The Regulators

A good book, but Desperation was better. I read Desperation first, and expected it to be similar, but the two books are completely different. The force of evil in both novels is the same, and the characters have the same names but different personalities, and different people survive at the end. The ending is also different, Desperation's is far better. The story involves an autistic boy named Seth who seems to have some special powers. Soon, it becomes apparent that he is infested by a being/power called Tak, which feeds on peoples' "life-force". Tak is using its limited but growing powers to turn a pleasant summer afternoon in this pleasant Ohio suburb into a living nightmare for all its residents. I think the biggest problem with this book is the characters. There are so many of them that it becomes confusing, and that the author doesn't spend much time on character development for any of them. As a result, we really don't get to "know" any of them (except maybe one), which for me is one of the things that makes a Stephen King (but apparently not Bachman) novel good. Still, it's a very amusing (and gory) story. The ending, while not quite the "epic" finish of Desperation, is still good.

I am fetished...

Here we go. After 10 years, Stephen King exhumed his well-known Bachman pseudonym. This volume, and companion 'Desperation', share the characters, although having read one, you will be seriously surprised how he shuffled the cast of characters. I claim that this is an outrageously excellent idea - haven't seen one so far. Bravo! This has been my greatest pleasure of reading those two books one after another. This one I read first, and strongly recommend doing so. Characters are introduced within first several pages, whereas in 'Desperation', there are substantial lags between the intros of particular heroes. Reading in this fashion, you will wonder and wonder, how else the characters were mutated in the latter book. I guess that guys who reversed the sequence were equally amazed, but in the way I can't grasp right now. 'Regulators' is a fast-paced, dark, cruel novel, ideal for the cinema script. I actually found it thrilling. The lonely suburban street in the middle of nowhere, Ohio. A sequence of vans enter the street. The massacre rampage begins. Put yourself into such a situation. Try at least. Now, I guess that fashions and dedication to teleseries and film characters inspired King to construct the main theme of the book. The nedd to identify with flawless celuloid heroes. Detachement from reality, which usually in now way resembles the pastel environment of television and movies. For those who are bored with the idea of a small kid with supernatural powers, who always survives the mess King envisions in his numerous novels: here there are no winners. Especially among kids. Who said that Bachman is just King without a consicence? Last comment - the book design is very inventive, as you will see if you purchase the hardcover edition. I am a book-lover and felt fetished by this carefully edited volume. Go for it!

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.