The Coming of 'Doctor Sleep'

Photo Courtesy: StephenKing.Com

Scribner has revealed the hardcover edition artwork for Doctor Sleep. View it here.

Official Release Date: September 24th 2013

Stephen King explained the sequel to his third novel The Shining as "a return to balls-to-the-wall, keep-the-lights-on horror."

After thirty-six (that's 36) years, Stephen King decides to revisit the world of the 'talented' kid Danny Torrance.

In an EW interview, the writer opens up on what inspired him to write the sequel to one of his most loved stories;

"Probably five years ago, I saw this piece on one of those morning news shows about a pet cat at a hospice, and according to this story the cat knew before anybody else when somebody was going to die. The cat would go into the room, curl up on the bed, and the people never seemed to mind. Then those people died. I thought to myself: ‘I want to write a story about that.’ And then I made the connection with Danny Torrance as an adult, working in a hospice. I thought: ‘That’s it. I’m gonna write this book.’"

Dan who is now a middle-aged man turns Doctor Sleep with the aid of a cat that can foresee the future. In the book, Dan who has been a drifter much of his young life decides to settle down in a New Hampshire town where he uses his shining to provide comfort to the dying. He meets a 12-year-old girl, Abra Stone whose shining is the brightest of all. Dan has a fight on his hands when a tribe of almost immortal travelers called The True Knot hit town.

King had this to say about this tribe;

"they don't like dogs and dogs don't like them … You might say dogs see through them – to the sharp and watchful eyes behind the cut-rate sunglasses, to the strong and long muscled hunters' legs beneath the polyester slacks from Wal-Mart, to the sharp teeth beneath the dentures waiting to come out. They don't like dogs, but they like sick children. Yes, they like sick children very much." - For more see The Guardian

These tribe of crazy quasi-immortals feed off the 'steam' of children who possess the gift of the shining produced when these kids are slowly tortured to death. Dan must win an epic war between good and evil if he must save the life of 12-year-old Abra Stone.

Akpan