That’s a different anthology. As seen in the link I provided, The Long Walk is part of The Bachman Books, which includes Rage, Roadwork & The Running Man.
Heh. Well I notice that on the cover now, but when I read that book I was probably around… 12-13 years old and thought that one book was one book, and if one book contained several stories it was therefore a collection of “short” stories. I really don’t remember it being that many pages though! The other three included were much less, maybe 100 each at most.
I think this is his greatest gift. He has an uncommon knack for incorporating pop culture references/dialogue that Americans can readily tap into that make his books so successful. I also think he’s a very good descriptive writer, and good at creating believable characters, whether they be good or evil.
The ending thing is his biggest weakness, but I don’t feel as let down by them as many others do.
His best book to me is The Shining, which I also think is the best movie adaptation of his books.
Honorary mentions go to Stand By Me (story and movie), Shawshank Redemption (story and movie), The Green Mile (story and movie), and The Dark Tower series, even if it contained the ultimate act of hubris by including himself as a direct component of the story.
I love the guy. One of my favorite short stories is the story Everything’s Eventual from the book of the same name. I LOVE that short story.
I’ve read a lot of post-apocalyptic fiction (basically every book in the genre I can get my hands on), and I don’t think anyone else has done as good a job at describing the slow, then speeding up collapse of society. He did a marvellous job at focussing on both the big picture and individuals at the same time.
I think one of the scenes that stands out the most for me in The Stand was Stu’s escape from the hospital. He was so close to being immune to the virus, then slowly dying of hunger because no one thought to unlock his door…
Like previous posters, I was flummoxed by the poll because of its single tense. For the first part of his career, I sucked up everything he wrote.
In the mid-eighties, I think he had some substance problems, and started to crank out very formulaic stuff: “What if [insert familiar thing] was trying to kill you?” books, most of which were relatively readable anyway. (Except Pet Sematary, the less about which is said, the better.)
I got re-excited when he started on The Gunslinger, which took some good ideas he got from Peter Straub and ran with them. Fresh, and well-written. Well, the first book. Each successive installment became more pointlessly painful, and I stayed well the hell away from Stephen King for a while.
I still check in once in a while, but he’s hit and miss. I seem to remember a self-assessment of his writing as “the literary equivalent of a cheeseburger-and-a-side-of-fries.” I don’t think it’s false modesty. I bought the hardcover of The Dome because it was absurdly cheap on Amazon as a promo. ($7, I think?) This was like his eponymous burger: a real whopper which left me with a left me full of regret and a desire to purge.
The last thing I remember enjoying unambiguously was Dreamcatcher, and it suffered from clumsy prose – it seemed like it was made to be adapted into a cheesy sci-fi movie. When Cell came out, my boss-at-the-time read it and insisted on keeping me updated on his progress.
Stephen King needs a beefy, assertive (and possibly armed) editor, and/or strong medication for his graphomania. He can be brilliant, but there is just too much shit to wade through.
I think you’re conflating Stu and Lloyd. Stu escaped when a hospital administrator came to kill him, Lloyd was reduced to eating a rat and part of a fellow inmate before the Walking Dude let him out. And yes, I’m quite sure about this–I had my traditional biennial reading of the book just a couple months ago. (Yes, I’ve read the book every two years or so since I was 14. It’s part of my life cycle.)
I also just want to say that Stephen King is responsible for the nearest I have ever come to having a stroke. I was reading Pet Semetary in the middle of the night, and had just gotten to the part where the evil resurrected cat is trying to kill the guy, glaring at him with its glowing eyes and all. At that point I glance up, and there’s these two glowing cat eyes glaring in the living room window at me. After a few seconds I realized our cat must have snuck outside earlier in the day and was ready to come back in, but for that first moment I damn near pissed myself.
Heh. I almost had a King-induced stroke, too! I was absolutely no more than 17, maybe only 16, reading The Shining in my mother’s room. I was lying across the bed on my stomach, facing away from the door. I’d gotten to the part where the topiary hedges come to life, and my Aunt, who apparently had a sadistic sense of humor, crept into my mother’s room very, very quietly, and tickled the sole of my foot. :eek::eek:
A guy I worked with told a similar story – he was reading Cujo in bed, and looked up to find a Saint Bernard in his room. It was his neighbor’s dog that had somehow gotten into his house. I definitely would have had a heart attack.
This is the kind of thing I generally classify as “Way too good to be true”, but he swears that it really happened.
I don’t know about the others posting here, but for me it wasn’t the spider. It was the incredible skeeviness of a grown man writing about a group of 12 year olds having a gang bang in order to defeat the monster. I still can’t believe he got away with writing that.
I chose the second option. I think he’s generally very good. If he’s junk food, he’s fresh-made fried chicken and biscuits from Mama Dip’s, whereas other popular writers are much more akin to corporate drive-thru fare.
I actually think the comparisons with Shakespeare aren’t out in left field. Both are deft entertainers aiming at pleasing the crowd. Both can be highly derivative, but so brilliant at reshaping an old idea it doesn’t matter. And where Shakespeare was a master at crafting language, King is a master at crafting characters. His people are so real and relatable - that’s truly an achievement.
Salem’s Lot was the first book I ever read from the adult section of the library, and ever since then I’ve loved King. He can make the most innocuous thing terrifying, and I love it! The Dark Tower series has got to be my favorite, along with The Stand and Pet Semitary. Gerald’s Game was good too.
I agree, I haven’t liked his newer stuff as much. I hated the ending of Cell. Lisey’s Story was pretty lame, though I made it through. I also made it through Duma Key, barely. But hey, no one’s perfect!
I don’t like to many movie versions of his work though. His writing style and word usage is what gives the creepy factor in most of his stories, and it just doesn’t translate well to t.v. Needful Things was a good book, but the movie was horrible!
I also liked his Richard Bachman books. I read (and liked) The Regulators, but I had no idea they were the same person for the longest time!:smack:
King has written tons of stuff with no supernatural elements. Anyone who doesn’t thing The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is damn fine writing is a big old poopyhead.
