Complete Succinct Reviews of Stephen King, Part IV

The gory end! We hit the finale of my look at Stephen King's written legacy -- over 50 books, kazillions of words and a lot of inventive ways to kill people. As I noted last time, King's days of every book being a capital E "event" are probably over, but he still sells 'em by the shovelful. His rather insanely prolific pace makes it hard to keep up sometimes. (Remember that time when he was allegedly going to "retire"?)

King has been up and down the last decade -- with some tremendously strong epics like "Hearts of Atlantis" or "Duma Key" paired with jazzy pulp like "From A Buick 8" or "Cell," and then some outright failures like "Black House" or "Dreamcatcher." But I'll still pretty much give everything he writes a shot -- he's rarely failed to entertain at least a bit even at his lowest point.

Rose Madder: One of King's more overlooked books, but a really gripping tale of an abused woman's struggle for freedom, folded into a fascinating mythology-linked plot. King's voice for women characters has rarely been stronger and there's a real sense of empowerment here that it's hard not to cheer. And for once, what I call King's "metaphysical mumbo-jumbo" tendency for plot resolution works very well. Grade: A-

The Green Mile: Famously done in a 'serial' format, it's an interesting cross between realism and fantasy for King -- which doesn't entirely come off, but there's a new maturity to his writing here. The tale of a prison guard, a mysterious "magical inmate" and his healing powers, it's very well told even if some of the more fantastical elements don't really work for me. Grade: B

Desperation: A demon takes over a small Nevada town, wreaking havoc on a small crowd of survivors. While not in King's upper tier, it's a decent, gory yarn, although the whole "magical child as savior" trope is really getting old. But it moves briskly for its length and goes down smooth enough. Grade: B-

The Regulators: A weird "rewrite" of "Desperation" by "Richard Bachman," King's pseudonym. A town slowly goes mad thanks to a demon's possession. I'd say by this point the Bachman gag has worn out its welcome -- not terrible, but not as good as "Desperation" and the split-novel parallel is nowhere near as interesting as King thought. Grade: C

Bag of Bones: One of King's best takes on love and loss and I'd argue the full flowering of King's more "mature" style we saw hints of in "The Green Mile." While it's a ghost story, King takes a gentler hand in his writing, working hard to develop character instead of shocks. If it weren't for a rather unsatisfactory conclusion I'd rank this among his best books, but it's well worth a read. Grade: B+

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon: A short story about a girl lost in the woods, padded out to novella length. On its own, not terrible, but not worth being a book on its own really. Grade: C

Hearts in Atlantis: One of King's finest works, and there's barely a monster to be found in it. A series of intercollected novellas loosely wrapped around the baby boomer generation. It ties in loosely to the "Dark Tower" series but the best of the stories are the ones that have nothing to do with horror -- the title piece, about a group of friends and their time in college, plucks the heartstrings like nothing of King's since "The Shawshank Redemption." Grade: A-

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft: Yes, "It" and "The Stand" are usually mentioned as King's best books -- but this very candid memoir/writers guide deserves a place in the pantheon too. Full of tips and confessions, it's some of King's most honest writing, a fascinating peek "behind the camera" and as gripping as any of his made-up stories. Grade: A+

Secret Windows: Essays and Fiction on the Craft of Writing: A rather under-the-radar "grab bag" of King works, many of them uncollected. Viewed as a kind of companion to "On Writing," it's not bad, although it's really one for the diehard fans and does repeat some of what's in other books. Grade: B

Dreamcatcher: It'd be hard to make any novel about aliens that erupt out of your ass palatable, and this one is a rare total misfire by King. It rips off aspects of "It," "The Tommyknockers" and "The Shining" and makes it a gooey, overlong mess, complete with mentally disabled character who just happens to have magical powers. One of my least favorite Kings, written while recovering from his near-fatal 1999 accident and really, it shows. Grade: D

Black House: Disappointing sequel to "The Talisman" by King and Peter Straub. It fails to capture the otherworldly wonder of the first book - returning to its protagonist Jack as an embittered adult - and even for King, this one is dark and frankly, dreary. And tying it into the "Dark Tower" series seems unnecessary, really. Grade: C

From A Buick 8: A teleportation device to another world disguised as an old car? This one is a rather underrated, concise bit of creepy sci-fi horror, with the punch of an old EC Comics story -- it's short by King standards and has a good bit of pure chills. I also frankly like how open-ended the mysteries remain. Good fun. Grade: A-

Everything's Eventual: The fourth volume of short stories and a decent set of yarns -- many originally printed in "The New Yorker" and have a bit more highbrow, Poe-meets-Lovecraft kind of feeling. The best of his recent story collections. Grade: B+

The Dark Tower - Books IV through VI: You can really only consider the final Dark Tower books as a thousands of page whole. I could have written an entire series of blog posts on the "Dark Tower" alone and feel bad to give them rather short shrift here, but suffice it to say it's King's magnum opus, a gigantic piece of work with tendrils connecting all over his other stories (some of the links work, some feel forced, though). The story of damned gunslinger Roland and his quest for the Dark Tower has a very different feel than most of King's tales, taking on aspects of Tolkien and other epic fantasies. What's particularly interesting about the Dark Tower as it works through the last three mammoth books is how King goes very metafictional -- including himself as a character at one point. "The Dark Tower" isn't a perfect piece of work, and probably could have been at least one book shorter, but its sheer scope demands attention -- and the ending, while perhaps less immediately rewarding than one might hope, is still utterly fitting and almost demands you go back instantly and re-read the thousands of pages before. Grade for whole saga: A

The Colorado Kid: A thin-as-piano-wire thread of plot animates this bloated-up short story about a mysterious death on the Maine Coast, part of the "True Crime" series. It's really just a 10-page tale strettttttched into 150-something pages by King's meandering. Grade: C-

Cell: Cell phones turn people into mindless zombies! A retread of "The Stand" but with a good and gory hook. "End of the world" books are almost always worth a read. It's dark and nasty but a good solid yarn, although the novel bogs down in a rather unbelievable plot once the whole "apocalypse" unfolds. Grade: B+

Lisey's Story: A love story but a flawed one -- with some of King's most annoying authorial tics in full flight. The narrator here, a woman who's lost her husband, uses an inane made-up language to describe her fantasy world; a device that could have worked but becomes incredibly wearisome over 500 pages. As a ghost story and a love story, King's done better in books like "Hearts in Atlantis" or "Bag of Bones." Redundant. Grade: C-

Blaze: As disposable as King gets -- an unpublished "Richard Bachman" crime yarn from the '70s dusted off and rewritten, and it reads like sub-par Elmore Leonard imitations. Really interesting only as trivia, and best left in the files. Grade: D

Duma Key: An excellent gem about redemption, and rehabilitation, using King's accident as a plot point. One of his best written novels and it's quite rewarded by using Florida as a setting instead of King's by-now cliched use of Maine. Grade: A-

Just After Sunset: More short stories! I'm afraid King's short stories haven't really zinged since about "Skeleton Crew," but more power to him for keeping up. This is probably his most uneven bunch, but "The Things They Left Behind," where King uses 9/11 as the engine to set a haunting story in motion, is among his best short pieces. Grade: C+

Under The Dome: Hey, I just put this on my top books of 2009 list so I must have liked it. Basically what I said there -- good chewy King yarn, with a highly propulsive plot that speeds over any rough patches. It's impressive that after a few zillion words and more than 30 years, King still has the ability to craft a tale as readable and fun as this, really. I don't know where he's going next, but I'll stick along for the ride as one of his many Constant Readers. Grade: A-

Complete Succinct Reviews of Stephen King, Part III

As I just cracked open the 14,000-page monolith that is Stephen King's latest, "Under The Dome," I thought I'd get back to this occasional series. You can accuse King as a writer of many talents and some flaws, but nobody can ever argue that he's unproductive -- how many millions of words has he written in the last 30 years, anyway? An entire bookshelf in my house creaks with tattered King paperbacks. Yet this period, from about 1984-1994, saw a blue ton of new King works. For the first time, though, the endless churn seemed to affect his stories -- by the mid-1990s King's works were getting more bloated and less gripping. Nobody could keep up this pace forever, and King's life was going to change in a big way by 1999 with a near-fatal car accident.

The Talisman: An unusual beast, a collaboration between King and author Peter Straub. Straub's voice seems to add a bit of surreal mystery as young Jack travels through a parallel world looking for a cure for his dying mother. A great fantasy novel with touches of King's gory reality, and a rare collaboration that really works. An unusual King book, but well worth seeking out. Grade: A-

Thinner: Another "Richard Bachman" pseudonymous piece by King, the last before his "secret identity" was revealed, and probably the best after "The Long Walk." A one-note idea -- nasty gypsy curse! -- but it's carried with a sinister charm and is a tight, fast and freaky read. Grade: B

Skeleton Crew: King's second collection of EC Comics-esque short stories, bitter little babies with hooky ideas. Some of these are just great, among King's best short fiction - "The Mist," "The Jaunt," "Word Processor of the Gods," the grotesque but very effective "Survivor Type." There's also a fair amount of filler and chaff but the gems here outshine the low spots. King's immense imagination in full flight. Grade: B+

It: King's finest hour, even better than "The Stand" I'd say. An ode to childhood and a nightmare about the forces that end it, with King's best character work ever as he follows a group of lovable loser children into adulthood, and their ongoing battle against the forces of darkness -- in the incarnation of a serial-killing clown, of course. Well, clowns are creepy, aren't they? Anyway, in "It," King manages to have some of his most indelible characters, scariest moments and most inventive creations -- in other words, it's super-sized King at his peak. Biggest flaw - an ending that gets too mumbo-jumbo metaphysical for its own good. And well, yeah, it's bloody long, but in this case, it's a book I just didn't want to stop reading. Great books get to be as long as they want. Grade: A+

Eyes of the Dragon: It's almost "young adult fiction" for King, an unusual fairy-tale style fantasy story that's got ties to "The Stand" and a great deal of foreshadowing for styles and themes in "The Dark Tower" series. Very different than anything King had done up to this point; not as good as some of his later fantasy novels would be, but an interesting warm-up. Grade: B

The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three: Not as stark and unique as the first book in the series, but King's wider canvas becomes apparent as Roland the lone Gunslinger starts to form a ka-tet, or family, as he continues his quest for the Dark Tower. Not a lot to say about this one that I didn't on the first -- this saga would eventually swell to seven books and thousands of pages, and become one of King's biggest statements. Grade: A-

Misery: One of the classics. While King is known to suffer from authorial bloat, "Misery" is tight, tense and unrelentingly claustrophobic. King, like a lot of fiction writers, has done the "writer as protagonist" cliche a bit too much, but this one really delves into the symbiotic tie between fan and creator, and Annie Wilkes is one of his best characters. Plus, I'd rank this as one of King's flat-out scariest tomes. Grade: A-

The Tommyknockers: This tale of alien invasion in backwoods Maine (where else?) is rather disliked by many of King's fans, but I kind of enjoy it for its unrelenting bleakness and the sinister vibe of mystery set up by an alien ship buried for thousands of years that comes back to life. And I like that King steps outside the horror milieu into a more creepy science-fiction realm. It's not perfect (too long, and too many characters -- unlike "It," this didn't need to be 700+ pages) but I actually find this one of my more favorite Kings. I dunno, maybe I just like alien invasions. Grade: B+

The Dark Half: For me, this is where King enters a gentle decline for much of the late 80s-early 90s. (Some would say it starts with "Tommyknockers.") An author's pseudonym comes to life and starts a murderous rampage. While the dual identity idea is interesting, King doesn't say much truly new, and I'm sorry, but the conclusion of this novel just got ludicrous (sparrows?!?). Grade: C+

Four Past Midnight: Another collection of novellas, but nowhere near as good as "Different Seasons." "The Langoliers," about an airplane trapped in an alternate world slowly being "eaten," is the best of the lot, but "Secret Window, Secret Garden" is just another draft of "The Dark Half" and "The Library Policeman" just awful. Grade: C

Needful Things: This overwrought 1990 book was King saying "goodbye" to Castle Rock, the town that featured in many of his previous works (although he has continued to use small-town Maine as a focus for much of his work, so no big difference really). A mysterious junk-shop owner (Satan!) moves to town and commences to wreak havoc. Overly long, more mean-spirited than usual for King and it feels like a "Twilight Zone" episode stretched out beyond bearing. Grade: D+

The Dark Tower III: The Waste Lands: The Tower series really hits its stride here as Roland and his ka-tet travel through a series of strange and fascinating worlds. King's version of "Lord of the Rings," "The Dark Tower" combines his usual bloodlust and characterization with a pretty convincing fantasy realm. Grade: A-

Gerald's Game: Or, "Misery Part II," with a woman instead of a man as the central character. "Gerald's Game" would make a very good short story, about a woman who, through a combination of accident and fate, ends up chained to a bed alone in her house in the middle of nowhere. It's got the same oppressive, tight feeling as "Misery," but I felt like it spins its wheels too much. Grade: C

Dolores Claiborne: The rare King novel I have no memory of having read, even though I'm sure I have. It's one of his least supernatural works, and well, if I can't remember it I can't grade it! Grade: Incomplete

Nightmares and Dreamscapes: King's third story collection, but not his best. It's a 900-page monster, but there are not as many little gems like "Survivor Type" -- although the visceral revenge saga "Dolan's Cadillac" is a brilliant piece. But something like "Chattery Teeth" (about just what you'd think) is just silly, and this one seems more of a motley grab-bag than other collections (a nonfiction piece about kids' baseball just seems out of place). Grade: C+

Insomnia: I think King starts to "come back" after a few lesser books here, and this novel marks the first time we really get an idea of the "King Universe," where the Dark Tower novels, many of King's novels and themes and characters are shown to be part of a giant puzzle that is unraveled in the final "Dark Tower" books. (The villain here is the Dark Tower's Crimson King, in another guise.) I like King's evocation of the main character's insomnia and the mythological links here; what I don't like is how cluttered the plot starts to feel and it ends up with another of King's mumbo-jumbo endings. Grade: B

Next time: "Rose Madder" to the present day

Complete Succinct Reviews of Stephen King, Part II

...As I continue strolling my way through re-examining my near-complete collection of Stephen King tales, I'm entering the period of King's biggest popular success, I think -- somewhere around the early 1980s, King became that household name, and every book was an "EVENT," which sustained up till around the end of the decade. He's still a huge, bestselling author now, but after 50 or so books, it's hard to make each one seem a major happening. This era, in between the more typical 'monster of the week' books like "Cujo," saw King doing some experimentation, and some of his strongest work – the straightforward horror-free fiction of "The Shawshank Redemption," the stark fantasy-land of "The Dark Tower"– came here.

The Dead Zone: A personal favorite of mine, the tale of poor doomed John Smith and his psychic powers, it's a tight and tense thriller (it avoids the bloat that affects too many of King's books). This one packs a bit more of an emotional punch than some of King's yarns -- I find Smith a compelling hero, who loses a huge chunk of his life and ultimately faces a martyr's fate. The plot may not be the freshest -- how many times can someone head off a nasty alternative future? - but King's voice is strong and assured, and there's moments of real chilling horror. Grade: A

Firestarter: A minor King work, I'd say, but enjoyable in a pulpy way. The tale of fire-starting "mutant" girl Charlie has a straightforward momentum, and a made-for-movie feel (although like 99% of the movies based on King's books, the film is inferior). Yet while it's good fun to read, it never quite leaps from fun to masterful -- the villains are cardboard and the story a bit predictable. Underachieving, frankly. Grade: C

Cujo: Another "minor" King book, but what's remarkable about this one is how incredibly bleak it is -- no happy endings here (foreshadowing the even grimmer "Pet Sematary"). A rabid dog is no global plague or killer clown as far as King's villains go, but "Cujo" does tap into something primal and freaky about the perils that lurk in the natural world all around us. King himself notes in a later book that he was so heavy a drinker at this point that he barely remembers writing "Cujo," which explains why it feels a bit like a short story stretched to the breaking point. Grade: C+

Danse Macabre: Then out of left-field, we've got a nonfiction collection by King, examining the history of horror fiction in print, radio and film. It's a great behind-the-curtain look at King's influences, with a chatty tone that evokes Harlan Ellison's essays, and also a treasure trove of information for anyone interested in horror as a genre. Great pop-culture history and analysis, well worth seeking out. Grade: A

The Dark Tower Book I - The Gunslinger: "The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed." It's a fantastic first sentence, and kicks off what would become a 20-year, thousands of page epic for King -- a dark, thoughtful and lyrical fantasy, set in a mysterious other world where Roland the Gunslinger is on an epic heroic quest to destroy the Dark Tower. Filled with myth and mystery, it's a taut, superb read. Now, the later books in this series get increasingly complex and long, and you can debate whether the series as a whole "works," but as a first tale, this is a remarkable story, in tone and approach unlike anything else King had done up to then, and a sign his interest lay deeper than rabid dogs and zombie cars. (King later revised the book in 2003 to tie in with the later novels more, but I haven't read that version.) Grade: A

Different Seasons: This might just have been the first King book I ever read, and I still think it's one of his best, four novellas, three of which have gone on to be generally fantastic movies (a rarity for King adaptations.) "The Body" became "Stand By Me," the clunkily titled "Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption" with a shorter title became one of the most popular movies of the 1990s, and "Apt Pupil" is a terrific underrated Bryan Singer film. The stories are all actually even better than the solid movies – in "The Body" King gives a pitch-perfect voice to being a boy growing up, and the twisted Nazi obsessions of "Apt Pupil" result in one of King's freakiest tales. If you ignore the fourth novella in here, the gross "The Breathing Method," you've got one of King's best. Grade: A-

Christine: Another curious kind of minor monster-of-the-week book -- killer possessed cars, anyone? -- that makes up for its pulpy gimmick with a decent portrayal of a loser teenager's revenge against all who've wronged him. But it still feels like King is spinning his wheels, pardon the pun. Grade: B-

Pet Sematary: A great book, and a horrible book all at once as King pushes the reader as far he can in a tale that takes on the borders between life and death. What would happen if you really could bring people back to life? It's a take on the old horror yarn "The Monkey's Paw," with King really digging deep into the rot beneath to find the horror of someone who comes back to life.... different. The ending for this one is one of King's finest and most terrible moments. A confession: I've been meaning to re-read this, but now that I have a kid of my own, I don't quite know if I could take it. Grade: A-

The Bachman Books: An interesting collection of King's pseudonymous, early work (dating 1977 to 1982), it's a mixed bag but includes some of his strongest novellas -- "The Long Walk," in particular, is superb, a chilling piece of nihilistic science fiction, while "The Running Man," (which has next to nothing in common with the cheesy Schwarzenegger movie) imagined reality TV years before the fact. On the other hand, neither "Roadwork" or "Rage" (a clumsy kind of Columbine mass killer story) have the maturity to really come off. Grade: B+

Not reviewed: "Creepshow" graphic novel and "Cycle of the Werewolf," King's two story/art collaborations with artist Bernie Wrightson, because it's been far too long since I've read either of them and "Creepshow" in particular is regrettably hard to find.

Next time: "The Talisman to "The Tommyknockers"

Complete Succinct Reviews of Stephen King, Part I

Whenever I'm asked about my favorite writers, the answers are different depending on what day it is. But there are constants, and usually, my favorite writers would have to include George Orwell, the late John Updike and Kurt Vonnegut, Haruki Murakami, Paul Auster, and... Stephen King.

That last one doesn't always seem to fit to everyone when I say his name. Unfairly, King has somehow been lumped in with the Wal-Marts and Starbucks as ubiquitous shorthand for American junk culture. I think King surely gets the short shrift as a writer; he isn't a literary gamesman like Auster or Updike, which he would gamely admit, but he is one heck of a storyteller. King's books to me have always brought to mind cheeseburgers -- nothing rare, nothing fancy, but done right it can be the perfect meal. He knows his strengths, and can tell a heck of a yarn to while away the hours with.

I'm a big King fan, and although not quite in the "superfan" realm of having to read every vowel the man has ever typed, I have read pretty much all of his books, under his own names or pseudonyms. And King can soar or he can slum it -- but I don't feel like he's run out of steam yet. While his books aren't quite the "event" they once were, some of his later works stand up there with his best earlier ones. Here's part one of an occasional series of Complete Succinct Reviews of Stephen King:

PART ONE: 'Carrie' to 'The Stand'
Carrie: King's first book is gimmicky and raw, but the story of doomed Carrie has all the hallmarks King would develop -- empathy, gruesome gore and propulsive momentum. It's interesting how this one uses some experimental storytelling techniques (letters, newspaper accounts) to flesh out the story. However, I've always felt like it kind of lacks real character definition -- even Carrie, for all her sad drama, is a bit sketchy. Grade: B-

Salem's Lot: Still finding his way, but this spin on the vampire legend is starting to feel more like "classic" King. A big sweeping cast of characters, grim creatures from the past coming back to haunt a small town, and nasty deaths and carnage galore. It's also extraordinarily bleak, a tone King would come back to in later work such as "Pet Sematary." Evil in King's books is rarely truly defeated for good, and "Salem's Lot" gives us a glimpse of how dark it can get out there. Grade: B+

The Shining: And here King truly explodes forth. Sure, we've seen the movies (both versions) but the original book is still the best take on Jack Torrance's endless winter in the Colorado mountains. Rich with detail and moody feeling, I feel this is the first time King really manages to break beyond pulp fiction and tap into something primal (the thing in the bathtub -- brr!). It's hard to read this now without summoning up Kubrick's wonderful but very different movie, but the original book is still one heck of a fine ghost story. Grade: A-

Night Shift: King's short fiction is sometimes overlooked except as raw material for some truly terrible movies, but the early stuff has the pulpy horror of the EC classic comics -- nasty monsters, twist endings and horrible ironies galore. This was one of the first King books I ever read, and I still remember the horrible queasy chills I got reading "Graveyard Shift," a tale about... well, giant rats infesting an old mill. There's a gritty charm to this first collection of his short terrors, even if a few fall short of the mark. Grade: B+

The Stand: The first "800-pound gorilla" of King's career, and arguably, his best (tied with "It" for myself). It can be said that King's tried to top this one ever since, with lengthy quest sagas such as "The Dark Tower." While there are bumpy bits for me in the narrative (Nick's sudden fate, the rather clunky ending), the characters here are rich and likable, and King summons up one of the most captivating "end of the world" narratives I've read. If you pick it up now, it's all a bit dated but the top moments -- almost anything involving laconic Stu, the scorched-earth evocations of a dead America -- still ring with a bright passion. Be sure to read the "uncut" version which adds a mere few hundred pages more than the original edition. Grade: A+