Billy Summers

This is not the US version, but a less exclusive export edition. Should have been stated by Amazon I think. The original US edition is nicer.

King at his masterful best - great story! So many unexpected twists and turns. Unique use of English, maybe a few too many unexplained Americanisms, like 'wifebeater'! What the heck? Not at all what it sounds like. Many others, so had to keep Google handy!

Chegou muito antes do esperado em excelentes condições!!!!

Una vez más King demuestra que su punto más fuerte es crear personajes con los cuales rápidamente simpatizas. Es un libro de lectura liviana, el par de referencias a otro de sus libros es un buen toque.

I grew up reading Stephen King and have generally enjoyed his novels and short stories. Billy Summers started off fairly strong, with a detailed subplot and an interesting main character. I particularly appreciated the concept of the "dumb self" - the protective persona Summers employs to avoid suspicion. Overall, this was an entertaining read, although the pace slackened considerably after the original "assignment" had been carried out (with the somewhat predictable but relatively intriguing betrayal that followed). I'd give this 2.5 stars if it were an option, but 3 seems pretty fair. However, I must say that King seems to have lost a step in writing younger characters. I think a good editor might, for example, have steered him away from the many, many outdated references he employs, many of which are recycled from earlier works. I found the "see you later, alligator" exchange with supposedly 21st-century kids to be highly questionable, as was the same kids' obsession with Monopoly. (I'd find it much more believable if it were a video game - and if it had been one that played to Billy's sharpshooting skills, it might have provided interesting foreshadowing for the family). Similarly, his descriptions of Marine culture seemed lazy and under-researched. (For one thing, there wasn't anywhere near enough profanity in the dialogue!) The pop culture references in particular were a good 30+ years out of date even in the 90s (The Teddy Bears' Picnic? Really?!). I could see *one* character having somewhat antiquated or prudish taste, but ALL of them? Other off-key notes included having Billy refer to an "ex-Marine" (those who are retired are typically called "former Marines," with the connotation that their service lasts a lifetime). I found it hard to believe that a firearms expert would refer to a suppressor as a "silencer..." and the amount of noise suppression described at various points was frankly ripped right from the movies/TV and not even vaguely realistic. Other lazy bits of storytelling could have been easily fixed or avoided! For example, any woman who has a sister in beauty school (and most of us who don't!) would know that you *cannot* effectively go blond from drugstore hair dye. King tries to skirt the issue by saying Alice wasn't able to achieve platinum, but in reality Alice's hair would likely have turned a very sickly and unnatural shade of orange. (Why not just make her a blond originally and have her dye her hair brown?) And the *necessity* of her dyeing and later cutting her hair altogether didn't make sense; it just seemed like, "Oh, here's something that people on the run do." (On the same tip: any wig that you can just throw on without extensive prep WILL LOOK LIKE A WIG, no matter how expensive it is. And I can't even imagine where you would find a "black wig with threads of gray" on short notice... it's not...