The Regulators

Stephen King is hands-down my favorite author. This is the only work of King/Bachman fiction I couldn't force myself to at least finish. There was a period in the mid-90's where Mr King started to draw out suspense to almost unbearable lengths, ruining the fast pacing for which his best (earlier) work was known. This novella is the worst example of that. Page after page of prose will pass by the readers eyes with only a few seconds in the book's universe having passed, and very little having happened in the way of advancing the story. More plainly stated, King manages to take a great story concept and a series of plot developments violent enough to rival a 1950's true crime novel, and makes them pretty boring. Even worse, the tendency toward the verbose and seemingly endless self examination is taking place not in some 1000 page masterpiece novel, but in what is basically an inflated short story. I couldn't get through it. Having said that, the book still gets 3 stars, because the worst work of one of the best occult/horror authors of our time is still not that bad. There are no unforgivable sins here. This story just needed an editor to prune it down into the kind of short story found in Night Shift or Skeleton Crew.

If you're into Stephen King's "deep tracks" then you'll probably enjoy this book A LOT. It's gory, it's crazy, it's action packed, and dives into science fiction. Now, if you're into the Dark Tower series, there are about 16 other (books and short ) stories that connect to that specific universe. The Regulators touches on it by being like an alternate universe involving characters you've met in his other book Desperation - which is on the list of those 16 outside of the Dark Tower. Enjoy, fellow Constant Reader!

I did say that Desperation is my favorite book, and I do know this book is better out of the two. Yes, Stephen King did write this book and Desperation in conjunction with one another. The story of this one has a slightly better flow to it, and it actually scared me more than Desperation. I don’t know if I mentioned it before, but evil kids in horror movies or books is what gets me. Only dolls scare me more.The Ugly: Even though this book is a decent one out of all his books, there are flaws. The biggest flaw that came with this book was changing Johnny. His don’t care attitude from Desperation really carried the book. Making him a sentimental person didn’t really help this book at all.The Bad: Confining the story to a single street. What made Desperation good was that it was in a small town. There were more places for the characters to go. In this one, they were confined to a small street that had maybe eight houses and a convenience store on it. King limited himself to what the people could do. Yes, he has written other stories that are confined to one spot like in The Shinning, but that worked because of the story there. It may be that I am comparing this to Desperation too much, but that is just how I feel.The Good: I mentioned it above. Kids scare me in books like this. Not only that, but the backstory for everyone, with exception to Johnny’s, was much better here. Going into detail on why everyone was there and how the Seth become Tak worked so well together.Final Thoughts: The contrast between what Tak to Collie and what it did to Seth was so different that it worked so well together. That alone, making it so much more of a wider universe and what the entities of the worlds are capable of doing. I guess you could say that is the reason I think this book is better than the connected one, even though I like the other one more. Still though, this is just a book everyone needs to read.

Having just read Desperation, I was anxious to dive into Stephen King’s (aka Richard Bachman’s) parallel-universe novel, The Regulators. King uses many of the same character names, briefly visits the same setting of Desperation, NV, and spotlights the same villain, a sadistic, murder-hungry entity named Tak (who loves Spaghettios and chocolate milk nearly as much as killing). But the story unfolds on the other side of the country, on a soon-to-be-decimated suburban block in Wentworth, OH. If you’re squeamish about blood and gore, pick another novel. From page 19 on, this one provides more carnage than a slaughterhouse—and very few resting spots along the way. But it’s classic King, and if you’re a fan, The Regulators is a ‘must-read’. Just don’t expect your favorite characters to survive!

That is an indelible image in my mind now! Oh man.The Moto Kops and the Regulator Vans really came alive in this. Stephen King is the master.They say you should Desperation first. I'd read both this and Desperation when I was younger. I knew that Tak is in both. Seems like I liked this one better than Desperation and that's why it was what I read first this time.Love the characters and the images that are created (though some are imaginary). I think the things that don't exist or change from real to imagined in appearance are what makes it such a scary read. The dialogue is really good too.Enjoyed reading the scenes from the diary. It really creates some interesting backstory to learn more about Seth and Tak and the subtleties of dealing with them both and how she tells them apart.

I previously read desperation, which is interlinked and entwined with this novel also. This is a good read, there are a world of things happening with this book and at times its hard to keep up with the pace of change, certainly within the middle of the novel. I did enjoy this book though, he is of course the King, hail Stephen, long live the King!!!

This is the prequel to Desperation. Read The Regulators BEFORE reading Desperation. Desperation will make much more sense after reading The Regulators. It is really neat how the dust Jackets of the two books match up to make a panoramic picture. If you like Stephen King (he is Richard Bachman) you will like both of these books.

I might have warmed to this quicker if I hadn't read Desperation first. It has some of the same characters which confused me. Once I got past that it was a good read and interesting story.

This grabbed and held my attention from the clever scene setting ..at first a calm, sophorific summer day in small town America...then the grip tightens with a shocking act. This propels the story into a dark, ongoing nightmare that never lets up the pace...to the 'end' of the story.

I found this book enjoyable but hectic and quite a chore to get through at times.I didn't draw a conclusion from it at all,and that annoys me hahahaha.

Although this novel is not considered to be among King's best, I don't think it deserves the scorn that some reviewers have poured onto it.While it might lack the finesse that usually elevates his work to dizzying heights, it's still a story that keeps you turning the pages. The characters are beautifully drawn, the little observations of humanity at its most tender and most shameful are sophisticated and real. Ok not the best idea or plot he's ever come up with, but still well worth reading, just for the 'Kingism' of it.

2017 - New Year's Resolution - read all of S King and F Scott Fitzgerald's works. Up to this one and 'Desperation' with S King...great story, as usual found some of it truly upsetting which I never used to with Mr King - must be an age thing. After you read this one read 'Desperation' again a bit upsetting and gory in places but still, in my mind top class writing.