Post by stoaton on Dec 24, 2005 0:28:55 GMT -5
It is the story of four friends whose lives changed when they saved a child with Downs syndrome, Douglas 'Duddits' Cavell, from bullies. The four friends, now men with separate lives that are equally screwed-up, meet for their annual hunting trip and end up facing an alien invasion, an obsessive, borderline psychotic army colonel who has patterned himself after Marlon Brando's character in Apocalypse Now, Abraham Kurtz; and one of their own, Gary "Jonesy" Jones, who seems to be under the control of "Mr. Gray", an unpleasant alien who has a nasty agenda of his own plannet. In the novel Jonesy, an associate professor of English, was in an automobile mishap similar to King's own in 1999; this book, written longhand, was the author's tool for recuperation. The manuscript took half a year to complete.
The book is set in King's fictional town of Derry, Maine.
The alien invasion begins when Jonesy discovers a man walking in the woods. The man complains of stomach problems due to berries he ate earlier on, and Jonesy notices a red mark on his cheek. The man also exhibits dyspepsia and extremely foul flatulence. After Beaver - another of the 4 friends - returns, they watch a large pack of animals who all have marks like the stranger's. When they return, the man is in the washroom, dead.
What this fellow, the animals, and later a female victim encountered on the road who shares similar symptoms, are infected with is a macro-virus. Army scientists have nicknamed "The Ripley" after a character in the Aliens series. Most of the friends all discover that the parasite infection causes its host to create a half-grown worm-like alien nicknamed 'shit-weasels', that incubate fiercely inside the human body, after which they exit the body via the rectum.
The story continues as 2 of the friends are killed, and Jonesy suffering from hallucinations created by a fully-grown Ripley named "Mr. Gray". The whole set of characters then begin a fight to stop Mr. Gray from implementing a scheme to infect a large number of people with the Ripley, or byrus...as well as to keep from being annihalated by Kurtz and his crew. To do so requires the help of Duddits, now grown yet an eternal child, who is dying of a debilitating disease. The chase begins....
The book is set in King's fictional town of Derry, Maine.
The alien invasion begins when Jonesy discovers a man walking in the woods. The man complains of stomach problems due to berries he ate earlier on, and Jonesy notices a red mark on his cheek. The man also exhibits dyspepsia and extremely foul flatulence. After Beaver - another of the 4 friends - returns, they watch a large pack of animals who all have marks like the stranger's. When they return, the man is in the washroom, dead.
What this fellow, the animals, and later a female victim encountered on the road who shares similar symptoms, are infected with is a macro-virus. Army scientists have nicknamed "The Ripley" after a character in the Aliens series. Most of the friends all discover that the parasite infection causes its host to create a half-grown worm-like alien nicknamed 'shit-weasels', that incubate fiercely inside the human body, after which they exit the body via the rectum.
The story continues as 2 of the friends are killed, and Jonesy suffering from hallucinations created by a fully-grown Ripley named "Mr. Gray". The whole set of characters then begin a fight to stop Mr. Gray from implementing a scheme to infect a large number of people with the Ripley, or byrus...as well as to keep from being annihalated by Kurtz and his crew. To do so requires the help of Duddits, now grown yet an eternal child, who is dying of a debilitating disease. The chase begins....