Doctor Omega
Member: Rank 10
The Tommyknockers
Author Stephen King
Cover artist One Plus One Studio
Country United States
Language English
Genre Science fiction
Published November 10, 1987
Publisher Putnam
Media type Print (Hardcover)
Pages 558
ISBN 978-0-399-13314-5
The Tommyknockers is a 1987 science fiction novel by Stephen King. While maintaining a horror style, the novel is more of an excursion into the realm of science fiction for King, as the residents of the Maine town of Haven gradually fall under the influence of a mysterious object buried in the woods.
King would later look back on the novel unfavorably, describing it as "an awful book."
Influences
In his autobiography On Writing, King attributes the basic premise to the short story "The Colour Out of Space" by H. P. Lovecraft. He also used a poem from his childhood for the preamble, which went: Late last night and the night before, Tommyknockers, Tommyknockers, knocking at the door. I want to go out, don't know if I can, 'cause I'm so afraid of the Tommyknocker man.
The writer and critic Kim Newman has cited another influence on the novel, saying that in it King had "more or less rewritten Quatermass and the Pit",[2] a 1950s BBC televisionscience-fiction serial involving the excavation of a long-buried alien spacecraft, and the growing influence of the dormant machine on surrounding human beings.
The novel was written during the height of King's experiences with his own addictions and is filled with metaphors for the stranglehold of substance abuse.[3] In an interview with Rolling Stone, King acknowledged that the quality of his writing suffered during his period of drug use, saying, "The Tommyknockers is an awful book. That was the last one I wrote before I cleaned up my act."[1]
Other themes in the book include the dangers of nuclear power and radioactive fallout, as evidenced by the physical transformations of the townspeople which resemble the effects of radiation exposure, of unchecked technological advancement, and of the corrupting influence of power.[4]
Adaptations
A two-part television miniseries based on the novel was shown in 1993 on ABC, starring Jimmy Smits as Jim Gardner and Marg Helgenberger as Bobbi Anderson.
NBC announced in July 2013 that they would be producing a new miniseries based on The Tommyknockers.
THR reported on March 29, 2018 that The Conjuring filmmaker James Wan and the 2017 It producer Roy Lee will join up with producer Larry Sanitsky to create a feature film version of The Tommyknockers.
