Stephen King

[Denzil]

What do you guys think of him as an author, I heard good things somewhere but after reading about 1/4 of Desperation i'm not too sure I like his style.

Denny

[GeneralHankerchief]

I personally like him, but his best work is behind him. Case in point: I'm reading The Stand (for the first time) right now.

IMHO, his best book was written in the 70s not even under his name. It's called The Long Walk and while not his usual supernatural gruesome style, it's still got this extremely haunting quality of its own. I sincerely suggest you check it out.

Finally, as far as epic series go, you can't beat The Dark Tower.

[Denzil]

That was quick! Yh sure my mind is not set on him being useless. I'll check out his other material,

Denny

[drone]

I prefer his older stuff, but I haven't kept up with his recent work to be a decent judge of it. His short story compilations are pretty good (Night Shift, Skeleton Crew, etc.), as well as Different Seasons (4 novellas, 3 of which were made into movies, including the Shawshank Redemption and Stand By Me). More weird tales than horror, but he does that very well.

With some of his longer stories, I get the feeling that he didn't know how to finish up, and the endings were just lacking. But there is some quality there, The Stand, The Shining, Salem's Lot, Misery.

[Beirut]

I've read a few of his short stories and enjoyed them a lot. Never read a whole novel of his, though.

His book, On Writing, a writer's guide, is excellent. I took it out from the library countless times and ended up getting it for Christmas this year. It's on the shelf right beside The Elements of Style by Strunk & White.

[Ramses II CP]

King is a good story teller. I own all of his books, except the most recent because I wait for them to go paperback these days. Unfortunately, like so many artists, much of his best inspiration came via chemicals, and when he gave up the drugs his furiously paced prose fell off. Being nearly killed in a car accident (He was walking and got hit by a drunk) a few years ago didn't help either. Desperation was an odd kind of companion novel to one he wrote as Bachman called The Regulators.

It is by far my favorite King book.

Four Past Midnight is another good set of short stories/novellas that are good, as are the previously mentioned collections (Night Shift, Skeleton Crew, Nightmares and Dreamscapes, and Everything's Eventual are the rest of his collections as far as I remember off the top of my head).

Salem's Lot and Carrie are very good, from among his older works.

I'd recommend the first three in the Gunslinger series, but the rest fall off from the premise as he goes too long between picking up the pen. Still good books, but not the same driven brilliance as the first two in particular.

[Denzil]

very nice thankyou, what are the best novels/authors around? Like is War and Peace as good as it is made out? Also is Isaac Asimov good? (he is the sci-fi writer?)

Denny