by Stephen King

Stephen King says in the introduction to this book that although he was writing it for his daughter, he made an effort not to talk down to a child audience. Despite his good intentions, I felt that this story was written at a very young level. That doesn't stop it from being a good story, but I think he could have told it in his usual adult voice and made it even better.

Some spoilers ahead:

The premise is fairly well-trodden ground; an evil wizard called Flagg, advisor to the king, craves power. The king has two sons, Peter and Thomas, and the eldest has been groomed for future kingship, while the wizard thinks the second son, Thomas, will be more easily manipulated. So the wizard concocts a plan to kill the king and get the elder son blamed for it, not realising that his efforts to teach the younger son his own sneaky ways will backfire on him when Thomas witnesses the murder.

This is where it all falls down. The evil wizard's plan moves ahead and Peter is blamed for his father's murder, but instead of outing the wizard, Thomas whines and begs for his help because he has not been prepared to be king.

Suspension of disbelief is stretched a bit in this story. I found Peter the most interesting character and was constantly frustrated over Thomas' failure to act. A little sibling jealousy just doesn't wash as sufficient reason to leave his brother rotting in a tower for years! Peter's escape plan also stretched credibility a little too far, unless you think of the story as a fairy tale in the same vein of magic as Rapunzel or Rumplestiltskin.

As much as I love Stephen King, I won't be reading anymore of his children's stories and may not bother with future attempts at Fantasy. He's let me down in this genre.

I picked this back up for a reading group and promptly got completely and totally distracted and just finished it. Kind of thinking I missed the boat on the whole discussion bits, but I'm still glad I re-read it.

This was my first Stephen King book.

I read it as a child, partly because my parents owned all Stephen King books (seriously, all of them, often several copies and many autographed) and it was around, but primarily because of the kind of awesome cover. Also, I'm a fantasy person; even as a child I could not resist the allure of something with "dragon" in the title.

It's much harder to review something you've read any number of times than it is to review something you just read for the first time, at least for me. Not necessarily because nostalgia colors my perception (though I'm sure it does), but because it's hard to differentiate all of the different feelings you had through all of your readings, and to remember back to the first time and what your initial perceptions of things were.

This is somehow a very Stephen King novel and also a departure from what most people think of when they think of Stephen King. Bad things happen, certainly, but it's not a horror story. For all that it is safe (or certainly safer than other King works) for kids to read, I don't consider it a children's book.

That's debatable to many people, apparently. I was a child when I read it, but I was a precocious little bugger and was also a child (and actually younger) when I read both Watership Down and The World According to Garp, which are definitely not children's books. I don't know that I understood the full ramifications of any of them as a child, and in practice, that, more than vocabulary, is really the difference between children's books and adult books.

I liked Peter (is it possible to actively dislike Peter?) though I didn't connect terribly deeply with him. I felt bad for his situation, though, and was clearly rooting for him.

His brother is a little more complicated. I won't say I dislike him. I don't. But I won't say I like him either. He's a troubled creature who causes a lot of problems, but, as the narrator is kind enough to remind us, he's not really a bad boy.

I liked the narrator, honestly. I know that is a moderately controversial opinion, but I thought it added charm and made it a bit more of a fairy tale than it otherwise would have been. The narrator is kind enough to guide you through the story, and I found it an interesting way of handling things, especially the backstory of a villain who becomes part of the Stephen King mythos.

All in all, this is one of my personal favorite Stephen King books. It doesn't quite match some of his horror, but it is fantasy as only Stephen King could manage, and it's enjoyable for that alone.

The passage through the castle is dim, sensed by few and walked by only one. Flagg knows the way well. In four hundred years, he has walked it many times, in many guises, but now the passage serves its true purpose. Through the spyhole it conceals, the court magician observes King Roland -- old, weak, yet still a king. Roland's time is nearly over, though, and young Prince Peter, tall and handsome, the measure of a king in all ways, stands to inherit the realm.

 

Yet a tiny mouse is enough to bring him down, a mouse that chances upon a grain of Dragon Sand behind Peter's shelves and dies crying tears of fire and belching gray smoke. A mouse that dies as King Roland does. Flagg saw it all and smiled, for now Prince Thomas, a young boy easily swayed to Flagg's own purposes, would rule the kingdom. But Thomas has a secret that has turned his days into nightmares and his nights into prayed-for oblivion. The last bastion of hope lies at the top of the Needle, the royal prison where Peter plans a daring escape...

 

This book is a departure from Stephen King's typical horror writing. He wrote this story so his 13-year old daughter could read one of his books. I think he succeeded in writing a delightful fantasy story that can be enjoyed by both young and older readers. There is strong theme of Good versus Evil and a struggle to "do the right thing". As the story progressed, there really weren't any surprises, but while not unexpected, the ending was satisfying.

I listened to the audiobook and thought the narrator did a great job. Flagg's evil was palpable, including a hissing speaking voice. I liked the way the "storyteller" spoke to the reader and hinted at things to come. And as the story came towards the end and the suspense amped up, the chapters were very short. It was like we couldn't waste any time; it made the end come very quickly.

Recommended to:

Fans of fantasy stories with distinctly good & evil characters. It can be read by middle school students and above. (Note that many fans of Stephen King did not like this book.)