The Tommyknockers

Originally published in 1987, this novel falls into his late "Early" novel. Written after true books of horror, you know the "jump out at you" written to shock. Books like The Shining and Carrie, but before the start of his psychological terror stories like Misery and Dolores Claiborne. I found it obvious that these "boogie man" stories were starting to get old for Mr. King as a writer. I also understand that this was written at about the end of Mr. King's "drunk period." I think it show in the book.

I found it to be a tad bloated, I listened to the audio version and it was quite tedious to trudge through at times. The other problem is, it reads as very dated. All the talk about nuclear power plants is very late 70's and 80's. I still have nightmares sometimes about the movie "Amazing Grace and Chuck" (And if you know this reference, man you are aging yourself, but go ahead, it's OK.) but if you were to ask a millennial, I'm pretty sure they have never thought of nuclear fallout a day in their lives. I know the two millennials in my family certainly have not!

Speaking of the audiobook, Edward Herrmann did the narration, and he was wonderful, this reading was rich and his accents made it easy to follow the characters. It only made slogging through this story even better.

Other than that, it was a good read, but I am glad it is over, and I can go on to one of his better novels. Next up, 'Salem's Lot and Pet Sematary.