[.ca] Regulators (ISBN 0451191013)

From Amazon.com:
An evil creature called Tak uses the imagination of an autistic boy to shift a residential street in small-town Ohio into a world so bizarre and brutal that only a child could think it up. It's as two-dimensional and gaudy as a kid's comic book, but for this reviewer, The Regulators is a gripping adventure tale about what happens when a mind fixated on TV (especially old Westerns and a cartoon called MotoKops 2200) runs amok. As Michael Collins writes in Necrofile, "\oStephen\c King offers his readers a glimpse of the true evil of popular culture ... which has no design or intent, only an empty need to sustain itself. King is, I think, about the canniest observer of what America is, and that he generally writes horror ought to give us pause from time to time."

The Bestselling Companion of Desperation:
The Regulators is plain great. This is just one of those stories where you get sucked in and cant get out. I know one reviewer gave this a one star, but don't pay attention. The one star reviewer did mention that this novel had its somewhat perverted parts and it does. I will admit that. This is a Bachman book and is very graphic. Not recommended for younger children. Now, why do I think The Regulators is great? Because of the same reason as Desperation. It is very exciting in the first few pages. I will give away little as possible, but I will say in the first few pages there is a drive by shooting. From there on the book is a roller coaster ride. The reader wants to know more and more. You just can't stop until you know the next twist of plot. For those of you who hunger for a good overview before reading a book I shall provide your wish. Seth is autistic. Something has taken him over. He is starting to manifest vans which are eerily like Power Wagons. Poplar Street turns into hell instead of peacefulness. The people on Poplar Street must try to solve and defeat "Seth". To sum it all up, this is a graphic and gory book that is great. The writing is maybe not as good as other novels he has written, but the plot is great. Obviously, I won't even think to compare it with It or The Shining but still it is King at the top of his game. I encourage you to read Desperation first(I did), because the book will make much more sense. Desperation gives you good information about Tak. One other thing to mention too is the various journal entries and documents King puts in The Regulators. I enjoyed the entries and documents which took up a pretty big portion of the book(maybe 100 pages worth of entries). This was awesome because we were able to see Seth's descent into madness from Audrey's perspective.

Dreadful Schlock:
This novel gets 2 stars instead of 1 out of me only because I thought the beginning pages displayed a certain satisfying suspense, a feeling of impending dread, and I liked the way King captured the atmosphere of suburban American. It doesn't take long for the book to deteriorate though, and it gets bad. I mean, really, REALLY bad. I just came back to reading King after being away from him for a long time, and if "The Regulators" is any indication of the stuff he's churning out now, I think I'll go back to staying away. You might be interested in checking out the sister book to this, "Desperation." It's better by far, but it's still a much flabbier, more undisciplined book than I remember King producing in the past.

Definitive Bachman:
I just read "The Regualtors" again, mostly looking for a "Dark Tower" connection and I had actually read a couple of "Bachman" books, "Thinner" and "The Long Walk", before I found out about his "involvement" with Stephen King. After "Thinner" I did not plan on reading anymore Bachman because he was too pessimistic. The protagonist usually ends up dead or worse, killing the people he cares for most. When I found out Bachman and King were one in the same, I ended up reading all of the stuff King put out under Bachman's name. But of course, I was always hit with that same downer feeling when reading a Bachman story. King's novels may be horrifying but at least the reader is often left with a sense of hope at the end, "Cujo" being the main exception. You feel, after reading a King novel, that, yes the hero or heroine went through hell, but they, or the world in general, are better for the suffering they endured. It makes it a pleasure to re-read King's novels. When "The Regulators" & "Desperation" came out I was excited to read both, but I was a little worried about "The Regulators" with the Bachman name attached. I won't give anything away involving the story, which is gripping and will keep you turning pages, but it is a Bachman story. It does not end on such a sour note like "Thinner", but it will give you a feeling of futility after reading it. As another reviewer stated, I too found that there were too many characters without enough development. Only one or two became "real", but the rest seemed like so much Regulator gunfire fodder. All in all, "The Regulators" is neat, in that it is a companion piece for "Desperation", and it is a quick read. I finished it in about 7 hours. I would recommend getting one of the used copies listed above for under $.50, I wouldn't pay the $5 price tag for a book you most likely will only read once.

Decent, but for completists only:
Without question, this one doesn't begin to stack up against Desperation. Some new elements fall into place, but nothing too exciting.

Being in a wrong place and a wrong time:
Bachman writes better than king. This book is not typical at any rate. Its suppossed to be gory, but the morbid description of it for me was written in sophistication. The element of suspense was well rendered, multiple characterization were very much developed and i can say that his words bring forth a very vivid visual imagery in my head which a well experienced writer can only do. Behind the plot, I can say that the message in this book pertains well to the extent of the human psyche. this brings us to a funny realization that a human's mind has the ability to detach and if one chooses to have its own escape in a crisis situation. However silly some appears- Behind his words a persona made of undriven intentions are created. In short, we came to see of people living in security stripped of their defenses and see how they will react when pushed to extremes.