Stephen King (Author focus)

Well, it was only a matter of time I suppose, before I got around to doing an author focus on Stephen King, one of my favourite and one of the more frustrating authors that I read.

To list all of the Stephen King books I have read and reread over the years and to rate them individually would be very long-winded so I won't do that here (you can search this blog for Stephen King and they'll pop up) instead I will just share my thoughts with you on this prolific writer in hope of enticing you to read some of his books.

So where do you start with an author who has written over sixty novels and hundreds of short stories, of which you have read about half?

Well, at the beginning I suppose, which for this old boy was the best part of thirty-five years ago, when I picked up a copy of The Shining (it may have been Carrie, Christine or Cujo because I remember reading them all in quick succession) and I was taken on a journey like no other.

I was cutting my teeth on English horror at the time (James Herbert being my favourite with Clive Barker snapping at his heels) when suddenly I was reading horror without the horror! Horror books which seemed more about real life than the blood-drenched cellars of the Rats trilogy and those found in The Books of Blood and The Hellbound Heart, and I was blown away.

Some of King's novels are a bit lacking, and some are bloodthirsty, I won't lie, but many are no more horrific than what is for some people, normal life (a rabid bog in Cujo, a woman trying to escape an abusive relationship in Rose Madder, a man being driven mad by cabin fever in The Shining, an amputee's recovery in Duma Key, a school shooting in Rage) and with many having a hint of the supernatural thrown in for good measure I was on a roll.

They're clever too, fictional towns like Derry and Castle Rock make repeat appearances, characters hop from book to book, sometimes popping up in the most unlikely of places, and it all adds to the reality of the fiction! There's Dolores Claiborne, which is written as one continuous monologue (yes, the entire three hundred plus pages has no chapter breaks and no speech other than Dolores). The Green Mile, which was released as six mini books over the course of a few months, adding to the anticipation of what was to came next. The Dark Tower series - which I'm still yet to finish - which splices 1970's 80's & 90's New York, with Mid World - a totally fictional place that seems to be Earth but not Earth at the same time - and is simply superb on so many levels.

I eluded to 'frustrating' in my opening sentence, and as brilliant as most of King's books are, he does like to waffle, gets a bit wordy sometimes, which can be frustrating - there's a six hundred page flashback in Wizard & Glass for example - but (isn't there always a but?) when reading IT or all 1400 + pages of The Stand, I wouldn't have it any other way.
So, if you like your books fast-paced and short, fantastical but realistic, futuristic or set in the past, like tomes with dozens of characters that spread over decades, horror, the supernatural, the assassination of JFK and much much more, there's a Stephen King book out there for you, waiting to be found.
Enjoy.