Product Description

Desperation is a deserted mining town in the Nevada desert. It's not a place to visit by choice, and the few unhappy travellers who are forced to stop there witness the familiar-looking town undergo a terrible transformation. In the struggle between good and evil, sacrifice may be the only answer.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #71930 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 720 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
A notice to those who feel that Stephen King has lost his magic touch: Desperation is the genuine goods. The ensemble cast of ordinary Americans thrown together by chance, including a disgruntled alcoholic writer and a child who is wise beyond his years, may be a bit too familiar. But the nearly deserted Nevada mining town with an enormous haunted mine pit and an abandoned movie theatre where the survivors hang out makes for a striking battleground, and the grisly action rarely flags. Best of all, though, are the characters of Tak, the ancient body-hopping evil who emerges from the mine, and of "God"--whom the New York Times describes as "the edgiest creation in Desperation. Remote, isolated, ironic, shrouded behind disguises, perhaps ‘another legendary shadow,' this deity forms a sly foil, and an icy mirror, to Tak."

Review
'Genuinely masterful' -- Daily Telegraph 'A massive volume of terror crafted creepily' -- Daily Mail 'King again proves himself the premier literary barometer of our cultural clime!The terror is relentless!deeply moving and enthralling masterpiece' -- Publishers Weekly

Review
'Genuinely masterful.' (Daily Telegraph )

'A massive volume of terror crafted creepily.' (Daily Mail )

'King again proves himself the premier literary barometer of our cultural clime...The terror is relentless...deeply moving and enthralling masterpiece.' (Publishers Weekly )

Customer Reviews

Brilliant!!!
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was written in typical Stephen King style. It was released at the same time as The Regulators by King writing as Richard Bachman. I also read that book but I much prefer this one. They both have similar themes running through them and ultimately have the same 'baddie', but I found this one to be more of an unputdownable.

Tak is an ingenious creation and is wonderfully bad to the bone. The characters are brilliantly scripted and the settings are great. King describes everything in wonderful gory detail and it kept me turning the pages.

I recommend this title to anyone who likes a tale of good vs evil and likes a good amount of blood and guts!!!

BRILLIANT!
If you're looking for horror, then you're reading the wrong book. If you're looking for Sci-Fi and think you can keep up with the pace, then this is the book for you! This is a great read and it constantly keeps you guessing. King throws so many different things at you, you can't help but read on!

When you've finished this you have to read The Regulators, all of the characters that you've got to know so well are in it, or are they?

Desperation setting in?
This is a hard book to review.Why?Well, as a lifelong fan of Stephen King I have read all of his books, and when i read some of the blurb on the rear of the cover saying that this was as good as The Stand i was genuinely intrigued.
And so i read this, and read it quickly which is always a good sign.I really liked the plot and the idea.I also liked the setting in the town of Desperation.Stephen King's writing is on good form too - the very start of the book where people are captured and locked up in prison is as good as he has written in years.I liked most of the characters in the book too - David is excellent and you can't help wishing for more stories about him.Johnny Marinville is great too - do you like him?Do you hate him?And this is what Stephen King has done so well in this book.He has got the black and white , good and evil right up at the forefront of the book, but in this instance has got some grey areas in there too.Some real soul searching for right and wrong is in this book.
There are some issues i would raise with this book though.The back story of Tak is a bit weak in my opinion - the crazy policeman is a much better tool to use to drive the plot on, and maybe this would have made the story much more terrifying.
The other weakness i think there is in the book is the length.People say what a great writer Stephen King is - his detail, his depth of character description etc... and for the most part i agree with that.He IS genuinely brilliant. BUT a lot of people forget that his short,snappy and punchy early novels were much shorter than this and consequently had much more of an impact.
So herein lies the problem - not just with the book, but the writer himself.For me, Stephen King is better when he writes much shorter novels.Carrie, The Shining, Firestarter and the Dead Zone are excellent books with characters you want to know more about.I would rather be left wanting more, rather than being over-burdened with too much characterisation at the expense of the story.However, anyone who has read The Stand (most of his fans quote this as being their favourite book of King's) know that he CAN get the mix of depth,pace and characterisation right.Another book where he gets this balanced is It.

So where does Desperation sit?Well, it is certainly better than most of his more recent efforts in my opinion, and is the first book of his i have read in a while that i genuinely enjoyed.But it isn't as good as his early work in my view.

The trouble with the Stephen King of this era is that his work divides so many of his fans.You may read this and love it above everything else he has done.I don't think it is his best book ever, neither is it the worst.

And so i really struggle to rate this book.It has many plusses - characters and setting are excellent.

It's minusses are it's pacing and weak back plot.

But all in all that is just my opinion - maybe you should read it and decide for yourself, as I am struggling to come to any definite conclusions!