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Jake Epping is a recently divorced English teacher, teaching GED classes at night. One night while grading papers, he reads a submission by one of his students for an assignment on a night that changed their life. The student is a physically disabled janitor named Harry Dunning who recalls the night he almost died at the hands of his father who also had killed his mother and siblings. Later, Epping is contacted by Al Templeton, who runs the local diner. After having a meal at the diner only a months before, he is shocked to see Al has aged 5 years, and appears to be in seriously poor health. Al reveals to Jake that inside the diner is a portal to the year 1958. Go through the portal and you're taken to a specific day in 1958. Come back, and only two minutes will have passed. Go back again and the past is reset. Al planned to stay long enough so that he could find out who killed John Kennedy, and stop them, but got cancer in the process, and never did. Al thinks if you stop the JFK assassination, maybe the Vietnam War doesn't happen, undoing thousands of deaths. Maybe a ripple effect is created where Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy aren't assassinated, where the Watts riots never happen. Jake decided to carry on Al's project, hoping he can also prevent Harry Dunning's father from committing the murders.

I thought the book was a pretty good read, but as with a lot of Stephen King novels, it could be about two to three hundred pages shorter. The book is never boring, but it moves at a pretty leisurely pace. While Jake tries to adapt to living in the 1950's, he falls in love with a woman, and a small town where he substitutes. As much as gets caught up in that life, he also must set up surveillance on Lee Harvey Oswald, using the notes in Al's notebook, as well as making bets on various sporting events he already knows the outcome. The parts where he spies on Oswald become a bit tedious, and one gets the impression that Jake is maybe not that interested in the case. Another negative point is the fact that he can go back at any time and undo what he did in the past. He may lose the years he spent, but it creates a safety net that robs the story of its consequences. Jake also spends time in a famous King location, Derry. In fact, he's taken back to several months after the events of IT, and we see several familiar faces turn up. While I geeked out a bit on these parts, they tended to read like fan fiction, and I would have preferred they were left out.

Still, definitely worth reading.

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"Heard them Walthers like to jump some" "As will you, with one in your elbow."

^ Dat premise, DAT PREMISE !!!

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I have that and I've gotten about 300 pages in. I really like it, but as you said, it moves at a very leisurely pace and, unlike some of King's other works like Under the Dome or IT, it doesn't feel very urgent to read. I'll definitely finish it sometime, but not before I get to some other stuff first.

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"The world is a fine place and worth fighting for." I agree with the second part.

"There's a cello in your house now."

Is dat a good thing?



Under The Dome was a very pleasant surprise as I wasn't expecting it to be as good as it is. And it does move at a very urgent pace. I'm not so sure that's the case with IT, yet IT is such an ambitious work, and filled with some of King's best characters, that I don't mind that King took his time with that one. I honestly think IT is the best thing he's ever written. Out of curiosity, what did you think of the Derry portions of 11/22/63?

Also, I should note that the book is written in the first person. I think this is important to note because it leads me to ask, why not set the past in 1963, or a bit earlier? I know much of it depends on Oswald's real time line, and that the early portions of the book act as a test for Jake to understand the rules of time travel and what could happen if you alter the time line, but it seems to me there's no real reason to set it in 1958, especially when Jake himself doesn't tell you every minute detail of his experiences prior to investigating Oswald.

One last thing, a movie based on the book is in the works, which will be written/directed by Jonathan Demme. Really interested to see how that works out because Demme has a distinct style, and I'm wondering how it will mesh with the world King created. Demme's "The Silence of the Lambs" is one of the best psychological/suspense movies of all time, one that lives up the phenomenal performances in it, so the movie is at least in good hands.

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"Heard them Walthers like to jump some" "As will you, with one in your elbow."

Pretty much the same as you. I enjoyed it, but it did seem a bit like King was pandering a bit to us and going "*wink wink nudge nudge* Remember, IT!?"

Maybe it would have been better had it been played a little more subtly than it was. It was pretty cool in any case, though.

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"The world is a fine place and worth fighting for." I agree with the second part.

"There's a cello in your house now."

I should watch the movies inspired by it sometime as well.

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"The world is a fine place and worth fighting for." I agree with the second part.

"There's a cello in your house now."

I had to read this for a class, but I only got about 3/4 of the way through it. I found it tedious at first, but then I started to get into it, but then I got distracted and slowed down a lot. Now I'm busy with other things and I probably won't finish it for a long while. Interesting stuff, though, and its sequel looks good as well.



This was a lot easier to read though it does slip into a similar style as Last and First Men for a lot of the second half. But it was interesting as well and genuinely frightening at parts.

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"The world is a fine place and worth fighting for." I agree with the second part.

"There's a cello in your house now."

If you found Last and First men tedious you will find Star Maker even more tedious, I loved Last and First men, but star maker kind of bored me, it has more of a narrative, but letting someone with only a 1930s understanding of astronomy write about the history and future of the entire universe does not work as well as the same person with a 1930s understanding of evolutionary biology write about the future of the human race within our own solar system.

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We're all actors, Laurie. I'm just an actor who read the script.

Hm. Maybe I'll just skip it then.

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"The world is a fine place and worth fighting for." I agree with the second part.

"There's a cello in your house now."

Oh don't skip it, it's definately worth reading, I was just letting you know what you are in for.

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We're all actors, Laurie. I'm just an actor who read the script.

Do you ever feel like some ideas can just stay within their initial comfort zone for alot longer than they do?
The day to day life of a zombie who can retain a (semi-)normal appearance so long as it gets a brain once a month?
Hmm.
Might make for some interesting situations.

But no man, can't you tell that would be boring on its own? Lets throw in massive conspiracies dating back thousands of years! WOO! Lets run with that.

Its not bad, but... it moves really fast.

Overall I love it so far. 6 issues in.

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My Blog of Movie Reviews and Such

I'll be right back. I gotta go see a man about a mule.

Uhm, enriching a story isn't always bad you know ? Having ambitions beyond "fun" is usually a good thing.

That said, I've heard nothing but good things about this, obviously, this is Vertigo we're talking about.

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Yeah its not bad at all.
Just me an my personal nitpicks! ^^
I love all the different characters.

"I'm not a werewolf, I'm more like a... wereterrier."

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My Blog of Movie Reviews and Such

I'll be right back. I gotta go see a man about a mule.

I took it upon myself to read this since it was never assigned to me in High School and everyone who's read it seems to love it.

I'm really glad I did, it definitely lived up to all the hype I've heard.

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"The world is a fine place and worth fighting for." I agree with the second part.

"There's a cello in your house now."

That is a great book, glad I got to read it in high school.

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A pretty extraordinary book that, in addition to Lord of the Flies, I should have read a long while ago.

I ALSO ENJOY THE VIDEO GAME!!!

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"The world is a fine place and worth fighting for." I agree with the second part.

"There's a cello in your house now."

Very easy to read and very cleverly written, I might just check out some other Spenser novels sometime as well.

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"The world is a fine place and worth fighting for." I agree with the second part.

"There's a cello in your house now."

You get through books really quickly ziller, has anyone ever told you that?

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We're all actors, Laurie. I'm just an actor who read the script.

Why yes they have.

And thank you.

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"The world is a fine place and worth fighting for." I agree with the second part.

"There's a cello in your house now."

...

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"The world is a fine place and worth fighting for." I agree with the second part.

"There's a cello in your house now."