Rating: 
Summary: It's all a matter of Gas
Review: Mr. King, your best stories are derivative. You read a clever idea by a less talented writer and turn it into something visual and emotional with a setting you're familiar with. After The Dark Half, you've committed to using original concepts. It doesn't work. You were doing fine before. Nothing of yours exceeds like the variation of twice-told themes we find in The Dead Zone (Simak meets Updike) The Gunslinger (Tolkein showdowns with Max Brand) even a potboiler like the Stand has incredible storytelling(Pat Frank and Tolkein send Thorton Wilder and Jim Thompson to the Rapture). It's a gift to blend these voices. Others can't do it. If you were trying for a Tim O'Brien meets Stephen King in your new book Hearts in Atlantis, well just one more ingredient and you'd have made it. Low Men in Yellow Coats is an original approach. It just doesn't get the balloon really flying. The gas is too thin, too unfamiliar. Use other people's balloon's and you can supply enough gas to keep me from writing these tepid analogies.
Rating: 
Summary: TRIUMPHANT!!!!!
Review: What a great read!! SK is genuinely one of America's national treasures. I hope the literary pundits will award King with one of the major awards for this book - it truly is most deserving.This book evoked a lot of memories (good and bad). Growing up in the "sixties" was special and King has captured that extraordinary time in four interrelated stories. What was it like to be a child then; a college student on scholarship fighting to keep his military deferment? Why were we in Vietnam and what was it like to have been there? What were the long-term effects of those turbulent times? King's story about "Bobby'O", "Sully-John", Carol Gerber, Pete Riley, Skip Kirk, "Blind Willie", et al (and of course Ted), answers those questions. The stories will remain with you long after you've read the last page and have you yearning for more. King noted (paraphrasing), "there are books with great stories and those with great words and some with both". This is a book that does have both and it certainly will find a place in my collection. Thanks, Stephen, for the book and the wonderful memories.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible
Review: In my opinion, this is Mr. King's best novel in years. It started a bit slowly, and I was a little worried that it might not be a very good read. However, that turned around quickly, and I found myself completely engrossed and couldn't put the book down. Should be a classic because it's fantastic.
Rating: 
Summary: This is the SK I love.
Review: I bought this book without reading reviews or summaries, and I was pleasantly surprised. I was so excited to read the first story since it ties into the Dark Tower series. The characters are well-developed and I love the way he ties them together. SK has an amazing ability to tell stories when he's not caught up in gruesome detail. I really enjoyed this one.
Rating:
Summary: Stephen King at his best.
Review: I have just finished reading this book and am pleased to say that Stephen King has captivated me again. Hearts in Atlantis is composed of five stories that blend together like one complete novel. You will not find rabid dogs, haunted Plymouths, psychotic ex-nurses, or vampires in this book. What you will find are five engrossing stories by a writer who, in my humble opinion, has still not reached his literary peak. The five stories revolve around the generation that came of age in the sixties and what became of their idealisms and dreams. Being 27 years of age, I do not understand the Vietnam era, nor will I ever truly understand it. King's book, however, brought me closer to illumination with respect to the Vietnam era than I have ever been. The title story, in particular, drew me in. It is a first person narration from a freshman college student at the University of Maine in 1966 that explains what events led him to protest the war in Vietnam. King's book puts human faces on an era that many of us are accustomed to simply studying about in history class. I have been an avid Stephen King reader since the mid-eighties and have been particularly impressed with his most recent works, such as The Green Mile, The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass, and Bag of Bones. I strongly recommend Hearts in Atlantis to anyone, as I have now added it to my list of Stephen King favorites.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointed
Review: I work in a bookstore and was thrilled when we got in the advance copy. I read it in two days and can honestly say that I couldn't in good conscience recommend it to anyone. The first story intrigued me with Bobby and the neighbor, but then it got into the more minor story lines and tied together way too neatly at the end. If you want a good Stephen King, read "The Shining" or "It" - "Hearts in Atlantis" falls way short.
Rating:
Summary: Awful
Review: Contains every demeaning and ignorant cliche there is about the Vietnam war and those of us who fought there. If you read this thing, please buy "Stolen Valor" and "After Tet" and read them for some balance. Mr. King, you're cordially invited to come and stay with us as my guest in Cambodia so you can see the results of the abandonment of the people of Sourtheast Asia due to the antiwar protests you find so neat and cool...you should be ashamed of what you have written.
Rating:
Summary: KING AT HIS BEST
Review: This book kept my interest from page one until sadly it ended Stephen King at his best The last book of his that I thought was even close to this was Different Seasons. I especially like that he had a character from each story in the next one if you are a King fan at all a great read
Rating:
Summary: From a confirmed biblioholic and Kingophiliac
Review: Once again, Stephen King grabbed me by the throat and held on tight until I finished the last page. "Hearts in Atlantis" proves (After 25 years, how much proof do we need?) that King is not only a master storyteller who writes from the gut, but an artist who paints his characters in such a way as to make me care what happens to them at every turn of the page. From the moment I met Bobby Garfield in the opening "Low Men in Yellow Coats," I was committed to knowing him and those in his life as well as King would let me. King's unselfconscious use of language to create each scene with mere words allows us to forget we are reading words. As someone who is King's age, I lived through the Vietnam era and marvelled as he brought me back there so swiftly and effortlessly. But I struggle to express my appreciation of this new King story. He did it best in the voice of Ted ("Low Men..."): "There are...books full of great writing that don't have very good stories. Read sometimes for the story, Bobby. Don't be like the book-snobs who won't do that. Read sometimes for the words--the language. Don't be like the play-it-safers that won't do that. But when you find a book that has both a good story and good words, treasure that book." Like so many other King titles, this is a good story and good words and I will treasure this book.
Rating:
Summary: not as horrifying as some, but to good to put down till done
Review: From chapter one to the e nd you are caught up in the characters and the story. Only Mr King could interweave so many characters, and storylines so well and leave you wanting more. Here's hoping he is well enough to write more soon. I think I saw a hint of what may be coming next look for it.
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