Billy Summers' "The Fantastic Four: A Superhero Adventure"

L. Saylor: King has always been a favorite, as he is for so many. This entry was such a satisfying story, complete with previous classic King references. These always make me smile. Nobody develops his characters so easily for us, ‘dear readers’ than he. Keep ‘em coming.

United States on Oct 29, 2023

John Stirzaker: I've read so many of his books over the years, IT and Tommyknockers were great horror stories. Now he's evolved into an amazing thriller writer, but it's still written in hi style of storytelling

United Kingdom on Oct 21, 2023

K. Gibbs: Like Mr. King’s other novels, “Billy Summers” is a great read on many levels. I recommend it for people who simply want to read a good story and people who appreciate a story with richly developed characters and the depth of multiple — yet not heavy-handed — themes, including glimpsing current (and recently current) world events from participants’ eyes, finding genuine relationships and potential redemption in unusual places, and pursuing dreams even if they seem unattainable… to name a few. (My review is deliberately vague to avoid spoilers.) This novel provided an oasis during a difficult time. Thank you, Mr. King.

United States on Oct 13, 2023

Siva Rama Prasad G A VSiva Rama Prasad G A V:

India on Aug 16, 2023

¥ V!$ ¥¥ V!$ ¥: It's books are literally great to read. I wanted to read these one - Billy Summers, as everyone know it's little bit expensive for a student to buy, but due to Amazon Freedom Sale.... After a long time I got it's Hardcover Book....! 🤩🤩🤩 Finally I can Read, book is Sturdy as new... Great👍👍👍

India on Aug 10, 2023

Archer King Murakami Manic: 2021年に、Stephen King（1947～）が発表した「Billy...

Japan on Aug 06, 2023

Blah de Blah de Blah: Stephen King is the gift that just keeps on giving - now half a century since his first book ("Carrie"), and there's no let-up. 'Billy Summers' is a tour-de-force that grips the reader throughout.

Billy is a hired gun - but with scruples, he only hits bad guys - and now he's had enough, it's his last job with a big payout. Once done, he can head off to a beach somewhere, never to be seen again, never to be hired again. But it doesn't work out like that. His target is six months out from the hit, so he gets set up with a false ID in the town of 'Red Bluff' (Memphis or Louisville or similar), hiding behind an unsuspecting normality before the job. This takes a great deal of gripping narrative and storytelling before we reach the point of the hit. I was trying to work out what was up, because my Kindle app was telling me I was only a third into the book - yet the climax was about to happen, or so I thought.

Not so, as Billy stays hidden in the town after the job with yet another ID, waiting for the media storm to die down before making his exit - the key second character of the book makes her untimely entrance: a 21-year-old gang-rape victim, dumped for dead outside his...

United Kingdom on May 25, 2023

Elizabeth Batchelder: I grew up reading Stephen King and have generally enjoyed his novels and short stories. Billy Summers started off fairly strong, with a detailed subplot and an interesting main character. I particularly appreciated the concept of the "dumb self" - the protective persona Summers employs to avoid suspicion. Overall, this was an entertaining read, although the pace slackened considerably after the original "assignment" had been carried out (with the somewhat predictable but relatively intriguing betrayal that followed). I'd give this 2.5 stars if it were an option, but 3 seems pretty fair.

However, I must say that King seems to have lost a step in writing younger characters. I think a good editor might, for example, have steered him away from the many, many outdated references he employs, many of which are recycled from earlier works. I found the "see you later, alligator" exchange with supposedly 21st-century kids to be highly questionable, as was the same kids' obsession with Monopoly. (I'd find it much more believable if it were a video game - and if it had been one that played to Billy's sharpshooting skills, it might have provided interesting foreshadowing for the...

United States on Dec 19, 2022

Josh Mauthe: As Stephen King has gotten older, he’s been more and more willing to step out of his comfort zone, finding new and interesting stories to tell and areas on which to focus. Until now, the most obvious example of this was Mr. Mercedes, in which King tried his hand at a serial killer novel, but found a way to do it that made it feel undeniably his own. That’s not to say that Mr. Mercedes was bad, mind you – I enjoyed it – but it definitely felt like King trying his hand at something different, and stretching it all to fit his ideas and tropes.

But now comes Billy Summers, an “assassin with one last job” tale, and what’s remarkable is the fact that it’s simultaneously a superb, faithful entry in the genre that hits all the needed beats, but also unmistakably a King book, with the character development, relentless pacing, and set pieces he’s so capable of delivering when he’s at his peak. What’s more, Billy Summers finds King focusing his abilities in a way he hasn’t in a while, paring back some of his verbal tics and overly large characters in favor of a well-observed, surprisingly internal story about a very bad man reckoning with the choices he made...

United States on Dec 04, 2021