But, unlike It, Dreamcatcher is one of the worst books I've ever read. To start, Stephen King's writing style is way, way off. Generally I can rely on King to produce prose that will flow, without any awkward moments. But in Dreamcatcher, I was stopped almost every page by some stupid, off-color analogy, by a bad joke, by a cliched description, or by some of the corniest dialogue King has ever written. I'm not asking for poetry here, but at least I'd like some clean writing (and I know Stephen King is capable of it).
The plot is also pretty bad. The Big Bad Enemy is...a fungus! I'm shivering already. Now, fungi can be frightening, if done right, but for some reason I just laughed whenever King tried to describe the incredibly itchy powers of the fungi from outer space. And there's just no drive to this plot. Whereas King is usually a master of suspense, here there were very few moments where I actually felt like turning the page. Instead, the only reason I kept reading was that I was thinking, "It'll get better. It'll get better." Well, it didn't.
And, at last, let's turn to Dreamcatcher's "fabulous" characters. Perhaps the most ridiculous is Kurtz, a military general hell-bent on crushing the alien scum. Is he supposed to be scary? Yes, but he isn't. Is he supposed to be believable? Yes, but he isn't. Is he supposed to be interesting? I would hope so, but he isn't, by a long shot. And the four childhood friends are completely indistinguishable from one another. **MAJOR SPOILER ALERT!** In fact, it was only after King killed two of them early on in the book that I could remember what their names were.
Even if you are a diehard King fan, don't buy this book, and don't even think about reading it.
Copyright © 2001 Steven Wu 