[.ca] Insomnia (ISBN 0451184963)

Amazon.com Author Profile:
Read about the author.

What the ???:
At first when I was reading this book I wasnt sure what to expect with it. I thought the story was sooooooo slow and a little boring... Then it started to pick up and I just couldnt put it down. It was soo great. I really liked how things kinda ame together at the end there. The characters are all well written and its just a great story with soo much going on. I really liked the descrition when the main character would go another level higher and sees all the auras and stuff, I thought it was great !!!!

Couldnt Put It Down:
I loved everything about this book. When the main character starts tripping out when hes first getting insomnia was soo funny, I was right there with him seeing a bunch of weird things. The little bald doctors, the whole bit. The story was interesting, funny, a little spooky at times, overall just darn right great. Very well written and one of my new favorite Stephen King books.

Not so fast:
I read Stephen King's Desperation and just loved it! Even though this isn't usually the genre I enjoy. So, I thought I would try Inc=somniac...I tried to read it 3 times over 3 years and COULD NOT get past the 1st chapter...I can't say whether or not it picks up but the beginning is SLOW!

If he managed...:
If SK managed to make me read this long-winded detailed book up to the very end, then there must be something in that man's writing. At another author's hand, this could be easily one of the worst books this world would see but SK somehow manages to tie every boring-seeming detail so well at the end that you are amazed how you did find them boring in the first place. Never expect a Shining or It before you open the first page otherwise you will be extremely disappointed like me. In my second sit with a more open mind, the pages started to fly as I understood what SK was trying to do and the last 200 pages are really a showcase of his talent that even when he is not saying anything, he says a lot of things. The ending is one of a kind!

Dark Tower fans will enjoy it better:
Stephen King is an author gifted with a great power of development: his characters are, almost always, believable, even if the situations they are involved in are completely fantastic. Among SK's greatest characters we will notice many children. In "It", "The eyes of the dragon", "The talisman", "The shinning", the most interesting character are always children or young people. "Insomnia" is completely different in this aspect. The main character in "Insomnia" is Ralph Roberts, a man pushing seventy, and not in a very good health. After the death of his wife, he starts having sleeping problems, and, stragest thing of all, his perception rises to fantastic level: he starts to see colored auras around people, little bald doctors with scissors and scalpels, and other unbelievable manifestations. Soon Ralph finds that all this has a specific purpose, and the fate of many worlds may lie in his old hands. The beginning of the book is a little slow, very strange, but when the pace increases, it's hard to put it down. I don't think "Insomnia" has any political conotation whatsoever, even with the abortion issue. Serious as the matter surely is, I think it's there only to provide a thrilling background to the story. I don't consider "Insomnia" my favorite Stephen King book, but nevertheless I was never bored while reading it. I think it's very good, but a little confusing at some parts. The confusion and the sense of pointlessness will be greater if the reader is not acquainted with the Dark Tower series. For that, "Insomnia" can be considered a standalone, but more like a complement to the Dark Tower books. I would not recommend reading "Insomnia" without reading the Dark Tower first. Grade 8.2/10