A Review of the Book "The Tommyknockers" by Stephen King

Title: The Tommyknockers

Author: Stephen King

Publisher: GP Putnam's Sons

Year: 1987

558 pages

From the Back: It begins with nothing more frightening than a nursery rhyme; yet in Stephen King's hands in becomes an unforgettable parable of dread, a threat from an unimaginable darkness that drags the practical inhabitants of a New England village into a hell worse than their own most horrible nightmares...and yours.

    It begins with a writer named Roberta Anderson, looking for firewood in the forest that stretches behind her house. Bobbi stumbles over three inches of metal, which unusually heavy spring runoff has left sticking out of the soil. A logger's beer can, she thinks at first, but "the metal was as solid as mother-rock."

    It begins with Bobbi's discovery of the ship in the earth, a ship buried for millions of years, but still vibrating faintly, still humming with some sort of life...faint...weak...but still better left alone.

    Bobbi then begins to dig - tentatively at first, then compulsively - and is joined by her old friend (and onetime lover), Jim Gardener. Aided by a weirdly advanced technology, their excavation proceeds apace. And as they uncover more and more of an artifact both familiar and so unbelievable it is almost beyond comprehension, the inhabitants of Haven start to change.

    There is the new hot-water heater in Bobbi's basement - a not-water heater that apparently runs on flashlight batteries. The vengeful housewife who learns of her husband's affair...from a picture of Jesus on top of her TV, a picture that begins to talk. Not to mention the ten-year-old magician who makes his little brother disappear...for real.

    The townspeople of Haven are "becoming" - being welded into one organic, homicidal, and fearsomely brilliant entity in fatal thrall to the Tommyknockers.

Personal Thoughts: This was a very strange book. While I would typically categorize King as a horror writer, Tommyknockers was definitely more along the lines of the science fiction genre. Although the description of the alien creatures could be quite scary depending on either your imagination or the movie artist. While the sheer volume of words in this book resulted in my taking a long time to read it, the story was excellent and captivating. It was just weird enough that you wanted to keep reading to find out what happens next, but not so weird that it made me want to give up on it. Luckily I enjoy reading science fiction. So my only warning on this book would be that if you were looking for horror, you won't get it, and if you don't like science fiction, then you may not enjoy this particular novel. And, as I am discovering to be typical of King's writing, the story starts out slow but really builds by the halfway point and truly rollercoasters to the finish line. Overall, an excellent story that was worth the read.