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With this book Stephen King has chosen to use elements from popular culture as his menace: flying saucer myth, blended with Hollywood interpretations, such as Close Encounters and Alien. (Many observers feel movies such as The Day the Earth Stood Still initiated popular belief in flying saucers, anyway.)

In an interview about this book, Stephen King said that he wanted to venture into truly taboo areas. Since sex is hardly taboo in fiction these days, he turned to scatology. Not only is it a somewhat forbidden area, but as King points out, as we grow older, we pay more attention to the signals our bodies send us about our health: elimination acquires an added dimension of interest. After you meet this book's Shit Weasels, little monsters that seem like the chest-bursters in Alien, except where they burst from, you may feel uneasy about farts and defecation for a while.

This is strong stuff, but Stephen King's characters are as endearing as his subject matter is revolting. Four high school chums share several moments of heroism, mainly in their close friendship with a Downs Syndrome boy known as "Duddits" because that is how he says Douglas. Duddits is a simple, joyful soul, and a focus for the boys in a way that allows them all to acquire extra-sensory perception: precognition, telepathy. As the strands of their fate weave together, these powers give them a chance to oppose the alien invasion they encounter as adults on one of their regular deer hunting trips. Their conflict with the aliens is less frightening than their conflict with government "cleaners" sent in to neutralize and cover up the situation.

There are other strong ingredients in this book. This is the first novel that Stephen King wrote after being almost killed by a motorist, so there is a lot of pain in this book -- auto accidents, painful recovery from extensive injury. You can tell he knows what he is writing about.

Stephen King is such a compelling story teller! This book foreshadows many of the critical scenes, a kind of literary foreplay. By the time King actually gets around to giving us the details, readers will be begging for it!

Hank Luttrell has reviewed science fiction for newspapers, magazines and web sites. He was nominated for the Best Fanzine Hugo Award and is currently a bookseller in Madison, Wisconsin.