Rating: 
Summary: King continues to amaze me...
Review: As soon as I met Bobby Garfield in 1960, I was intrigued.
King continues as a master storyteller, with a gift for character development. I was hooked on this book from page 1; just couldn't read it fast enough.Hearts in Atlantis is broken into five parts: the first and last respectively telling the story of Bobby Garfield as a youngster, and as an adult. The stories in between--which are brilliantly interconnected--tell the tale of other persons who are, albeit sometimes unknowingly, integral parts of Bobby's life. The book is an excellent read, which truly shows Kings maturity as a writer and a storyteller. Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: Should have stopped halfway through
Review: Halfway through Hearts in Atlantis, I was thinking this was a four-star book. The first and longest story in Stephen King's collection is an intruiging tale of a young boy in 1960 Maine and his relationship with a mysterious lodger. It has interesting ties to the Dark Tower, but stronger ties to books like From A Buick 8. We meet Bobby Garfield -- a young man on the brink of both adolescence and the 60's -- and we watch him try to work through the unexpected perils of watching for the Low Men in Yellow Coats -- a danger he think is a figment of the imagination before discovering that they are all too real. It held my attention consistently and I was hoping the rest of the book would continue to do so. Alas, it did not. If there's anything worse than Baby Boomer self-indulgence, it's sulf-indulgent stories that lement that generation's self-indulgence. The rest of the boook has tenuous and frankly unmoving ties to the trio of young characters in Low Men, telling about how several people move through the 60's to the 90's. The title story about an out-of-control hearts game, is slow, dull and the climax feels forced. The next two are the usual garbage positing that Vietnam was the first time people realized that war is hell. The last is an unsatisfactory climax that tries to tie everything back together. Contrary to popular belief, King *can* write good fiction that has no supernatural element. I refer you his collection Four Seasons, for example, which contains three excellent non-supernatural stories. But these stories are nowhere near that quality. The frustrating thing is that there *was* a good story here somewhere. Had King stuck with Bobby, Carol and Sully-John, the second half of the collection might have been interesting. But as it is, it was a painful read, something I'm unused to from King. Buy for the first story and then put this on the shelf.
Rating: 
Summary: Forced myself through this one.
Review: Usually I enjoy Stephen King novels, thrilling, on the edge of your seat reads, some have made me think and come away with a differing thought or perspective than before. This book I had to force myself to read. It took 10 days, which says alot. The stories had some inter conncetion between them, a common point, though I am not sure I know what now. I could not keep up interest in this book. The stories almost seem to be recycled bits from previous stories. King is a stand out writer, one of the best we have today, and I still look forward to his next book. I just hope it is better than Hearts, though I think it would have to be.
Rating:
Summary: Should of stop after first part of the book!!
Review: I must admitt, I thought this book would of been great with a perfect ending after 300 or so pages of this book, basically, just part one of this book. Part one of this book deserves five stars!!! It ended pretty well with some questions in mind but I felt that ending was left up to the readers imagination!! Why did Mr. King continued with the rest fo the book??? I understand there were parts in the important later on but I could of cared less!! It just dragged and dragged and dragged. Honestly, I didn't cared for this book at all as a whole. This is my first Stephen King novel but I been recommended to read some of his previous greats, which, I will some day. But for now, if you never read any Stephen King novels I wouldn't recommended this book. Please try something else!!!
Rating:
Summary: BEAUTIFULLY WRITTEN
Review: Of all the Stephen King novels I have read-Dreamcatcher, Bag of Bones, The Shining, It, none of them have touched me more than Hearts in Atlantis. When I read it I laughed, I cried, and I could not get myself to put it down. It was, by far, the best Stephen King book I have read, and I would highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Just wets the whistle.
Review: The title of this review is meant to applaud the story which is, in my opinion, first rate and it is nicely written. It shouldn't be necessary to explain this novel is of a genre which not all will find to their liking though. For Stephen King fans Hearts in Atlantis is an idea somewhat like Firestarter or The Stand, both of which are also favorites of mine. And the movie, of the same name, which starred Anthony Hopkins is true to the book. I was dissapointed somewhat because I wanted more to read than there was and also the additional chapters were a little long, however, it was interesting in how they all tied into the main story.
Rating: 
Summary: captures the scent of an era
Review: For me, reading Steven King's *Hearts in Atlantis* was like awakening from a dream, in which hauntingly familiar scenes from the past float by, snatches of a reality once intimate and now lost forever...I grew up within one year and about ten miles of the central character in the first part of the novel, and some of the barely noticeable features in the background scenery just make the picture snap to life (the Alvin Dark baseball glove, Vitalis hair tonic). This is even more potent in the second part of the book, his paen to Atlantis. Without overdoing it -- he keeps his narrator an average guy at an average college -- he captures the intangible sensibility of that time in a way few authors have (I think of *Jesus' Son* by Denis Johnson). There was a tribal feeling in those days, you could tell instantly who was with you in that Atlantean world that rejected the War and the plastic middle-class cultural void that spawned it... that embraced mind expansion, sexual freedom, rock&roll...a time when you'd pick up hitchhikers as if they were long lost family...It brings to mind a line in a John Hartford song -- "The Goodle Days": "we was in love with people that we hadn't even met...out for anything we could get...well we did it then, and we'll do it yet...back in the goodle days".
Rating:
Summary: Not bad, but way too slow - three short stories made long...
Review: Don't take me wrong - this is not a bad book, and you may enjoy it. But the book is getting only 2 starts from me. The book is three (or was it four?) short stories that are somewhat connected (common characters at different periods of their life). The writing is good as usual, it's Stephen King after all. The story is almost non-existing. At least there is no original story that I love many other Stephen King's books for. If I could turn the clock back, I probably would not have spent my time on reading this again.
Rating:
Summary: Great writing, boring story
Review: Starts out great and then gets progressively bad, just like many other King books. (Remember the awful endings to Needful Things and Tom Gordon)? Also, it seems as though King is starting to recycle material--the relationship between Bobby and Ted is remarkably similar to that of the young boy and former Nazi in "Apt Pupil," one of King's best stories. Anyway, King should leave the Vietnam stuff to Tim O'Brien, a writer who was actually there. (Incidentally, he's also a MUCH better writer than King.) I have read almost every King book, but this one is mediocre at best.
Rating:
Summary: Another good one by the master
Review: This was a super book - part stort stories, part horror, part slice-of-life. The movie they created from this missed 2/3 of the book so I don't recommend that.
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