The Constant Writer...Revamp
/In Praise Of Stephen King
62 novels, 31,399 pages, 6,339,301 words (ish)…We fans have certainly earned our moniker of Constant Reader. My foray into the twisty maze of Mr. King’s mind was anointed upon me by my older brother when he passed me his copy of Carrie. I was far too young, but it was then that I stumbled headlong into the wondrous discovery that books could offer up worlds beyond my wildest imagination. No matter that I was a child then and not remotely so now, Stephen King still renders those worlds with each book he writes. To myself and other latchkey kids of the late seventies and early eighties he was our saviour and we owe him a debt that we couldn’t ever hope to repay.
For 40+ years; through first love, impetuous marriage, necessary divorce, career booms and busts, friendships lost and found and countless of life’s aches and pains I have never not been reading a book. They have been my constant companion, my teacher, my tour guide and at risk of sparking your ire, my religion. I can preach my thoughts and feelings on a book as the most riveting or fervent priest or prophet.
“I try to create sympathy for my characters, then I turn the monsters loose.” No better quote could sum up each encounter with a Stephen King book than this, penned by the master himself. He is peerless in describing a character’s inner mind fuckery, that is after all where true terror lies. If you insist on classifying him as a horror writer, its origin lies in that which we heap upon ourselves. Alone in the dark and the quiet.
I can claim with pride that I have read every work he has published, but I do not love them all equally. For that reason, I am providing a rating for each book that I established only for this very special occasion.
And remember this as you crack the spine of one of his books, you are in the presence of a cunning and terrifying genius.
THE BOOKS!
Rating System:
Reigns Supreme – King’s crowning glories! My love knows no bounds…
Throne Worthy – The flames of my love are slightly dimmer…
Tarnished Crown – umm…can’t win them all, but I forgive you!
Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid…
The Stand – Reigns Supreme!
When a virus wipes out 99% of the world's population, a group of survivors’ band together to take on an evil force assembling in the West. A brilliant epic that explores the pitfalls of a society forced to rebuild itself in a way only King is capable of. Considered to have influenced every post-apocalyptic book that’s come after it. And not only my favourite King book, but my favourite book period.
The Institute – Reigns Supreme!
In the dead of night, Luke’s parents are murdered and he is kidnapped. He will wake up at The Institute, where nefarious government types are keeping other children like him who have special talents. Sinister grown-ups and heroic kids, a King mainstay!
The Dead Zone – Reigns Supreme!
After spending five years in a coma, a man wakes to discover he has the power to see into the future. Never a good thing…
The Tommyknockers – Reigns Supreme!
A woman stumbles upon a metal object that has been long buried. As she begins to dig it out, unimagined repercussions are unleashed upon her town and its people.
Doctor Sleep – Reigns Supreme!
Danny Torrance (from The Shining) is all grown up now, and like his old man he likes to drink. He ends up in AA and crosses paths with an evil group called the True Knot, who get their power from killing kids with the shining.
Finders Keepers – Reigns Supreme!
“Wake up, genius”, and thus begins King’s story of a vengeful reader. The author pays the ultimate penalty for not publishing and the reader steals his notes, which may contain enough for another book. But who is going to write it? And what price will they pay? The second in a trilogy after Mr. Mercedes.
End of Watch – Reigns Supreme!
Something has awakened in room 217. Something evil. Something in possession of deadly new powers that allow it to wreak unimaginable havoc without even leaving the room. Finale to the trilogy that began with Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers.
Cujo – Reigns Supreme!
A woman and her young son are trapped inside a car by a rapid St. Bernard. Enough said…
Mr. Mercedes – Throne Worthy!
Retired detective Bill Hodges receives a letter from a man claiming to be responsible for a mass murder that was never solved. But the killer has felt the high of despicable deeds and might be planning something even bigger. First in a trilogy, and not the best.
The Devil Made Me Do It…
The Shining – Reigns Supreme!
A caretaker and his family move into an isolated hotel over winter, but when they get snowed in, things go very wrong. Very, very wrong.
Needful Things – Reigns Supreme!
A man rolls into Castlerock to open a curiosity shop. It’s the type of place you can get anything you want, for a price. Buyer beware…
The Green Mile – Reigns Supreme!
The lives of a group of death row prison guards are changed by the arrival of mysterious new inmate. Told in six serialized and interconnecting parts, each with a cliff-hanger at the end.
The Outsider – Reigns Supreme!
When the police arrest a baseball coach for the murder of an 11-year-old boy, they're certain he's guilty. They have cast-iron forensic evidence. But the coach has an alibi that's just as strong.
Thinner – Throne Worthy!
An obese lawyer starts to lose weight at a ceaseless rate after a gypsy curses him. A harsh look at excess, success and avarice.
Full Dark, No Stars – Throne Worthy!
This collection of four novellas explores the darker side of the human condition. Bleak and sinister tales of revenge.
Sisters Are Doin’ It For Themselves…
Carrie – Reigns Supreme!
A bullied teenager who unleashes brutal revenge on her tormentors after discovering she's telekinetic. My high school dances were never this interesting…
Misery - Reigns Supreme!
A writer becomes a prisoner of his "number one fan." Bad things happen…excellent level of fear and suspense with just two main characters driving the story.
Firestarter – Reigns Supreme!
The Shop is a secret government agency that inadvertently creates two students with special powers during an experiment. They marry and have a kid who is capable of inflicting colossal chaos with her psychic control of fire.
Gerald’s Game – Reigns Supreme!
Takes place almost entirely in one room, with one character. Handcuffed to a bed in a remote cabin a woman finds herself in a pickle when her husband dies in the middle of naughty time.
Dolores Claiborne – Throne Worthy!
Dolores, while trying to reckon with her past, works for a controlling, vicious boss. An older woman named Vera who throws herself headlong into a Baby-Jane like psychological feud with Dolores.
Rose Madder – Throne Worthy!
Rose leaves her abusive husband, determined to lose herself and start a new life. Despite good things starting to happen for her, she can’t stop looking over her shoulder. A good thing in the end.
The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon – Throne Worthy!
When it comes to King, the terrors are not always monsters. Sometimes they are men. And sometimes, its nature. A portrait of a young girl who gets lost in the woods. As she wanders, afraid and alone, she listens to a radio broadcast of a Red Sox game starring her favourite player.
Lisey’s Story – Throne Worthy!
A widow follows a strange trail of clues left by her late author husband. A love letter to the long relationships we have and how we mourn them.
The Colorado Kid – Throne Worthy!
The tale of a young reporter, her two crochety editors and the mysterious story they unspool.
Something Wicked This Way Comes…
‘Salem’s Lot – Reigns Supreme!
A lushly crafted tale of a man who returns to his eerie hometown just as a long dormant nest of vampires takes over.
Joyland – Reigns Supreme!
A student investigates the legend of a murdered girl during a summer job at an amusement park. One of those offerings that leave the reader to wonder how King can write characters that feel like we’ve known them forever.
Sleeping Beauties – Reigns Supreme!
Something is happening to women when they go to sleep, they become shrouded in a cocoon like gauze. If they are awakened, or if the gauze is in any way disturbed, the women become feral and violent. One woman is immune, lucky girl or demon?
The Regulators – Throne Worthy!
The story of a suburban neighborhood in the grip of a surreal terror. Peaceful life takes a turn for the ugly when four vans containing armed “regulators” terrorize the residents and mysteriously transform the landscape.
Desperation – Throne Worthy!
The Lord, from the previously released Regulators, is channeled through a young boy. He is forced to become a religious leader of sorts for a group of people trapped in a small desert town and hunted by a demon-possess sheriff.
Storm of the Century – Throne Worthy!
A storm is coming and it’s bringing something much worse than bad weather with it. Something, or someone, wants something. And they intend to get it.
Cycle Of The Werewolf – Throne Worthy!
Scenes of unbelievable horror unfold each time a full moon shines on an isolated town.
Screams pierce the night and blood flows as a paralyzing fear grips the town.
Gwendy’s Button Box – Throne Worthy!
Castlerock has an untold story. Every day in the summer of 1974 Gwendy takes the suicide stairs up to Castle View. And one day she sits with a man in black who tells her things that will give her nightmares for years to come.
The Bazaar of Bad Dreams – Throne Worthy!
A story collection bursting with classic King terror with the added bonus of intros to each where he shares with the reader the story’s origins and his motivations for writing it.
Skeleton Crew – Throne Worthy!
A story collection with impressive range. There’s the gross out tale, an ambitious novella (The Mist) and a sweet piece about an old lady and how she chooses to leave this world.
Things That Go Bump In The Night…
IT – Reigns Supreme!
Childhood friends return to the town they grew up in to take on an evil being that stalked them when they were young. Ruined clowns for millions I’m sure.
Insomnia – Reigns Supreme!
During his late-night wanderings, a man who is sleeping less and less every night, witnesses some strange goings on. He feels the mean streak running through the town and the terrifying forces at work.
Different Seasons – Reigns Supreme!
The four stories collected here offer a good glimpse into King’s range of styles and preoccupations. Also, the home of the stories that would spin into the films Shawshank Redemption and Stand By Me.
Bag of Bones – Throne Worthy!
Recounting the story of a bestselling novelist who is unable to stop grieving following the sudden death of his wife. His nights become plagued with vivid nightmares set in his summerhouse. When he returns there, he gets more than he bargained for.
Christine – Throne Worthy!
A killer car enters the mind of a high school loser who is grappling with his outcast status among other tortures of adolescence.
Cell – Throne Worthy!
A pulse of some sort turns everyone who is talking on their cell phones into murderous zombies. So, true story?
Just After Sunset – Throne Worthy!
A collection with classic cosmic horror and gory-nasty delights.
Nightmares & Dreamscapes – Tarnished Crown!
Like the title indicates, the stories collected here run the spectrum. A mix of the surreal, the scary, the sweet and the silly.
Sometimes Dead Is Better…
The Dark Half – Reigns Supreme!
The inner mind of a fiction writer, in all its horrifying glory. The character has a pen name, whom he tries to kill off, who just won’t stay dead.
Revival – Reigns Supreme!
A musician's life becomes entwined with that of a minister-turned-healer who cures his drug addiction. Full of foreboding, untold horrors and creepy fun!
Elevation – Reigns Supreme!
A man becomes afflicted with something that is causing him to steadily lose weight, but he looks no different. In the midst of this health conundrum he begins to form an unlikely alliance with neighbors he had been battling with. A short and sweet parable, I will say no more.
If It Bleeds – Throne Worthy!
As with all King’s story and novella collections the reader is gifted with weird and wondrously creepy tales to indulge in.
Pet Sematary – Tarnished Crown!
A doctor and his family move into a new house situated close to an ancient burial ground. From which dead things come back…
From a Buick 8 – Tarnished Crown!
A tale of a group of state troopers and the odd car they keep hidden in a shed. At times reflective on how life sometimes just is what it is and no sense can be made of it…
Night Shift – Tarnished Crown!
King’s first collection of short stories is packed with satisfying, pulpy tiles like The Boogeyman, which has a shocker of an ending.
Mixed Bag…
11/22/63 – Reigns Supreme!
A riveting time-travel story, 11/22/63 follows a man named Jake Epping who discovers a portal that takes him back to 1958. He is going to try and stop the assignation of JFK. A departure for King in many ways, it’s one of his best works.
The Dark Tower Series: The Gunslinger, Drawing Of The Three, Wastelands, Wizard & Glass, Wolves Of Calla, Song Of Susannah, The Dark Tower, Wind Through The Keyhole – Throne Worthy!
Set primarily in a desolate land known as Mid-World, this eight-book story revolves around a gunslinger named Roland who undertakes a quest to reach The Dark Tower, a structure that stands at the centre of all time and space, to track the villainous Man in Black. Epic fantasy melded with the tropes of the spaghetti Western
The Talisman – Throne Worthy!
A good old sprawling adventure epic! A young man must make his way across two worlds in order to save his dying mother. Villains, heroes, savagery and comic relief all in one.
The Bachman Books – Throne Worthy!
One-part dystopia (The Running Man), one-part protest against the man (Roadwork), one part run that just won’t end (The Long Walk). The final book that was about a school shooter is no longer included.
Hearts in Atlantis – Throne Worthy!
A series of five interconnected stories weave a tale about the Vietnam War, and a young boy who befriends an older man fleeing a mysterious group.
The Eyes of the Dragon – Throne Worthy!
A fairy tale, long in classic King fashion, full of dragons, towers, kings and princes.
Blaze – Throne Worthy!
Our main character, a small-time delinquent who is not too bright, befriends a seasoned con man with great idea. You know this won’t likely end well right?
Under the Dome – Tarnished Crown!
The residents of a small town in Maine suddenly find themselves trapped inside an invisible, and impassable, glass dome. A boatload of modern concerns and more political than any other of King’s works…a bit of a beast!
Four Past Midnight – Tarnished Crown!
This novella collection contains The Langoliers, a group of plane passengers slip through a crack in time to a few minutes prior to meet the monster responsible for eating the past.
Everything’s Eventual – Tarnished Crown!
A collection of stories with a more literary tone than is usual…you won’t find much that is scary here.
Duma Key – Tarnished Crown!
Edgar loses his arm in a construction accident but gains the ability to make things happen when he paints them. My least favourite of all of King’s books.
Black House – Tarnished Crown!
A sequel to The Talisman, it picks up the story of Jack, who travelled and resides in a parallel world.
Dreamcatcher – Tarnished Crown!
As children, four brave boys stood together and saved a boy from a vicious attack. As adults they encounter a stranger in the dead of winter and find themselves thrust into a struggle for survival with otherworldly forces.
*Artwork by Mark Rudolph…Stephen King The Literary Universe
