The Tommyknockers
Stephen King
Signet
*The Tommyknockers* is a 1987 horror novel by Stephen King. While maintaining a horror style, the novel is more of an excursion into the realm of science fiction, as the residents of the Maine town of Haven gradually fall under the influence of a mysterious object buried in the woods.


In his autobiography, *On Writing*, King attributes the basic premise to the short story "The Colour Out of Space" by H.P. Lovecraft. It also draws fairly obvious parallels with the classic 1956 movie *Invasion of the Body Snatchers* & the 1959 novelette *The Big Front Yard* by Clifford Simak. King wrote the book during a period of acknowledged substance abuse & has written that he realized later on that the novel was a metaphor for that addiction.


The writer & critic Kim Newman has cited another influence on the novel, saying that in it King had "more or less rewritten *Quatermass & the Pit*," a 1950s BBC television science-fiction serial. This influence was also picked up on in *The Times* newspaper's review of the book on its release.