The Tommyknockers

Written by Stephen King

Narrated by Edwards Hermann

Bobbi Anderson and the other good folks of Haven, Maine, have sold their sould to reap the rewards of the most deadly evil this side of hell.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Audiobooks
• Release date: May 13, 2010
• ISBN: 9781101154946

Stephen King

Stephen King is the author of more than sixty books, all of them worldwide bestsellers. His recent work includes the short story collection You Like It Darker, Holly, Fairy Tale, Billy Summers, If It Bleeds, The Institute, Elevation, The Outsider, Sleeping Beauties (cowritten with his son Owen King), and the Bill Hodges trilogy: End of Watch, Finders Keepers, and Mr. Mercedes (an Edgar Award winner for Best Novel and a television series streaming on Peacock). His novel 11/22/63 was named a top ten book of 2011 by The New York Times Book Review and won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Mystery/Thriller. His epic works The Dark Tower, It, Pet Sematary, Doctor Sleep, and Firestarter are the basis for major motion pictures, with It now the highest-grossing horror film of all time. He is the recipient of the 2020 Audio Publishers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2018 PEN America Literary Service Award, the 2014 National Medal of Arts, and the 2003 National Book Foundation Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters. He lives in Bangor, Maine, with his wife, novelist Tabitha King. 

Reviews for The Tommyknockers

[paddysheridan · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This book starts off well, with two main characters and a story that develops well. Then it starts branching off, the two main characters are essentially forgotten and from then it trudges along with different characters, none of which are developed, and a story that's going nowhere. From about halfway through I found that I was skimming the pages and staying with the book only because I wanted some resolution. It as like being addicted to a drug, hating it and hating myself for reading it but staying with it in the hope that it would all come together. Steven King can write well but I think he should be ashamed of this book. There is nothing good or edifying about it. Having read about 60% I deleted it from my Kindle and felt the better for doing so.

[mrdoan72 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

great book to read

[carol420 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A strange object was found in the woods and things just get stranger from that point on. An excellent read.

[ducannibis_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

While the fictional science seems quite credible, I'm still prone in suspecting Stephen King might have pulled most of this PLOT out of his ass like Picasso autographing a soup-kitchen napkin.

[jeffrey_hatcher-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Classic King but it moves slow. Slimming the book 20% would help.

[lukerik-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

If, like me, you're a bit of an sf fan then you may find those elements of this novel to be cheap, derivative and merely a hook to hang the theme of the story from... which in this case seems to be drug abuse. Haven and it's inhabitants symbolise the drug user and the different elements of their personality, with the spaceship symbolising the need to get as high as possible. Apparently, it was after writing it that King gave up drugs, only then realising what the book was about. If this is true then he must have written it in much the same way as Bobbi writes her novel. Actually, if he did write it in that kind of disconnected way it would explain the defects of the book.I have two main problems with it. Firstly, Gard has to be the most boring lead character ever created. BORING. Secondly, King doesn't seen to know who's side he's on. He spends ages gaining your sympathy for Bobbi but then you step outside her and her transformation. You're left in an emotional limbo. Either let us sympathise with those undergoing the change, or give us entirely an outsiders view so we can feel some threat from them.Still, that said, as always it's a pleasure to listen to King's voice and there are some nice touches, like the destruction of the clock tower and its subsequent disguise.

[suzyblack · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I realize that The Tommyknockers is at the bottom of most "Stephen King's best books" list, but I couldn't put it down. First of all, I've always been too afraid to read Stephen King. Most of his books, I think, would scare me to death - I'm not one for some horror story making my hair stand on end while I sit up all night afraid to sleep. So this is my first Stephen King. My daughter convinced me to read it; it's one of her favorite books. I loved the story, it never got slow, the Tommyknocker people created wonderful machines (and killer machines), and there were a lot of giggles. I think that alien stories are not as scary to me as psychological thrillers, or horror tales. (Just the movie "Carrie" scared the pee-wadding out of me, so I cannot imagine reading the book.) The Tommyknockers is very long, as I think many of King's books are, so it was a surprise that it kept my interest up and kept me on the edge of my seat. A very satisfying read and I'm hoping that I can find another Stephen King book that I can like as much as I do this one.

[jodes101 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This was pretty much the end of a long running love affair with Stephen King. I remember reading it and just thinking what went wrong.

[trayceetee · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is one I'll re-read every five years or so.... It becomes more intense as time goes by.... just watching the way society seems to turn in upon itself. It's kind of prophetic. Love it!

[edward.lorn · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Well, that was unexpected.

First time I read this, I loved the first two-thirds of the book and loathed the last third. This time, it was the exact opposite. I enjoyed the introductions to Bobbi and Gard all right, I guess, but the middle was boring. I almost gave up. In fact, I switched to the audio book so that I could play Minecraft while listening to it. Then, an odd thing happened. I became involved again. (This was after the vagina tentacles.) I started catching reference after reference, and the book became a kind of treasure hunt. Fucking awesome, dude.

But here's where it gets really weird. All the cool references at the tail-end of the book are for books King hadn't yet written. Specifically, Under the Dome. Usually, I tell people to read King's books in order, but if you plan on reading Under the Dome, you might want to leave The Tommyknockers for after you finish it. There are at least two huge spoilers for Under the Dome in this novel. There are two more, but they are well hidden gems.

I also find it terribly rad that King first mentions Haven way back in 'Salem's Lot, yet it would be more than a decade before he actually wrote about the town.

Time for the bad news. This book is one of those King novels that feels bloated. There's so much unneeded information in here that I would suspect as much as two-hundred pages could have been left on the cutting room floor and no one would have noticed. King doesn't even like this book. He stated as much in a recent interview that and Dreamcatcher are his least favorite novels because they were both written during periods of recovery (one before and after drug rehab, and the other while recovering from being ran over by a van). To quote King exactly: "The Tommyknockers is a mess, man. So's Dreamcatcher."

References to other books:

Gard mentions Ka while in deep thought.
Gard meets a young boy named Jack outside of the Alhambra H. (Huge reference to The Talisman here)
Clown holding balloons is seen in a storm drain.

All this further cements my claims that all of King's novels tie-in to the Dark Tower in some way. Even books like Firestarter and Misery, as well as other books that King has not verified as tie-ins.

Notable name:
Big Injun Woods (Pet Sematary)
Derry (It, Insomnia)
Johnny Smith (The Dead Zone)

There are far more connections to other books in the King-verse but some of them are spoilers and/or I'm saving them for my next Decade with King post.

In summation: The Tommyknockers is a big book. It feels like a big book. His novel It doesn't feel half as long as this book, and it's over 400-pages longer. A lot of ideas are rehashed this time around, too, and reading King's library in chronological order makes all these reused concepts stand out like a sore thumb covered in neon pink spray paint and glitter. I wouldn't tell anyone to skip The Tommyknockers, but you can leave it for last. Recommended for King completionists.

[deldevries · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Another good tale by Stephen King. Weird and unusual things happening to ordinary people in Maine. The audio version read by Edward Herrmann is a treasure and a lovely way to enjoy commuting.

[frenzie_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Oddly enough, various reviews seem to complain about the best parts of the book, saying that not enough time is spent on the mystery central to the story. But the the detailed and amusing background to Gardener's addiction and obsession all but spells out what the book is about: humans with human concerns, just like all of King's work I've read. We all are or can become the Dallas Police, unless we stand guard against it. Which because of his own problems, the protagonist for the longest time does not.The second half of the book could be silly at times, but I think that should be read primarily intertextually with King's other works and of course science fiction films from the 1950s. The guy thinking he should've bought an extra pop with his two burgers is attacked by a floating Coke machine. Just the kind of thing the genre expects. One might wonder whether it was merely pastiche or proper parody. It went back and forth a bit, but I think the lack of difference between the Tommyknockers and the Dallas Police had at least some bite.In conclusion, I'd say the book is well worth a read. Just think of it as a story about addiction and obsession, with a healthy dose of parody and hilarity. It's not great, but it's definitely not worth the scorn.

[marlene9nl · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Read many years ago and loved it. (read SK always in Dutch back then) planning to re-read once more. I have read this book at least twice

[srboone · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This sci-fi novel is one of King's most frigid. I think the problem was that no character was called by their first name(except the dog) for the first half of the book. By the time peole get around addressing each other as people, the iciness is hard to shake.

[rsplenda477 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Very boring and way to long for the master of horror. The fact that it involved aliens was a discouragement to me as well, since this is not what I expect in Stephen King books.

[stefany_6 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I thought that this book overall was much better than I had remembered from my first read of it. What I find odd is that the parts of the book that dragged for me were the end of part 1 and the beginning of part 3. The part of the book that most people have complaints about, part 2, was actually my overall favorite section of the book. I rather enjoyed the little vignettes through this section going from one character to another and seeing how things were affecting them. I did find the early mentioned parts of the book to drag a little. I think that my main reason for feeling this way was that these parts of the book took the focus off of Haven and put the attention directly on characters who were doing other things but were compelled to return or travel to Haven. This in itself was fine, but I felt that he took too much time to give us a blow by blow on their journeys to Haven when he could have skipped a lot of that and focus more on the events surrounding their actual arrival.This is not among King's best by any means, but the strong characters, storyline and concept carry it pretty well and make it worth reading.

[shabbyrabbit · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's been a long time but if I remember I thought the end was weak. I'd like to have time to read it again someday and see how I feel about it now.

[catfantastic_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

The Tommyknockers is the story Bobbi Anderson, a reclusive writer living in the woods with her dog. She trips over something weird buried in the forest and becomes obsessed with digging it up. The more she digs, the stranger her health and personality become . . . the object appears to be a huge alien spacecraft. Meanwhile, her old friend, Jim Gardener, a poet obsessed with the dangers of nuclear power, is suffering from alcoholism and depression, and considers ending his life, except that he senses that Bobbi is in danger. I found Tommyknockers extremely slow moving. The narrative kept digressing into so much extraneous detail about Bobbi and Gard's lives, which did nothing to advance the mysterious alien spacecraft story. In the hands of a firmer editor this story could have been made much more concise and suspenseful.

[mossagate · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Another book in which I felt Stephen King could have used an editor. I have a theory that after he got famous, his publisher just decided to let him write whatever, no matter how meandering and verbose it might be. I still enjoyed it enough to finish - I have quit other books of his for droning on into nothing - but I skimmed quite a bit and didn't think I missed anything. Quite a few things could have been trimmed and it would have made for a more interesting read.

[asmallholding · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I first read this book when it first came out, and loved it. Back then, it was several notches above anything else of its kind. I have re-read it a few times over my lifetime, and have just finished it again. It still has the power to shock, and my perception of the characters and their actions has changed. For me, still an excellent read.

[chellsway · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It's a little sci-fi a little horror a little mystery all wrapped up in one big package! Stephen King is more of a writer of the sinister the possibility of treachery and maddness in each of us. A true sense of horror of that slight jolt of electricity that for a second makes you just want to drop the book really wasn't present here. But there sure were some cool ideas! The way people pay for new found abilities with the blood of the not-so innocent was a somewhat humorous twist in this book (all though I did start to feel kinda weird at some of the stuff I found myself laughing at). That is one of Stephen King's greatest achievements in his writing his ability to take something that in any real circumstance would be deemed a great and terrible misfortune and make his audience laugh (maybe more appropriate to say snicker somewhat devilishly)at these unexpected turn of events! For the most part Mr. King doesn't fail to entertain his massively loyal audience and The Tommyknockers is no exception. If you haven't read it yet and you are not particularly a Stephen King fan go check it out at your library it can't hurt. If you do call yourself a Stephen King fan and you haven't read this book yet well shame on you!

[keely_chace · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

When Bobbi Anderson trips over a lip of metal in the woods outside her home in rural Maine, she sets in motion a chain of supernatural events that slowly destroy the inhabitants of the nearby town of Haven. Stephen King always spins a pretty fun yarn, but wow, he really should have tightened this one. This sprawling tale contains a kerjillion or so characters and plot threads, and after the mind-boggling work or keeping track of them all, the novel's resolution is a bit of a let-down. Oh, well. At least I got a lot of bang for my audio book buck on this. It was something like 27 hours!

[lexi1022 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is another one of Stephen Kings books that are scary but not for the normal reasons. This one really delves into the nature of humans and how easily they can be tempted to do some truely awful things when power is involved. What starts out as an inocent trip in the woods ends in something truely awful. Nice book, great story, but a bit to wordy for my tastes.

[mmyoung_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is the first King book where I felt his tendency to writer insert plus the weak (sometimes seemingly nonexistent) editing led to such an uncomfortable bloat that the "horror" was robbed of impact. Long before the end I just wanted it to end.In addition this is not _really_ a work of horror -- rather an attempt by a master of horror to write a book that used science fiction tropes. Like many a non-Science-Fiction author he does so clumsily. Similar books have been written by science fiction writers who needed several hundred fewer pages to deliver more wonder, horror and fear.

[pahoota · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Grotesque for grotesque's sake. I've never read a piece of fiction that frightened me or gave me nightmares; perhaps I lack imagination. However, I read this two decades ago though and still remember the line "(so-and-so) is on Altair IV" startling me. I'll give it an extra half star for that. But it's easier to shock 15 year olds, and easier to titillate them with sex and gory violence, which is probably why I liked this book back then. I read an interview with King years later where he recalled being high on cocaine throughout the writing of The Tommyknockers. That explains the book's general craziness. I read this book at a time of my life when I thought anything NOT assigned by my English teacher was a masterpiece. And even back then I remember being subtly disappointed, excepting the well executed final scene.

[oxlena · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Long, strange, confusing, and not overly rewarding. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it. I've read better, but I've read much, much worse. The movie is just weird. Unlike the movie, the book doesn't paint the Tommyknockers out to be evil or bad in any way; they just grant the people the knowledge to accomplish what they desire...More or less. 3 out of 5 movies that portray a lady in her fifties as a twenty-two year old. -_-

[camarie_2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I seriously almost vomited as I read this book. It is graphic, and disturbing and horrifying, but worth it. I couldn't even bring myself to read it at night it frightened me so much. Yet it is well written (or course, it's King) and gripping, like a beautiful and deadly black hole that sucks you in. Splendid read.

[santhony_35 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

As with many of King's works, I find his books that deal with real people to be far scarier and more entertaining than the books that involve supernatural (and many times silly) monsters and beings. Gerald's Game, Dolores Claiborne, The Shining, Misery are terrifying without being ridiculous.

[andyray_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

it really amazes me that the five reviews average out at about 3 stars or less. this is one of SK's top 10, right in there with IT. These were the days when SK let it flow with abandon and I, for one, enjoy the hell out of it. I mean heck. I see no mumbo-jumbo, but simply an alien encounter of the first kind, well written.

[bradsucks · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I got to around page 450, realized I had about 300 left and that I could read another book in that time. Tommyknockers wasn't terrible but there wasn't enough to keep me interested. I also think I started to recognize it devolving into mumbo-jumbo much like The Stand.