Desperate For Another Bestseller
Desperation by Stephen King
Well, to start, the whole concept of The Regulators and Desperation is rather unusual. There are similarities between the stories (characters in both share names, but most roles are reversed), the general story line pits good against Evil (and we are talking serious Evil here), and there's a bad being Tak that shows up in both books. Allegedly, the books are written by different authors (Bachman being the definite weirder of the two, and SOME people think King is weird), and it just so happens that these books were published at the same time, in a package deal. What a marketing concept.
However.
The stories are quite different, and unless you read them concurrently, you won't be confused by the similarities. Like me, you may find yourself chuckling inadvertently instead during the initial chapters as players are introduced. Soon the chuckles will disappear, and you'll find yourself on that famous Steve King merry-go-round where you stay up until 3 a.m. to finish "just one more chapter" so you can get to a safe place and be able to sleep peacefully. Forget it.
Depending on which order you read the books in, you may find one book is a favorite over the other. Here's how you resolve that little dilemma; just wait a couple of years and re-read them again, in the opposite order. That's what I did, and it worked just fine. Now, maybe if I re-read them both at the same time, I'll like them both equally as well. On with the show.
In my first go-round, I read Desperation first. I liked it better than The Regulators. Second time around, I read it second, and it came in second place. Go figure.
In a nutshell, King tells the story of hapless travelers who get sucked into Desperation, Nevada, where the town sheriff, Collie Entragian, has (to put it nicely) gone nuts. He imprisons people for no apparent reason whatsoever, shoots to kill on a whim, and runs around muttering to himself. Nice date for a Saturday night.
Good v. Evil comes into play, along with the other-worldness of the bad being, Tak. Common themes with many of King's earlier novels (The Shining, The Stand, 'Salem's Lot being the best of them), before he weirded out with the barely tolerable Tommyknockers. I really can't go into too much detail here without giving you too much of the story, however, and I don't want to spoil it all for you.
Suffice to say that there is a fair amount of pretty bloody violence, no sex (that I can remember), and plenty of swearing. I don't recommend reading this to your seven-year-old for a bedtime story. Matter of fact, I don't really recommend reading it to yourself as a bedtime story unless you don't like sleeping. It's pretty darn creepy.
Closing up shop, I'll just share that I am a very big King fan (me and Annie Wilkes). I have worn out duplicate copies of his books in reading and re-reading my favorites. While I will not say that Desperation/The Regulators are at the top of my King list; they are in the top 10. I DO strongly recommend both books, although there are other King books (Insomnia and The Stand) that I would recommend reading over these (if you have a choice). I do recommend buying the books over getting from the library. As with most King books, I've enjoyed them as much the second time around as the first, and like having them at my disposal when I need that "horror" fix.
