Books: Wake up, Stephen; The King of horror must be dreaming if he expects us to swallow this far-fetched yarn about alien invasion and telepathy Dreamcatcher by Stephen King (Hodder, pounds 17.99) jj.

Byline: Andrea Henry

With a track record boasting winners such as Carrie, The Shining, Misery and The Shawshank Redemption, the odds on Stephen King telling a good story are pretty high. After a three-year absence he's back with Dreamcatcher, a long, ambitious tale that jumps back in at the deep end of the horror genre.

Pete, Henry, Jonesy and Beaver have been friends since their boyhood in Maine, the setting for many a King bloodfest. Now thirtysomething, they've gone their separate ways, but hook up each winter for a hunting trip. The strong bond is cemented by their disabled friend Douglas, or "Duddits", who is never far from their thoughts. And what special thoughts they are.

Duddits' telepathic knack has rubbed off on his friends. They know someone's name before they're introduced and alarm bells ring when something bad is about to happen. Look after yourself, Henry warns Jonesy shortly before he's nearly killed in a car accident. Death passes him by this time but, like Arnie, you just know he'll be back. And if Henry's predictions remain accurate, death goes by the alias "Mr Gray".

On this year's hunting trip at their isolated mountain cabin, those alarm bells are deafening. Jonesy mistakes a lost stranger for a deer and almost shoots him. Although he soon regrets not pulling the trigger. The stranger, Rick McCarthy, belches and farts like there's no tomorrow and smells as if something's died inside him. But it's far worse than that - something's living inside him. He's about to give birth and it's not going to be one for the family album. After all, death by heinous bodily functions is not a pretty sight.

Toilet humour aside, it's at this point that things get a bit silly. The story's credibility rests on the belief that alien invasion is a serious threat - something that's shattered when the characters take a look at their situation and roll out the fictional horror references. Vincent Price, The X Files, Alien - you name it, they've seen it. Now they're living it and have probably got the T-shirt, too.

Unfortunately, little green men from outer space - or in this case not- so-little grey ones - just aren't scary. The one redeeming factor is that King's alien species is carrying an ebola-type virus that could wipe out the human race.

If characters are lucky enough to avoid having their innards consumed during the fiend's gestation period, then being attacked when it's born, they're still on a collision course with a gung-ho US military who wade in, all guns blazing, to eradicate the alien visitors and prevent the virus's spread.

The virus is named Ripley, after Sigourney Weaver's character in Alien. And the hellish scenes of warfare are like stumbling into the depravity of Apocalypse Now. So it's no surprise that heading up the military's task force is a madman named Kurtz. If I didn't know better - which is that the book's serious inspiration is King's struggle to get back to health following his freak car accident - I'd say he's having a laugh.

As Kurtz squares up to blitz Maine, our heroes realise that the fate of the world is in their hands. Everything depends on Duddits' telepathic gifts because, through him, the friends can make things happen which are actually only taking place in their dreams. In the mother of all car chases, the sole surviving alien - the dreaded Mr Gray - makes a last ditch attempt to sustain his species while the good guys try to stop him. And not before time.

The story's hard going because even if you swallow the alien invasion plot you still have to figure out how much of what's happening is real and how much is just going on in our heroes' heads.

Fast, furious and strangely compelling, but ultimately 600 pages of hot air, this will not make you re-evaluate your thoughts on The Great Unknown. At best it'll give you something to think about next time you're passing wind.

Be disappointed. Be very disappointed.

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CAPTION(S):

A FANTASY TOO FAR? King's Dreamcatcher is a fan's nightmare