stephenking.com has posted news that Doctor Sleep will be released in January. That sort of ruins the chances of getting it for Christmas! Good to know, I'm already saving my money to get to a live signing.
Doctor Sleep sounds to me like a mix of The Shining, Firestarter and Salem's Lot. Would Barlow travel in an RV ?
I really like the idea King has of looking at the after effects of a horrific event like what happened to Danny in the Overlook. The kid can't just walk away and have a normal life after that.
Here's what stephenking.com posted:
U.S. publication date for Doctor Sleep has been tentatively set for January 15, 2013
Stephen King returns to the characters and territory of one of his most popular novels ever, The Shining, in this instantly riveting novel about the now middle-aged Dan Torrance (the boy protagonist of The Shining) and the very special twelve-year-old girl he must save from a tribe of murderous paranormals.
On highways across America, a tribe of people called The True Knot travel in search of sustenance. They look harmless—mostly old, lots of polyester, and married to their RVs. But as Dan Torrance knows, and tween Abra Stone learns, The True Knot are quasi-immortal, living off the “steam” that children with the “shining” produce when they are slowly tortured to death.
Haunted by the inhabitants of the Overlook Hotel where he spent one horrific childhood year, Dan has been drifting for decades, desperate to shed his father’s legacy of despair, alcoholism, and violence. Finally, he settles in a New Hampshire town, an AA community that sustains him, and a job at a nursing home where his remnant “shining” power provides the crucial final comfort to the dying. Aided by a prescient cat, he becomes “Doctor Sleep.”
Then Dan meets the evanescent Abra Stone, and it is her spectacular gift, the brightest shining ever seen, that reignites Dan’s own demons and summons him to a battle for Abra’s soul and survival. This is an epic war between good and evil, a gory, glorious story that will thrill the millions of hyper-devoted readers of The Shining and wildly satisfy anyone new to the territory of this icon in the King canon.
Sounds good to me, even if Charlie McGee seems to be nowhere in sight...
ReplyDeleteI'm reluctant to write what I have to say as by now most should be pretty sick and tired of my attitude to this book.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I am like the Star Wars purist in the room.
Well, for what it's worth, the final deal breaker that sums up my whole bad vibe about it all can be given in just two words: Prescient Cat.
I am looking forward to the Spignesi interview though.
ChrisC
I'd imagine that that "prescient cat" is a reference to that real-life nursing-home cat who got the reputation for being able to predict when people were near death. I don't remember all the details, but it would begin hanging around a certain person at the nursing home where it stayed, and before long that person invariably dropped dead.
DeleteI remember thinking King should steal that story, and it looks like he may have done!