This is not my best entry...I am trying to pre-write this days ago (watching one of the best
Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes "Cause and Effect") and publishing it when I will be away. Actually, as it publishes, I am teeing off at the Tommy Keane Invitational in Hanover, NH. Past posts about the TKI can be found
HERE.
I recently mentioned to
Nan that I think reading Stephen King is a rite of passage for readers, especially for males who became readers during King's heyday in the mid to late 1980s. I loved "The Talisman" and "Eyes of the Dragon" as well as the "horror" novels "Pet Sematary", "It", and "'Salems Lot". Heck, I read "The Stand" in one "sitting" after getting out of the hospital (I was unable to sleep for more than 20 minutes at a time and would be awake for what seemed like days).
I wandered away in college. I really wanted to like "The Dark Tower" series but it didn't catch me and I stopped following it after the third book. I think the last King novel I read was "Dolores Claiborne".
This month's entry for the Cephalopod Coffee House has actually received a sort of shout out from another member. Last month, Tony mentioned he had read this book
recently.
I really liked this book. Time travel has dominated lots of my conversations recently. As my son and I watch Star Trek episodes, his favorites are the time travel episodes.
The Armchair Squid and I have a common friend who recommended Ray Bradbury's exquisite time travel story "
A Sound of Thunder" which gets name checked in this book.
This might not be a good choice as someone's first Stephen King novel. It does have some neat callbacks to other King works but nothing that hinders the enjoyment of the novel.
King has done his research here. One gets lost in the time period quite easily. My only caveat is that it seemed that King actually got too in depth at times. As the fateful day referenced in the title approaches, King actually has the narrator SPOILER ALERT HIGHLIGHT TO READ
get beaten up to the point of near death and sort of fast forwards the story seven weeks. END SPOILER
Beyond that, if you like King, time travel, or mind bending works, this is for you. While our Cephlapod Host is not a time travel fan, this one
MIGHT be up his alley...the cosmic ramifications are spelled out explicitly and the ending is bittersweet and personal.
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