Pulpy government-conspiracy and chase story with way too many unbelievable elements. Dean R. Koontz fans might like it. ( )

Since a couple of reviews mentioned it: Firestarter was indeed made into a movie in the early '80's. Drew Barrymoore played Charlie and George C. Scott played Rainbird.

Firestarter has all the usual Stephen King hallmarks. Strong characterization, a good sense of pace and enough research to make readers accept the supernatural aspects. Yet even though he has all the right ingredients, Firestarter is not his best dish.

The characters are believable and well drawn. Charlie McGee is a believable eight year old placed under incredible stress. John Rainbird is a corrupt, evil and insane character who is nonetheless fascinating.

The plotting is expertly handled. It starts out in the middle with our heroes Charlie and her father Andy being chased by a shadowy government agency. The tale then both moves forward and flashes back at the same time. Like the beginning of The Gunslinger we don’t know why they are being chased or who is doing the chasing. The flashbacks work to fill in the story and they also show just how bad the bad guys can be.

The book rockets along to the inevitable explosive finale. He manages to make it all flow organically from the events this particular group of characters find themselves in. Reading the book, you never feel like he is making his characters act against their natures for the sake of his plot.

Also, he shows that he has done his research. He works to make the impossible (or at least improbable) forces of pyrokinesis and mental domination into something that is at least plausible enough in the story.

And yet, for all the good that is here there is something off or missing in the book. With both The Dead Zone and Firestarter it feels like King was moving away from the straight up horror of his earlier works into thriller territory and he was still on unfamiliar ground. He would nail it later with Misery, but with Firestarter he’s not quite there yet.

The book is worth a read and is better than his previous novel (The Dead Zone), but Firestarter is middle tier Stephen King. As with everything Stephen King writes, it is much better written than most pop novels, but stacked up against his own best work Firestarter falls a little short. ( )

Another masterpiece... Did this come out as a movie? ( )

My first Stephen King novel - better than I expected. Not yet a film but should be, think of all the special effects... ( )

I almost forgot in places that this is a King book. The style is very different for him. It reads like a thriller or a suspense novel. I liked the different points of view from the Shop, the past during the psyche experiment, Charlie and Andy.

King really made me feel anger toward my government that they could be so ruthless and uncaring. I really sympathized with Charlie – I wanted her to let them have it. The end leaves something to be desired, but I did like the fact that she was going to the Rolling Stone office. I don’t think it still has no political affiliations or leanings, but maybe it did 13 years ago. Rainbird I really didn’t understand though. Why did he want to see her die, face to face? Where did he hope to go with her? Did he expect her power to transfer into him? I wish he had cleared that up. I didn’t see as many of his usual one-liners in this one either. No funny parts. The old couple that took her in was interesting. It’s hard to believe people like that really exist though. People who aren’t out for #1. ( )