the hallmarks of a classic King creep-fest. Sadly, the opening chapters are the high point of the story. The two main protagonists are introduced with real depth - both are ostensibly fascinating and deeply flawed. This naturally engages the reader, who invests in both - something which I personally believe to be King's main strength as a writer of horror - I mean, who cares what happens to 2-dimensional characters?However, after the first 200 - 300 pages it's pretty much all downhill. There are a few genuinely unsettling moments throughout the novel, but it just doesn't seem to gel as a convincing tale. There are a few nods to classic sci-fi B-movie's which don't really fit. Certain aspects of the story just seem stupid - even for a science fiction piece - and the end more or less descends into the absurd. That being said, the actual resolution is a stronger one for King... although that isn't saying a great deal.So in summary, the intriguing opening only serves to highlight weaknesses in the story later on. In terms of the writing style, it is also apparent that The Tommyknockers was written under the influence of cocaine - lots of good ideas that are rarely developed adequately before another is fired out. I really wanted to like this one but at almost-1000 pages, it is too long to be enjoyed as a fun, stupid read. That being said, there are some good moments in it and it did keep me interested the whole way through, so perhaps two stars is a little harsh. However, compared to King's other works, I think The Tommyknockers is well below par.

Written by King whilst suffering from addiction and described by him as an awful book in his 2014 Rolling Stone interview.Approx. 850 pages.Similar in many respects to 'salem's lot. Sets the scene, characters and then spends a long time developing secondary characters from within the town and area.Some will be distracted by this and feel the book is over long.Others will enjoy the rich character development.The book features weird and wonderful appliances repurposed for destruction.Constant readers of the author will find nuggets of other novels E.G. Jake from the Dark Tower, references to The Shop from Firestarter, the town of Derry and a certain Clown, The Shining etc.The book tends to rank low when compared against King's other works.Well worth a read for King fans.If you are a new King reader, suggest one of the shorter classics such as Carrie or Misery.

I read this some years ago and recently realised it's one of his best stories. Such an original plot and developing storyline. So I bought it again and don't regret it. I spent several sessions trying to calculate the diameter of the buried object but failed since SK didn't give enough details. But it's great - right from the start to the last page. (Better I think than the Tower stories)

I love King but this story somehow managed to disappoint me.it took so long to get going and then when it did - I already was disinterested. Or it just might be that my imagination stopped working and I just couldn't fill in the blanks with enough gruesomeness. The main characters felt flat and just didn't draw me in.

A wonderful story from the master, a shift towards science fiction/alien themed fiction that he later explored to great effect in “Dreamcatcher”. I’ve read this many times over the years and it is also my wife’s favourite king novel