About this title: Stephen King has brought back his pseudonym Richard Bachman, originally kiboshed when a King fan discovered Bachman's true identity; Bachman's novel concerns the small town of Wentworth, which is invaded by five vans, the first of which perpetrates a drive-by shooting that upsets the natural order of things and begins the story. The novel is a companion piece to "Desperation", which is written under the name Stephen King and which involves many of the same characters in the same sort of setting, but exhibits an entirely different flavor than "The Regulators". The books can be read separately, ...
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Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Dutton Books
Date Published: 10/1996
ISBN-13:9780525941903ISBN:0525941908
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 480 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Dutton Books
Date Published: 10/1996
ISBN-13:9780525941903ISBN:0525941908
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 480 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Dutton Books
Date Published: 10/1996
ISBN-13:9780525941903ISBN:0525941908
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 480 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Dutton Books
Date Published: 10/1996
ISBN-13:9780525941903ISBN:0525941908
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 480 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Dutton Books
Date Published: 10/1996
ISBN-13:9780525941903ISBN:0525941908
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 480 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Dutton Books
Date Published: 10/1996
ISBN-13:9780525941903ISBN:0525941908
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 480 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Dutton Books
Date Published: 10/1996
ISBN-13:9780525941903ISBN:0525941908
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 480 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Dutton Books
Date Published: 10/1996
ISBN-13:9780525941903ISBN:0525941908
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 480 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Dutton Books
Date Published: 10/1996
ISBN-13:9780525941903ISBN:0525941908
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 480 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Dutton Books
Date Published: 10/1996
ISBN-13:9780525941903ISBN:0525941908
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 480 p. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Dutton Books
Date Published: 10/1996
ISBN-13:9780525941903ISBN:0525941908
Description: Very good in very good dust jacket. Very Good, In very good dust jacket. damaged book cover. Sewn binding. Cloth over boards. With dust jacket. 480 p. read more
"One of the most frightening and horrible books I've ever read. Oh God, this story unfolds with a kind of unnatural speed and a huge amount of horror. As I was reading, I almost wished i could stop because it was just too scary. I'm really scared of being in a situation where it doesn't seem like there's a way out.
What Stephen King/ Richard Bachman does in this book is explore the unnatural beings in the Dark Tower universe and the imagination of a child. He brings together two polar opposites: Tak, a mind-invading thing who thrives on death and pain, and Seth, an autistic boy who has always loved and been loved. The setting of their battle is the home of Seth's aunt Audrey Wyler and her neighborhood. The story has the feeling of a juggernaut, it grows and grows and grows, unable to stop until its destroyed everything.
The true genius of this story lies in how well it's crafted. There are distinct levels, it builds, levels off, rises again, levels off, and then finally plummets down to the conclusion. The description at the beginning of summer and the neighborhood is, seriously, a thing of beauty. For how long it lasts. The storm in the book (literal) plays this key role, but very subtly. The Regulators has this way of playing out in your head like a movie, so you can keep track of such devices like the storm and other foreshadowing details. It's vivid and unforgiving. And it's scary. Really terrifying.
I can't say it was a GREAT adventure. But it was, for sure, an extremely nervewrackingly realistic one."
"Hmmmmmmm. Well... I like Stephen King. I loved Desperation. So what's the problem? The Regulators is Desperation in a different world - which is fine. It isn't a rehash and even the villain is done differently. It has a lot of the characters from Desperation too but they've changed. It seems like they've become... less dynamic.
The writing isn't bad and there was even a moment where I literally had to put down the book I was laughing so hard but as far as King goes I was disappointed. Because there were so many damn characters it seemed like not nearly enough time was given to any one of them. The jump from character to character was at times exciting; by far the best part of the book is the neighbors trying desperately to get over a fence as creatures chase them and tensions mount because their family members are dying left and right - but that was only a tiny moment of the book.
The idea of jumping to a diary and letters as insight into the reclusive boy and his mother was an interesting venture but like many jumps from chronology or perspective I found myself dreading them because they took me out of the heat of the moment. These jumps weren't usually development of a character I cared about or was generally interested in. When it was was of Seth - the young boy - it was always from someone elses perspective, so I never really got to know him since it was from an outside perspective in the past and in diary form.
The tense moments were generally tense and the funny ones funny (I read the last 40 pages or so in one go because I simply had to get to the ending despite being desperately hungry) but so much of the characterization that I love from King wasn't present. At one point there is something like 11 characters going around and clearly some of them are hardly mentioned while others are shown to be actually fleshed so it gave this group of survivors a bizarre 3dvs2d feel as some of them were stock and others real.
I don't discredit King for trying something different but I prefer the old shtick. Not terrible but I don't think I have any reason to pick it up again."
"It's been a long time since I've read any Stephen King and maybe the first time I read anything by him which he did under/for his pseudonym. The opening paragraph is poetry. There are many colorful characters. Moments of humor. I wouldn't call it literature, but it sure has the elements of a good read."
"This is an extremely high three, and if I read it again, I may go ahead and change it to a four. I don't know why, but there was something about this book that I found a lot creepier and more exicting than its counterpart Desperation. I loved the characters, and the way he turned suburbia into hell."
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