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Blaze reviews

edited May 2007 in General news
I see Lilja has posted the Booklist review for Blaze.  This motivated me to see if Publishers Weekly had theirs, and they did.  (You'll have to scroll about halfway down, so I've posted it below.)



Quote:



Blaze

Richard Bachman. Scribner, $24 (288p) ISBN 978-1-4165-5484-4



Written circa 1973, this "trunk novel," as Bachman's double (aka Stephen King) refers to it in his self-deprecating foreword, lacks the drama and intensity of Carrie and the horror opuses that followed it. Still, this fifth Bachman book (after 1996's The Regulators) shows King fine-tuning his skill at making memorable characters out of simple salt-of-the-earth types. Clayton "Blaze" Blaisdell has fallen into a life of delinquency ever since his father's brutal abuse rendered him feebleminded. King alternates chapters recounting Blaze's past mistreatment at a series of Maine orphanages and foster homes with Blaze's current plans to follow through on a kidnapping scheme plotted by his recently murdered partner in crime, George Rackley. Blaze talks to George as though he's still there, and the conversations give the tale tension, with Blaze coming across as a pitiable and surprisingly sympathetic contrast to prickly George. Despite its predictability, this diverting soft-boiled crime novel reflects influences ranging from John Steinbeck to James M. Cain. Also included is a previously uncollected story, "Memory," the seed of King's forthcoming novel Duma Key. (June)


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Comments

  • The German edition will be available in August, the Italian in October, the Polish edition in November, the Dutch edition on October 16th and the Spanish edition will be in the fall of 2008 (no month given yet).
  • Very good, looking forward to reading Blaze. BTW, isn't weap spelled weep?
  • Welcome to Lilja's Library Blaze Week. As you all know Blaze is

    released this week and I think that is something that needs to be

    celebrated. So this week I'll have the following prepared for you all:



    Monday:

    My review of Blaze



    Monday – Wednesday:

    Contest with UK editions of the book as prizes.



    Wednesday:

    Interview with King's UK editor Philippa Pride



    Thursday – Sunday:

    Contest with US editions of the book as prizes.



    Enjoy!

    Lilja
  • Lou_Sytsma wrote: BTW, isn't weap spelled weep?


    Indeed it is. Thanks!
  • No problem.



    BTW according to Urban dictionary, weap means:



    someone who is scared, cheap, dirty, a loser, trys too hard.. a weap is someone who is for lack of a better word a square. this person doesn't have friends, and if he/she thinks he/she does, they are probably the person in that group that everyone talks about behind their back. a person can be weap for any number of reasons and can be called so by another person if they do not meet up to the other persons standards of what cool is. weap can also be used amongst friends as a funny word to joke around with like you're making fun of each other.



    Sounds like the main character - Clayton (Blaze) Blaisdell - from Blaze!
  • Sorry to be nitpicky, Bev, but, regarding your Blaze review, Different Seasons has an afterword, not a foreword.
  • I've noticed in certain reviews (see the one I posted at the top of the thread) that people have been getting the number of Bachman books wrong (Blaze, of course, being the 7th).  But now, having picked up the book, I see a possible reason:  The "Also by Richard Bachman" page doesn't list Rage, so therefore unknowledgable reviewers could be counting wrong.



    But this causes me to wonder:  having taken Rage out of print, does SK now want to go a step further and try to keep future readers from ever knowing about it and going to look for it?  I find it hard to believe that it was left off the list by accident.


  • Yeah, I saw one review that listed it as the fifth Bachman. I suspect King's trying to downplay the book's existence. It's been a source of grief to him for a long time.
  • Lilja’s Library Blaze Week is now on day 3 and today I’m happy to be able to give you an interview with Philippa Pride. Philippa is Stephen King’s UK editor and she was kind to take time of in her busy schedule to talk to me about life as an editor to one of the biggest authors alive today. Read what she had to say on the site.



    Lilja

    www.Liljas-Library.com
  • That was a great interview, Lilja!



    Times Picayune review
  • Indeed - thanks Lilja!
  • WooHoo! Won a UK hardcover edition of Blaze from Lilja's! 8-)
  • Congratulations -- you're doing well with contests lately!
  • Thanks. I am, aren't I. It was very weird but I just had a feeling this was going to happen which is why I held off buying Blaze.
  • Richmond.com review



    3.5 stars: "The ending is both inevitable and a little abrupt, but readers will nevertheless find themselves wishing that there could have been some other way to bring the story to a close. There are moments of fleeting and hard-won joy in Blaze’s life, but this is not a happy story for readers to while away a couple of mindless hours. Open this book and you’re committed. And King will not let you go until you’ve heard Blaze’s tale in its entirety."
  • ah, the old hometown paper. wait, how come i didn't get to do that review?!



    :-)



    -justin
  • My NECON buddy Bill Sheehan's review in Washington Post
  • BBC Radio 7 (uk) is doing a six part series of Stephen King's Blaze. "George is dead - but he's got a con job for Blaze, who can still hear him. William Hope reads Stephen King's 'lost' thriller."



    This series starts on Monday the 29th of December 2008 at 9:30am (GMT). Other times are listed at the site below.



    The series carries on daily at the same time.



    Blaze Program Info Page



    If you would like to listen to this series, here is the link to the BBC iplayer (worldwide)



    Or you could watch Via Digital Television (in the UK):



    All the BBC's national radio services are available via digital satellite television. Satellite services are available from Sky or Freesat. The Sky EPG No for BBC Radio 7 is 0131 and for Freesat it is 708.



    All BBC national digital radio services are available on Freeview digital television through an aerial. Freeview EPG No. for BBC Radio 7 is 708.



    And in some areas via digital cable television. Virgin TV EPG No. for BBC Radio 7 is 910.



    http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio7/help/howtolisten/
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