Duma Key--**spoiler thread**

[Heather19]

It is (Jerome Wireman)

I think Matt's referring to Edgar

[Lost Rose]

Duh...I have Wireman on the brain..also agree with Matt..there's nothing to make you think Edgar was a man of color..just because of the same name used in the Stand..he crosses a lot of names in his books...thanks heather..don't get old..you're mind tends to go off on it's own sometimes..LOL!

[AcidBumbler]

I really liked Duma Key, although I can't actually remember much at all.
I just remember really enjoying it.

[divemaster]

Just finished reading it yesterday. Like most others in this thread, I really enjoyed it. This sums up for me what I felt, although exactly the opposite.

I thought [the ending] was masterful, and the contemporary story and narrative felt worn out and hollow by comparison - it felt like I was reading and reading but the real story was dead and gone 80 years previous. You could really feel the isolation of the characters in the backstory.

I preferred the contemporary story. I loved Edgar and Wireman and the way Edgar had to deal with his injuries and his divorce and all the emotions that come out of those life-changing events. The way he felf about his daughters (loved each one, but one "more" than the other and the guilt that comes along with that). Dealing with his new-found talent. These and other aspects of the book were more impressive to me than the horror story of Perse and the zombies and the race against the sun to get the china doll into freswater.

The backstory was okay. Served the plot well by setting the stage for the horrors to come. But I didn't "feel" those characters like the ones in the contemporary story.

Don't get me wrong. There were some chilling passages. Going down into the cistern; the lawn jockey; the upside down bird; and especially Edgar meeting up with the ghost of Ilse under Big Pink. That was well-written. Until the end of that section I was almost convinced that he was going to just give up and go with her.

But all in all, the last 100 pages or so almost struck me as "Oh, man, I've been writing this great book with these great characters but no real horror to show my readers yet so I'd better come up with something to wrap this up."

So, final tally I give it a 4.5 out of 5. Definitely a re-read at some point.

[lowdown]

this book is one of SK best i think......it was a little spooky in spots and it takes alot to spook me now....but books always get me worse then movies...i read at night mostly...maybe thats it

[Letti]

I have finished it. What a sad book. I think I got to love Edgar's family way too much.
I liked it. A lot. But there were some solutions I didn't like.. but they didn't ruin the book.
The ending at the beach was brilliant. More than brilliant.
If only we had got more information about Perse.

[alinda]

Has anyone noticed that Duma Key said just a bit differenttly
Doom Aqui ....or doom here (in spanish) , this just was mentioned
to me by a fellow employee I just met, as he was telling me he had
read The Dark Tower...altho small islands here off the coast of Florida
are indeed called keys, I found this quite amusing, and relevent to the story.

[Sickrose]

I really enjoyed this and raced through it. I really enaged with the character of Edgar and really felt for him.

I love the Wiremanisms in it. The other day, I very nearly said "when it comes to memory we all stack the deck" It's sooo true I love that saying. I think it's up there as being as quotable as DT.

[JRM]

Don't remember posting here.

But just wanted to say I loved this book. The climax and ending weren't as strong as the rest of the book, however. It all just happened too quickly and got way too over-the-top. My opinion, of course. That being said, one of my favs.

[mtdman]

I'm doing a re-read of Duma Key right now. I really like this book, and the guy that narrates it has a great voice.

Something that bugs me about this book though. Edgar's wife, and friend Tom, are kinda slimey people. First off, his wife is kind of a bitch towards him. Never mind the fact she divorced a crippled dude barely off his death bed, she's just down right mean towards him. Especially when he calls to get her to check on Tom. The you have Tom, the guy that Edgar says he would have asked to be his best man, someone that worked for him for years, and knew him pretty intimately. As soon as Edgar takes off for Florida this Tom dude is hitting on Edgar's ex-wife and they start banging. What kind of friend goes after his friend's ex-wife? And the fact that Edgar isn't mad enough to spit nails over that whole thing is just crazy. I'd want to kill them both. That whole thing is creepy.

[beam*seeker]

I finished Duma Key today, and I'm sad to say that I didn't enjoy it much. I at no point felt 'grabbed' by the story as it usually happens with other King books, and I felt that the ending was a perfect example of anti-climatic.

My feeling exactly. That being said, I really like the book and its one of my favorites of his (along with Hearts in Atlantis). Maybe it is the semi-historical aspect in connection with the feeling that he really was channeling a lot of his own pain and struggle with his own head injury and how he had to fight back to get function after that--it really made Edgar a sympathetic character to me, as it did Wireman and Li'Bet.

However, containing Perse with a flashlight was, I don't know, childish? A little too easy? Maybe they could have had a more ritualistic aspect to it? (Chud?)

This, is really my only problem with Sai King, his fatal flaw if you will. If he had come up with an ending like the Ritual of Chud, this would have been his best IMHO. I guess I can't expect it all (and he already used up that ending!)

[Jean]

interesting that DK is one of the very few SK books whose ending (or the last part) never felt anti-climactic to me. Maybe because he refrained from universal running, burning, collapsing and exploding, which so often bores me by the end of his books.

[mtdman]

Duma Key is a very good book. Has it been optioned for a movie yet?

[Brice]

I'm doing a re-read of Duma Key right now. I really like this book, and the guy that narrates it has a great voice.

Something that bugs me about this book though. Edgar's wife, and friend Tom, are kinda slimey people. First off, his wife is kind of a bitch towards him. Never mind the fact she divorced a crippled dude barely off his death bed, she's just down right mean towards him. Especially when he calls to get her to check on Tom. The you have Tom, the guy that Edgar says he would have asked to be his best man, someone that worked for him for years, and knew him pretty intimately. As soon as Edgar takes off for Florida this Tom dude is hitting on Edgar's ex-wife and they start banging. What kind of friend goes after his friend's ex-wife? And the fact that Edgar isn't mad enough to spit nails over that whole thing is just crazy. I'd want to kill them both. That whole thing is creepy.

The friend who goes after your ex is just the friend who deserves your ex.

[WeDealInLead]

I don't get why he killed Wireman. That was IMO pretty pointless at that point.

[Brice]

I don't remember. I probably should reread soon.

[CRinVA]

I am listening to the audio cd version right now during my commute time! Just a tad more than 1 third of the way through. :-)

[jhanic]

Funny (as in a coincidence), I'm about a third of the way through a reread.

John

[mtdman]

I am listening to the audio cd version right now during my commute time! Just a tad more than 1 third of the way through. :-)

That narrator is great, wish he'd do some more King stuff

I don't get why he killed Wireman. That was IMO pretty pointless at that point.

It leaves Eddie totally alone and friendless.

[Dan]

Just finished Duma Key. Great novel! I loved it!

[Jean]

awesome! big bearhugs

[WeDealInLead]

I am listening to the audio cd version right now during my commute time! Just a tad more than 1 third of the way through. :-)

That narrator is great, wish he'd do some more King stuff

I don't get why he killed Wireman. That was IMO pretty pointless at that point.

It leaves Eddie totally alone and friendless.

I guess anything's possible. Maybe King just wanted to hurt us more.

[Cass]

Man... SK killed me when the doggie died... also, Wireman is DA man!

[Stebbins]

Has anyone noticed that Duma Key said just a bit differenttly
Doom Aqui ....or doom here (in spanish) , this just was mentioned
to me by a fellow employee I just met, as he was telling me he had
read The Dark Tower...altho small islands here off the coast of Florida
are indeed called keys, I found this quite amusing, and relevent to the story.

I never thought of that, but it's very interesting/clever point.

WeDeal: I'm right there with you on the Wireman point. I thought it was, to use a small pun, overkill. Not necessary IMO.

[mtdman]

I just did my annual re-listen to Duma Key, and something kinda puzzles me. I've never really understood this part:

Spoiler:

What's up with the Sand Ilsa at the end, after they get Perse out of the well? Is that part of Perse's power, and if so, how is it possible if she's asleep in the water in the flashlight? Or is it part of Edgar's power, that he drew her in the sand and she came to life as a sand girl? And/or, did Perse capture Ilsa and is she part of her crew now on the Persephone? Is that why Mary drowned her in the salt water? What happens to the crew and the ship why Perse is trapped in her fresh water 'grave'? None of that made much sense to me.

The friend who goes after your ex is just the friend who deserves your ex.

Maybe so, but it's still pretty low on both the friend and the ex's parts. I wouldn't be able to overlook that like Edgar did. I'd probably let him kill himself and let her blame herself for it. What kind of person does that?