The Dead Zone - Softcover

King, Stephen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1501143816 ISBN 13: 9781501143816

Publisher: Pocket Books, 2016

Synopsis

Stephen King's #1 New York Times bestseller about a reluctant clairvoyant who must weigh his options when he suddenly sees the terrible future awaiting mankind.

"There was only blackness and that universal emptiness... Cold limbo. Johnny Smith stayed there a long, long time."

When Johnny Smith was six-years-old, head trauma caused by a bad ice-skating accident left him with a nasty bruise on his forehead and, from time to time, those hunches...infrequent but accurate snippets of things to come. But it isn't until Johnny's a grown man--now having survived a horrifying auto injury that plunged him into a coma lasting four-and-a-half years--that his special abilities really push to the fore. Johnny Smith comes back from the void with an extraordinary gift that becomes his life's curse...presenting visions of what was and what will be for the innocent and guilty alike. But when he encounters a ruthlessly ambitious and amoral man who promises a terrifying fate for all humanity, Johnny must find a way to prevent a harrowing predestination from becoming reality.

About this title

Review:

If any of King's novels exemplifies his skill at portraying the concerns of his generation, it's The Dead Zone. Although it contains a horrific subplot about a serial killer, it isn't strictly a horror novel. It's the story of an unassuming high school teacher, an Everyman, who suffers a gap in time--like a Rip Van Winkle who blacks out during the years 1970-75--and thus becomes acutely conscious of the way that American society is rapidly changing. He wakes up as well with a gap in his brain, the "dead zone" of the title. The zone gives him crippling headaches, but also grants him second sight, a talent he doesn't want and is reluctant to use. The crux of the novel concerns whether he will use that talent to alter the course of history.

The Dead Zone is a tight, well-crafted book. When asked in 1983 which of his novels so far was "the best," Stephen King answered, "The one that I think works the best is The Dead Zone. It's the one that [has] the most story." --Fiona Webster

Review:

Stephen King has done it again. A spellbinder, a compulsive page-turner. ("Atlanta Journal")

About this edition

• Publisher: Pocket Books
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1501143816
• ISBN 13: 9781501143816
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 579