Riker Island Inmate Visting

The long march

Specifications: comes out in 1970, and is one of the volumes are signed by "Richard Bachman" pseudonym used by the "King" for some time. Volume "minor" in length (does not meet the 290 pages), is one of the novels shorter than King.

Edition recommended and cost: Sperling Paperback - 8.40 €. Economical and easy to read, compulsory purchase in duplicate.

Comment: hundred young volunteers to start a running non-stop between Boston and Canada, which is repeated every year under the eyes of a nation morbid, curious to find out who will win, for he can ask the current government as a prize to whatever you want.
Set in an unspecified future, this short novel tells the psychological drama of this death march in which he who hesitates is lost, in fact, anyone of the participants to stop, or slow down below a certain speed of travel, you will receive a warning. After three warnings, here is the elimination: the military convoy that accompanied the marchers on the competitor will fire, removing it forever from the "race."
Only one, therefore, can win after days of uninterrupted march, leaving behind him 99 companions, with whom, probably, have shared the time, feelings and history during the crazy walk.

A small masterpiece of King, in this case as the master of the nightmare never twisted psychological dramas (in this case of 100 boys, each with its own history).
An ongoing dialogue between groups of marchers, continuous and desperate, looking for a challenge to the death, the precarious life or just to discover something about themselves and the sense of a lifetime ... paradoxically during a mad march toward certain death.
One after another, such as leaves, as numbers fall deleted. Freddie King, it records the exit:

"... the number 42 took his leave a few minutes later. "

A slap to today's society, the spectacle, in which the audience cheering the suffering of others, for each deletion, a provocative stimulus to our values, our conscience, to the system and feelings. The reaction under pressure, the desire to live and die at the same time, we finally arrive prepared for the last kilometers of the final pages, I really have accelerated the heart and breathing stopped, fascinated. Where I was absorbed by a wave of emotion muffled, as told through the eyes of 2-3 guys who come straight to the final lifeless, with wings of a large crowd to scream death with a smile, where the asphalt flickers giving away (last) images blurry, before losing his last strength and ...

It says a lot of the big bestseller King of his greatest novels, long and complex, in which a narrative description and build a world almost live, but in these 280 pages that in my opinion is summed up the King : in the rational madness, in the cold and incontestable nightmare, to which one can only believe, and where you fall, dragged by a thin hypnosis.
Frightening in its simplicity, brilliant, absolutely.

Overall Rating: 9.5

Thule Revolver Or Yakima Swingdaddy

Children of Hurin

Specifications: posthumous novel, written in part by JRR Tolkien and largely by his son, who has completed the work after many years. Released in 2007, after being quoted (as history) in Silmarillon and other Tolkien stories. Length about 350 pages.

Plot in a nutshell: The story of Turin son of Hurin, who fights his personal challenge to Morgoth (the Dark Lord that dominates the Middle-earth). The focus of the story is the personal story of Turin and troubles, torn between his problems (enter into an outlaw band) and those of Middle-earth (who needs the help of a strong hero), Glaurung it makes its appearance in the scene: this dragon, sent by Morgoth, destroys everything and everyone and should be discarded.
Fate will want the fight in Turin alone, facing the enemy that your destiny.

Comment: difficult to give an opinion without connecting to the rest of the landscape Tolkien: missing link between Silmarillon, Lost Tales, Book of Lost Tales, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings is a book that throws some sparks pearl and a few here and there. Alone is a story a little anonymous in the sense that in the plethora of names, places and eras, and very little if not included in the global landscape.
edition (The only) that came out, there are also histories, family trees (the most beautiful and interesting for the fans), and author notes.
Ultimately, only for fans, only to faithful readers. It is a story ... let's say, lonely, how can it be "The Hobbit".
Peronalmente I found the "narrative" as usual, typical of smooth and colorful world of Tolkien, but in some places (as, indeed, names, lists of characters and various offspring) a bit cumbersome and slow.

Overall Rating: alone is a volume of 5, in the context right is 7.5.

Hack Aim On My Sidekick 08

Black House

Specifications: sequel to "The Talisman" , was released in 2001 and is one volume a little longer than its predecessor, about 700 pages.

Edition recommended and cost: Sperling Paperback, € 10.40 (but only after taking "The Talisman").

Comment: The novel is the sequel to the Talisman, and tells the story of Jack Sawyer, now an adult, that at a time off work (last hour the detective) arrives in the town of French Landing (Wisconsin) . In this country there is a being, a monster strange, called "the fisherman" Luring kids and makes them disappear, Restitude (sometimes) broken. Who is it? It 's really a monster? It 'a serial killer? Or are they just inventions of the locals?
Case wants the detective Jack Sawyer is now put to investigate the matter, using an old black and dark as "dimensional portal", as support, to return to the "Territories", that the parallel world that a child has used many times to save his mother and the search for the talisman (though now, Jack recalls little of his childhood).

I believe we are on the same wavelength in the previous chapter, even if after 20 years Peter Straub and Stephen King are trying to "close the circle" of Jack's life, and creating this pseudomostro this dark house that gives birth to evil. told Ben, good characters (the motorcyclist who really like Alan to say!), And an old man at the nursing home that really scares the reader very well characterized.
Closing this phantom circle, the landscape is in my opinion a little better than the word of the Talisman, but still maybe a book too long, with too many descriptions, too many characters and too many paragraphs or chapters that could be avoided. After a while the reader is likely to go astray if the story did not take so particular.
Solito "defect" of King, although it remains a good novel.

Overall Rating: 6.5