The Regulators (novel)

The Regulators
First edition cover
Author Stephen King (as Richard Bachman)
Country United States
Language English
Genre Science fiction
Horror
Publisher Dutton
Publication date
 September 24, 1996
Media type Print (Hardcover)
Pages 480
ISBN 978-0-525-94190-3

The Regulators is a novel by Stephen King under the pseudonym Richard Bachman. It was published in 1996 at the same time as its "mirror" novel, Desperation. The two novels represent parallel universes relative to one another, and most of the characters present in one novel's world also exist in the other novel's reality, albeit in different circumstances. Additionally, the hardcover first editions of each novel, if set side by side, make a complete painting, and on the back of each cover is also a peek at the opposite's cover.

King had previously "killed off" Bachman after the pseudonym was publicly exposed around the time of the 1984 release of the Bachman novel Thinner. However, on the book's jacket and in a tongue-in-cheek introduction by the book's editor, it was alleged that this 1996 work was written by Bachman years earlier, but the manuscript had only recently been discovered by his widow in a trunk.

Development

The novel began as a screenplay titled The Shotgunners.[1] King says that film writer-director Sam Peckinpah read the script made some suggestions, but Peckinpah died while King was writing the second draft.[1]

Plot

The story takes place in Wentworth, a fictional suburban town in Ohio. On Poplar Street, an autistic boy named Seth has gained the power to control reality through the help of a being known as Tak. Soon, Poplar Street begins to change shape, transforming from a quiet suburb into a wild west caricature based on what Seth has seen on his television. Meanwhile, the other residents of the street are being attacked by the many beings that Seth's imagination is creating, due to Tak's control over them. These residents are forced to work together to stop Seth and Tak from completely transforming the world around them and stop Tak before he kills anyone else.

Seth's imagination is heavily influenced by a western called The Regulators and a cartoon called MotoKops 2200. The novel contains excerpts from scripts for both.

References to other King works

In the novel's epilogue, a letter written by a woman on her honeymoon to her friend mentions one of Stephen King's earlier works, The Shining. "You're the only person I know who's read not just one copy of The Shining to tatters, but two!" "...although I don't suppose it's much like Stephen King's Overlook..."

Adaptations

As of August 14, 2014, there have been discussions about turning The Regulators into a TV series, per King's Twitter account.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 HorrorKing.com
  2. ↑ "Stephen King on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
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