Review: 11/22/63 by Stephen King

The Review

I love good time travel, and good alternate history, stories. 11/22/63 is both, but it's so much more. It will take you to the late 1950s and early 1960s with vivid clarity, where you'll meet well-rounded characters you'll come to love.

What would you do if you had access to a time tunnel, that always opens to a specific place, at a specific moment? Jake Epping, a 35-year-old high school English teacher, has to decide that for himself when asked to fulfill a mission: go back to 1958, live in the past for five years, and stop Lee Harvey Oswald from killing President Kennedy.

What ensues is an odyssey into an era when nearly everyone smoked, segregation ruled in the American South, and the Cold War was at its height. It was also a simpler time in a much more trusting and friendly U.S. While planning to stop Oswald, Jake makes friends, falls in love, and learns that the past doesn't want to be changed, and will fight against him.

I had a tough time predicting where the story would go. As an author myself, I kept thinking about what I would write.

There were so many turns the tale could have taken, but I think that King's plot was near perfect. You'll learn a lot about love with this book, but I think the most important lesson is this: Accept the past, and learn to move forward.

One thing I've noticed recently with King adaptations is that the details often diverge, sometimes greatly, from the source novels. This was the case both with Mr. Mercedes and It. Those were done well and stuck to the spirit of the stories, hitting the most important points. (Don't get me started on the "adaptation" of The Dark Tower. The books are among my favorite of all time. The movie was a mess.)

Anyway, I suspect the mini-series version of 11/22/63 will also be excellent.

On An Unrelated Note

I'm giving away another limited edition hardcover copy of my novel, Bodacious Creed: a Steampunk Zombie Western!

Enter for free, and you'll also get subscribed to my newsletter, and you'll be able to download a prequel story to the novel, as well as a large PDF version of the map contained on the first pages.

That's it! What else is there to say, but... read on!