Stephen King’s unforgettable novella–first included in his 1990, award-winning collection Four Past Midnight and made into a highly acclaimed miniseries–about a terrifying plane ride into a most unfriendly sky. On a cross-country, redeye flight from Los Angeles to Boston, ten passengers awaken in Bangor, Maine, to find that the crew and most of their fellow passengers have disappeared. The … have disappeared. The airport shows no signs of life. Yet they hear “radio static” in the distance. Craig Toomey, an irritable investment banker on the verge of a breakdown, believes it is “The Langoliers,” monsters he was afraid of as a child who attack those who waste time. It’s mystery author Bob Jenkins who first theorizes that they have flown through a time rip. Bob declares they have entered a place that forbids time travelers to observe or interfere with past events. It turns out that Craig is right, in a way. Two creatures, followed by hundreds more, emerge from the forest and head for the plane, consuming everything in their path. Can the survivors manage to fly the plane back to Los Angeles, back to the correct time, before The Langoliers succeed in their deadly mission to destroy the plane and the world? Dinah Bellman, the young blind girl whose aunt did not survive the time rip, has the greatest insight of all.
A spine-tingling, propulsive novella, The Langoliers is a brilliant read from the masterful Stephen King.
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While not one of my favorite of King’s work, The Langoliers is a well paced story. It’s real gift is in the character development. They start out like a dozen or so people we all know in our lives. As the circumstances become clearer we see each transform into their better and worse selves. As for round creatures with super sharp rotating teeth, whose purpose is to eat the past. All I can say is heck why not, it’s a King story after all.
A very interesting book with unpredictable events. But its annotation needs to be removed.
Plot. Rating 5
Although events from the past of the characters are sometimes wedged into the plot, they did not bother me, since the plot developed dynamically. It has difficult puzzles that twist the plot. The feeling of the growing threat is perfectly conveyed. The behavior of the characters also brings a surprise to the plot. At first, one plot twist is shocking because of this, then another. The book is full of drama in the second part among other things. The plot of the book keeps you in suspense until the very end – the characters overcome many obstacles.
However, I think the love line was unnecessary in this book or needed to be spelled out in more detail. In general, I believe that the volume of the book is too small to cover such a large topic and the many events that take place.
Characters. Rating 5
There are eleven characters in the book, not counting episodic characters that do not affect the plot. These eleven people are shown excellently. They differ in appearance, features, goals that keep them in the book, as well as their behavior in an extreme situation. The bearded passenger with a hangover seems to me to have taken the most advantageous position in the book. His thoughtful strategy, as well as steely endurance in the short break between his correct actions, were very impressive.
Dialogues. Rating 4
In the dialogues, the plot develops, as the characters actively discuss the oddities happening to them and their quest for a way out of their terrible situation. The dialogues are good enough; they convey a variety of riddles and conflicts. Although, I would not say that I liked them extremely.
Writing style. Rating 4
The writing style gives a clear idea of everything while avoiding lengthy descriptions.
Worldbuilding. Rating 5
Amazing worldbuilding, arguably one of Stephen King’s best.
Spoiler:
The book discusses a great idea about a frozen or, more precisely, gradually freezing past, with its subsequent destruction. I think that living beings, as the most active objects, disappear first (missing people on an airplane), then physical processes stop, and then the space of the past itself is destroyed with the help of a certain process or some langoliers-creatures (most likely human perception adapts this process in the usual way). The idea that the future is also frozen and is waiting for the arrival of the present is also interesting.
Conclusion. Overall rating 5
An extremely eventful book with an original fantastic idea. Science fiction, drama, horror, humor, and a love affair are all present.
On a red eye flight from Los Angeles to Boston, ten passengers awaken mid-flight and discover that everyone else on their plane has completely disappeared, leaving only their identifications and various pieces of abandoned jewelry behind. Luckily, there is a pilot left among the leftover passengers, but he discovers something even more sinister- there appears to be nothing left on the ground either; it seems as if the entire world is being swallowed up below them. Cranky passenger Craig Toomey believes they are falling prey to the “Langoliers”, a creature that haunted his childhood that feasts on the “lazy” and “unproductive” of society. The remaining passengers all have different ideas on what has happened and what they should do next, and they all must avoid turning on each other as they face an unusual foe.
Stephen King’s “The Langoliers” was originally published as part of a collection in the 1990s, and was recently published in 2019 as its own delightful story.
There are a lot of characters in this novel, with similar names and personalities, they are initially hard to differentiate (Brian, the pilot and Bob, the author, are just two). But as the ten remaining passengers develop, they form their own personalities and, as is prevalent in King’s novels, some are extremely likable, and there are those that are very much less so.
The Langoliers are a creepy, round-shaped entity that demolish land, buildings and people alike, destroying anything in its way and turning it into a vast emptiness. What started as a creepy story told to Craig by his demanding father, comes to life in the scariest of ways, in pure King fashion. For the majority of the novel there are merely hinted at, described as crunching, static-type noises in the background, and they only make their appearance toward the very end of the novel, heightening the suspense to its very peak.
I prefer King’s original, 1990s era novels, right when he was hitting his stride, to some of his newer novels (although I am a huge King fan either way) and “The Langoliers” is exactly the kind of King novel I love. As it was initially published as part of a collection, it isn’t massively thick, making it completely readable.
Great characters, suspenseful storytelling, and eerie “things that go bump in the night” are pure King, and this novel is downright scary enjoyment from page one.
One of King’s best to me. Really enjoyed this one. Had nightmares for weeks afterwards.
This is a very good novel from a time when Stephen King was in top form. Not like his newer offerings filled with his liberal political drivel. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who likes the horror genre.
Classic King! ‘Nuf said!
As always Stephen King is the master!
This book made me wonder if I wanted to ever fly again. Scary
One of my favorites.
Comes at you like something you’d never expect. Once it has you hooked it’s hard to put it down.
Fantastic read!
Good read, a bit long.