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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
Format: Bargain Price
Label: Scribner
Manufacturer: Scribner
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 304
Printing Date: June 12, 2007
Publishing house: Scribner
Release Date: June 12, 2007
Sale Popularity Level: 44328
Studio: Scribner
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Product Description:
The last of the Richard Bachman novels, recently recovered and published for the very first time. Stephen King's 'dark half' may have saved the best for last.
A fellow named Richard Bachman wrote Blaze in 1973 on an Olivetti typewriter, then turned the machine over to Stephen King, who used it to write Carrie. Bachman died in 1985 ('cancer of the pseudonym'), but in late 2006 King found the original typescript of Blaze among his papers at the University of Maine's Fogler Library ('How did this get here?!'), and decided that with a little revision it ought to be published.
Blaze is the story of Clayton Blaisdell, Jr. -- of the crimes committed against him and the crimes he commits, including his last, the kidnapping of a baby heir worth millions. Blaze has been a slow thinker since childhood, when his father threw him down the stairs -- and then threw him down again. After escaping an abusive institution for boys when he was a teenager, Blaze hooks up with George, a seasoned criminal who thinks he has all the answers. But then George is killed, and Blaze, though haunted by his partner, is on his own.
He becomes one of the most sympathetic criminals in all of literature. This is a crime story of surprising strength and sadness, with a suspenseful current sustained by the classic workings of fate and character -- as taut and riveting as Stephen King's The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon.
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Rated by buyers 
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Blaze arrive in a timely manner, and was in excellant condition. It was packaged very good. I really enjoyed this book I recommend it to all Stephan KING FANS.
Rated by buyers -
Good little story from Stephen King's dark vault of early unpublished writings. There's quite a bit of balance, nuance, and sophistication for an almost four decades-old story that Mr. King waited until now to publish. For instance, the tribulations of Blaze's early life create sympathy for the title character, but not to the point where we want to excuse or forgive Blaze's later criminal career. In other words, I felt bad for the guy but still wanted him to get caught by the F.B.I. once he crossed over into child kidnapping.
I also liked how, in the story's earlier going, we see that Blaze's friend George was good for him in many ways, but things got mucked up because George was a career criminal and encouraged Blaze to refine and deepen his own clunky (and, until then, mostly harmless) criminal past.
Complex, ironic situations like these deepened this engaging story, making it more than a simple crime-laced morality tale.
I also enjoyed Stephen King's lengthy introduction to "Blaze". In it he talks not only about the history of the book in question, but the many things that were going on in his professional and personal life around the time of the book's writing. It's a fun and interesting piece in itself.
I listened to the 7-CD unabridged audiobook version of "Blaze", which features a wonderful, skillful performance by actor, writer, and frequent audiobook narrator Ron McLarty. However, you don't get the bonus short story, "Memory" which accompanies the print editions of the book.
Rated by buyers 
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Blaze was a decent, short novel by King, though not his best work by a long shot (he says so in the forward). You can't help feeling a little sorry for the lead character "Blaze". His troubled past was really the cause of his present, and you can't help but wonder what could have been.....
Rated by buyers -
I really wasnt expecting to like this book too much but I was happily mistaken. The character, Blaze, although on the wrong path, elicited my sympathy and I liked him and wished he could have been raised differently. All in all it was a good book.
Rated by buyers -
Stephen King writes best as Richard Bachman. This story was a page-turner and I read it all in one weekend.
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