Rating: 
Summary: A view like no other!
Review: HST is bitingly funny in his recounting of episodes fighting against the System. In "The Witness" a has been well known porn star tries her damndest to set Hunter up for a BIG fall on drug charges and sexual assault. Thompson embarasses and shames the District Attorney and LEO's of Pitkin County (here in Colorado where he lives in Aspen).Thompson is, as always, his own person. Describing his days in SF working as Night Manager for the Mitchell Brothers famous O'Farrell Theater - THE center of pornography in it's heyday. Long running legal battles with Diane Feinstein and the leading edge of Freedom of Expression involving Sex in America. Oh enough BS! Thompson loved hanging out with strippers and other free spirits!This is Thompson's first book since the September 11 attacks. He (accurately, in my opinion) feels that life in America will never be the same. Our generation and todays children, will be in a state of war for our lifetimes. He speculates that, for the first time in recent American history, the next generation will be less well off than the current generation. And America will relearn the sacrifices of previous generations. Not necessarily a bad thing. Kingdom of Fear is a series of funny, irreverent memoirs describing events in Hunter S Thompson's life. He admits that some embellishing took place. A bit of what he writes about takes place in Aspen with quite a bit of Colorado "references" and landmarks, and personalities. Which (as a long time resident) I found enjoyable. The Ducati blast through "ranch" traffic and close calls with the "sausage maker" are hilarious.
The book has quite a few photographs including the back cover of Hunter buck naked except his famous hat firing a shotgun.
To sum up: As HST's good friend Warren Zevon wrote: "lawyers, guns and money" A fun read from a guy who has led an interesting life!
Rating:
Summary: "you can't hoard fun. it has no shelf life"
Review: HST once again fires up the selectric and shows us all the skinny...Much like a Ducati that is sitting motionless in a garage, yet still appears to be going 90 an hour - this book sat on my table, and I thought I could anticipate the ride that was to ensue once I opened the jacket...but I had no grasp of the torque that lay inside. His stranglehold of life is pure. One hand clapping was worth the price of admission. Thanks Hunter!
Rating:
Summary: great stuff...
Review: Hunter talks candidly about his 1990 life-style bust...talks about his time as night manager of O'Farrell theater.. all the while sprinkling in digs at the current state of our country these days..he doesn't paint a pretty picture...a must read
Rating: 
Summary: Troubled thoughts and ruminations along the Proud Highway.
Review: Hunter Thompson takes stock in his tumultuous life and assesses the current situation in America in a very aptly titled book. At its best, Kingdom of Fear evokes the glory days of Thompson. At its worst, it wallows in some rather pitiful encounters which may have been better left unsaid, such as his flirtation with an 8-year-old Xania. Thompson launches into the current administration, as it inflicts its reign of terror on the civil liberties in this country. He recalls his bouts with the law, in particular a sordid case involving a former porn queen who takes him to court for allegedly abusing her at his home in Aspen. While he managed to survive these battles, he doesn't hold out much hope for the future because of the notorious Patriot Act. But, his thoughts range far and wide, taking in his early years in Louisville and the proud highway to his remote home in Aspen, which he currently finds under seige from unscrupulous developers and former porn queens bent on ruining his mostly peaceful life. There is plenty of dark humor and pithy insights into the loathsome nature of the American dream. It is a very uneven book, but then that is what I have come to expect from Thompson, who hasn't been able to repeat his past great efforts such as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72.
Rating:
Summary: Troubled thoughts and ruminations along the Proud Highway.
Review: Hunter Thompson takes stock in his tumultuous life and assesses the current situation in America in a very aptly titled book. At its best, Kingdom of Fear evokes the glory days of Thompson. At its worst, it wallows in some rather pitiful encounters which may have been better left unsaid, such as his flirtation with an 8-year-old Xania. Thompson launches into the current administration, as it inflicts its reign of terror on the civil liberties in this country. He recalls his bouts with the law, in particular a sordid case involving a former porn queen who takes him to court for allegedly abusing her at his home in Aspen. While he managed to survive these battles, he doesn't hold out much hope for the future because of the notorious Patriot Act. But, his thoughts range far and wide, taking in his early years in Louisville and the proud highway to his remote home in Aspen, which he currently finds under seige from unscrupulous developers and former porn queens bent on ruining his mostly peaceful life. There is plenty of dark humor and pithy insights into the loathsome nature of the American dream. It is a very uneven book, but then that is what I have come to expect from Thompson, who hasn't been able to repeat his past great efforts such as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72.
Rating: 
Summary: OH HOW THE MIGHTY HAVE FALLEN
Review: Hunter used to be a man who used a pen like a weapon, but a fine weapon like a rapier. This time it's a bludgeon, and Hunter has obviously lost his touch. He comes across as an angry, drunk old bigot. He used to offend in an effort to open they eyes of the naive, but here he is simply a Democratic party hack, toeing the political line. There is nothing new in this book, unless you consider open hatred of those religiously or ethnically different from the author. Pathetic.
Rating:
Summary: Fear and Loathing of the Typewriter
Review: I can't help but compare Dr. Thompson's latest to a "Greatest Hits" (HA!) compilation of Chuck Berry's post-Fifties work . There are still recognizable characteristics of past greatness but the greatness itself has entirely vanished. This is an incredibly lazy, patched-together collection that is every bit as deserving of one of Thompson's trademark verbal disembowelings as anything produced by goverment, pop culture, or corporate Amerika. Most of the worthwhile material here is available for free online so save your money and go reread "Hells Angels" or "Fear & Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72". Despite their age both offer more relevant insights that this literary fire sale....
I doubt that Thompson is capable of matching his stellar works of the past which is quite understandable considering the quality of those works. Bob Dylan will never be able to match "Bringing It All Back Home" or "Blonde on Blonde" either, but his recent output shows that he continues to try. The same cannot be said for H.S.T. as evidenced by the hopelessly limp noodle that is "Kingdom of Fear".
Rating:
Summary: A libertarian at the End of the American Century
Review: I have only read two other HTS books and thoroughly enjoyed this one. A lot of reviews have complained that this book is
a rehash of a lot of stories that have been told before. I'm not familiar enough with his other books to tell so can only judge this book on its own merits. And it works great. The publisher has been billing this book as a biography or a memior, but it really isn't. Although the book is organized around incidents and stories in the life of HST by the end of the book it became clear to me that all of the stories have one theme and purpose - to illuminate HST's view that American culture is making an authoritarian shift in what HST calls the "Final Days of the American
Century." HST describes himself as a "fifteen year old girl in the body of a 65 year old junkie." A writer who came out the 1960's counterculture, he is now a libertarian who calls September 11th "the day the fun stopped." For HST since then America has been gripped by fear and worry. He doesn't see the country in a state of war but having a nervous breakdown. The result is a crackdown on freedom and behavior which is seen as a threat to the system and an overzeolous justice system. Almost every single story in the book touches on this. That's why I don't think it is really a biography. There is a reason why he chose the stories that he did. HST is the only author I know of who is talking about this great shift in American post Sept-11th right now. America has changed and the country is at a fork in the road. George Bush is not going to be able to kill all of the terrorists or stop them. A choice is going to be made. Our country is either going to have to accept the possibility of terrorism as a fact of life and just move on with the understanding that no matter how bad an act of terrorism is it isn't the end of the world or else we are going to have to have the government take away many of our freedoms in order to protect us. It's a choice that needs to be made. It is one or the other and HST shows us in this book some of the consequences of the second path. Unfortunately this is an issue that no one is talking about or debating over. As a result the Justice Deparment is increasing its power by the power of default. HST forces you to at least briefly glimpse at this serious topic in this book by getting you to enj oy doing so through his humorous and frenzied writing style. He quotes Muhummad Ali as saying - "there are no jokes, truth is the funniest joke of all" - and shows us that the Champ is right. This is an important book.
Rating: 
Summary: Earth To Doctor: What Happened?
Review: I have spent more than two decades eagerly awaiting the latest offering from the Godfather of Gonzo, the one and only Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. After finishing "Kingdom of Fear," I'm afraid that anticipation will turn to dread, as the good doctor seems destined for a long, ugly slide into self-parody. We're promised a revealing memoir here; instead, we get a mishmash of tales told many times before. There are still flashes of the old Thompson wit and narrative power, but the energy and focus he brought to his classic works of the seventies has long since vanished.
Rating:
Summary: Ramblings of a Gonzo Journalist Trying to Make Rent
Review: I just finished (last night) "Kingdom of Fear" by Hunter S. Thompson. He has always been a personal fave, but his later books have lacked the energy of the earlier works. But, he can still turn a phrase. "Its better to be shot out of a cannon, than squeezed out of a tube." This book has the "jumbled" story lines that have appeared in his later work. It makes it harder to read than it ought to be. I shouldn't be reading HST while living in my current vortex of anger and frustration. Know where I can get a Kevlar vest?
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