The Regulators by Richard Bachman aka Stephen King

 

 

Reviewed by Ben

 

I recently finished Stephen King's The Regulators. It was a wild one, even compared to the other King books I have read! This novel is set on a Midwestern, suburban neighborhood street where the residents suddenly face broadside attacks from space soldiers and civil war ghosts firing guns from inside futuristic hover vans. I liked The Regulators because it was violent, set in a unique and multifaceted location, and had a good ending.

 

First...okay let's get this out of the way. One thing I liked about the book was the violence. Yes. The violence. However it wasn't the fact of the violence itself that made the book fun for me. It was the sense of danger conveyed by the brutal punishments inflicted on the book's characters. This made every page feel consequential. I hung on every word as the characters faced possible dismemberment with each step they took!

 

Second, the events of this novel unfolded in a setting unlike anything I had previously encountered in a book. The place is a single neighborhood street and an old western town at the same time, with the transition/transformation of the environment taking place gradually, in front of the protagonists' eyes. Without going into further detail, which would spoil the plot, the mechanics of how and why this transformation happens is integral to the plot and increases the tension for the reader, showing how the story is reaching its climax as the setting changes. King did a nice job sewing this together.

 

Finally, I liked how the book ended. It worked in different ways. First, the ending is not necessarily what you expect will happen. Second, the ending addresses the different threads and issues of the plot. Finally, even though ending ties the story up well, it does not leave all matters clearly resolved, which allowed King to make the reader wonder if the trouble is really done or if the characters still have something to fear. This is fitting for a Stephen King story.

 

In summary, I recommend The Regulators for anyone looking for a thriller and a new experience. Its brutality brings with it great suspense and atmosphere. The setting is like nothing you have seen or read before. The ending is satisfying without being uncharacteristically happy or miraculous.

 

(Note:  Stephen King has written several books under the Bachman name, starting with Rage in 1977.  At the time publishers felt authors should have out no more than one book a year, so King adopted a pseudonym in order to publish more often.)