Search - Blaze

This is remeniscent of earlier SK aka Richard Bachman. It still doesn't dissappoint. I enjoyed this read, and it almost made you root for the bad guy. Not alot of gore or eerieness, but enought to keep you interested.

This is a true Richard Bachman novel - there is hardly a hint of writer Stephen King would become in this book. It was actually written before Carrie. He wanted an almost "true crime" kind of novel, but it ended up not coming out that way.

Blaze is a con man who usually operates as part of a two-man team, but his friend is no longer with him, and he has to find out how to keep his life going. Just a warning to Stephen King lovers: there is little creepiness, freakiness, or simple oddities in this book that is in most of his other books. But it is oddly endearing, and still a page-turner.

Blaze is the last novel from Bachman’s period of greatest productivity from 1966-1973. As Stephen King put it, he was two men during this time. King was wrote and sold horror stories to raunchy skim-mags and Bachman wrote novels that didn’t sell to anybody. The facts that I just wrote I learned from King’s Full Disclosure at the beginning of Blaze and I also learned many other interesting facts.

I didn’t find Blaze a horrible read, just tedious at times. There isn’t much in action but just a steady build up to the end. It was worth reading till the end though. Before I even knew it I was sympathizing with Clayton Blaisdell, Jr. aka Blaze and really hoping that he would turn his life around. Unfortunately, the cards are just stacked against him.

Blaze’s life started with his father throwing him down the stairs causing him brain damage. He then is shipped off to a home for boys where he really starts his life of crime. He does have one chance at having normal life when a family adopts him, but because he defends himself against an attacking dog and kills it, he is sent packing back to the boy’s home. This truly begins his downward spiral I believe. After meeting up with George he is shown all new cons and is in awe of George. George and he decided to take on the biggest payoff of all, kidnapping a baby. Before this goes down, George is killed. Blaze knows that he must continue with the plan, because that is what George wants and George is still around and telling him what to do. So with George’s help Blaze sets into motion a series of events that lead to the final showdown.

The ending is tragic and heartbreaking. Blaze really is a good guy, he just makes really bad decisions.

I've always been a S.King fan & will read anything he writes. Although this may not be his best book, I still enjoyed it. Stephen's characters are alive!!!

Stephen King may be the "master of horror," but with BLAZE he proves that he's also just a plain ole good writer. This story is a mixture of a thriller, a mystery, a police procedural, and a personal struggle to figure out who you are.

Blaze, aka Clayton Blaisdell, Jr., is a dummy, and he knows it. Ever since his father threw him down a flight of stairs (and then hauled him back up and did it a couple of more times), Blaze hasn't had the brains for learning. The dent in his forehead might make him look scary, but we soon learn that Blaze isn't much of a threat -- except when he's really angry. He might look like a giant at 6'7" and nearly 300 pounds, but this man's heart is as soft as his mind.

Blaze has pretty much drifted through life by skirting the law and mostly (with exceptions) avoiding trouble. When he meets George Rackley, Blaze learns the art of the con. The two of them (or, rather, George) have been planning one big job for awhile now. That big job would be kidnapping the baby of a rich couple, collecting the ransom, and living the high-life somewhere with white sandy beaches and lots of sun.

But we soon learn that things aren't going quite the way either man had expected. For one, George is dead, even though he's still helping with the kidnapping plot. For another, Blaze, as we've already learned, isn't the smartest guy around.

What follows is a mixture of present day mystery/thriller as Blaze carries out the kidnapping of little Joey, mixed with the flashbacks of his life that show how Blaze ends up where he's at.

King (aka Bachman..does it really matter the name?) shows great control in the pacing of BLAZE, and expertly weaves the present with the past. You'll also be surprised (and entertained) by the joy that is Blaze, who is a wonderful, fully-developed character.