tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44152247070443527502024-03-14T05:35:34.863+00:00King For A YearReviews of Stephen King novelsMark Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12103997496549941279noreply@blogger.comBlogger66125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4415224707044352750.post-73903981835302420302016-01-04T09:00:00.000+00:002016-01-04T16:36:34.590+00:00King For A Year - in summaryWell that's it, the King For A Year project has now drawn to a close. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_eNYZHA4KUJZFhwBadTZ6cHd42SBAKQZ1DalduGfddu5N0p1I0sWHgcAHcKfQNE7iFlovEY9OrmrGwcouCo06oQXAPl6ndw1amj2LdT7UY0Ww5UAaQRt0wbDfnMXphx6mr3l9rOVmFnjW/s1600/stephen+king+reading+king+for+a+year.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="327" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_eNYZHA4KUJZFhwBadTZ6cHd42SBAKQZ1DalduGfddu5N0p1I0sWHgcAHcKfQNE7iFlovEY9OrmrGwcouCo06oQXAPl6ndw1amj2LdT7UY0Ww5UAaQRt0wbDfnMXphx6mr3l9rOVmFnjW/s400/stephen+king+reading+king+for+a+year.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/so-what-is-king-for-year.html">When we (me, Alison Littlewood, Anthony Cowin, Ross Warren and Andrew Murray) first talked about doing this</a> in April 2014, the original idea was for us to pick one novel each, write about it and link all the blog posts. It was Ross who suggested creating a blog (and Willie Meikle who named it) and once we mentioned it on social media, I was surprised at how many people were eager to get involved - at the time, it seemed an unlikely (and, to be honest, mammoth) undertaking but here were are, in January 2016 and it's done. What started out as a <i>one-book-a-month</i> review blog quickly became <i>one-book-a-week</i> and, as the year wound down, it became <i>one-book-a-day</i>.<br />
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Indeed, over the course of a year and 56 reviewers, we've looked at over 64 books and received over 29,000 views in return. Which isn't too bad at all really, is it?<br />
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For my part, as curator, I've enjoyed reading the reviews (in fact, I've put books on my TBR list based on some of them) and I'm thoroughly grateful to all of those people who 'put pen to paper' and let us know why they love a particular book and what it means to them. <br />
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Thanks to all of them (and their good humour with my 'early submissions are always welcome' reminder emails), thanks to all of the visitors who've come along and read (and I hope that, if you're a Constant Reader, you've had as much fun with this blog as I have) but most of all, thanks to Stephen King for making it all possible.<br />
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Cheers,<br />
Mark<br />
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-----<br />
<br />
Since this will forever be the last post, I've listed all of the books reviewed and linked back directly to them for ease.<br />
<br />
<b><u>January</u></b><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/the-shining-reviewed-by-anthony-cowin.html"><b>The Shining</b>, reviewed by Anthony Cowin</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/night-shift-reviewed-by-stephen-bacon.html"><b>Night Shift</b>, reviewed by Stephen Bacon</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/the-dark-tower-dark-tower-vol-vii.html"><b>The Dark Tower (The Dark Tower vol. VII)</b>, reviewed by Jenny Barber</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/dr-sleep-reviewed-by-wayne-parkin.html"><b>Dr Sleep</b>, reviewed by Wayne Parkin</a><br />
<br />
<b><u>February</u></b><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/danse-macabre-reviewed-by-kevin-bufton.html"><b>Danse Macabre</b>, reviewed by Kevin Bufton</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/salems-lot-reviewed-by-matthew-craig.html"><b>'Salem's Lot</b>, reviewed by Matthew Craig</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/from-buick-8-reviewed-by-neil-williams.html"><b>From A Buick 8</b>, reviewed by Neil Williams</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/thinner-reviewed-by-donna-bond.html"><b>Thinner</b>, reviewed by Donna Bond</a><br />
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<b><u>March</u></b><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/it-reviewed-by-james-everington.html"><b>IT</b>, reviewed by James Everington</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/liseys-story-reviewed-by-dean-m-drinkel.html"><b>Lisey's Story</b>, reviewed by Dean M. Drinkel</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/cell-reviewed-by-maura-mchugh.html"><b>Cell</b>, reviewed by Maura McHugh</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/the-dead-zone-reviewed-by-william-meikle.html"><b>The Dead Zone</b>, reviewed by Willie Meikle</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/the-girl-who-loved-tom-gordon-reviewed.html"><b>The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon</b>, reviewed by Alison Littlewood</a><br />
<br />
<b><u>April</u></b><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/three-novellas-ur-blockade-billy-and.html"><b>Three novellas ("Ur", "Blockade Billy", "Mile 81")</b>, reviewed by Kevin Bufton</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/on-writing-reviewed-by-kit-power.html"><b>On Writing</b>, reviewed by Kit Power</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/under-dome-reviewed-by-selina-lock.html"><b>Under The Dome</b>, reviewed by Selina Lock</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/rose-madder-reviewed-by-rowan-coleman.html"><b>Rose Madder</b>, reviewed by Rowan Coleman</a><br />
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<b><u>May</u></b><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/four-past-midnight-reviewed-by-john.html"><b>Four Past Midnight</b>, reviewed by John Llewellyn Probert</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/christine-reviewed-by-adele-wearing.html"><b>Christine</b>, reviewed by Adele Wearing</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/the-regulators-reviewed-by-shaun.html"><b>The Regulators</b>, reviewed by Shaun Hamilton</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/carrie-reviewed-by-lynda-e-rucker.html"><b>Carrie</b>, reviewed by Lynda E. Rucker</a><br />
<br />
<b><u>June</u></b><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/finders-keepers-reviewed-by-bev-vincent.html"><b>Finders Keepers</b>, reviewed by Bev Vincent</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/dreamcatcher-reviewed-by-kim-talbot.html"><b>Dreamcatcher</b>, reviewed by Kim Talbot Hoelzli</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/revival-reviewed-by-david-t-wilbanks.html"><b>Revival</b>, reviewed by David T. Wilbanks</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/misery-reviewed-by-jay-eales.html"><b>Misery</b>, reviewed by Jay Eales</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/cycle-of-werewolf-reviewed-by-nadine.html"><b>Cycle Of The Werewolf</b>, reviewed by Nadine Holmes</a><br />
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<b><u>July</u></b><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/joyland-reviewed-by-gary-mcmahon.html"><b>Joyland</b>, reviewed by Gary McMahon</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/cujo-reviewed-by-thana-niveau.html"><b>CUJO</b>, reviewed by Thana Niveau</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/skeleton-crew-reviewed-by-phil-sloman.html"><b>Skeleton Crew</b>, reviewed by Phil Sloman</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/different-seasons-reviewed-by-dave.html"><b>Different Seasons</b>, reviewed by Dave Jeffery</a><br />
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<b><u>August</u></b><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/mr-mercedes-reviewed-by-steven-savile.html"><b>Mr Mercedes</b>, reviewed by Steven Savile</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/geralds-game-reviewed-by-ray-cluley.html"><b>Gerald's Game</b>, reviewed by Ray Cluley</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/the-colorado-kid-reviewed-by-jim-mcleod.html"><b>The Colorado Kid</b>, reviewed by Jim Mcleod</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/needful-things-reviewed-by-sharon-ring.html"><b>Needful Things</b>, reviewed by Sharon Ring</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/duma-key-reviewed-by-liz-barnsley.html"><b>Duma Key</b>, reviewed by Liz Barnsley</a><br />
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<b><u>September</u></b><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/blaze-reviewed-by-paul-m-feeney.html"><b>Blaze</b>, reviewed by Paul M. Feeney</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/nightmares-dreamscapes-reviewed-by.html"><b>Nightmare & Dreamscapes</b>, reviewed by Christian Saunders</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/the-gunslinger-reviewed-by-anthony.html"><b>The Gunslinger</b>, reviewed by Anthony Watson</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/full-dark-no-stars-reviewed-by-frazer.html"><b>Full Dark, No Stars</b>, reviewed by Frazer Lee</a><br />
<br />
<b><u>October</u></b><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/dolores-claiborne-reviewed-by-carole.html"><b>Dolores Claiborne</b>, reviewed by Carole Johnstone</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/the-dark-half-reviewed-by-andrew-murray.html"><b>The Dark Half</b>, reviewed by Andrew Murray</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/three-more-novellas-face-in-crowd.html"><b>A Face In The Crowd</b>, <b>Throttle</b> and <b>In The Tall Grass</b>, reviewed by Kevin Bufton</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/the-drawing-of-three-reviewed-by-julie.html"><b>The Drawing Of The Three</b>, reviewed by Julie Cohen</a><br />
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<b><u>November</u></b><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/hearts-in-atlantis-reviewed-by-robert.html"><b>Hearts In Atlantis</b>, reviewed by Robert Mammone</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/rage-reviewed-by-johnny-mains.html"><b>Rage</b>, reviewed by Johnny Mains</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/pet-sematary-reviewed-by-marc-lyth.html"><b>Pet Sematary</b>, reviewed by Marc Lyth</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/desperation-reviewed-by-j-g-clay.html"><b>Desperation</b>, reviewed by J. G. Clay</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/desperation-reviewed-by-kit-power.html"><b>Desperation</b>, reviewed by Kit Power</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/112263-reviewed-by-chad-clark.html"><b>11.22.63</b>, reviewed by Chad Clark</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/112263-reviewed-by-kim-talbot-hoelzli.html"><b>11.22.63</b>, reviewed by Kim Talbot Hoelzli</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/insomnia-reviewed-by-ross-warren.html"><b>Insomnia</b>, reviewed by Ross Warren</a><br />
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<b><u>December</u></b><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/duma-key-reviewed-by-ren-warom.html"><b>Duma Key</b>, reviewed by Ren Warom</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/the-dark-tower-wind-through-keyhole.html"><b>The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole</b>, reviewed by Gef Fox</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/just-after-sunset-reviewed-by-edward.html"><b>Just After Sunset</b>, reviewed by Edward Lorn</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/pet-sematary-reviewed-by-charlotte-bond.html"><b>Pet Sematary</b>, reviewed by Charlotte Bond</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/rita-hayworth-and-shawshank-redemption.html"><b>Rita Hayworth And Shawshank Redemption</b>, reviewed by David T Griffith</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/the-green-mile-reviewed-by-simon.html"><b>The Green Mile</b>, reviewed by Simon Bestwick</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/bag-of-bones-reviewed-by-charlene.html"><b>Bag Of Bones</b>, reviewed by Charlene Cocrane</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/eyes-of-dragon-reviewed-by-jay-faulkner.html"><b>The Eyes Of The Dragon</b>, reviewed by Jay Faulkner</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/firestarter-reviewed-by-paul-m-feeney.html"><b>Firestarter</b>, reviewed by Paul M. Feeney</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/the-bazaar-of-bad-dreams-reviewed-by.html"><b>The Bazaar of Bad Dreams</b>, reviewed by Steve Shaw</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/black-house-reviewed-by-robert-spalding.html"><b>Black House</b>, reviewed by Robert Spalding</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/everythings-eventual-reviewed-by-j-g.html"><b>Everything's Eventual</b>, reviewed by J. G. Clay</a><br />
<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/the-stand-reviewed-by-sheri-white.html"><b>The Stand</b>, reviewed by Sheri White</a><br />
<br />Mark Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12103997496549941279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4415224707044352750.post-41524313490363082312015-12-30T09:00:00.000+00:002015-12-30T09:00:00.185+00:00The Stand, reviewed by Sheri White<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK5uH1ouBfuzdoan3797gzTZdA7_jmyVOPlIvjZWX17gEb4TATK1FyyPbV_sKhg6jwfE1g9xQMZREjPhFAl2V24z1-H0sJQPiyh42cj7laODHzhEY7KVddMD3fNCBDqj6x96P07WRFQdvX/s1600/the+stand+stephen+king+for+a+year+1978.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjK5uH1ouBfuzdoan3797gzTZdA7_jmyVOPlIvjZWX17gEb4TATK1FyyPbV_sKhg6jwfE1g9xQMZREjPhFAl2V24z1-H0sJQPiyh42cj7laODHzhEY7KVddMD3fNCBDqj6x96P07WRFQdvX/s400/the+stand+stephen+king+for+a+year+1978.jpg" width="243" /></a></div>
The Stand (1978)<br />
The Stand: The Complete & Uncut Edition (1990)<br />
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I discovered Stephen King when I was a freshman in high school, way back in 1980. My friend Angie had his collection “Night Shift”, and we read the stories together in the Home Ec lab when we had free time. I was enthralled with King’s storytelling, and wanted to read more of his stuff.<br />
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I found “The Stand” in the mall bookstore. Since it was the 80s, the end-of-the-world scenario appealed to me, even though the thought of it really happening was terrifying in the Cold War years. And it was huge! It was a book I could get lost in.<br />
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My family had a membership at our neighborhood pool, and I read “The Stand” for several days while laying stomach-down on a towel in the grass, delighted screams of little kids splashing in the water barely registering because I was so engrossed.<br />
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From the moment Stu casually advises Hap to turn off his pumps as he watches a car weave dangerously towards the small-town gas station in East Texas, I was hooked. Stu, Frannie, Nick, Tom Cullen, and Larry Underwood fascinated me with their stories and how they survived in the new world. And while Mother Abigail and Randall Flagg were representative of Good and Evil, their followers were not as black and white. Harold was a lonely, bullied kid who was easily influenced by Nadine, who in turn was drawn to Randall Flagg even as she tried to resist his dark charm. And although Larry Underwood found himself on Mother Abigail’s “team,” he was pretty much an asshole until he found redemption as the world fell apart around him.<br />
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Okay, actually Julie Lawry was evil.<br />
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I hated reaching the end of the book. I wanted more. I hoped for a sequel, and checked the bookstore frequently. There was no Internet, of course, so you had to read the newspaper for upcoming new titles, or talk to the guy at the Brentano’s register. But the years went on, and I never heard news of a sequel, to my disappointment. I read the book over and over, though. So many times, I had to replace my copy frequently.<br />
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And then it was 1990 and I heard that “The Stand” was going to be reissued, this time with deleted scenes and details. I swear, I was at the bookstore waiting for it to open the day it was published, and the Waldenbooks employee handed me the first copy after he opened the box. I had even taken the day off work to read it.<br />
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It was glorious. “The Stand: Complete & Uncut” was everything I had hoped for. Additional characters added depth to the original characters – for instance, Frannie’s mother. Mrs. Goldman’s coldness had been hinted at in the original, but the uncut version showed just how she disliked Frannie, even to the dismay of friends who witnessed Mrs. Goldman’s indifference to her daughter. The Kid added tension to Trash’s story; it wasn’t so stressful for him in the original when he just got to set fires to whatever he wanted, but when he was held hostage by The Kid, his situation turned sinister. And of course, his goal was a sinister one, but he was another influenced by evil even though he himself wasn’t a truly evil person.<br />
<br />
One of my favourite additions to the uncut version was the “No Great Loss” section – mini-scenes of people who didn’t make it through the end of the world, even though they didn’t get sick. The young woman who was glad her husband and baby were dead so she could finally have a life, but ended up locking herself in a walk-in freezer to starve to death. The woman who accidentally shot herself while protecting herself against all the “rapists” (all men, in her eyes) coming to get her. The drug dealer who overdoses on heroin.<br />
<br />
Those little tidbits added so much to the story. I am always wondering at “off-screen” characters in apocalypse scenarios. What happens to survivors we don’t see? How many die in a stupid way after making it through the flu, zombies, nuclear war? Maybe that house the hero passed has a little kid in it who needs help, or maybe there is an unseen shotgun trained on him as he walks by.<br />
<br />
The uncut version satisfied some of that curiosity, and I was delighted those scenes were included.<br />
<br />
I still re-read “The Stand” every year or so, but I haven’t gone back to the original. It had its charm, and I loved it when I was 14. Ten years later, though, the uncut version appealed to the 24-year-old mom I had become (the mom who was glad her daughter was dead horrified me, but wouldn’t have affected me like that as a teenager), and I can’t go back. I still have my copy of “The Stand: Complete & Uncut” First Edition hardback, but have replaced my tattered paperback several times, just like the original.<br />
<br />
My enthusiasm for King’s writing has ebbed and flowed since 1980. I mean, “Lisey’s Story”? 'Mucking?' Really?<br />
<br />
But I will never forget how I felt as I read that opening scene at the neighbourhood pool in the Summer of 1980 – completely captured by the magic King wove with nothing more than words.<br />
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-----<br />
<br />
Sheri White lives in Maryland with her family. She has had a love of horror since she was two years old and watched "The Wizard of Oz" for the first time. She is a mom to three girls, ages 27, 20, and 17 (and is now a brand-new grandma!), and has instilled a love of all things scary in them as well. Her husband Chris is very understanding.<br />
<br />
In addition to reading and writing horror, Sheri also proofreads, edits, and reviews for many horror sites both online and in print. She is also the editor of <a href="http://morpheustales.wix.com/morpheustales">Morpheus Tales magazine</a>.<br />
<br />
She has had fiction published in many small press magazines and anthologies since 2001 and can be found on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/sheriw1965">Facebook</a> and also on Twitter as <a href="https://twitter.com/sheriw1965">@sheriw1965</a>.Mark Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12103997496549941279noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4415224707044352750.post-25097987492345919862015-12-28T09:00:00.000+00:002015-12-28T09:00:00.128+00:00Everything's Eventual, reviewed by J. G. Clay<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><u>Tropes and Trips: Everything’s Eventual</u></b><br />
<br />
Short stories collections are the closest we authors get to the world of the rock star. Take a number of your finest (or your favourite) short works, slap them together, maybe tinker with the running order so it makes some sort of cohesive sense and, bingo; you have an album. All you need to do before release date is to pick a title. Some of my compatriots go the tried and tested route and pluck the collective moniker of their collection from one of the stories. Others (myself included), go for the mystical approach and pick a title that has nothing to do with any of the stories.<br />
<br />
"Everything’s Eventual" is one of the former, a compilation that takes its evocative name from the seventh story. As ever with a King collection, the material falls into three distinct categories; ‘<i>amazing</i>’, ‘<i>ok</i>’ and ‘<i>I won’t be reading that again anytime soon</i>’. This is just a personal categorisation, by the way; not official in the slightest. I love the King’s writings but even I’ll concede that he can write some duff material on occasion. The fortunate thing about collections is that you can skip the not-so-good in favour of the great. To go back to my music analogy, it’s like skipping past that one song you can’t stand on an album.<br />
<br />
Happily enough, "Everything’s Eventual" is a high quality piece. Of the fourteen stories contained within there are only three that I made a point of not reading and only two of those are stories that I don’t like. The third "The Little Sisters of Eluria"’ is a difficult one for me to fathom because I haven’t actually delved into the "Dark Tower" universe as yet Consequently, I have no idea what the bloody hell’s going on.<br />
<br />
"L.T’s Theory of Pets" and "Lunch at the Gotham Café" just jar with me. I don’t know why but I find those really difficult to read.<br />
<br />
That still leaves us with eleven tales to consider, and what quality tales they are. King revisits some well-worn horror tropes; the Devil, the Haunted Hotel Room, the Sinister Painting, even the Ghost Hitchhiker. You never get the sense that these are old tired clichés however. His usage of familiar horror frameworks still feel fresh. The narrator of "The Man in the Black Suit" - an old man guiding us through a bad childhood experience with the Devil – doesn’t come across as stilted or unbelievable. You can almost picture this grizzled old soldier sitting on a porch at sunset, his eyes worried and distant, as he remembers a sulphur smelling man swallowing a fish whole and taunting him about his mother’s death (a scene in which King really lays bare the cruel nature of Nature. He comes across as a mean minded bully).<br />
<br />
In "Riding the Bullet", we get an inversion of the classic dead hitchhiker. A young college student trying to get home to his seriously ill mother and enduring the attentions of a crotch grabbing oldster, is picked up by George Staub. King doesn’t attempt to hide George’s very dead nature. Just before the protagonist meets his spectral driver, he comes across a headstone emblazoned with George’s name. The black stitching across George’s neck is also a massive giveaway away as well. As with "The Man in the Black Suit", George is revealed to have a callous bullying streak. He makes Alan (our hitchhiker) choose between who will die - Alan or his mother – and taunts him before Alan’s nerve finally snaps and he demands to be left by the side of the road.<br />
<br />
The unpleasant side of human nature is a common thread throughout this book and they stand as testament to King’s skill at characterisation. From "In the Deathroom"’s Interrogator to the patronising Mike Enslin in "1408" and the ‘could be spook’ MR Sharpton in the titular story, we are given characters who reflect the more unsavoury aspects of the human race.<br />
<br />
There are sympathetic characters to be had, however, it's not all nastiness. The comatose man of "Autopsy Room Four" is the victim of an unfortunate accident. Apart from his rubber glove fetish, he’s just a regular Joe unfortunate enough to be bitten by a venomous snake. Dink, the psychically gifted youngster of "Eventual" is a fundamentally decent kid who begins to question his role after researching his victims and finding that they aren’t enemies of the people, just enemies of the State. The protagonists of "All That You Leave Behind" and "That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is In French"’ are lonely troubled individuals but again you get the sense the sense that they are just normal decent people. It’s the ordinariness of the people and their surroundings that make this collection work so effectively. My personal favourite of the entire book goes so far as to use an everyday object to terrifying effect.<br />
<br />
"The Road Virus Heads North" is the best of the bunch and one of the few things I’ve read that genuinely unsettles me (which is why it gets the biggest shout). It concerns a painting imbued with the dark and also a disturbing ability. The painting is a kid in a muscle car just driving –standard stuff until you notice the man’s sharp teeth and gimlet eyed stare, created by a mentally disturbed artist who killed himself not long after the piece’s completion. Enter our hero, Richard Kinnell, horror author and seemingly nice bloke, who buys the painting after noticing it at a yard sale. From here on in, things get decidedly creepy as the car in the picture seems to be heading in Richard’s direction. Understandably freaked out, Richard tries his best to get rid of the ‘Road Virus’, dumping it, even trying to burn it but the thing defies all attempts to destroy it. In the final paragraphs we’re left with the painting now changed to the car parked outside Richard’s house, and the heavy tread of footsteps climbing up his stairs. This story is made creepier by the fact that this painting actually exists and is owned by King. Whether it has come to life at any point is a question only the King can answer.<br />
<br />
So there you have it. All of us bonded by our love of King’s work have our favourite collections. Some go for the raw energy of a fledgling horror legend as demonstrated by "Night Shift"; others prefer the slash and burn straight forward horrors of "Nightmares and Dreamscapes" or "Just before Sunset".<br />
<br />
For me, "Everything’s Eventual" is the premium collection. King takes us down familiar roads with familiar fears, but makes the journey interesting, lively and unsettling. This is one I’d definitely recommend.<br />
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J.G Clay is definitely a Man of Horror. There can be no doubt. Putting aside the reverence he has for the horror greats, such as King, Barker, Herbert, Carpenter, Romero and Argento, there is another fact that defines his claim for the title of the 'Duke of Spook'. He was born on Halloween night. By a quirk fate, it was also a full moon that night. Co-incidence?</div>
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The 41 year old hails from the Midlands in the United Kingdom, is married with one step child and two dogs that bear a strong resemblance to Ewoks. Beyond the page and the written word, he is music mad and can hold down a tune on a bass guitar pretty well. He is an avid reader and also has an enduring love of British sci-fi, from the pages of the '2000A.D' comic to the televised wanderings of Gallifrey's most famous physician. Clay is also a long-time fan of the mighty Birmingham City Football Club and endures a lot of flak from his friends for it.</div>
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He can be found online at his <a href="http://www.jgclayhorror.com/" style="color: #4d469c; text-decoration: none;">website</a> and also on Twitter as <a href="https://twitter.com/jgclay1" style="color: #4d469c; text-decoration: none;">@JGClay1</a></div>
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<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/desperation-reviewed-by-j-g-clay.html">J. G. Clay previously reviewed "Desperation" on the King For A Year blog</a></div>
Mark Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12103997496549941279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4415224707044352750.post-17074124537528477872015-12-23T09:00:00.000+00:002015-12-23T09:00:12.408+00:00Black House, reviewed by Robert Spalding<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So, this review is very late.<br />
<br />
Originally I read this back in May, just before I moved house and life got too awkward for me to be able to sit and write the review; by the time I was finally organised enough to write, the book was no longer fresh in my mind. So I decided I had to re-read it, how hard could it be? I'd loved the book just a few months earlier.<br />
<br />
"Black House" is a sequel to "The Talisman", and when I read it for the first time I didn't know that. I decided that I would try to re-experience it the same way, by not reading "Talisman" again before I reviewed it.<br />
<br />
I did not expect that I would be reading the same book twice to bring you my thoughts.<br />
<br />
Part of the reason this has taken so long is that "Black House" opens with almost one hundred pages of omniscient narration that introduces us to the major players in the story to come, but delivers very little in terms of plot momentum.<br />
<br />
Back in May I was in love with this, the tiny vignettes of people I had forgotten and a great way to get a feel for the world. These last two months, that opening has been the brick wall between me and the story. I remember everyone this time, fun as it is to be reintroduced to Henry Leyden, the sheer slowness of the scene setting actively turned me away from the book.<br />
<br />
As I got to the end of the book quite some time later, I found myself drawing parallels between the opening of the novel and the titular Black House. It had felt like it was pushing me away, making my eyes slide across the words, making me work extra hard to get past the barrier to what I wanted to get at. Its a strange thing to think of a novel channelling the power of its dark heart to keep you from the story it contains, but that's where my thoughts turned to.<br />
<br />
Finding the opening a slog, I would try every so often, just a little nibble at a time, making my slow progress forward. I was absolutely regretting needing to reread it and the size of it didn't help. This is not a slim book, while smaller than much of King's later output there's a hefty investment required. I tried to skim read, just let it be a refresher, but even though the slowness was off-putting, the writing was still strong enough to make me force every word into my head.<br />
<br />
Then, suddenly, I was past the introduction and as the story gathered pace again, I found myself drawn in again, quite happily to this world.<br />
<br />
For me, every time, it is the character of Henry Leyden that brings the greatest joy. I can't say he is a unique character, but he just works, I can see him and hear him, all of his hims. Which, as he is a blind man with several voices, warms my heart. Because this is a novel of characters first and plot second. Without all of the time spent deepening the characters, this could have been half the size and would have been nowhere near as enveloping. While Jack Sawyer is a fine man to spend time with, he has never held my attention as much as those characters that swirl around him, Beezer, Doc, Mouse, Judy, Sophie, Wendell, Dale, the 'Mad Hungarian'. They are all given time to breathe. Even characters long dead get plenty of page time to make themselves feel real.<br />
<br />
It was only on this second reading that all this became clear to me. If I had written this review earlier this year I would talk about the sense of dread in the town, the sadness I felt at two deaths which I have remembered ever since my very first reading a decade ago. But I wouldn't have been so consumed by the characters as I am now.<br />
<br />
This is why I think it took me so long to get through the opening. All I had remembered about the book was the plot, but the opening sets out its stall quite clearly. This book is not about the plot. When I didn't start with the book I thought I remembered, my brain let it slide away, some slippage seeping out of French Landing and into my world. Once they became alive in my mind, once they started to act, that's when Black House had me firmly in its grip.<br />
<br />
So then, what's this book about? It seems a very simple set up, in a small town in Wisconsin, children are being murdered. The local sheriff is out of his depth, the town is terrified. The sheriff wants a friend of his, a star LA detective who has retired in the town, to assist with the case. It sounds like a standard small town thriller, doesn't it? But it isn't. The killer is revealed very early on and the reasons behind his spree and neither standard nor natural.<br />
<br />
The investigation of the crimes mostly takes a backseat to developing the characters. However, it also takes a place behind the real story of the murders which cannot be contained to a simple murder investigation. Tying in, as it does, with the worlds of King's Dark Tower, there are powers at work in this town and on Jack “Hollywood” Sawyer that take us out of the common serial killer and into the fate of worlds.<br />
<br />
This mixture just works, the everyday is our way in, but the extraordinary is seeded early on and then built upon. This isn't a book that changes gear halfway through and makes you realise it was a different kind of story all along. Instead it draws you in, using the term “slippage” to get you in the mood for what's coming. While the story doesn't exactly end with a twist, its resolution isn't one you are likely to guess at early on.<br />
<br />
Now that the house is gone and the story is done, where do I want to go? I will certainly be reading "The Talisman" next, its sat right next to me as I type. After that, I think I will follow the threads dropped into the book in its final charge to The Big Combination and revisit Roland and "The Dark Tower".<br />
<br />
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<br />
Robert Spalding is an occasional writer and full time pack leader of five small dogs whose work has been published in Terror Tales of the Seaside and Sharkpunk. His dogs can usually be found asleep or charging about the garden. He sometimes blogs at <a href="http://robspalding.wordpress.com/">robspalding.wordpress.com</a> and tweets a bit at <a href="https://twitter.com/robspalding">@robspalding</a>Mark Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12103997496549941279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4415224707044352750.post-39630413685362019002015-12-21T09:00:00.001+00:002015-12-21T09:00:00.561+00:00The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, reviewed by Steve Shaw<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify;">Much
as I love King’s novels, it’s with his shorter writings that my heart lies.
Maybe it’s because my first experience of SK was his 1982 novella collection "</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify;">Different Seasons"</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify;">, which I read in my
early teens. Maybe it’s because my favourite of all King’s work is a short
story (‘All That You Love Will Be Carried Away’). Maybe it’s because I have a
short attention span. Whatever the reason, my preference has certainly been
indulged over the years, with nine collections of short stories and/or novellas
to date (ten if you count "</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify;">Hearts in
Atlantis"</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; text-align: justify;">, but I don’t), comprising 85 short stories, 20 novellas, 3 poems
and one essay.</span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">"The Bazaar of Bad Dreams"</span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">, then, represents
King’s tenth collection in 40 years – a pretty prolific output in anyone’s book
– and adds another 16 shorts, 2 novellas and 2 poems to the tally. The book is
presented as (from the dust jacket) “<i>a generous collection of stories – some brand
new, all assembled together for the first time</i>,” and whilst this is technically
true, it should be noted that only two of the 20 pieces are previously
unpublished, with one further receiving its first English language publication
and one which has previously only been released in audio format. That said, the
majority of the remainder were published in magazines – most of which are not
readily available in this country – so for <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">UK</st1:country-region></st1:place> readers at least this is a
(mostly) new read.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">On
that note, to the tales themselves…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Mile 81</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> (first published as a
Kindle exclusive ebook, September 2011)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 10pt;">In which an abandoned
rest stop provides the backdrop for an unlikely monster.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Mile 81</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> returns to one of
King’s favourite themes: the openness of a child’s mind to accept things which
older heads would be unable to grasp. On this occasion, it falls to pre-teen
Pete Simmons – abandoned by his brother for being too young to play with the
elder sibling and his friends – to deal with events at a broken-down rest stop
near the titular Interstate marker. A reasonably good example of King’s monster
stories, it suffers slightly from an ending which feels almost throw-away, as
if the author thought “I have to finish this somehow… well, this’ll do.” Aside
from the last few pages, a strong, well-written piece reminiscent of "Nightmares & Dreamscapes"-era King,
and a decent opener.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Premium Harmony</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> (first published in <i>The New Yorker</i>, November 2009)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 10pt;">In which nothing really
happens.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">In
his introduction to ‘Premium Harmony’, King references reading a lot of Raymond
Carver while he was writing this story. It certainly has that sort of feel to
it – a window opens on everyday life, events occur, then the window closes
again – but with an added touch of King’s black humour. Ray and Mary Burkett, along
with their Jack Russell, pull into the parking lot of a convenience store, so
that Mary can buy a particular ball. Events unfold from there, but there really
isn’t much more to say about this one.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Batman and Robin Have an
Altercation</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">
(first published in <i>Harper’s Magazine</i>,
September 2012)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 10pt;">In which Dougie takes
his Dad to lunch.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Another
‘slice-of-life’ piece, and one of a number in this collection which show King
contemplating his own mortality more than ever before. Dougie’s father lives in
a care home, and once a week his son takes him out to lunch. The rest of the
tale unfolds from there, as Dougie deals with his father’s Alzheimer’s and
confused memories. Ultimately a more successful story than its predecessor,
with a conclusion that should bring emotion to the stoniest of faces.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The Dune</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> (first published in <i>Granta</i>, Autumn 2011)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 10pt;">In which the Judge goes
kayaking.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Retired
Judge Beecher relates his experiences kayaking to a deserted island, where he
finds names written on the beach; names whose owners subsequently die. Although
thematically completely different, for some reason this piece reminds me of
‘The Jaunt’ (collected in <i>Skeleton Crew</i>).
A return to early, <i>Night Shift</i>-era
King, for a tale of the inexplicable with a satisfyingly wry ending. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Bad Little Kid</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> (previously unpublished
in the English language)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 10pt;">In which George ages,
but the kid doesn’t.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">One
of King’s favourite frameworks is to place his protagonist in a given situation
and have them recount key events, either to the reader or a third party,
leading to an explanation of their current circumstances (see <i>The Green Mile</i>, amongst many, many
others). Such is the case here, where George Hallam explains to his death row
lawyer the events that led to his incarceration for murdering the titular Kid.
One of the stand-out stories in this collection.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">A Death</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> (first published in <i>The New Yorker</i>, March 2015)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 10pt;">In which justice is
served.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">A
slight tale of Western justice, as Jim is arrested and judged for the murder of
a young girl in the late 19<sup>th</sup> Century. This is a piece that is less
about the story and more about the telling and the language used, and one that
provoked no response in me whatsoever.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Bone</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Church</st1:placetype></st1:place></span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> (first published in <i>Playboy</i>, November 2009)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 10pt;">In which a jungle
expedition goes badly.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">I
have never been a big reader of poetry, and King’s poems in particular have
always left me flat, so I won’t have much to say about the two included here.
‘The <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Bone</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Church</st1:placetype></st1:place>’ concerns a group of explorers in
an unnamed jungle, who meet their end one-by-one due to snakes, spiders,
leeches and, eventually, mammoths. Another piece which said nothing at all to
me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Morality</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> (first published in <i>Esquire</i>, July 2009. Subsequently as a
bonus story in <i>Blockade Billy</i>, April
2010)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 10pt;">In which Nora has a
decision to make</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">I
first encountered ‘Morality’ at the same time as ‘Blockade Billy’, as a bonus
story in the latter’s eponymous hardback in 2010. I recall preferring this to
the main feature at the time, and revisiting it my position hasn’t changed.
Nora works as a carer for an elderly man who has led an exemplary life with one
thing missing – he has never committed a major sin. Now, in his final years, he
hits upon an idea: if he can persuade Nora to sin for him by proxy, he can
vicariously experience not only the sin itself, but also the corruption of the
previously (relatively) innocent. An interesting idea leads to a thoughtful
piece addressing one of the oldest questions: how far would you go for the
right reward?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Afterlife</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> (first published in <i>Tin House</i>, June 2013)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 10pt;">In which William dies…at
least once.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">A
more whimsical tale, as investment banker William Andrews dies and goes to
bureaucratic limbo, where he is presented with a choice… A fun, if lightweight,
cyclical piece, which serves as an excellent palate cleanser between the tales
that bookend it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Ur</span></b></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> (first published as a
Kindle exclusive ebook, February 2009)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 10pt;">In which Wesley buys a
Kindle</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt;">.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">‘<st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Ur</st1:place></st1:city>’ is another story I
was already familiar with before picking up this collection, having listened to
the audiobook reading several times, and is – for me at least – the strongest
story here. It concerns Wesley Smith, English teacher, whose purchase of a
Kindle is prompted by a break-up, during which his girlfriend asks why he can’t
“read off the computer like the rest of us?” Upon examining the device, Wesley
finds that it has an unexpected menu, which allows him to read stories from
other ‘Urs’ (dimensions? realities?) Of particular interest to Wesley is
discovering that, in other Urs, Hemingway (among others) wrote different works,
which have never been seen before. However, this discovery is tempered when Wes
investigates two other functions: Ur News, which displays newspapers from other
dimensions, and Ur Local, which seems to predict the future in this one… This
is a well-rounded, satisfying story which, as a bonus, links back to King’s
overarching <i>Dark Tower</i> mythos at the
end, with a welcome return appearance by the Low Men in Yellow Coats.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Herman Wouk Is Still
Alive</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">
(first published in <i>The Atlantic</i>, May
2011)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 10pt;">In which a picnic is
rudely interrupted.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Phil
and Pauline, both in their seventies, both poets, are picnicking and reading
each other’s work. Meanwhile, Brenda and her friend Jaz, along with their
collection of kids, are drinking and driving, wondering how fast their rented
minivan will go – a question which is ultimately answered before a sudden
unexpected stop. Another one of those stories where the destination is less
important than the journey; unfortunately, for me, the journey was about as
interesting as the interstate that features in it.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Under the Weather</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> (first published as a
bonus story in the paperback edition of <i>Full
Dark, No Stars</i>, May 2011)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 10pt;">In which Ellen becomes
unwell.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">An
unnamed narrator cares for his sickening wife, who sleeps a lot, in an
apartment building which has a curious rotting smell, probably due to rats. If
you’ve ever read a story before, you will already know what the ending of this
one is, but that doesn’t mean that the tale isn’t worth your time. Predictable,
and yet well-written and touching.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Blockade Billy</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> (first published as a
stand-alone novella, April 2010)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 10pt;">In which the story of a
1950s baseball player is told.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">I
had read ‘Blockade Billy’ on its original release in 2010, but not since, and I
didn’t remember much about it, other than it had to do with baseball.
Revisiting the story five years later, I can see why it wasn’t memorable. It
is, of course, well-written, but baseball is such a big part of it that I think
it loses something when read by non-US readers. The story itself is pretty
simple – George Grantham, third base coach for the New Jersey Titans, relates
the history of William Blakeley, a ball player whose major league career has
been expunged from the record books. The story hangs on two things: firstly,
the aforementioned love of baseball, and secondly, the reason why Billy’s
career was forgotten. This last could have turned it around for me, but
ultimately the ‘twist’ just didn’t hold my interest, and I was left feeling both
disappointed and somewhat cheated.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Mister Yummy</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> (previously
unpublished)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 10pt;">In which Ollie sees a
spirit which predicts death.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Yes,
we’re here again. Another elderly man, close to death, in a retirement home,
relates the story of how bizarre things happened to him; this time it’s a
premonition whenever someone close to him is about to die. At this point, King
could put together a collection solely comprised of these ‘old man flashback
tales.’ That wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing, and this isn’t necessarily a
bad story, but we’ve been here before.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Tommy</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> (first published in <i>Playboy</i>, March 2010)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 10pt;">In which Tommy’s funeral
is held.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">A
highly personal poem, in which King reminisces over the funeral of a friend 40+
years on.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">The Little Green God of
Agony</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">
(first published in <i>A Book of Horrors</i>
(ed. Stephen Jones, Jo Fletcher Books), September 2011)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 10pt;">In which a healer is
summoned, and summons in return.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Following
a plane crash, Newsome is bed-ridden and in near constant pain. Having tried
multiple different therapies, he finally seeks help from Reverend Rideout, who
offers to literally, physically, remove the agony. In many ways the dark
reflection of ‘Morality’ – a corrupt man instead of a virtuous one; a man who
seeks to be rid of an experience, rather than have a new one – ‘The Little
Green God of Agony’ is clearly inspired by King’s own recuperation after his
accident in 1999. Unfortunately, whilst entertaining, it falls short of
mirroring the earlier story in quality.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">That Bus Is Another
World</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">
(first published in <i>Esquire</i>, August
2014)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 10pt;">In which <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Wilson</st1:place></st1:city> has a decision to
make.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Another
slight tale, this one of a man who, while riding in a cab, witnesses a murder
on a bus in the next lane. The story here, however, is not the crime itself,
but rather how <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Wilson</st1:place></st1:city>
chooses to deal with what he’s seen. Another story inspired by a true event
(although not a killing), this is another mirror to ‘Morality’, thematically
this time, and more successfully rendered than its predecessor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Obits</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> (previously
unpublished)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 10pt;">In which a journalist
discovers an unusual, and unw<span id="goog_1510549849"></span><span id="goog_1510549850"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a>anted, talent.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">‘Obits’
is very much a treatise on celebrity obsession; our protagonist is an online
journalist for a celebrity ‘news’ site, writing acerbic obituaries for dead
pseudo-celebrities, who finds that writing obits before the subject is dead
becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, in the most literal way. One of the most
accomplished stories in the collection – and also, tellingly, one of the most
recent – this tale gives me hope that maybe the best of King’s short stories
are not yet behind him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Drunken Fireworks</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> (first published as a
stand-alone audiobook, June 2015)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 10pt;">In which a lakeside arms
race is sparked off by a few firecrackers.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Alden
McCausland and his mother live by <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Lake</st1:placetype>
<st1:placename w:st="on">Abenaki</st1:placename></st1:place>, after winning
big on the State Lottery. One July 4<sup>th</sup>, Alden celebrates with
fireworks, resulting in an annual battle with the shady Italian family across
the lake. An interesting idea which could have led to great things, but which
ultimately turn out to be a damp squib.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Summer Thunder</span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"> (first published in <i>Turn Down the Lights</i> (ed. Richard
Chizmar, Cemetery Dance Publications), December 2013)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-size: 10pt;">In which Robinson’s
world ends, in a manner of his choosing.</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">As
King says himself in his introduction to this piece, “What better place to end
a collection than with a story about the end of the world?” Set not long after
an unspecified apocalypse, it finds Robinson, his neighbour Timlin, and a stray
dog named Gandalf the only survivors of a lakeside community. Another musing on
mortality, choices and love for a 1986 Harley Davidson Softail, it is a
pleasant, if uninspiring, closer to the collection.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">A
number of things are immediately obvious after finishing this collection. A lot
of the characters are older, as might be expected from an author in his late
60s, and a good number of his tales are now set in <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Florida</st1:place></st1:state>, where he and his wife spend half of
each year. One other thing is also evident to me – this is not the same Stephen
King who wrote "Night Shift", "Skeleton Crew"or even "Everything’s Eventual". This is not the
King who told us of eyes growing in the palms of hands, shipwrecked surgeons
turned auto-cannibals and decapitated women giving birth; this is the King who
tells of old men dying peacefully in their beds, and who spins stories where,
frankly, nothing happens. The stand-out stories here – ‘Obits’, ‘Ur’, ‘Bad
Little Kid’ – give hope that there may be more quality to come, but ultimately "The Bazaar of Bad Dreams" is merely
interesting, rather than outstanding.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">-----</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Steve J Shaw is a fan who's not sure how he lucked into the business. From his draughty garret somewhere in the Kent countryside he has created the most compact of horror empires, now comprising one clothing company and two publishing imprints. As editor, his most recent books are Wild Things, from Black Shuck Books, and Play Things & Past Times, from KnightWatch Press. </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: lucida grande, tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 13px;">Steve can be found online in all the wrong places, one of which is his website at <a href="http://greatbritishhorror.com/">Great British Horror</a>.</span></span></div>
</div>
Mark Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12103997496549941279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4415224707044352750.post-42505177304932049012015-12-18T09:00:00.000+00:002015-12-18T09:00:01.450+00:00Firestarter, reviewed by Paul M. Feeney<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPhPLD5QEXprYMqvT2csvMfkVVtscC1UI8UMgoTlXF6PLSRezucw5YNtlVBNo0gzMqTU2A1QAOaiOtoOqOe_kMJTok-8y7hXVnGDMiqXeM86-zCftWZ2drdYpzo5CdqOkv6b74vEGERO1o/s1600/firestarter+uk+king+for+a+year.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPhPLD5QEXprYMqvT2csvMfkVVtscC1UI8UMgoTlXF6PLSRezucw5YNtlVBNo0gzMqTU2A1QAOaiOtoOqOe_kMJTok-8y7hXVnGDMiqXeM86-zCftWZ2drdYpzo5CdqOkv6b74vEGERO1o/s400/firestarter+uk+king+for+a+year.jpg" width="232" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="line-height: 12.95pt; text-align: justify;">Over the last few months, I've had many occasions
to ponder the idea of subjectivity versus objectivity where works of fiction
are concerned; specifically, when a particularly 'contentious' book appears,
dividing opinion and now and again leading to heated debates (and arguments).
And - aptly enough - this often happens with Stephen King's books, which is
only natural as he is our (yes, our; he is, through and through, a horror
writer) most well known author. And probably most well read, too (by others I mean,
not himself). And in many of these discussions (</span><i style="line-height: 12.95pt; text-align: justify;">arguments</i><span style="line-height: 12.95pt; text-align: justify;">), the final
comments tend to devolve into variations on 'agree to disagree', or 'well,
that's just my opinion'; pointing to an innate inability to present an
objective argument against the book (or, by extrapolation, any work of
creativity). And this would be true if the only thing that were up for debate
was the reader's reaction to the work; essentially, stances of 'I liked it', 'I
hated it' and all the myriad shades between these. Except...except writing -
and reading - is, or should be (I believe) so much more than this. I'd suggest
if you are incapable of separating your - </span><i style="line-height: 12.95pt; text-align: justify;">very</i><span style="line-height: 12.95pt; text-align: justify;"> - subjective opinion of
how much you liked (or disliked) a book, from the very real objective,
practical aspects of the writing itself, you're possibly not in the best place
to argue your case; or are certainly missing out on a large part of the
discussion. Of course, the notion of what's good prose itself can be suffused
with subjectivity, but I do believe you can set baselines for pace, rhythm and
flow; and then there’s grammar, punctuation, sentence structure and so on; and
a greater understanding of these comes with time, experience and reading
widely. Otherwise - to say it all comes down to simply a matter of taste - you
give anything a pass, and you are putting the best of fiction and its worst
examples on the same footing. Which is simply ludicrous. I’ve been
misunderstood on this point in the past, and while I don’t agree that any one
person’s subjective opinion of a work is more valid than another’s - at least,
not where mere opinions of like/dislike are concerned - it’s a massive
disservice to the craft of fiction writing to suggest that the practical
elements of prose are not just as important as any other aspect. That’s not to
say you can’t enjoy something that’s perhaps not very well written from an
objective point of view; and the converse can apply too. To give an example, I
adore the Harry Potter books, but as an exercise in prose writing, they do
leave a lot to be desired. Similarly, I can appreciate good writing in other
arenas, but it may be that the story itself is not for me (or bores me rigid).
I've had this with a few shorts I've come across. And this leads me to King.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.95pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.95pt; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN">I've seen King lambasted for an almost infinite
variety of fiction 'sins'; seen him criticised six ways from Sunday. I've even
seen someone dismiss him as 'writing like an amateur' (and if you knew who that
was and saw their work, you'd choke with astonished laughter at the irony...).
Yet, aside from the occasional awkward line or clunky bit of prose - which we <i>all</i>
suffer from, from time to time - I truly believe King is up there with the
greatest writers, and my opinion only becomes cemented more and more, the more
I read of other, wonderful, writers. However, that doesn't mean that I've loved
everything of King's I've read; no siree. There are a handful of books and
stories I've struggled with, but I can say - with almost one hundred percent
conviction - that it was not the writing that was the problem, but my response
to the story. And that, ladies and gentlemen, lies almost squarely in the
province of the subjective. All of which (and I apologise if I've bored you
thus far) brings me to the book I'm revisiting here; <i>Firestarter</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.95pt; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.95pt; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN">Published in 1980 and coming at a time when King
was on the - rapid - ascent, "Firestarter" is one of King's novels that
almost exclusively never gets mentioned when discussions of his early, classic
work arise. Everyone remembers "Carrie", "The Shining", "'<st1:city w:st="on">Salem</st1:city>'s <st1:place w:st="on">Lot"</st1:place>, "The
Dead Zone", "The Stand"; even the collection (collection!) "Night
Shift" gets props, and the books that followed "Firestarter" - "Cujo", "Christine" and "Pet Sematary" - are mentioned with equal reverence
(most of the time). Yet "Firestarter" tends to be the forgotten one, the
black sheep of this family. I first read it way back in the early to mid 90s,
and I can't recall much from that reading except that I wasn't impressed at
all. Yet the basic plot sounds right up my street; shady government
experiments, enhanced human beings with almost superhero type powers, a frantic
chase across the country, evil people masquerading as the good guys; what's not
to love? So when the book came up for the King For A Year project, I thought, '<i>why
the fuck not?</i>' And here we are.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">I won't go over the plot too much, save to say it
concerns - mainly - eight year old Charlene McGee, the daughter of two people
who got involved in a shady experiment in the 60s trailing an experimental drug
that appeared to give both of them psychic abilities. Their abilities pass on
to Charlie, where it seems to have mutated and grown immeasurably; Charlie can
create fire from nothing, amongst other, slightly less explosive (haha) powers.
The first half of the book has Charlie and her father Andy on the run from The
Shop, a shady and seemingly untouchable government agency (who were also
responsible for the initial experiment leading to all this). The second half of
the book has Charlie and Andy indefinitely detained in The Shop's secret
compound while the organisation’s scientists experiment on both. And throughout
all this, there are flashbacks and recalled events filling in the blanks. If
all this sounds a shade unusual for a Stephen King book - though by this point,
he had already released three novels where main characters had psychic
abilities - that's probably because it reads much more like a thriller than a
horror. In fact, there really isn't any horror in this story at all, aside from
a few violent events and, perhaps, the threatening shadow cast by The Shop and
some of its operatives (more on that in a mo). This impression is bolstered by
the opening, which puts us straight into Andy and Charlie's desperate flight.
It's a move typical of thrillers and action books, eschewing a slow build-up
for fast paced action and peril. Any character study or back-story is thrown in
piecemeal, with short recollections through Andy's memory, or the POV
deviations to the agent chasing the pair. I think this clearly demonstrates
that King knows what he's doing here; he knows this story is a thriller -
albeit one with slightly paranormal attributes, and even those have a
cod-scientific explanation - and he knows (superficially, at least) how to
write one. And it’s bloody enjoyable. I was sucked in from page one, flying
through the early sections very quickly; feeling trepidation and concern for
these two unlikely and weary fugitives, who haven’t even had time to grieve for
the loss of Vicky, Andy’s wife and mother to Charlie. King puts across a
palpable and convincing portrait of a man and his daughter who are haggard,
harassed, shell-shocked, and running out of both time and fortune as The Shop
closes in; their tanks are almost at empty. We also get snippets from the POV
of the agents chasing them, and while this robs the organisation of some of its
shadowy power, it conversely serves to up the tension as we see how close they
are getting to their quarry. Added to these early pages are some classic
examples of show <i>and</i> tell, where we see both Andy and Charlie’s
abilities in use - he with the power to <i>push</i> people into doing what he
wants, though at great cost to his physical self; she with her fire ability,
though it is wild and uncontrollable when unleashed - rather than merely being
told about them. It’s a very good opener and fits right in with the notion of
the book as a modern - for its time - thriller.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">The problems - for me - start to appear as we head
towards the mid-point of the book, and they are hinted at even early on. One of
the criticisms often levied at King is that he takes far too long to get to the
point, and while I don’t agree that this is justified in most cases, here it
definitely feels as though it’s the case. While he handles the action of the
story well enough - following their nick of time escape at the start of the
book, Andy and Charlie receive brief respite at an old farmhouse, before
they’re tackled by Shop agents again in a disastrous (for the agents) scene
that seems to have been lifted many years later by the movie "X-Men 2" -
it’s the quiet moments in between that feel dull and drawn out. Not that there’s
anything wrong with quiet moments in a thriller; or, indeed, any type of book.
I’d argue that they’re necessary in a book full of action, to give shape and
pace to the story; providing dips amid the peaks. The problem here is that they
seem to go on for interminable pages without anything of real substance or
value being spoken about. After the botched operation at the farmhouse, the
pair hole up in an old family cabin and it’s this section that really dragged
for me. A sizeable chunk of the book is taken up with overly descriptive detail
of nothing of importance while the two drift along in situ much like the
narrative; formless, purposeless and without any sense of being necessary. Even
at the halfway mark, when they’re both finally caught and imprisoned by The
Shop and we see them again three months later, the narrative feels sluggish and
drawn out. It’s only when plans are formulated later in the book - about three
quarters through - that the pace picks up again, and starts to rattle to its
mostly satisfying conclusion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.95pt; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN">I also had issues with the depiction of some
characters and The Shop itself. Because of the piecemeal way in which the
narrative plays out, you never get a full sense of who the players are. Even
Andy and Charlie are a little two-dimensional, Charlie most of all over the
course of the book; the narrative is supposed to show her developing
emotionally as the story unfolds, as she moves from being afraid of her power
to refusing to use it, before finally learning to control it and almost enjoy.
Yet I got little sense of this happening in an organic way; it seemed that we
were to simply accept it as having happened, through a couple of throwaway
lines. The gap of three months between capture and picking them up again
doesn’t help in this instance, as everything then gets spoken of in retrospect,
robbing it of impetus. As for The Shop; as much as I love the idea of this
organisation, and the role it plays, I wasn’t quite convinced of its
overreaching power, its position as an unaccountable force. Part of this, I
think, is that we get too much insight into a number of its agents and they
tend to be two-dimensional bully boys, taking cruel, immature delight in
hurting those they see as weaker than themselves. It's not a terrible way to
depict your antagonists, but it does strip them of that overshadowing nature
that I think an organisation like this would require; it reduces them, makes
them less serious, less significant. I also felt that the likes of Buddy
Repperton from "Christine", or Henry Bowers from "IT" were far more
terrifying presences. The only possible exception to this is the scarred form
of John Rainbird, one of The Shop's most callous and probably psychotic agents
(who is, essentially, a hitman); his aura of placid amorality unnerving even
those he works with and for. And the method by which he manipulates and
hoodwinks Charlie in the latter stages of the book is pretty chilling. Yet for
all that, he still doesn't seem to dominate the narrative the way I feel he
should. I think this is my biggest issue with the book; all the elements are
present, it's just that none of them seem to feel big enough for the story.
There's far too much waffle and meandering in between the actual action, and
very little of it actually necessary to the unfolding story. Certainly most of
it could have been told in a far more concise fashion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.95pt; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN">However it does pick up again in the last quarter;
as Charlie's powers grow, as Andy starts to formulate a desperate plan to
escape, as the intentions of both Rainbird and The Shop towards both their
prisoners begin to turn to the terminal... The pace really starts to pick up
here, and it's a welcome return. There is also a nice line in the extent of
Charlie's powers, a hint that they might be limitless, reaching far beyond anything
any of the characters - Charlie herself included - could have possible feared
or imagined. I also loved the scene when Charlie finally unleashes her powers
against those who have taken her - and her father's - liberty, have
experimented on her, and have pushed her into using the one thing she wishes
she could get rid of. It's the sort of thing King is great at, the turning of
the tables on bullies and oppressors; and it's something I'm an absolute sucker
for. Even though I felt he could have gone further with this, I recognise that
it's appropriate for an eight year old child to not necessarily want to go on a
revenge/murder rampage...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 12.95pt; text-align: left;">
<span lang="EN">Sadly, the final chapter returns to that
ponderous, dragging method of writing with a twenty page epilogue that could -
and probably should, in my opinion - have been only a couple of pages long. It
cements - for me - the idea that this book would have worked far better as a
novella, taking out all the extraneous fat and making it a lean, powerful, fast
moving action-thriller. Alternatively, King could have expanded massively on
the mythology and concepts, giving everything the breathing space I felt it
required, making the book more epic in scope. Instead we have something that
feels uneven, choppy and thin; characterisations that feel half-hearted, a plot
that feels too small and intimate despite its national (and potentially global)
implications. Might just be me, but I think this is possibly why "Firestarter"
is not really mentioned much when people gather to talk about their favourite
King works. A missed opportunity, I feel.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">One thing I did take away at the end of the book
was the notion that this novel could really benefit from a sequel; a revisiting
to Charlie and her strange powers. Far more than the uneven sequel to "The
Shining", "Doctor Sleep", I'd actually love to know what Charlie did
after she grew up. I think that has the potential to be something very
interesting, especially in the current climate of superhero adulation. After
all, Charlie is only one or two steps away from an X-Men...<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN">Paul M. Feeney is fast approaching middle-age
but denying all knowledge of it. He was born in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Scotland</st1:country-region></st1:place>. Having migrated and lived
all over the <st1:country-region w:st="on">UK</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st="on">Ireland</st1:country-region>, he is now currently settled in the
North-east of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">England</st1:country-region></st1:place>.
An avid and passionate fiction reader - his first love being horror and all
things dark - he has recently turned his hand to writing with a number of short
stories currently in publication and several others due throughout 2016. He has
also had his first novella, "The Last Bus", published by Crowded Quarantine as a
limited signed & numbered paperback in late 2015, and his second novella "Kids" is due in mid-2016 from another small press. He continues to turn out
short stories at a leisurely pace, while contemplating more novellas, and the
dreaded first novel. In between working a dull, full-time job and trying to
finish his stories, he also contributes the occasional review and article to
The Ginger Nuts Of Horror website.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br />
Paul previously reviewed "Blaze" (<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/blaze-reviewed-by-paul-m-feeney.html">which can be found here</a>) in the King For A Year projectMark Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12103997496549941279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4415224707044352750.post-85096132403884008972015-12-17T09:00:00.000+00:002015-12-17T10:15:57.723+00:00The Eyes Of The Dragon, reviewed by Jay Faulkner<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Stephen King’s novel, "The Eyes of the Dragon", is a tale of heroic adventure, set in the kingdom of Delain. It involves a king who is poisoned, a young and beautiful queen, a prince locked in a high tower while his younger and weak brother assumes the throne manipulated into doing so by an evil magician who harbours terrible secrets and malevolent plans …basically everything you’d except from the master of horror’s foray into the realm of pure fantasy.<br />
<br />
The thing about the novel is that it has become a Marmite book – you either love it or hate it. I’ve spoken to King fans who hated it even though they’ve never even read it, purely due to the fact that they claim it is fantasy rather than horror. The thing is, though, that I think that King always writes fantasy, just sometimes it is darker, more real, and horrific than others.<br />
<br />
That said I’ve always felt that ‘The Eyes of the Dragon’ is different from all other King books for one reason: I don’t think it is even really aimed at adults at all, I think it's aimed at the same sort of age group who read Harry Potter, or The Hobbit. It reads as a bedtime story for just as you are wrapping your head under the blankets on a dark and stormy night, mirroring the tone – and the weather - of the book itself. Perhaps that is another reason the book divides the fans; it’s King’s first young adult or children’s book without being purely aimed just for children. Confused? Don’t be. All you need to know is that, with ‘The Eyes of the Dragon’, King weaves a truly engaging spell and gives us his twist on a ‘fairy tale’ that would do the Brothers Grimm or even Disney proud.<br />
<br />
The story is told throughout from the viewpoint of an unseen narrator, or storyteller, and King adopts this ‘storyteller’ voice with ease, adding charm and colour to the book. The experience of reading it is similar in tone in some ways to "Stardust" or "The Princess Bride", and has echoes of Morgenstern's voice but is very clearly King’s own.<br />
<br />
King tells a vibrant story filled with invention and detail. His characters are a diverse set of good and decent people from peasants to royalty, from servants to friends, and allies to enemies, and King manages to ensure they are each their own unique personality. King Roland doesn’t mean to love his son Peter more than his son Thomas, but he cannot help himself. Thomas is always overshadowed by his ‘perfect’ brother, and desperately wants his father’s love. The king’s magician, Flagg (who has shown up in many King novels, sometimes under other names, but always just as evil), has been waiting for hundreds of years to cause mayhem on the kingdom. He is the king’s advisor, and all people fear him—and rightly so. And these are just three of the many and varied characters; there are so many others and King ensures that he devotes the same attention to them all, no matter how many pages they are in the book for. It is this attention for detail that he is known for and he keeps it going here.<br />
<br />
The premise of the book itself, as would be expected in a ‘fairy tale’, is a relatively simple one but in Stephen King’s hand it takes on a life of its own and while you hope that the ‘happy ever after’ you'd expect from a ‘fairy tale’ is coming, because it is King you are never quite sure if you are going to get your wish. <br />
<br />
The pacing is brisk and things look bleaker right up to the last few pages, the last few words. Flagg, the evil magician, is finally so close to getting his way with the Kingdom of Delain. Peter, the rightful ruler, is locked up in a high tower, close to death, with only a napkin between him and a certain death. It is at this point the reader suddenly remembers, breathless, that you are not just reading any old book about a battle between good and evil, but that you are reading a book by the master of horror, Stephen King.<br />
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<br /></div>
So, this close to the end of the tale and, as I said, breathless, we’d be certain that good would triumph over evil somehow, wouldn’t we? Sure, normally, but this is Stephen Frikkin’ King! Like I said, the Master of Horror.<br />
<br />
I won’t tell you how ‘The Eyes of the Dragon’ ends, but I will tell you two other things:<br />
<br />
1/ you should read it for yourself so that you can find out and 2/ it’s worth doing so because, as a lifelong Stephen King fan, it is that <i>damn</i> good. Honestly.<br />
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<div>
<br />
Jay Faulkner resides in Northern Ireland with his wife, Carole, and their two boys, Mackenzie and Nathaniel. He says that while he is a writer, martial artist, sketcher, and dreamer he’s mostly just a husband and father. He sometimes even finds time to sleep.<br />
<br />
His work has been published widely, both online and in print, and was short-listed in the 2010 Penguin Ireland Short Story Competition. He is currently working on his first novel.<br />
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He can be found online at <a href="http://www.jayfaulkner.com/">www.jayfaulkner.com</a></div>
Mark Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12103997496549941279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4415224707044352750.post-63430396938079565302015-12-16T09:00:00.000+00:002015-12-16T09:06:41.096+00:00Bag Of Bones, reviewed by Charlene Cocrane<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Grief. That's the emotion that got to me the most during this re-read.<br />
<br />
The first time I read this book I had just turned thirty and even though I was already married, the horror of losing a spouse didn't get through to me like it did this time. Now, after just having celebrated my 30th wedding anniversary, the idea of losing my husband is unfathomable. Stephen King dove deep into those fathoms and dragged me along with him. I did not like what I saw or felt. That, right there, is the reason why Stephen is the KING.<br />
<br />
I'm not going to go into the plot too much here, this is an old book and it's even had a made-for-TV-movie, so I can't say much that most people don't already know. This story is a combination of ghost story, revenge, and love story. It has genuinely scary moments and other moments so poignant that I found myself with tears in my eyes.<br />
<br />
But what is most important about this tale, about <i>all </i>of King's works, really, are the characters. King creates characters that are so real you feel like you can reach out and touch them. They are so real, you take in their emotions as your own. And he does it by not shying away from the ugly moments we all experience inside our own heads.<br />
<br />
The fact that widower Mike Noonan lusts after a young woman is painful for Mike to acknowledge and we, the Constant Readers, can <i>feel</i> how Mike is torn between that lust and guilt, and all the tangled feelings of betrayal and loss that go along with that. Even though he's widowed, he feels these emotions and we can <i>feel</i> them too. In our hearts, we know what Mike is feeling is true, because that's how WE would feel.<br />
<br />
Not only does King draw great <i>good</i> characters, he draws great <i>bad</i> ones, as well. His bad guys, not just Mr. Devore from this book, but ALL of them, have layers and a realness to them that brings them alive. They're not just men dressed in black, (Randall Flagg, I'm looking at you), they're complicated, (Trashcan Man), they have depth to them, and we (I?) LOVE to hate them. In this book, Mr. Devore is a rich, frail, elderly man in a wheelchair, yet he still comes at Mike with a menace that is horrible to witness. Our emotions are pulled every which way, how could we HATE an old man in a wheelchair? But there is no question that we DO hate him, and there again, the King has manipulated our emotions and has his Constant Readers, and all other readers, in the palms of his skilled, talented hands.<br />
<br />
I loved this book. I love Stephen King. That doesn't mean that I've loved every book he's written, but I usually do love his characters and creations, (Wolf, Billy Bumblers), and they still live within my memory. For me, no other author has created so many memorable characters and place settings. The words Derry, Jerusalem's Lot and Pennywise- they all cause an instant picture to appear in my brain. I say let him plant a picture in your brain too: of Sarah Laughs, of the T.R. and Mr. Devoe, Mattie and Kyra. I'm pretty sure you'll thank me later.<br />
<br />
I highly recommend this book to everyone. Just hold on tight, because your emotions are going to get knocked around a bit by the King, but hey, there's no one better qualified to do so. You'll be getting knocked around by one of the best authors living today.<br />
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<br />
Charlene Cochrane has loved horror since she saw her first horror movie at the age of 8. These days, however, her horror interests are mostly of the literary variety. She is on the reviewing team at <a href="http://www.horrorafterdark.com/">Horror After Dark</a> and also has her own blog at <a href="http://charlene.booklikes.com/">Char's Horror Corner</a>. She is also on Twitter as <a href="https://twitter.com/Charrlygirl">@Charrlygirl </a>Mark Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12103997496549941279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4415224707044352750.post-77884016176669238682015-12-14T09:00:00.000+00:002015-12-14T09:00:05.529+00:00The Green Mile, reviewed by Simon Bestwick<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I’ve got to make an admission: up until I graduated from University in 1996, the only Stephen King novel I’d read was "‘Salem’s Lot". Don’t get me wrong, I’d thought it was great, but at the time I was mostly reading pulpy British horror writers: Herbert, Hutson, Guy N. Smith. Later on I became snobby and decided all horror fiction was crap, but when I had to go back into the real world, I realised that the kind of fiction I was trying to write would fall into that category, so it was maybe time to read more widely in it. The first King book I bought was "Skeleton Crew", and after that I devoured pretty much everything he wrote.<br />
<br />
So when "The Green Mile" came out – in those little individual booklets, one a month – I bought and read it voraciously. I loved it, of course: back then, I’d decided King was the greatest writer who’d ever lived. I even wrote a serial of my own, for a small press magazine, and convinced myself it was as good as King, if not better. (It was neither.)<br />
<br />
But not everyone liked "The Green Mile"; Christopher Fowler, I remember, dismissed it as a book ‘<i>so childish you could colour it in</i>.’ It’d been nearly twenty years (Jesus!) since I’d read King’s serial thriller: how would it measure up?<br />
<br />
The answer is, on the whole, pretty damned well. Apart from one thing. But I’ll come to that.<br />
<br />
In technical terms, King is at the top of his form. Each new episode builds the recap of ‘the story so far’ into the narrative itself, and as ever, King is a master storyteller. By which I mean, he tells the story superbly; you can almost hear the voice of Paul Edgecombe, former chief guard on the ‘Green Mile’ (the Death Row at Cold Mountain Penitentiary), in your ear as you read.<br />
<br />
Paul is an old man now, on his own personal Death Row – a retirement home. On the Green Mile, there was one guard who used his position to torment the prisoners in his charge: the cowardly, sadistic – but well-connected – Percy Wetmore. At the retirement home, Paul comes to see one of the staff, Brad Dolan – a cruel, petty bully who singles Paul out for special attention – as Percy’s present-day counterpart – with the crucial difference that now, Paul is one of the inmates, unable to defend himself against abuse.<br />
<br />
But Paul has a friend – the kind and graceful Elaine Connelly – to whom he relates the events leading up to the last execution he presided over: that of John Coffey, a gigantic black man convicted of the rape and murder of two children. A man who proved capable of healing the sick with his touch.<br />
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Multiple storylines weave through the novel: Paul suffers from an agonising urinary infection; the condemned rapist-murderer Eduard Delacroix befriends – or is befriended by – a mouse called Mister Jingles; a new inmate, the psychopathic William ‘Wild Bill’ Wharton does his best to make everyone’s life a misery in his way, while Percy Wetmore does much the same in his; Warden Hal Moores’ wife, Melinda, is dying of an inoperable brain tumour. King connects all these threads with a level of craft that only an expert writer could demonstrate.<br />
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But the achievement isn’t just technical: the writing packs a ferocious emotional punch. The men on the Green Mile may be convicted killers, but that doesn’t prevent King evoking our sympathy for two of them at least – Arlen Bitterbuck, and Eduard Delacroix, although ‘Wild Bill’ Wharton is as vile and irredeemable individual as you could hope to find. John Coffey himself, of course, is an innocent man.<br />
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Beyond that, too, is a sober meditation on the nature of whatever God may preside over this world; that takes place, of course, within the context of King’s Christianity. You don’t have to share his faith to be affected by it.<br />
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All told, "The Green Mile" remains an absorbing and moving reading experience, showing King at his very best. However…<br />
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Well, I said there was one thing, and there is. And it’s pretty glaring.<br />
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In an interview back in the early ‘80s, King responded to a critic lamenting the inability of so clearly talented a writer to draw a convincing female character. He admitted there was truth in the allegation, and that he had similar problems writing black characters. Mother Abagail in "The Stand", Dick Hallorann in "The Shining" – ‘super-powered black people’, I think, was the phrase King used. Or in more modern parlance, Magical Negroes, whose main function turns out to be helping the white protagonists. Even Mike Hanlon in "It" is the member of the group who stays behind in Derry, who sacrifices his own prospects of success in order to be the ‘lighthouse keeper’.<br />
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John Coffey, unfortunately, is another figure in that same tradition: he just exists to help others. Of course, that has to do with his role as a Christlike healer: he’s just a conduit for the power of God, put on Earth to ‘help’, but the end result is another black guy who gives up everything for the Good White Folks. Hell, he lets himself be taken without demur to heal the wife of the man who’s going to order his death, and asks for nothing in return, not even his own life. King gets out of that particular tangle by having Coffey want to die, unable to bear the pain of the cruel world any more. And yes, in the context of the story’s Christianity, all of the above makes sense.<br />
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But at the same time it means the nice white prison guards don’t actually have to risk disgrace and imprisonment by saving the wrongly-convicted black guy’s life. It probably wouldn’t stand out so much if Coffey weren’t the only black guy in the novel.<br />
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I don’t enjoy writing that: I love King’s work, and I still love "The Green Mile". But that one flaw sticks out much more starkly in 2015 than it did in 1996.<br />
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Allowing for that, however, "The Green Mile" is still one of King’s masterpieces, and it’s anything but childish. I defy anyone not to be moved by Paul’s eventual fate – to be cursed, via John Coffey’s healing touch, with a longevity that ensures he outlives both everyone he loves, and his own wish to remain alive. That’s not only heartbreaking, it’s horror of a profound and subtle kind. “We each of us owe a death, there are no exceptions,” Paul concludes, “but sometimes, oh God, the Green Mile is so long.”<br />
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Simon Bestwick is the author of "Tide Of Souls", "The Faceless" and "Black Mountain". His short fiction has appeared in <i>Black Static</i> and <i>Best Horror Of The Year</i>, and been collected in "A Hazy Shade Of Winter", "Pictures Of The Dark", "Let’s Drink To The Dead" and "The Condemned". He lives on the Wirral with his long-suffering fiance, the wonderful Cate Gardner, and his new novel, "Hell’s Ditch", is out now.<br />
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He can be found <a href="http://simon-bestwick.blogspot.co.uk/">online at his blog</a> and also on Twitter as <a href="https://twitter.com/GevaudanShoal">@GevaudanShoal</a></div>
Mark Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12103997496549941279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4415224707044352750.post-87182726383415745432015-12-11T09:00:00.000+00:002015-12-11T09:15:31.204+00:00Rita Hayworth And Shawshank Redemption, reviewed by David T Griffith<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Until I picked up the "Different Seasons" collection a few years ago, I had not read a single book by Stephen King since the early 1990s. Back then, I went through a phase in which I read five sequential King novels, the first three "Dark Tower" books, "The Tommyknockers", and "The Eyes of the Dragon". I had a friend from my MFA writing point out to me how I read the weird, offbeat books by King. I was never one to follow trends while all my friends were reading "It" and "The Stand" back then.<br />
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Thing is, I loved King’s style of storytelling, and looking back, I realize now the influence it had on my own writing voice considering I first started my creative writing endeavor in 1989. Thinking about it, I don’t know why I ever stopped reading his works. I’ve been changing that, having read "On Writing" and a short story that was published in the New Yorker recently. My mother is passing on her King collection to me, consisting of all his early stuff, so I’ll have plenty to catch up on.<br />
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"Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption" has resonated with a part of me that has lay dormant for several years. The novella reminded me of everything I loved about Stephen King’s stories, like his ability to pull me right in with the first paragraphs. I had no idea what Shawshank was about before reading the first page, other than it involved a prison. Up until the first time I read this I had not seen the movie either, as I do not watch movies that often – it’s a time thing.<br />
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I understand why this novella attracted the attention of filmmakers: it is a story about hope, survival, and the obvious redemption. Readers get to know the narrator so intimately and empathetically, yet he isn’t exactly a good guy, and the story spans a considerable portion of the twentieth century. It’s filled with characters that are easy to comprehend – incarcerated criminals and corrupt prison guards – living on the darker side of humanity, creating a dynamic which we abhor in real life yet follow vigorously in movies, TV shows, and books. The protagonist, Red, who narrates the story, had fixed the brakes of his wife’s car causing her death as well as two others including a baby. It’s hard to develop compassion for anyone who has committed such a heinous crime, yet, King makes it happen.<br />
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Time was a significant character in this story. I found compelling King’s ability to step back and forth through time in its forty-year span. He was able to seamlessly move from a memory of an event to actually putting the reader right there in that moment as the action took place, only to return to the narrator’s current place in the story’s timeline as that episode concluded. He handled representation of the different decades by Andy Dufresne’s posters featuring celebrities like Rita Hayworth, Marilyn Monroe, and Linda Ronstadt as time passed. Other subtle details, such as the rising cost of a rock hammer after nineteen years, provided a contrasting sense of the outside world progressing while prison time was largely stagnant. Red’s reaction to the outside world in 1977 was perhaps the largest example of contrasting times. He was overwhelmed by the volume of cars on the road and noted the spendthrift nature that had yielded so much waste littered on the ground since he was locked up in 1938.<br />
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King skillfully used the essay-writing element of double portrait in Red’s story of Andy, an innocent man wrongly convicted of, and incarcerated for, his wife’s murder. “You were writing about Andy Dufresne. You’re nothing but a minor character in your own story,” Red contemplated hearing from an imagined audience in his narration. “It’s all about me, every damned word of it. Andy was the part of me they could never lock up, the part of me that will rejoice when the gates finally open for me and I walk out … I guess it’s just Andy had more of that part than me, and used it better.” Red lived vicariously through Andy following his absence from the prison by recounting his story with a bittersweet sadness. He was happy to see Andy free but missed his friendship.<br />
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As stated earlier, this was also a story of survival, each protagonist developing and relying on his skills. Red began the story with the self-introduction, “I’m the guy who can get it for you … within reason.” As the reader learns, Red has a network in place to obtain items from the outside world, generally non-lethal, and distributing them within the prison unnoticed. Placing him in a position of power among the prison population, other inmates respect and do not cause him any problems for fear of losing his resourcefulness. Andy, who was a banker in his past life, uses his financial skills as a means to buy the wardens’ and prison guards’ protection, as well as the development of the prison library he took control of. In building up the library, he earned respect from the other inmates interested in educating themselves or reading for their own pleasure. Andy, like Red, used his proficiencies to make himself untouchable, and a model prisoner, which enabled him to make his escape.<br />
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The ending of the story was moving; it was what I wanted to see happen. I loved that the story contained a false ending and then continued, this excerpt made me smile: “I thought I had put finish to my story in a Shawshank prison cell on a bleak January day in 1976. Now it’s May of 1977 and I am sitting in a small, cheap room at the Brewster Hotel in Portland, adding to it.” The blank post card from the Texas border town and the letter with $1,000 hidden in the stone wall Andy Dufresne told Red about was exactly what I wanted to see happen. I was rooting for Red to have a new life, to see him redeemed for his honest nature and good intentions, despite the reason he was locked up in 1938. And I was rooting for Andy, the incarcerated innocent man, to make his escape through the hole he formed behind the series of posters starting with Rita Hayworth over a period of twenty-seven years.<br />
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If you haven’t read Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption, by all means do so. It’s about 100 pages long and immersive. Most people have seen the movie based on it, which stayed true to the story, though it deviated at times. I liked the movie a lot, but I loved the novella.<br />
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Fascinated by all things dark, gritty, and dystopian, D.T. Griffith is a recent entry into the horror and dark fiction genres. He has worked as a professional designer, illustrator, and writer since the mid-1990s in the marketing, branding, and communication fields. Like all of his other art, his fiction draws inspiration from classic and modern works alike, spanning a full range of literary masters, surrealist painters, raw comedians, and punk rock.<br />
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D.T. Griffith is educated in fine arts and professional writing holding BFA and MFA degrees. He lives in his home state of Connecticut, USA, where he and his wife are raising a creatively and scientifically talented teenaged daughter.<br />
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He can be found online at <a href="http://dtgriffith.com/">his website</a> and also on Twitter - <a href="https://twitter.com/dtgriffith">@dtgriffith </a>Mark Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12103997496549941279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4415224707044352750.post-11461053358220346202015-12-09T09:00:00.000+00:002015-12-09T09:00:00.451+00:00Pet Sematary, reviewed by Charlotte Bond<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I’m pretty sure that “Pet Sematary” is the first King novel I ever read (not counting stealing “Nightmares and Dreamscapes” off my father’s bookshelf, reading one, then putting it back before anyone noticed I was reading horror) and it remains my favourite. And I’m in good company in that regards since King himself says in his introduction: “When I’m asked (as I frequently am) what I consider to be the most frightening book I’ve ever written, the answer I give comes easily and with no hesitation: Pet Sematary… All I know is that Pet Sematary is the one I put away in the drawer, thinking I had finally gone too far.”<br />
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Not sure at the time if King’s books were for me, I rented “Pet Sematary” out of the library over Christmas one year. I was expecting a straightforward tale about supernatural pets coming back to haunt their owners, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. This is a story about death and the human attitude to it. Within the pages of "Pet Sematary", King explores viewpoints of the young, the old, the hardened medical professional, and those with a phobia about death.<br />
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As I always am when I read King, I was surprised at just how much of the book is taken up with 'mundane' matters – such as the family settling in to their new home, Ellie’s first day at school – before the horror really starts to pile on. But for me, that is King’s charm. His plot is straightforward, but his characters are complex and his sense of foreboding is subtly done. Even as he’s describing the family readjusting to life, we are introduced to Rachel’s intense phobia of death, we follow Ellie’s natural learning process as she comes to terms with the idea that both people and pets die, and we see Louis’ own pragmatic and accepting attitude to mortality with the death of Victor Pascow. Not only that, but Louis’ thoughts upon Pascow’s death - thinking of how close he himself came to hitting cyclists as he drove into work that morning - hints at what is to come. We can all of us relate to the experience of the “close call”, where but for a driver’s alertness or quickness on the brakes, a terrible tragedy might have occurred. In Pascow’s case we see what happens when that close call becomes reality, and this theme is also something that is examined again later in the novel.<br />
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What struck me when I re-read it for this review was just how much each character reverses their attitude to death by the end of the novel. In the beginning, it is Louis who is accepting of death while Rachel has an intense phobia and Ellie simply has no experience. It is Louis who is taken by Pascow to see the danger of the Sematary, and it is Louis who notices the change in Church the cat, while it’s made plain that Ellie and Rachel don’t – or at least, don’t in the exact same way. Yet in the last third, Louis is blind to all the warning signs, while Rachel has dark premonitions and Ellie is now the one experiencing nightmares with Pascow.<br />
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And yet this role reversal is hinted at even during the opening chapter, when Gage is stung by a bee and Louis, the doctor and responsible adult in the situation, goes to pieces. It is Jud the saves the day on that occasion, a hint of what is to come and what is not to be. While Louis’ ineptitude can be put down to the long, frazzled journey, it is also King foreshadowing what is to come.<br />
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What I noticed more starkly on my recent re-reading was just how Louis’ internal monologue gives away more to the reader than it does to Louis himself. When he’s looking at Church after the accident, he says to himself: “<i>It, thought Louis. Not he; it. Remember, it’s been spayed.</i>” Yet Church was spayed before the accident and Louis never referred to him as 'it' before; it is clear to the reader in a way it isn’t clear to Louis that Church is different after the accident, that he’s become an 'it'. Furthermore, in part two, Louis starts to argue with himself internally. Where previously we read only Louis’ thoughts and asides, now it is his thoughts arguing with what - himself or something else entirely that is influencing him? Through brilliant prose, King manages to show us Louis’ tortured spiral into madness in subtle and effective ways.<br />
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I could go on with all the beautiful touches that King employs in “Pet Sematary”, and indeed I had a good page of notes when I’d finished it. But to do that would spoil a book that deserves to be enjoyed firsthand, and I hope this review has tempted you to do just that.<br />
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I first read this novel as a young, single girl and it affected me then; I re-read it as a mother and found it was just as effective and affecting. I think that’s part of the charm of this book, encapsulated by the opening scene with the car journey. Whether you’re the frazzled father/driver, the tired mother/passenger, or the bored and carsick children in the back, we can all relate to the state in which the Creeds arrive at their new home. This sympathising continues throughout the novel: whatever your concept of death, you’ll find a character to relate to, to weep with, and to be afraid for. And there’s plenty of fear to go around.<br />
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Charlotte Bond lives and writes in West Yorkshire. These days she writes mainly horror and dark fantasy, although has been known to dabble in sci-fi, heroic fantasy and even romance. She writes under her own name, as well as ghostwriting for other people. You can find her <a href="http://www.charlottebond.co.uk/">online at her website here</a> and on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/charlottebondauthor">Facebook here</a>.<br />
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<i><a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/pet-sematary-reviewed-by-marc-lyth.html">note - Pet Sematary was also reviewed by Marc Lyth on this link</a></i>Mark Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12103997496549941279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4415224707044352750.post-17617796116137032082015-12-07T09:00:00.000+00:002015-12-07T09:00:00.299+00:00Just After Sunset, reviewed by Edward Lorn<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I’m here to talk about my favourite Stephen King collection since “Night Shift” - “Just After Sunset”. If you knew me, I wouldn’t have to say how big a King fanboy I am but I’m sure I’ll provide enough evidence of my fandom before we’re done. Settle in, Constant Reader, and let me tell you a story.<br />
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I grew up surrounded by Stephen King. My mother was a huge fan, one who needed every new release on the day it dropped. I have fond memories of standing in line with her, waiting to purchase her copies of “It”, and later, “The Tommyknockers”. Then, years later, popping some corn and plopping down in the couch to watch the television adaptations of both of the aforementioned books. I recall cowering in the backseat’s footwell while my mother and her best friend watched “Pet Sematary” at the drive-in. Zelda’s first appearance literally made me pee my pants. I was nine years old. King helped me bond with my mother, and to this day, a simple mention of one of his books brings back fond memories, like a treasured song. In that regard, Stephen King is my favourite band.<br />
One of my earliest memories tied to this collection (other than watching “The Cat from Hell” in “Tales from the Darkside: The Movie”, but we’ll get to that) is from 2004. I was at Walden’s Books and I came across a paperback entitled “Tales from the Borderlands”, which was the fifth book in the Borderlands series. I only bought it because there was a brand new Stephen King tale at the end, “Stationary Bike”. The multi-author collection was my first taste of authors like Bentley Little (an author I would seek out soon after and tear through his entire back catalogue in under a year) and the late/great Tom Piccirilli. But the story I remember most is King’s tale. Although Gary A. Braunbeck’s story about recovering and rebuilding the face of God, “Rami Temporalis”, is a great little ditty, too.<br />
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While King is not without his faults (I’m looking at you “Dreamcatcher” and “From a Buick Eight”), I feel this collection is among his best work. King’s previous collection, “Everything’s Eventual” let me down. The only story I really enjoy and still reread from that one is “The Little Sisters of Eluria”. The rest of the tales were timewasters at best. I thought more than half the stories in “Nightmares and Dreamscapes” were either just all right or boring; the other half are good fun, but nothing stellar. For a time, I thought the last well-balanced collection we would see was going to be “Skeleton Crew”, which has three of my all-time favourite King stories: “The Raft”, “The Jaunt”, and “The Mist”. But the collections I always return to, the ones I can reread time and time again without skipping a single story, are “Night Shift” and “Just After Sunset”.<br />
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While I will not be covering every single story in this collection, I will discuss the ones that pop into my mind without having to look at the Table of Contents.<br />
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“Just After Sunset” showcases Stephen King’s maturity of style and undying love of story. “The Gingerbread Girl” and “Harvey’s Dream” alone prove this. The stories could not be more different. “Harvey’s Dream” is a literary nightmare ala Twilight Zone, whereas “The Gingerbread Girl” is on par with some of the best suspense writing I’ve read. Both of these stories rely heavily on strength of character, and character development is where King shines. Then we have King riffing on much the same idea in “Rest Stop” and “Mute”. Those two stories are interesting slices from the same cake — bad people doing good deeds. Then again, I guess that depends on what you consider to be a good deed.<br />
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“Just After Sunset” also covers the longest period of creativity out of King’s entire catalog. “The Cat From Hell” is positively elderly in terms of King’s career, which spans five publishers (Doubleday, Viking, and currently, Scribner, with a pit stop at Random House and two detours with Putnam) - all that, from 1974 to present day. “The Cat from Hell” was first released in Cavalier, during King’s years submitting to men’s magazines, and then filmed as part of the nostalgia-inducing, probably-not-as-good-as-I-remember “Tales from the Darkside: The Movie”. And, although I cannot be a hundred percent certain, the segment might have been my first taste of King. “N.” is the newest story, and probably my favourite. I’m OCD, so I relate to the titular character. The ending is classic Uncle Stevie. I’ve always been a fan of unhappy finishers, and King delivers them more often than not.<br />
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Whether King is grossing us out with “A Very Tight Place” (my second favourite story in this collection, because I like my fiction to affect me in some way, and the what-if in this tale is one of my worst nightmares) or aiming to bring tears to our eyes with “The Things They Left Behind”, he hits the mark with each and every story offered in “Just After Sunset”.<br />
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Finally, I love that King has always been honest with us about the quality of his work. He admits that the stinkers from his career actually do stink, but when asked which of his own works he loves the most, he’s been quoted saying “Isn’t it funny how your own farts smell the best?” I think he feels much the same way about “Willa”, the first story in the collection (and my least favourite), because he opens the afterword with the explanation, “<i>This probably isn’t the best story in the book, but I love it very much…</i>”<br />
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And that’s how I feel about “Just After Sunset”. You might not agree with me when I say this is one of King’s best collections, but I love it very much.<br />
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Thank you for your time.<br />
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Edward Lorn is a reader, writer, and content creator. He's been writing for fun since the age of six, and writing professionally since 2011. He can be found haunting the halls of <a href="ttps://twitter.com/EdwardLorn">Twitter</a>, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, and Goodreads and he has blogs on both <a href="http://edwardlorn.booklikes.com/">Booklikes</a> and <a href="http://edwardlorn.wordpress.com/">Wordpress</a>, with such popular features as Ruminating On and Randomized Randomocity. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Edward-Lorn/e/B0073M9ILU/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1377710522&sr=8-2-ent">His Amazon authors page can be found here.</a><br />
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Edward Lorn lives in the southeast United States with his wife and two children, as well as two dogs, Ash and Coal (a.k.a. his Goombas). He is currently working on his next novel.Mark Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12103997496549941279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4415224707044352750.post-38582848811348318662015-12-04T09:00:00.000+00:002015-12-04T09:00:09.796+00:00The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole, reviewed by Gef Fox<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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If Stephen King ever has any difficulty in re-immersing himself in Mid-World, given the amount of time between each book of his decades-old Dark Tower series, the man simply doesn't let it show.<br />
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I can't imagine anyone visiting this blog is at all unfamiliar with The Dark Tower series, but just in case, here's a long story made short: Roland is the last gunslinger of Mid-World, a decaying landscape, on a mission to reach the Dark Tower, where his world meets all other worlds (including our own). The whole thing is a blend of King's horror, with epic fantasy and some very weird western elements. An acquired taste, to be sure.<br />
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I came to the series late in the game, right around the time King had completed the seventh and final novel in the series. This allowed me to practically devour the books over the course of a couple years. Though, I held off a long time on the seventh book just because I didn't want the series to end. Weird logic, right? Well, this stalling was abated when King announced a new novel, a kind of stand-alone, would be published. Hallelujah!<br />
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The Wind Through the Keyhole, which takes place between the events of the fourth book, Wizard and Glass (featuring a showdown with an alternate version of The Stand's Randall Flagg), and the fifth book, Wolves of Calla (where events resemble The Magnificent Seven as Roland and company protect a village from said wolves), is a bit of an odd duck. I don't mean that disparagingly, and given an especially bonkers reveal in the sixth book in the series, the events in Keyhole could be described as almost quaint.<br />
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By odd, I refer to the almost Inception-esque framework woven into the novel, as Stephen King presents what could be described as the literary equivalent to a Russian nesting doll. Roland and company make shelter in an old building when a storm hits along their journey towards the Dark Tower. To pass the time, Roland entertains them with a story of his youth. Roland actually regaled them with a story once before of his formative years in Wizard and Glass, but this time around the story centers on a quest given to him in the wake of his mother's death … by his own hand. And within this story, which is the lion's share of the novel, Roland befriends a young orphan boy who has seen the monster he is after and to help assuage his fears, Roland tells a fairytale of sorts about a boy who goes on a journey braving all sorts of creatures to avenge his father's murder.<br />
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As a stand-alone, Wind Through the Keyhole works quite well with the whole “gather round the campfire, kids, and let me tell you a tale” schtick. And the crux of the story avoids being too entrenched with the broader aspects of the Dark Tower, allowing themes of fear, regret, and family to carry the load. That and King's incomparable way with language fans have come to know from the series.<br />
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As a companion or continuation of the Dark Tower series as a whole though, the novel stacks up to be a fun interlude. If you read the whole seven-book series and came back to this, I'm not so sure you're gaining any great insight into the relationship of Roland, Jake, Susannah, and Eddie. It might appeal more to those who have dipped there toes into the graphic novels, which touched upon Roland's younger days, offering some further glimpses into how he became such a relentless and resourceful gunslinger.<br />
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For me, it was a bit like catching up with an old friend who has stopped by to tell me a tale before he steps back on the road and makes his way to his ultimate destination, leaving me a little sad to see him go but thankful to have palavered with him one more time.<br />
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Gef Fox is a genre mutt who spent his childhood daydreaming about monsters, ghosts, and robots. Little has changed, though nowadays he writes about them, too. You can see for yourself by visiting his blog at <a href="http://waggingthefox.blogspot.com/">waggingthefox.blogspot.com</a>Mark Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12103997496549941279noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4415224707044352750.post-21114235786598698512015-12-02T09:00:00.000+00:002015-12-02T22:16:04.507+00:00Duma Key, reviewed by Ren Warom<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>"You have to establish the horizon.”</i><br />
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It all begins with Elizabeth, who as a very little girl falls from a carriage and strikes her head on a stone. She ends up with something called a contrecoup injury, where impact on one side causes devastation on the other - and this is not only a type of injury shared by no less than three of the main characters but a metaphor for the events of the book. After her accident she starts to draw, and the very first thing she scrawls on blank paper is a line to represent the horizon. With that line, she begins to draw herself back into the world.<br />
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Of course her story is where it all begins, but we follow a very different story to find hers. Edgar Freemantle loses everything after an accident; his memory, his marriage, all the stability he’s spent over thirty years building upon. He is left with a blank surface. One of the things this book is about is building life back from emptiness, starting with only the horizon.<br />
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Unsurprisingly, Edgar starts to draw after his accident too and, like Elizabeth’s art, his gains a sort of magic, and like Elizabeth’s it is a dangerous magic, capable of taking as much as it gives.<br />
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"Duma Key", then, is a story about loss, about finding your way back in after the fact, and whether or not that is entirely possible. And of course there are some things you never come back from, some things that are unrecoverable. You cannot bring a life back once it is lost, but if you lose your way in life, lose all you’ve known, or lose a loved one, there are ways to come back from that and King examines minutely within the pages of "Duma Key" all the limitations, the possibilities and the quandaries of continuing when you cannot find either the horizon or the means (and sometimes even the will) to draw it back in.<br />
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I think one of the problems people have with this book is that it’s wrapped around a supernatural evil. There are readers who feel that weakens the story. Who think the novel goes downhill in the final third as they race to put a stop to Perse, the ancient evil who appears to creep in through the rents and fissures caused by the damage wrought in Elizabeth’s and then Edgar’s accidents, but they’re missing the point. Perse is not an afterthought or a dash of extra horror flavouring in the mix, she’s there right from the beginning, when Elizabeth falls from the carriage, when the crane crashes into Edgar’s car. Hers is the tune to which these people dance, all unknowing. She is the blow that causes the damage and a terrifying metaphor for the offhand cruelty of life, the absolute indifference of death.<br />
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There’s a great deal about looking but not <i>seeing</i> in this book. Missing the obvious because you simply can’t imagine it. I might not agree with the sentiment ‘God punishes us for what we can’t imagine’ but I see it at work in this story and it rings true for life in all its chaotic glory and horrors. That’s King’s gift, he writes life, writes people, writes them with such candour and clarity that we recoil from seeing ourselves as messed up, mistaken, malicious and inadequate as we are, and yet in turn he highlights all that is wonderful about mixed-up, messed up humanity. All that brings us the most joy.<br />
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Take for example my favourite character in this book, Jerome Wireman, the man who had everything and lost it. He’s an utterly broken man who even in his agony continues to care with absolute selflessness for Elizabeth and then Edgar. I adore his witticisms, his balls-out humour, his pragmatic and full blooded approach to what’s left of his life, his searing honesty. Every time I read this book I am Edgar, eternally grateful to Wireman for the simple act of being Wireman. We all need a Wireman in our lives, that person who will walk beside us through hell and never let us believe our own bullshit.<br />
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There’s so much I could talk about with regards to this book and how it holds me up, horror and all. I’ve read it over and over, it is one of my hedges against the night, was in fact the very thing that introduced me to that concept via the wonderful character Bozie and believe me, I live it. I have my hedges against the night, and they do work. Every time I read "Duma Key" I feel reaffirmed, warmed, heartbroken and at peace with my own damage all at once. It reminds me that, although life is messy, it is also a thing of extraordinary beauty and that art, no matter how supposedly mainstream, is a grand way of both celebrating and explicating those indisputable facts. That’s the magic of King’s writing, and this book, my favourite of all his books, lives and breathes that magic through every word.<br />
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<i>“Know when you’re finished, and when you are, put your pencil or your paintbrush down. All the rest is only life.”</i><br />
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Ren is a writer of the strange, dark and bizarre, not known for an ability to fit into boxes of any description. She's repped by the fabulous Jennifer Udden of Donald Maass Literary Agency and has two cyberweird novels forthcoming in the UK and the US with Titan Books - ESCAPOLOGY in 2016 and VIROLOGY in 2017.<br />
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Ren tweets here: <a href="https://twitter.com/RenWarom">@RenWarom</a><br />
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Waffles on Facebook here: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ren.warom?fref=ts">Ren Warom</a><br />
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<a href="https://renwaromsumwelt.wordpress.com/">Maintains a blog here</a><br />
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJG0N7oVbG2AaIW1UM1gGug">And her YouTube is here</a><br />
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<i><a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/duma-key-reviewed-by-liz-barnsley.html">note - Duma Key was also reviewed by Liz Barnsley on this link</a></i>Mark Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12103997496549941279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4415224707044352750.post-49165115357469882192015-11-30T09:00:00.000+00:002015-11-30T09:00:07.493+00:00Insomnia, reviewed by Ross Warren<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>'Every day I woke up next to you was like waking up young and seeing…everything new.’</i><br />
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I discovered Stephen King in the early part of 1989 at the age of ten. We were getting ready to move to live in Spain and I came across a box of things my older sister intended to throw out. On the top was the thickest book I had ever seen. Even with the cover and thirty or so pages missing it was still the size of a brick. The book was "IT" and took me about four months to read over that long summer in a strange country, and remains not just my favourite King book but my favourite book period. Even with the missing opening, it was a few years before I experienced the devastating fate of young George Denbrough, it hooked me in and I have remained a Constant Reader ever since.<br />
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For this wonderful project Mark West dreamed up I would dearly have loved to pontificate at length why I believe IT to be King’s best book and to talk about what it means to me on a personal level, but alas, that nice fella James Everington beat me to it. So I instead decided to go for one of the books I feel is a little under-appreciated.<br />
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"Insomnia" is a book that even the author himself has described as a ‘<i>trying-too-hard novel</i>’ so I may have bitten off more than I can chew with this. Whilst I won’t try to kid you that it would make my top five, it would be in the lower spots of a personal top ten. The re-read I undertook for this review was, if we count a couple of times listening to the wonderful audio version narrated by Eli Wallach, my sixth time reading it. Beaten in this regard only by "IT" with eight reads.<br />
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So what has brought me back to re-read this particular book when there are so many new ones out there? I believe the simple answer, true also for "IT", is that it’s the characters. Ralph Roberts, Lois Chase and Bill McGovern introduce the reader to another side of Derry to that shown in the aforementioned "IT", but it is still recognisably the same town. They have a great camaraderie in the opening chapters that has you feeling like you are sat catching up with old friends. They also ground the reader in the everyday routine of a Derry retiree so that when the more fantastical elements come in to play it is all the easier to suspend your disbelief.<br />
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There are also, as is often the case with King, many memorable supporting characters such as Joe Wyzer, John Leydecker, Dorrance Marsteller and Gretchen Tillbury. The villain of the piece, at least initially, is Ed Deepneau a neighbour of Ralph’s who suddenly goes off the rails talking about the ‘Crimson King’, the first of many ties to the Dark Tower series, and getting heavily involved in a campaign against the visit of Susan Day, a pro-abortion advocate.<br />
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The violent breakdown of Deepneau’s marriage is the stand-out scene of the opening section of the book and the theme of spousal abuse would be something King returned to for a more in-depth treatment in his next book Rose Madder. Ralph steps up to be the saviour of Helen Deepneau and cements his place amongst this Constant Reader’s favourite characters.<br />
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As Ralph’s suffers more and more deeply with the malady of the title he begins to see strange colours and balloon strings around the people he observes around town. Then one morning he sees two strange, short, bald men deep in conversation on the lawn of an elderly neighbour.<br />
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These bald men he discovers are agents for the purpose, who he names Clothos and Lachesis, tasked with cutting the balloon string auras, that Ralph has begun to see, on those that it is determined that their time on Earth has reached its natural end. The third of what Ralph calls ‘the three little bald doctors’ is Atropos who is an agent for the random, tasked with cutting strings of certain people before their time. Ralph and Lois learn the majority of this, along of course with the reader, in an extended scene upon the roof of a hospital that is heavy on the exposition and actually hampers the pacing of the novel as it creates a race-against-time element to the climax that feels artificial and leaves the novel with quite an unbalanced narrative tempo.<br />
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The uneven pacing isn’t the only criticism that can be levelled at the book and it’s perhaps easy to see why some of King’s Constant Readers do not rate the book too highly. There is some frankly atrocious dialogue when Ralph talks with Trigger Vachon; the editor really should have pulled old Steve up on the embarrassing patois he utilises for this particular character. The manner of the Random and the Purpose is a little over-explained and creates a feeling that Ralph and Lois aren’t much more than pieces in the game of higher beings. Also, Ed Deepneau comes close to appearing like a pantomime villain, lacking the believability of antagonists from other King books such as Annie Wilkes from "Misery" and Greg Stillson from "The Dead Zone". Although this could be a conscious decision by the author to highlight how he is being manipulated.<br />
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In the explosive finale it is revealed that the person Ralph has been positioned to save is not in fact Susan Day, the expected target of the crazed Ed Deepneau, but rather a small boy named Patrick Danville who is important to the agents of the purpose and who will go on to play a significant role in the Dark Tower series.<br />
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It’s a satisfying ending (for an author often criticised for his endings) with tense action, realistic and rather emotional collateral damage, and is true to the events that precede it. However, the proper ending, the one that elevates the book into my top ten and makes Ralph one of my all-time favourite King characters comes in the epilogue.<br />
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The reader is brought back into the lives of Ralph and Lois several years later. They are now married and in the manner of the Losers Club from "IT" have forgotten much of what occurred in Derry and the three bald doctors. But Ralph remembers enough to know that he has an appointment with Miss Natalie Deepneau and one last opportunity to ruin Atropos’ plans.<br />
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It’s a wonderfully handled section, the author filling us in on what has become of characters we have come to love over the course of the book and the ultimate fate of Ralph never fails to bring a tear to the eye.<br />
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Ross Warren is the editor of the 2011 anthology "Dark Minds" and the 2013 anthology "For the Night is Dark" from Crystal Lake Publishing and co-editor, with Anthony Watson, of the 2012 anthology "Darker Minds" and the 2015 anthology "Darkest Minds". Alongside Anthony he runs <a href="http://www.darkmindspress.com/">Dark Minds Press</a> whilst his fiction has appeared in magazines such as Estronomicon and Sanitarium as well as anthologies from Crystal Lake Publishing and Knightwatch Press. He lives in Cheltenham, in the UK, with his wife Katarzyna and son Joseph and can be <a href="http://www.rosswarren.co.uk/">found online here </a>and <a href="https://twitter.com/Rozza1210">on Twitter here</a>.Mark Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12103997496549941279noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4415224707044352750.post-82237108478524774642015-11-24T09:00:00.000+00:002015-11-24T11:15:43.726+00:0011.22.63, reviewed by Kim Talbot Hoelzli<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>“When people begin to lose hope, there’s bound to be explosions.”</i></div>
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<u>Stephen King, 11-22-63</u></div>
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What if you could go back in time? What if there was one moment of time that you could take back or change to make a better future? That’s what Stephen King’s "11-22-63" is about. A 'rabbit hole' in the back of a diner lets people go back to 1958. Two men wonder, if you go back and save Kennedy, can you save the world?<br />
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I finished reading this novel and wrote the review after the Paris attacks, which meant that the ending to it resonated a lot more than I think it otherwise would have. If we could go back in time and change something, would we stop those attacks? Maybe we’d stop 9-11? What would that mean for the future?<br />
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But that’s the problem isn’t it? No one knows what it means for the future. Al Templeton surmises that if he can prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy, he can prevent Vietnam, the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and who knows what else.<br />
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As it turns out, Al finds himself dying of lung cancer, unable to fulfill his mission. He approaches Jake Epping and asks him to do it for him. As he explains the rules of the rabbit hole to Jake, he says that the past is obdurate and it doesn’t like to change and you can’t help but wonder if the past didn’t help visit that lung cancer upon Al along with his pack a day habit just to keep him from meddling.<br />
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Another rule of the rabbit hole is that when you arrive, it’s always September 9, 1958 and exactly 11:58 a.m., but no matter how long you stay only two minutes have elapsed in 2011. Jake can go back in time and spend five years, stop the Kennedy assassination, and when he comes back, he can pick up his life right where he left off.<br />
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King writes pastorally about the good old days. The root beer tastes better. The colour of the oranges is brighter. The simple social etiquette of tipping your hat to ladies seems so much more civilized than the present. It’s easy to want Jake to succeed and preserve this for me.<br />
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It’s just not that simple. Jake tests a change by going back for a short stay to prevent the maiming of his adult student Harry Dunning and the massacre of Harry’s family at the hands of his drunken father. Jake is mostly successful. When he returns to 2011 and discovers that by saving Harry’s leg from his father, he’s gotten him drafted and killed in Vietnam instead.<br />
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Change sends the butterfly effect into high gear. The past doesn’t like change and as Jake finds out, it tries to “harmonize” itself. Motifs repeat in the form of names and events as the past tries to get itself back on track. Ellen Dockerty is an echo of Harry Dunning’s younger sister Ellen. Jake gets knee-capped by a bookie and ends up with a lame leg, echoing Harry Dunning’s lame leg. What goes around seems to come around, and in some unexpected ways.<br />
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As I finished the book with its apocalyptic turn, I couldn’t help but think maybe literature harmonizes with reality. Considering that stories are a mirror to reality, it seems likely to be the case; especially when I see the devastation of Paris, the curfews, the mistrust among people.<br />
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While waiting for Oswald to come back from Russia, Jake makes a life for himself, even falling in love with Sadie Dunhill. The past harmonizes and this time and Sadie’s ex-husband attacks her, just as Harry Dunning’s father would have attacked his family, had Jake not intervened. Jake does prevent Kennedy’s assassination, but Sadie dies, because the past harmonizes and once Jake saved Harry’s mother, someone else was going to die.<br />
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King wrote in the obvious second chance. If Jake gets back to the rabbit hole, he can reset time. He can return to 1958 and save President Kennedy and Sadie. When he gets to the rabbit hole, there’s a guardian of sorts waiting for him. He encourages Jake to go back and see the future he’s created.<br />
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He did change the future, and not for the better. Those butterfly wings beat the hell out of the present. Harry Dunning is still alive and Jake once more saves Harry. This time Harry needs rescue from a group of teenagers that is going to prey on him because he’s wheelchair bound and an easy target. It seems that time always intended for Harry to have a hard life.<br />
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There are earthquakes. Countries are dropping nuclear bombs and people suffer from radiation poisoning. This is not the prosperous, peaceful future Jake meant to create. As the past harmonizes, it seems that literature and reality do as well. At least it feels like it when I read about the new “present” in the book and I watch the news casts flashing pictures of broken windows and pieces of concrete littering the Paris streets. I can’t think of anyone who would turn down the opportunity to correct even the slightest trespasses, but we don’t get that and neither does Jake. Obviously, Jake isn’t getting a second chance. He has to reset the timeline and return to his own time, leaving his love behind for the good of the whole world in all times.<br />
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I can’t reset the past. I can’t bring back the lost lives. If I could change what happened, it might not be for the best. I’m not claiming that terrorism happens for a reason or that it will somehow make the world better, I’m saying it’s as complicated as the choice that King gives to his character who is trying to balance his own happiness and world peace. All of our choices are mired in unknown outcomes.<br />
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The story gives me hope though. In reality we’re never going to get the either/or choice that Jake Epping gets to make. Reality isn’t literature where we’re going to get a nice beginning, middle and ending. It’ll be years before history makes sense of what is currently happening. What literature does is to give examples. And for my part, I’m going to be a little less Jake-like in trying to control and direct what’s going on and a little more Harry-like and live the best I can with what I’m given. <br />
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Kim Hoelzli lives outside of London Ontario with her husband, grown sons and a half-blind granddog. She is currently working on a novel about an LSD based nature commune set in the depths of the Northern Ontario.<br />
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Kim previously reviewed "Dreamcatcher" for the King For A Year project <a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/dreamcatcher-reviewed-by-kim-talbot.html">and you can read it here</a><br />
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"11.22.63" was also reviewed this week by Chad Clark, <a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/112263-reviewed-by-chad-clark.html">which you can read here</a>Mark Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12103997496549941279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4415224707044352750.post-85593265255407130972015-11-23T09:00:00.001+00:002015-11-24T10:57:07.631+00:0011.22.63, reviewed by Chad Clark<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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While I have been a fan of Stephen King for most of my life, this book in particular is more personal for me, not because of the subject matter necessarily, as much as the time when it came into my life.<br />
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I was a huge Stephen King fan growing up. HUGE. I read him often, and there were some titles in particular that were practically falling apart at the binding, by the time I finished high school. It began with the fascination and thrill I got from seeing the handful of hardbacks on my father's bookshelf, the intimidating "grown up books". As I became more adept as a reader, I grew to love his ability to weave a story and build characters.<br />
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As I grew older though, I drifted away from King. There are any number of reasons for this. I was reading much more academically for school and had less time to read recreationally but also, I was a different person and, of course, he was a different writer. I think that it is to be expected that over the course of your life, you become less interested in the things that fascinated you as a child. As the nineties started to wane, my enthusiasm for his writing did the same, and my conclusion at the time was simply that that portion of my life was done, and behind me.<br />
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How ironic then, that the book which turned me around, and brought me back into the fold, ended up being a book centered around time travel.<br />
<br />
At the time this came out, I had found myself in the midst of a rekindling of my passion for reading. As I had a commute to work and several hours in the morning by myself, I had started listening to audiobooks. I listened to most of the older King books which I had grown up on, and really started to rediscover the writing that I had loved so much. I finally got around to finishing the Dark Tower series, and I decided that maybe I needed to give his newer material another try. "11/22/63" was getting a lot of press and publicity leading up to its release, so when the time came, on the day the book was released, I did something that I hadn't done since 1996.<br />
<br />
I bought a new Stephen King book.<br />
<br />
I did so nervously, with little expectations and, to be perfectly honest, I was totally unprepared for what was in store for me. I was blown away by the book. The story and the depth of the narrative was so amazing, it was hard to believe that I had actually turned my back on him for so long.<br />
<br />
The concept of the book is simple enough and the subject of theoretical discussions, many times over. If you could go back in time, would you try and stave off or prevent some horrible tragedy? Would you kill Hitler? Would you try and stop the Titanic from sinking?<br />
<br />
Would you try and prevent the JFK assassination?<br />
<br />
The story itself is centered around English teacher Jake Epping, who finds himself drawn into a quest of sorts, from the unlikeliest of places. He is approached one day in a local diner, by the proprietor, who he has become friends with. Jake's friend, Al, shows him a doorway to a special portal. This particular portal allows people to travel through time. In an interesting twist on the device, Al reveals that whenever a person goes through, they are transported to a very specific date in 1958, September 9, at precisely 11:58 a.m.<br />
<br />
Initially, Al had been using the portal for the most mundane of tasks, such as going back and buying food for the diner at 1958 prices, but eventually he makes the decision to take on the personal mission to try and prevent one of the worst tragedies in American history, the assassination of President Kennedy. The reason why he has brought Jake into this, is because in the course of trying to accomplish his goal, Al has been diagnosed with a terminal cancer. He asks Jake to take up the mantle, so to speak, and to make all efforts to see this task out to the end.<br />
<br />
From the start, King makes a conscious decision with his world building that I am a big fan of, namely that in a story that involves any kind of magic, I always prefer to see that magic existing within a limiting framework of rules. With "11/22/63", being able to go back in time doesn't mean to simply set the date on the car's dashboard, and rev up to eighty-eight miles per hour. As I mentioned already, each trip through the door puts the person back to the exact same moment in history, every time, without exception, but there are other rules as well, ways in which the portal operates. Each time someone jumps back in time, they essentially "reset" the system and any changes that might have been made on the last trip are nullified, clearing the board so to speak. Also, and this one is a bit more abstract, if, while in the past, you try to accomplish some kind of historical change, the unseen forces of time and fate will put up obstacles of varying degree in order to prevent that change from happening. The larger the change, the larger the resistance.<br />
<br />
I appreciate this because it sets limits on the story, and creates an interesting predicament in terms of preventing the assassination. Obviously, if Jake is to try and conduct such a massive, far reaching change, there is bound to be unprecedented amounts of resistance put in his path. The implication seems to be that Al's illness is largely due to his own efforts in that regard. Second, if Jake manages to succeed, the gate could no longer be used again, as it would immediately reverse what he had accomplished. Finally, and what I would find most compelling to this system, is that Jake can't just put himself into the book depository, moments before the shooting, so that he can surprise Oswald and stop him. If he is going to stop the assassination, he will have to actually live in the past, for some five years, before he will be able to accomplish his mission.<br />
<br />
I don't want to get into a lot of detail about the plot of the book, and risk spoiling anything but, I can say that in true King fashion, there is a significant amount of book before you even get to the main story. Whenever I hear people complain about King being too long winded, or about how he needs to use a better editor, that he's being paid by the word, I feel they fail to understand that King's writing is often about the journey, as much as the mechanics of the story itself. As Jake is getting the feel for life in 1958, and how he can affect change, we get to see his process, his trial and error as he tries to get his legs underneath him. We get to experience the immensity of the journey ourselves.<br />
<br />
The portion of the book which takes place in the past is divided up into several major sections. In the first, he starts out in a very familiar Maine town, one that we have visited or has been referenced many times. One of my favorite parts of King's writing is how he interweaves his books and this is no exception. The reader gets to share a short visit with a few old friends that I guarantee will make the King fan in you squeal. Moving on from here, Jake makes his way to Texas, where he takes on a job as a teacher, and has a short lived romantic connection, that reminded me quite a bit of of Richard Matheson's Somewhere In Time. Moving on to Dallas, we get to the heart of the book, and Jake's efforts to track down Oswald, with the hope of stopping the assassination before it happens in the first place.<br />
<br />
By the end of the book, we are left with a familiar, yet chilling image of what can happen as a result of tinkering with the past, regardless of the best of intentions. Throughout the book, Jake has a number of encounters with a strange being, seemingly a wino who Al had named the "Yellow Card Man". This individual takes on a number of different variations and forms throughout the book and by the end, we learn from him that there is actually more to the mechanics of the portal than Al or Jake were ever aware of. He shares information with Jake that sheds a new light on the book as a whole, and puts their choices and actions into a whole new light. King does what he does best here, and of course we find out that things are not as they seem and not as clear cut as maybe we had initially thought.<br />
<br />
I wanted to take a moment and discuss one other issue briefly. Ironically, I have had several conversations recently about this subject, namely, that of writers taking real life tragedies and placing them within a fictionalized universe, so I feel compelled to address it here, as this book is definitely an example. Does it make me uncomfortable that King is using the JFK assassination to construct this book and earn royalties?<br />
<br />
In the end, I'm fine with it in this specific case, and my reasons may be somewhat of a cop-out or a rationalization that allows me to enjoy a book, but here is how I look at it. Stephen King has stated that he actually had the idea for this story quite some time ago, but chose not to write it. Because he wasn't ready for it and he wasn't sure if the country was ready for it yet. I also don't see him as necessarily monetizing on a national tragedy as, and let's be honest here, he likely hasn't been hurting for money since about the late seventies. So in this case, I feel like King is genuinely trying to tell a story, and isn't being disrespectful to the memory of the event, or of people's feelings surrounding it.<br />
<br />
"11/22/63" is a masterful work of literature. I thought that it was a triumphant return to the massive, yet brilliantly layered narratives of the earlier parts of his career. In terms of the craft of this story, I would place this alongside the likes of "The Stand" and "IT". Some of the best fiction, in my opinion, is the story that puts you into the hypothetical moral quandary, and forces you to decide what you would do, and what circumstances and incentives would sway you one way or the other. Are there events in history, so significant that it would be worth it to accept whatever consequences and tragedies you may cause, in the effort to prevent one huge disaster? Jake Epping made his decision. Would you do the same?<br />
<br />
Give the book a read and find out.<br />
<br />
-----<br />
<br />
Chad Clark is a fledgling author from Cedar Rapids, Iowa in the United States. His writing leans towards the darker side of things, with an emphasis on horror and the science fiction genres. His love for writing grew out of a passion for books and movies that began at a very young age. The excitement for Star Wars and Star Trek led inevitably to the writing of greats such as Stephen King, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke and JRR Tolkein.<br />
<br />
Chad has published two collections of short stories. His first, "Borrowed Time" was published in 2014. That same year, he founded his blog, <a href="http://www.bakedscribe.net/">the Baked Scribe</a> which features an original short story posted every week. The blog has blossomed, just featuring the 127th issue and is now hosting essays by Clark on both the craft of writing as well as the works of Stephen King. His second book, "A Shade For Every Season" was published in early 2015, just prior to the birth of his second son and is a compilation of seventy stories from the first year of his blog.<br />
<br />
Both of Chad's books are available on Amazon in paperback and eBook editions. For more information, check out his official website at <a href="http://www.cclarkfiction.net/">www.cclarkfiction.net</a>.<br />
<br />
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"11.22.63" was also reviewed this week by Kim Talbot Hoelzli, <a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/112263-reviewed-by-kim-talbot-hoelzli.html">which you can read here</a><br />
<br />Mark Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12103997496549941279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4415224707044352750.post-26618351076900306782015-11-18T09:00:00.000+00:002015-11-18T09:00:01.906+00:00Desperation, reviewed by Kit Power<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Before I start, I need to sound the SPOILER ALERT klaxon - I’m going to be talking about some of the major plot turns and developments with this post. So if you haven’t yet read "Desperation", I implore you to read no further until you have rectified that oversight.<br />
<br />
My paperback copy of "Desperation" is nineteen years old. It has to be at least fifteen years since I read it. These times feel impossible to me. The best part of two decades? My mind rebels at the thought. It can’t possibly be true.<br />
<br />
On further reflection, though, it does explain a lot. Like how I remembered almost nothing about the book, at least to start with. I had a vague memory of a crazy cop (who wasn’t really a cop at all), a kid who prayed a lot, scorpions, and tiny stone statues that make you want to do the crazy, and… that’s about it, actually.<br />
<br />
Well, turns out there’s quite a lot else going on here.<br />
<br />
But let’s start with the cop. One of the many ways my life is different from nineteen years ago is that since I last read this book, I’ve actually driven down Highway 50 - ‘<i>the loneliest highway in America</i>’. It’s an experience I think I’d recommend to just about everyone. It’s breathtaking, that’s all - driving through an honest-to-God desert, the petrol station with the hand-painted ‘last Gas for 50 miles’ sign… and then a whole lot of hot dry dusty nothing. The desert… well, it speaks to you. Or at least, it spoke to me, riding down that burning hot highway, Tool blasting out from the stereo, the straight road and unchanging scenery giving the lie to the story the speedometer was telling about distance per hour - at least until I hit a town.<br />
<br />
And those towns do have crazy names, some of them - I remember a ‘Truth or Consequences’ (though the latest episode of Doctor Who says that’s in New Mexico, which I have never visited, so whatever), so the notion of Desperation, Nevada… yeah, I can buy that.<br />
<br />
And being pulled over by a small town cop is a scary experience, for sure.<br />
<br />
This is quintessential King, right here; most of us have been stopped by a police officer at some point, and most of us, even if we’ve been driving carefully (maybe even especially then) have felt that crawling in the gut, as the uniformed man with a gun on his hip approaches, and we wind our window down…<br />
<br />
So take one ordinary, relatable, everyday stressful situation…. and then just keep ratcheting up the tension. The first section break occurs as the car is pulled over, the second as Peter is asked to step out of the car. So far, nothing has really happened… but we have a very bad feeling, don’t we? Yes we do. Of course we do.<br />
<br />
After all, we’re reading a Stephen King novel.<br />
<br />
The rear license plate is missing. Must have been the kids at the last gas station stop. The officer suggests taking the plate from the front of the car. Peter opens the boot to get the tools… and the cop finds a baggie of pot in the spare tyre.<br />
<br />
Of course it’s not theirs. It’s Pete’s sister’s car, that the couple are driving across country. As a favour. They even searched it for a hidden stash, just in case. But of course they didn’t check the spare.<br />
<br />
The third section break has them being loaded into the back of the Desperation town police cruiser. From there, they are mirandized in the back of the car, and halfway through the warning, in between the lines about lawyers, the cop calmly says ‘I’m going to kill you.’. They drive past an RV at the side of the road, tyres flat, a doll lying in the middle of the road.<br />
<br />
The fourth section break occurs as they arrive in the town of Desperation. The cop drives them to a municipal building, and takes them out of the car. As they enter the building, Mary, Peter’s wife, screams. She screams because there is the body of a six year old girl at the bottom of the stairs. The cop pulls Pete close to him, poking him in the stomach, and Pete (our POV character, to be clear) is slow to realise that he’s being poked not with a finger, but the barrel of a gun.<br />
<br />
Then Pete is shot three times in the stomach. His last thought is that he will wake up in his bed.<br />
<br />
Then he dies.<br />
<br />
Page 43. End of chapter one.<br />
<br />
I mean, excuse me, but fucking HELL.<br />
<br />
I think it’d be almost impossible for a novel - especially one weighing in at 720 pages - to live up to the promise and pace of this opener, and for my money, Desperation doesn’t quite - <i>quite</i> - pull it off. But by golly it gives it the old college try, and by the time the dawn breaks at the end of this long, hard day (around page 700) we have been on a very strange and powerful journey.<br />
<br />
And, look, I generally don’t like those articles when some nobody author you’ve never heard of (like, for instance, me) starts writing about the work of a far more famous author (like, say, Stephen King) and then starts to talk about it in comparison with their own book. It usually strikes me as, at best, crass, and at worst, arrogant and presumptuous, not to mention clumsy. But I find I’m actually unable to help myself here. So please accept my apologies in advance, and take it as a given that King is a north star of literature, and I’m just some guy who chucked enough words together to make a book that some other guys liked enough to put out into the world, okay?<br />
<br />
Because there are… commonalities. Themes that run through both books. In fact, there were moments reading through Desperation I found myself getting my own version of the stopped-by-the-cops sinking feeling.<br />
<br />
Because I swear, I really didn’t remember much at all about this book. Except clearly, that’s bullshit. Clearly this book did quite a number on my subconscious, and when I came to write my own story about a crazy person with the power to kill, and a small group of people trapped in a space with that crazy person (a church with a bomber for me, a small town with a cop for King) things came bubbling up to the surface.<br />
<br />
See, "Desperation" is, at it’s core, a book about God.<br />
<br />
Explicitly, by the way. It’s not subtle. Prayers are answered on more than one occasion, more than one of the characters has conversations with God, and miracles happen - small, unobtrusive ones, for the most part (one involving crackers and sardines, just in case you’d missed the symbolism) - but the point is, in the world in which the novel of "Desperation" takes place, God is unambiguously real and active.<br />
<br />
In my novel, a madman is seeking God - specifically, seeking a personal conversation with God. He’s not convinced of God’s existence, but he’s angry and crazy enough to have devised a test that he believes will prove the existence (or otherwise) of the Almighty, once and for all.<br />
<br />
There’s a moment in King’s novel when David (random coincidence - David is my father’s name, a man who is a committed an atheist as you’re likely to find, which causes me no end of cognitive dissonance throughout the tale), an 11 year old boy whose faith in God is powerful and unquestioning, is asked what the opposite of faith is. At first, he says it’s unbelief, but that’s not the right answer. The right answer, he is told, is desperation.<br />
<br />
Where am I going with this? Okay, let’s put aside relative merits of the two stories for a second - let’s take it as read that when I grow up, I want to write as good as Mr. King, and let’s further accept that I’m never going to grow up that much. Still, what came at me again and again when reading "Desperation" is the two books served as sides of a coin. My book has a protagonist who is trying to prove something that I think is unprovable, essentially - proof denies faith, etc. My book isn’t really concerned with the existence of God, but rather the people caught in a nightmare situation, and how they respond. If I’ve written "GodBomb!" right (and I may not have done), when you come out of it, you probably won’t feel any different about God than you did going in. The very best I can hope for is that you may understand ‘the other side’ a little better (whichever side you fall on). I mean, if you feel like I didn’t waste your time, I’ll count it as an epic win, honestly, but if you asked for my shoot-for-the-moon hopes for the book, that’d be it, I think.<br />
<br />
King’s book, on the on the hand, is written from the point of view of faith, and it’s asking a very different question, ostensibly - why is God cruel?<br />
<br />
It’s a powerful question. I remember when the previous Archbishop of Canterbury was asked in an interview if he could really reconcile the notion of a loving God with the reality of an innocent child suffering. Dr. Williams paused for a long time, before answering quietly with one word: “Barely.”<br />
<br />
So if my book is about the rage of the unbeliever, the ‘want-to-believe’-er, the one who feels abandoned, King is concerned with the rage brought about BY faith - that knowledge of an all powerful, loving God, and the suffering child.<br />
<br />
That’s not a metaphor, by the way. The dead six year old is David’s kid sister, and by the end of the novel, David will have lost his whole family - his mother and sister to the possessed madman, and his father, most cruelly of all, who will die protecting him while they attempt to complete the task God has given them.<br />
<br />
Again, it feels a lot like flipsides of the same coin. "GodBomb!", a book written by a fairly committed agnostic, trying hard to (amongst other things) give God, and the concept of faith in God, a fair crack in tough circumstance, vs. a novel by a believer (King) interrogating faith by asking the hardest question to answer: Why does God allow suffering? Or in King’s phrasing - why is God cruel?<br />
<br />
There’s an astonishing piece of theology here, actually. The gang of survivors (all taken by the cop to the jail for use as meat puppets for the evil awoken from the local mining operation, and who escape thanks to David’s first miracle) are discussing God’s plan for them - which is, of course, not to leave town like sane people might, but to go to the mining pit and seal it up. And of course, they have free will, so they don’t have to do it. And David says words to the effect of ‘If we don’t do this, Tak (the evil spirit) will get out and kill the whole world?’ and God tells him ‘No. It can’t. Evil is both fragile and stupid, dying soon after the ecosystem it’s poisoned.’<br />
<br />
I mean, just chew on that one for a minute. And look, I guess I need to say I don’t buy it, as a premise - or rather, I think the whole damn planet is an ecosystem, so the notion that evil is ultimately a self defeating force is pretty cold comfort in the face of what damage it can do on its way through. I mean to say, I can’t live in a poisoned ecosystem either. But let’s accept the premise of the statement, in the spirit it was intended in the book - well, what exactly does this tell us about the loving God that sends His followers out into this fight? And why does he ask them to go? Because ‘it’s an affront.’<br />
<br />
King’s rage, as a man of faith, at this point is palpable. And though of course in his story the characters come down on the side of God’s will, and put themselves in harm's way, and (mostly) make it out okay, the line ‘God is cruel’ is returned to again and again, with apparent sincerity. It’s an inversion of that migraine-inducing phrase ‘God only gives you what you can handle’ (because if you cannot immediately think of someone you’ve known for whom that was manifestly not the case, you’ve lived a ludicrously charmed life), and it reminds me of Kevin Smith talking about his movie "Dogma": “I<i> bought Catholicism. It’s my vehicle of choice. Why can’t I look under the hood? Why can’t I kick the fucking tyres?</i>’.<br />
<br />
King is kicking the tyres here - hard enough to break a toe. And even if, ultimately, inevitably, faith and God come out on top, well, the cruelty is there on the page for all to read. A lot of very bad things happen to good people. As in life.<br />
<br />
If I have one complaint about "Desperation" (aside from the pacing in the section in the movie theatre, where I thought things dragged juuuuuust a touch), it’s that the miracles are unambiguous - there’s really no way to explain them away as psychology, or coincidence, or anything other than acts of God. In the world in which "Desperation" is set, the existence of God, at least for the characters, is therefore also unambiguous, which pretty heavily stacks the deck against the one poor sod unbeliever character trying to wave the flag for rationality. And it bugs me because it’s really not fair to that guy at all - bluntly, it makes him look like kind of an asshole, which feels like a cheap shot when you (as the author) are casually chucking bona fide miracles about left right and centre.<br />
<br />
Except that’s a pathetic, petty criticism, ultimately. Because the unfairness is part of the point - God is cruel, after all. And in the world in which "Desperation" is set, God is real, miracles happen - and good people still suffer horrible, ugly, painful fates. To whine about the fate of the rationalist in the face of that feels - no, is - petty. Tough as that rationalist row is to hoe within the context of this novel, my real sympathy and pity is still reserved for the believer. Because, man.<br />
<br />
And I guess at this point I need to talk about coincidence vs. miracles. So here goes: You really shouldn’t be reading this at all. I’d already done my King for a Year entry, <a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/on-writing-reviewed-by-kit-power.html">waxing lyrical about On Writing</a>. But then Mark put out a shout for some books not yet covered, asking if anyone fancied a second bite of the cherry. I most assuredly did (in case it isn’t yet clear, I’m something of a King fan) and when I scanned the list of options, "Desperation" pulled me up.<br />
<br />
See, we finally boarded out our loft recently. Which means the boxes of books in the garage have all been opened, sorted, and either shelved or re-boxed and put in the loft. I was in the middle of this process when Mark’s call went out. And I remembered seeing my paperback of "Desperation", and debating if I should leave it out for a re-read, or box it.<br />
<br />
Coincidence? Yes. Obviously. And also a coincidence that I’d select the book that happens to be King’s big meditation on faith and the nature of God just after I put out my own debut novel, featuring a protagonist desperate to unravel the mystery of God’s existence.<br />
<br />
Or, you know, not. Maybe I really remembered "Desperation" far better than I’d realised. Maybe my subconscious decided to give me a kick in the ass and remind me how big the debt is that I owe, as a writer, to the man I still consider to be the undisputed master of the field.<br />
<br />
But here’s the funny part. Once I’d finished reading "Desperation"; heart in my mouth and yeah, okay, tears in my eyes; I realised that I was really going to struggle to write anything approaching a standard review of the book - it had spoken to me far too personally and deeply, and the thematic connections to "GodBomb!" (the working title for which, and I swear I am not making this up, was Revival) had freaked me out too much. So I sent Mark a PM and said words to the effect of ‘I hate those articles where people talk about their own work, but I kind of want to write one of those articles’ and he replied with words to the effect of ‘well, actually that works well, because it turns out I DO have a Desperation review coming already, so can we run your article as a bonus post?’<br />
<br />
Funny how things work out.<br />
<br />
<br />
PS - The die-hardest King fans will already know this, of course, but there is one other connection - and again, all I can do is swear that I had no recollection of this until my recent re-read, which concluded on Thursday of this week. I blame my subconscious, though you are of course welcome to draw your own conclusions.<br />
<br />
On page 648, the erstwhile atheist (and probable King stand-in, given that he’s an aging, enormously successful author) is struck by a bolt of understanding from God. In classic King fashion, the nature of that revelation is concealed from us until the final act, but we share his POV as it happens, so we know it’s some kind of divine message. And David, observing the writer’s sudden reaction, turns to him and asks<br />
<br />
“Was it a God-bomb?”<br />
<br />
Well, hell. If you’re going to steal, knowingly or unknowingly, steal from the best.<br />
<br />
-----<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">Kit Power lives and writes in Milton Keynes, England, and insists he’s fine with that. His short dark fiction has appeared in many venues, including Splatterpunk Magazine, ‘Widowmakers: The James Newman Benefit Anthology’, the ‘At Hell’s Gate II’ anthology, and others. His novel "Godbomb!" was recently published by The Sinister Horror Company and he also has two novellas available – one published with Black Beacon Books (‘The Loving Husband and the Faithful Wife’) and another self-published (Lifeline). Check out his </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kit-Power/e/B00K6J438K/" style="background-color: white; color: #4d469c; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px; text-decoration: none;">Amazon author page here</a><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">He also writes for the Gingernuts Of Horror website, chiefly a monthly series entitled ‘My Life In Horror’ If you’ve enjoyed the above post,</span><a href="http://www.gingernutsofhorror.com/my-life-in-horror.html" style="background-color: white; color: #4d469c; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px; text-decoration: none;">essays of a similar quality can be found here</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">. In addition, he's the </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">lead singer of near-legendary long haired rock and roll band ‘The Disciples Of Gonzo. </span><a href="http://www.disciplesofgonzo.com/" style="background-color: white; color: #4d469c; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px; text-decoration: none;">Find them here</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "tahoma" , "helvetica" , "freesans" , sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 18.2px;">As mentioned, he <a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/on-writing-reviewed-by-kit-power.html">previously reviewed "On Writing" for the blog</a>.</span></div>
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<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/desperation-reviewed-by-j-g-clay.html">note - Desperation was also reviewed by J. G. Clay on this link</a></div>
Mark Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12103997496549941279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4415224707044352750.post-92172066139747539322015-11-16T09:00:00.000+00:002015-11-18T09:33:02.576+00:00Desperation, reviewed by J. G. Clay<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<b><u>Holes Like Eyes </u></b><br />
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Take a pinch of the ‘<i>base under siege by unknown force</i>’ sci-fi trope. Add a hefty dollop of Cronenberg-style body horror. To this mixture, lightly pour in a whimsical yet deadly entity. Finally, pour in an ensemble of believable characters, stirring gently so that there are no lumps. Let this stand for a few moments then garnish with the most effective use of critters since James Herbert’s "The Rats" Trilogy. Congratulations, you’ve just made a cake of "Desperation".<br />
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Of course, there’s more to Stephen King’s tale of desert horror than the above mentioned ingredients. I’m just giving you a flavour.<br />
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"Desperation" is a personal favourite of mine. It was the book that brought me back to King after a spell of being underwhelmed by "Insomnia" and "Rose Madder". I’m glad it did. At that point, I was a little out of love with the King because of those books. The sheer ruthlessness and ferocity displayed by King in these pages reaffirmed my allegiance to the Maine Man and I haven’t looked back since.<br />
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There’s a nihilism to this work that hadn’t been seen since his earlier efforts. From the moment the possessed Collie Entragian blasts down a hapless captive and then drags the dead man’s corpse over a little girl’s body on the way to jail, you know that King’s not messing about. He is going to horrify you even if he has to drag you kicking and screaming. That shock – the death of someone who is painted to be a main character before being effortlessly dispatched – sets the tone nicely and the tone is one of desperation (funnily enough).<br />
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"Desperation" is still recognisable as a King story – all the elements that long-time fans are familiar with find a place on the page. In the characters, we have the recovering artiste, in this case, Johnny Marinville a recovering alcoholic writer in search of inspiration; David Carver, a serious ten-year-old who seems to receive periodic flashes from God but then has his faith stretched to the limits by the total destruction of his family; Steve Ames, the laconic sidekick who assumes a more prominent role as the novel progresses and Cynthia Smith, the fiery feisty one. All of these character tropes have been used by King over his long career but his genius at characterisation makes them believable and fresh. You recognise the type and also the character themselves.<br />
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The situation itself is nice and straightforward. Our small band of survivors are being kept alive for the sole purpose of being hosts for Tak – a darkly funny and extremely sinister entity from beyond our world. Isolated, with no back up, weapons or even a plan to speak of, they must try and escape and, if at all possible, bring Tak down before they are possessed and effectively overwritten by Tak’s forceful personality.<br />
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Cue lots of tension, scares and genuinely disturbing moments as King put his characters through the grinder. Tak himself, (or itself. I’m assuming he is male), is presented a force of nature with an arch personality. King doesn’t fall into the trap of explaining Tak’s birth and life. He is just there in a space beyond our reality looking for a way in as well as a way to survive. This makes our evil one more inscrutable and unknowable, adding to the physical threats he possesses. Not only can the creature possess human beings for a limited time (even more limited if the host has something wrong with them), but it can also impose its will on eagles, snakes and, in one memorably horrifying moment, spiders. This multi-layered threat ups the ante for the survivors as well as making for some uncomfortable reading.<br />
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Unlike a lot of later King books, the ending to "Desperation" is satisfying and well rounded. There’s a heroic sacrifice and the remaining survivors escape. It’s no happy ending – David Carver is alone, Mary Jackson is now a widow, Steve Ames and Cynthia have each other but there’s a sense that these four people will be forever scarred by the events in Nevada.<br />
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It’s bleak, unnerving, unrelenting and more than a little heartless to its characters but "Desperation" is one of King’s finest works and well worth a trip to the bookstore (or Amazon if you’re lazy like myself). It remains one of the ‘Exalted’- the King novels I can read again and again without getting sick of them. One day, I’ll share that list with you.<br />
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Until then…….Tak!<br />
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J.G Clay is definitely a Man of Horror. There can be no doubt. Putting aside the reverence he has for the horror greats, such as King, Barker, Herbert, Carpenter, Romero and Argento, there is another fact that defines his claim for the title of the 'Duke of Spook'. He was born on Halloween night. By a quirk fate, it was also a full moon that night. Co-incidence?</div>
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The 41 year old hails from the Midlands in the United Kingdom, is married with one step child and two dogs that bear a strong resemblance to Ewoks. Beyond the page and the written word, he is music mad and can hold down a tune on a bass guitar pretty well. He is an avid reader and also has an enduring love of British sci-fi, from the pages of the '2000A.D' comic to the televised wanderings of Gallifrey's most famous physician. Clay is also a long-time fan of the mighty Birmingham City Football Club and endures a lot of flak from his friends for it.</div>
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He can be found online at his <a href="http://www.jgclayhorror.com/">website</a> and also on Twitter as <a href="https://twitter.com/jgclay1">@JGClay1</a><br />
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<i><a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/11/desperation-reviewed-by-kit-power.html">note - Desperation was also reviewed by Kit Power on this link</a></i></div>
Mark Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12103997496549941279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4415224707044352750.post-55710908096188440892015-11-09T09:00:00.000+00:002015-11-09T12:55:38.692+00:00Pet Sematary, reviewed by Marc Lyth<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Spoilers contained. If you haven’t read the book yet, it’s great, go read it, then come back and read this. I don’t want to spoil the surprises on the way.<br />
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This book owes its origins to a time in Stephen King’s life when he was teaching for a year at his Alma Mater, the University of Maine at Orono. Whilst working there he rented a house on a busy road in Orrington. The road was not kindly to the local pets and the children living nearby has built their own pet cemetery in a field behind the King’s house. Their daughter buried the family’s pet cat Smucky there themselves and there was a near miss on the road when one of his two sons (not Joe – the other one – Owen) was narrowly missed by a truck on the road outside the house.<br />
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According to Wikipedia, King thought he’d gone too far with the subject matter but was persuaded by his wife Tabitha and close friend Peter Straub to send it to Doubleday. If Wiki can be believed on the subject, then we can be very grateful to the pair of them for doing this.<br />
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Pet Sematary is one of King’s greatest achievements. After 28 years since I first read it, it still holds strong. I was worried when approaching it for a reread that maybe my 16 year old self wasn’t critical enough a reader to spot a great book. God knows I’ve reread some from that time in my life and wondered what I ever saw in them.<br />
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But I wasn’t disappointed. The themes in this book are eternal, death and family and grief. These themes are so timeless that, combined with King’s folksy but persuasive narration and his great ability to give us real human characters on the page, the book can’t fail but to keep its power. The section where Gage’s accident is described from his point of view, and that line about “your parents didn’t scream at you when it was just a game” was still seared in my brain nearly 30 years later. We all know the bare bones of the story, an Indian burial ground where if you bury your dead loved ones, animal or human, they come back. I’m not sure if this is one of the earliest examples of a cursed Indian burial ground stories or not. I probably should have researched that before sitting down to write this review.<br />
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Despite my memory of this being a non stop supernatural thriller, huge swathes of this novel (and my copy is 424 pages) go by with no supernatural elements at all. The first openly supernatural event is the appearance of Pascow’s ghost on page 77. After that, and Louis’s rationalisation of the events as bad dreams and sleepwalking, we have a good 50 pages before Jud leads Louis on the fateful trek to the burial ground beyond the deadfall. From then on, we have more than half the books page count until the next time he even thinks of burying anything else there – part 2 of the book, which kicks off with Gage’s funeral starts on page 229 and THOSE thoughts don’t start sneaking in for a good few chapters.<br />
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The intervening spaces are filled with what King does best, letting us get to know his characters. Louis is a great central character. King lets us into his heart so we grieve right along with him and we can sympathise and agree with the decisions we know will bring much grief (after all, if they came back from the dead as nice as they were before they died, the story would be much less satisfying on the horror side of the equation – and this is a true horror novel). Jud is the kindly neighbour we all want in our lives. Rachel, Ellie and Gage are a flawed but loving family unit and they feel like we know them for real.<br />
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King almost built his entire early career on foreshadowing. This book is no exception. While letting us into his character’s lives, he’s also dropping hints, some subtle, some not, as to how he’s going to destroy them. By the time Louis is under the spell of the Sematary and planning to dig up young Gage, the sense of dread is palpable. The intercutting between the characters in the final third of the book is masterly, Louis on his personal road to hell, paved with the best of all intentions, Jud’s vigil and Rachel’s panicky race home dragged me helter-skelter through the final segments.<br />
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A great line from this section – “<i>Unaware of these other happenings, like slow moving projectiles aimed not at where he was, but rather in the best ballistics tradition at the place he would be, Louis sat and watched the HoJo color television set.</i>” – This may be one of the best foreshadowing lines he’s ever written, letting us know that all events are converging, and with the comparison to bullets built into the quote, we know it ain’t going to be nice.<br />
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The ending is almost as heartbreaking and horrifying as paper can stand. This has long been one of my favourite Kings and it remains as high on the list after the reread.<br />
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There are nice nods to his other books, Cujo gets a mention in the early chapters, and in Rachel’s heart-stopping race back to Ludlow she briefly considers stopping at the town of Jerusalem’s Lot. Going back to the origins of the story, the first grave we see in the innocent part of the Sematary is for a cat called Smucky, and the trucks which charge down the road with lethal regularity are from a company called Orinco.<br />
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I recommended this book as a Halloween read for my book club – who are occasionally vehemently anti-genre. Four of the seven of us there last night had never read a Stephen King – one of us still hasn’t sadly. From the others, everyone praised the writing style. Although literary critics constantly lambast King’s prose as workmanlike at best, this group of literary novel lovers all thought his prose was excellent – one (the most horror eschewing of the group normally) used the words sublime, utterly brilliant and superb page turner. She also said that the characters were beautifully brought to life (I so wanted to steal that quote for myself but I have to credit her with it).<br />
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The build up of atmosphere was also universally praised as was the characterisation – although one person found Louis to be rather two dimensional. The punch up at the funeral was picked as a highlight by most of the group. The story was compared to Frankenstien and the old tropes of don’t interfere with nature. One of the group (a fellow King fan) had first read this when pregnant with her daughter and she recalled how, when waiting for her medical checkups and reading this, she wasn’t doing her blood pressure any good.<br />
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There were some criticisms. The question was asked, why didn’t they build a fence at the bottom of the yard? Which is a fair point I suppose. Although there would still have been a gate to run out through... and I have 8 foot tall walls in my back yard and my cat still climbs over them without a problem. Another in the group said that, despite now knowing why King is such a respected writer, the story wasn’t to his taste and he won’t be reading any more (that’s what he thinks, there are many more Halloween reads for me to recommend.). The lady who described the prose as sublime had similar reservations in not liking the story. Another enjoyed it but said it was nowhere near as good as the Somtow novel I recommended last year.<br />
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Overall the group scored the book reasonably high and sparked a lively discussion. And hopefully, a few of them will pick up more of King’s back catalogue. In which case my work here is done.<br />
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<i>addendum:</i><br />
<i>With thanks to Ross Warren for the nod - "The Wikipedia bit is wrong. Tabitha hated the book and King agreed that it should go in the drawer and not be published. It only got published as King had to submit one more novel to get out of his restrictive Doubleday contract."</i><br />
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Marc was born at an early age. He hasn't died yet. He has a small number of short stories published, most recently in Not Your Average Monter, A Bestiary of Horrors edited by Pete Kahle. His day job is so exciting that he has to lie if he says it's exciting. His hobbies include breathing and not stepping in front of buses.Mark Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12103997496549941279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4415224707044352750.post-13382211542340131772015-11-04T09:00:00.000+00:002015-11-04T09:00:05.097+00:00Rage, reviewed by Johnny Mains<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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"<i>I sat in the row farthest from the door, which is next to the windows, and I spotted a squirrel on the lawn. The lawn of Placerville High School is a very good one. It does not fuck around. It comes right up to the building and says howdy.</i>" - Rage<br />
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We must begin by talking about the elephant in the room.<br />
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<i>Rage.</i><br />
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Although I knew it had happened, I was still shocked when I picked up the latest printing of "The Bachman Books" and realised that "Rage" was no longer a part of it.<br />
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Stephen King now shares a dubious honour with Stanley Kubrick – that of pulling a work during their lifetime. For Kubrick, it began when "A Clockwork Orange" was given an ‘X’ rating in the US and he chose to screen the film in only one cinema in the UK for 13 months. He did this thinking that any controversy would have died down after such a lengthy period of time. However, the film was a sell-out, the cinema was full every single day of those thirteen months and when the film was finally released nationwide, organisations such as the Christian ‘Festival of Light’ who had been biding their time, pounced. The film was then banned in 10-15 local authorities, reports emerged that people who were watching the film were carrying out copy-cat attacks against homeless people, also participating in rapes and woundings whilst dressed as ‘droogs’.<br />
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Kubrick was then asked by Warner’s if he would consider a world-wide re-release. Kubrick agreed, but with only one caveat – it would never be re-issued in Britain, a ban that held fast until after Kubrick’s death in 1999.<br />
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Originally titled as ‘Getting it On’ and the first book to be published under the Richard Bachman moniker in 1977, "Rage" was written when Stephen King himself was a student in high school in 1965.<br />
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The book concerns a certain Charlie Decker, a young boy who’s ‘coming of rage’ sees him bring a gun into school. There is an involved back story about the relationship he has with his dominant and domineering father – and a battle with one of the hostages; although Charlie has the gun, it is Ted, the ‘jock’, who lets Charlie know that he has nothing – but at its heart is a story about a young boy with a mental illness. And we, the reader, have been invited to spend some time to see this mental illness manifest and how he’s wound up the way he has.<br />
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"Rage" is a novel that was published and sunk quickly.<br />
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After the game was up and Richard Bachman was exposed as Stephen King, all of the novels/novellas written under the Bachman byline were published in 1985 as "The Bachman Books".<br />
To date, the following incidents have been attributed to "Rage".<br />
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•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>April 26, 1988 - Jeffrey Lynne Cox stormed his high school humanities class at San Gabriel High School with a semiautomatic rifle. He took 60 classmates hostage. His demands were one million dollars. His hostages wrestled the gun from his hands." He told police afterwards: "I didn't do it for love or money or sex or drugs or rock 'n' roll, I had a message I wanted to get across . . . of unmasking people, of disrobing the images everyone puts on, of making people real. I still think I had the right idea. But that was the wrong way of doing it. It was very foolish." There were no casualties.<br />
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•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>September 18, 1989 - Dustin Pierce, 17, took eleven classmates hostage at Jackson County High School, McKee, Kentucky. A copy of "Rage" was found in his locker. Pierce was armed with a shotgun, a revolver and an automatic pistol. There were no casualties.<br />
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•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>February 2, 1996 - Barry Dale Loukaitis, 14, walked into his algebra class at Frontier Middle School, Moses Lake, Kentucky dressed as a gunslinger. He was armed with a hunting rifle and two handguns. He shot and killed his Algebra teacher, Leona Caires and two students, Arnold Fritz and Manuel Vera, both 14. Another student, 13 year old Natalie Hintz was shot in the right arm and abdomen. She told CBS in 2000: "I was shot in the back, 170-grain bullet, 30/30 rifle, from 12 feet away [it] blew my liver, my diaphram, my arm off."<br />
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•<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span> December 1, 1997- Michael Carneal, 14, fired on a prayer group at his school, Heath High, Paducah, Kentucky, killing three: senior Jessica James, sophomore Kayce Steger, and freshman Nicole Hadley. Five further students were injured. A copy of "Rage" was found in his locker.<br />
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King himself explains in his 2013 essay "Guns": “<i>I pulled it with real regret […] the violent actions and emotions portrayed in "Rage" were drawn directly from the high school life I was living five days a week, nine months of the year. The book told unpleasant truths, and anyone who doesn’t feel a qualm of regret at throwing a blanket over the truth is an asshole with no conscience.</i>”<br />
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Reading the book again for only the second time in 20 years, I was still surprised at how quickly the book takes hold of you. It’s well written, Charlie Decker, as narrator comes across as broken but affable, and this is part of what makes King the author he is; his depiction of the everyman is wholly believable, even the ones in his more far-out horror/supernatural novels such as "Pet Sematary" (the character Louis Creed is crafted in such a perfect way that you can see bleak justification in why he did the things he did). Reading "Rage" you know Charlie is a monster, but you want him to get through it, you don’t want him to die and this is because King dares you to like him and by the end, you do.<br />
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This could be because I first read "The Bachman" Books at 16 years old, stolen from John Menzies by a friend and I read that book over and over again. I didn’t read the others till much later. The book spoke to me; I was horrendously bullied through high school and here was someone going through the same kind of pain that I was. Here was someone saying that being a teenager was fucked up, from the adults expectations of you, to the utter carnage of being able to deal and live amongst your peers who all thought they were better/prettier/sportier/funnier than you. However the concept of taking guns to school and mowing people down never once entered my mind – and my family was one where guns were easily got to, my father was, after all, a gamekeeper, and he kept high velocity rifles and shotguns in the home. And that’s the thing – it’s about your moral centre, no matter how badly damaged you are, the answer is never about damaging others. And while I may have thought about harming my bullies, I never carried it through, I beat them in other ways.<br />
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I’d like to finish off on a final thought, that of another school-set book, "Carrie". Another abused child who gets bullied, and wreaks revenge by killing her peers at school. That book remains in print because it’s all too fantastical. "Rage" no longer remains in print because its premise is now sadly all too real. And I think King is right in withdrawing the book, however if someone wants to find it, they will. Words have power for those who want to twist them to fit their own agenda.<br />
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The rest of "The Bachman Books" will be written about, one by one.<br />
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Johnny Mains is an editor and author. His latest collection, A LITTLE LIGHT SCREAMING, is out now.Mark Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12103997496549941279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4415224707044352750.post-3456895665728991922015-11-02T09:00:00.000+00:002015-11-02T09:00:00.454+00:00Hearts In Atlantis, reviewed by Robert Mammone<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Stephen King has spent half a century strip-mining his life to feed his writing. Whether in "The Dark Half" where writer Thad Beaumont battles his dark side; or the teacher John Smith in "The Dead Zone"; or the kids in "The Body", looking for a dead boy beside the train tracks (King has talked before of seeing in his youth a friend killed by a train), time and again King has dug into his own life for inspiration.<br />
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In "Hearts in Atlantis", King performs the same trick again, essentially fictionalising his life to date for this collection of two novellas and three short stories. In doing so, King not only opens himself up for examination, but he also examines the changes that occurred in American society over four decades, from the innocence of the 1960s, through the bloody carnage and insanity of Vietnam, to the quiet reflection and even hope at the end of the millennium.<br />
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The two opening novellas, <i>Low Men in Yellow Coats</i> and <i>Hearts in Atlantis</i>, form the core of the book and provide the key telling moments. The opening story takes us back to 1960, where we’re introduced to young Bobby Garfield. Bobby's father, like King's, has disappeared, leaving his mother, Liz, to raise him. Into their apartment complex moves a strange older man, Ted Brautigan, to whom Liz takes an immediate dislike. Ted is a mystery, an obviously educated man very much down on his luck with no past, and, it seems, no future. Unsurprisingly, Bobby is drawn to Ted, who introduces him to such books as Lord of the Flies, which fires the young boy's imagination. Coupled with Bobby’s growing relationship with Ted, which King expertly draws, is the relationship Bobby has with his school friends Carol and John. And as with every King story, the element of the strange and supernatural is introduced, as it is revealed that Ted, with his secret past, is being hunted by low men in yellow coats.<br />
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By this stage in his career, King was an expert in evoking the joys and sorrows of childhood. Bobby spends time with Carol and John during their summer vacation and along the way, learns something about love and friendship and the raw fact that change is coming. Ted teaches Bobby about adulthood, and the choices that adults, particularly his mother, make in order to survive. Liz is an easy character to despise; her angry outbursts, her desire to control Bobby through carefully doling out her affection is a way to punish him for his father leaving her, but also to ensure Bobby himself doesn’t go anywhere either. Of all the characters in <i>Low Men in Yellow Coats</i>, Liz is the most believable, a flawed, broken woman who has had to make choices in life that are necessary for a single mother raising a son to survive.<br />
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The second story, <i>Hearts in Atlantis</i>, takes us to 1966. America’s involvement in the Vietnam War has ramped up and young men are fighting and dying in a foreign land for reasons that on the surface are obvious (fight communism) but at heart are despairingly opaque. Already the anti-war movement has sprung up, especially on college campuses across the country, and with it a split between two types of patriots – those who stand for traditional American values on the right, and those who stand for traditional American values on the left, an almost fatal divide that is mirrored across America. <br />
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The main character, Pete Riley, has just started university. The son of working class parents, he's the first in his family to make it to college, and his education there shields him from the draft and the Vietnam War. This section spoke most to me, as the experience Pete has of living on campus and the obsession he and his fellow boarders have playing the card game Hearts mirrors the experience I had when I attended, and flunked, my first year at university.<br />
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It is worth noting here that King forges the links that bind the disparate parts in the novel in this story. Pete meets Carol, Bobby's friend from the first story, and forms a brief, but intense relationship. Some of Pete's fellow students flunk out due to their addiction to Hearts, and appear in a later story, Why We're in Vietnam. Once again, King expertly evokes the period, skilfully blending the hope of youth with the realisation that darkness lurks all around, particularly in the entangling mess that Vietnam has become for America. Pete also takes away a lesson that we all eventually learn – that despite our youthful idealism, in the end, people simply fail to be as good as they hope to be.<br />
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The latter three stories deal with the aftershocks of Vietnam. Not only does the book hold up a distorted mirror onto King's life, but it also goes some way to paralleling the American experience in Vietnam. The youthful characters in the first part of the book soon experience anger, despair and the effects of violence, and only after years of painful rejection do they come to terms with their lives. We learn that Carol drops out of university and becomes involved in violent anti-war efforts, eventually disappearing, presumed dead, in a hail of gunfire with police and a resulting fire. John Sullivan, Bobby’s friend, goes to Vietnam and becomes involved in a terrible war crime that he is, literally and figuratively, haunted by for the rest of his life. A tangential character, Willy Shearmen, features in a latter story in the book, <i>Blind Willy</i>. Shearmen exacts a daily punishment on himself for the atrocity he committed with John and the others in his platoon, by begging and donating his takings to churches around the city.<br />
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The last story, <i>Heavenly Shades of Night are Falling</i>, brings us back full circle. It’s 1999 and Bobby has returned to his old hometown to say farewell John Sullivan at his funeral. It’s here that King offers up the central tenet of the book. Bobby ponders: After awhile, you wanted to say to God, Ah, come on, Big Boy, quit it. You lost your innocence when you grew up, all right, everyone knew that, but did you have to lose your hope, as well?<br />
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Many have argued that it was during the 1960s that America lost its innocence. The murder of JFK and Martin Luther King, race riots and burning cities, the squalid, bloody adventure in Vietnam. That’s all nonsense, of course. But Bobby’s last question, about having to lose your hope as well, is answered by King in this last section. Hope lives with us forever, no matter how changed it might be by what life has thrown at us. Hope is like Carol, scarred and living as a fugitive, who comes back to Bobby in the final pages. Hope lives with us while everything around us is changing and changing and changing.<br />
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It was while I was re-reading the NEL paperback edition from 1999 that I noticed something about the front cover that gave me pause. The streetscape, with clouds and lighting in the background, has a piece of paper with the word LOST floating down the drenched street. The word LOST is above the title - HEARTS IN ATLANTIS.<br />
<br />
Lost Hearts in Atlantis. <br />
<br />
In many ways, Atlantis is America, and the lost Hearts are the characters in the book, trying to find themselves, and each other, in a world that is rapidly sinking around them. In the end, only a few make it to shore. And what a tale they have to tell.<br />
<br />
-----<br />
<br />
Robert Mammone lives in Melbourne, Australia. He has fond memories of being terrified as a boy watching the tv adapation of Salem's Lot, and then went back for more when he read the book a few years later. He's been published in Doctor Who Magazine, by the British Fantasy Society, and had short stories in Darker Minds, Darkest Minds, Ill at Ease 2 and Midnight Echo. When he's not writing or wrangling the triffids in the backyard, he's doting on his family.<br />
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You can catch him on twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/DreadSinister">@dread_sinister</a> or if you want to gaze into the abyss, check out his blog here <a href="https://robertmammone.wordpress.com/">https://robertmammone.wordpress.com/</a>Mark Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12103997496549941279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4415224707044352750.post-70615133943881783072015-10-26T09:00:00.000+00:002015-10-26T09:00:00.984+00:00The Drawing Of The Three, reviewed by Julie Cohen<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I read The Gunslinger, the first book in the Dark Tower series because I’d read everything else that Stephen King had written. A fellow King fan, a bookseller, pressed a copy into my hand when he found out I’d never read any of the series. So I went home and read it and I hated it. It was boring. It was dreamlike and episodic, without much logical plot structure. The hero, Roland, didn’t feel human. It was misogynistic. And having recently finished 11.22.63, which I thought was one of King’s most terrific books yet, with a great plot, rounded characters, and a female love interest who had a life of her own, I was surprised and dismayed. ‘He’s got much better since he wrote this,’ I thought, and I put it down. I knew that King thought that the Dark Tower series was his masterpiece…but I couldn’t work out why.<br />
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Then I read The Drawing of the Three. It was published nearly ten years after the original Gunslinger stories, and boy, can you tell.<br />
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The beginning of this novel is a masterclass for any writer on how to begin a novel. Our hero, Roland, is lying unconscious on the beach after the events of the previous novel. When he wakes up, he’s alarmed to find that his guns and his shells have got wet. For a gunslinger who lives by his pistols, in a world where ammunition is rare, this is a potentially lethal disaster.<br />
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So he doesn’t pay much attention to the four-foot lobsterlike creature who has washed up on the sand not far from him. He’s much more worried about his ammunition. But then, on page three, the lobster bites two of Roland’s fingers off.<br />
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Page three. Our gunslinger hero has his trigger finger bitten off. He can no longer hold a gun.<br />
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Page THREE.<br />
<br />
That’s a conflict. That’s how to start a novel.<br />
<br />
By page twenty-seven, Roland is close to death, and the only thing that can save him is a door into another world—our world. And the only person who can help him is Eddie Dean, a junkie who’s on a plane from Nassau with two pounds of cocaine strapped under his armpits. The stakes are breathtakingly high.<br />
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And bringing Roland into Eddie’s world, and Eddie into Roland’s, is a stroke of genius. It lets us see Roland from another perspective, and we start to appreciate how extraordinary he really is. And Roland gives us a perspective on our own world, too. There’s a moment where Roland tastes Pepsi and he’s flabbergasted by the extravagance of it: in his world, this much sugar would be more valuable than gold.<br />
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The Drawing of the Three gallops along at a wonderful pace and it completely hooked me into The Dark Tower series. I meant to read them slowly, in between reading other things, but I came down with pneumonia when I was reading Wolves of the Calla. Whilst I was in hospital, I hallucinated werewolves and vampires coming to get me. After that, I had to stick to the more pleasant worlds of Harry Potter and Georgette Heyer and Alexander McCall Smith for a little while. But after I was well enough not to be on the serious drugs any more, I picked up The Dark Tower series again, and I ate it whole. I sat in the sunshine, under a throw, following Roland to the Dark Tower, and by the end I was nearly well again.<br />
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The best books take you on a journey, and although I find The Dark Tower series to be an uneven journey, I’m glad I made it. If you’re a King fan, it’s vital. But I never would have got beyond the first step if not for The Drawing of the Three, and those spectacular opening pages.<br />
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Julie Cohen is from Maine, where children are fed Stephen King novels as soon as they are weaned from the breast. She’s written twenty-two novels of her own; DEAR THING was a Richard and Judy Summer 2014 Book Club pick, and her current novel WHERE LOVE LIES was shortlisted for the Romantic Novelists’ Association Award. She teaches creative writing, is the resident agony aunt for <a href="http://novelicious.com/">Novelicious.com</a>, and spends a great deal of time on Twitter pretending to be a Lego cannibal.<br />
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Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/julie_cohen">@julie_cohen</a><br />
Website: <a href="http://www.julie-cohen.com/">http://www.julie-cohen.com</a>Mark Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12103997496549941279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4415224707044352750.post-55915351040742897442015-10-19T09:00:00.001+01:002015-10-19T09:00:04.976+01:00Three more novellas ("A Face In The Crowd", "Throttle" and "In The Tall Grass"), reviewed by Kevin Bufton<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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In my last round-up of King's shorter works (<a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/three-novellas-ur-blockade-billy-and.html">which can be found here</a>), I looked at three novellas that centred on his favourite narrative obsessions. Today's column has its own theme, as all three works have been written in collaboration with another author.<br />
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As any writer can tell you, working with someone else can be a joy or a nightmare--often at the same time. Whilst I can boast no insight into the creative processes employed, I imagine that co-writing a book with the world's most famous exponent of horror would be a daunting prospect for anyone, even more so when he happens to be your dad.<br />
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<b><u>'A Face in the Crowd' [w/ Stewart O'Nan] (2012)</u></b><br />
I confess, I've never heard of Stewart O'Nan, nor read any of his work, but if 'A Face in the Crowd' is any indicator of quality, I need to add him to my To Be Read pile.<br />
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It details the humdrum life of a retiree, whiling away his remaining years watching baseball on the television. As the season progresses, he starts to notice people in the stands; people he's known over the years, people he knows shouldn't be at a baseball game, people who aren't even this side of the grave.<br />
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It is one of those blendings of reality and the supernatural that King does so well, and O'Nan's involvement does not water the effect down. We, as readers, are left to consider whether the visions are the product of something unearthly, or the more prosaic (but no less terrifying) result of the deterioration of the protagonist's mental faculties.<br />
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The writers nearly fluff that, right at the end, but there is sufficient ambiguity in the reveal to keep us guessing, which is all I ask.<br />
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A poignant and heart-wrenching piece, I'm not too proud to admit that it brought a tear to this jaded old reader's eye.<br />
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<b><u>'Throttle' [w/ Joe Hill] (2009)</u></b><br />
This is King's first collaboration with his son, Joe Hill, an excellent wordsmith in his own right. It was originally included in He Is Legend, a tribute to Richard Matheson, and is an homage to the classic Matheson story 'Duel', famously adapted into a television movie. 'Throttle' was also released as an audiobook, alongside Matheson's original story.<br />
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That's part of the problem.<br />
<br />
Knowing that it pays tribute to 'Duel', the novella shows its hand early and often and, if you've seen the movie, there are few surprises for you here. Certainly it has been updated for the new millennium--the protagonists are a biker gang involved in various dodgy dealings, which gives it a pleasing Breaking Bad/Sons of Anarchy vibe.<br />
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Much like the original, the bikers are pursued by a truck that has them trapped on a mountain road, with no way to avoid its onslaught. As one gang member after another is picked off, the tension is almost palpable. The pacing of the story is excellent; as the truck closes the distance between itself and the bikers, sentences become shorter and tighter, building up a sense of real urgency.<br />
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Where it fails is in how it humanises the truck and its driver. It's been a while since I've seen the movie, I'll admit, but I recall the truck being this imposing, implacable metal beast, pursuing its victim without rhyme or reason. Indeed, King himself describes it as such when discussing the movie in his novel-length essay, Danse Macabre (reviewed with revelatory panache on this very site by some hack or other).<br />
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King and Hill evoke a similar feeling over the first two-thirds of the book with some success, before giving the truck driver a damn good reason for chasing the bikers. I won't spoil it here, but it ruined the rest of the book for me. There's no downturn in quality, but once we stop seeing the truck as a beast and start seeing it as a tool, wielded by an average, flawed human being, the story loses a lot of its impact.<br />
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<b><u>'In the Tall Grass' [w/ Joe Hill] (2011)</u></b><br />
This is more like it.<br />
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Without fear of hyperbole, 'In the Tall Grass' is one of the best books I've read in years. It is classic King, and shows just how much the father has influenced the son.<br />
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A brother and his pregnant sister are travelling across the country, when they hear a child's cry for help issuing from a field of grass on the side of the road. They stop the car, pull over at the side of the road and try to effect a rescue, plunging into the field to locate the kid.<br />
<br />
Bad move.<br />
<br />
Soon, they become as lost as the little boy, the grass somehow keeping them from finding each other, or their way back to the road. King and Hill craft a disorienting experience both for the characters and the reader, as the siblings stumble deeper and deeper into the whispering, rustling grass.<br />
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The overall tone is one of creepy, rather than horrific; a terrible, crawling dread as they call out to one another, their voices becoming as distant as the highway, despite their best efforts to find a way back to each other and safety.<br />
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That's not to say that the writers shy away from more horrific elements--it's Stephen King and Joe Hill, for God's sake. The fate of the sister, in particular, is especially sickening, and not easily forgotten. Both approaches work well in the context of the story, and the crunch of teeth on bone is as effective as the susurration of the wind through the grass, albeit for different reasons.<br />
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A vast improvement, and one guaranteed to give you chills.<br />
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<br />
And thus we end another round-up.<br />
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'In the Tall Grass' is the clear favourite this time, though 'A Face in the Crowd' comes a close second.<br />
'Throttle' is by no means a bad story but, for this writer's money, it pales in comparison with its illustrious forebear.<br />
<br />
-----<br />
<br />
Kevin G. Bufton is a thirty-something father, husband and horror writer, in that approximate order, from Birkenhead on the Wirral Peninsula. His short fiction has appeared in over forty magazines, anthologies and websites across the globe.<br />
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He lives with his wife and their two beautiful children, and one day hopes to be able to scare people for a living. For more information, <a href="http://kevinbufton.com/">check out his website here.</a><br />
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In addition to the already mentioned novellas, he has previously contributed to the King For A Year project with <a href="http://kingreviews2015.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/danse-macabre-reviewed-by-kevin-bufton.html">"Danse Macabre"</a>Mark Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12103997496549941279noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4415224707044352750.post-61501245173211977792015-10-12T09:00:00.000+01:002015-10-12T09:00:02.185+01:00The Dark Half, reviewed by Andrew Murray<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Between 1977 and 1984, Stephen King published five novels under the pseudonym of Richard Bachman and these tightly written books were bleaker and more pessimistic than his overly supernatural ones under his own name. “Rage”, “The Long Walk”, “Roadwork”, “The Running Man” and “Thinner” are very well written of course, and it was “Thinner” which blew the Bachman cover as it’s very recognisable as a King supernatural horror novel and also has a different tone to the previous ones.<br />
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King probably wasn't too happy with his Bachman name getting revealed, and he maybe responded with “The Dark Half” in 1989. In this superb and gruesome tale, Thad Beaumont writes books that get good reviews, but weak sales. Despite a nomination for a National Book Award, he gets writers block and has to write something fast. He creates the name George Stark and quickly churns out violent, pulp crime novels about a killer called Alexis Machine that are a big hit with the public and life seems good for awhile. But when his cover is threatened to be blown, he holds a mock funeral and features in a story for People magazine, complete with fake tombstones that read George Stark 1975-1987 Not A Very Nice Guy.<br />
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So when the local gravedigger finds a huge hole and fresh marks leading out of the mock grave, things get weird and very gruesome fast. The murders are some of Kings nastiest and he doesn’t look away at the aftermath of Starks handiwork. The guy who tried to blackmail Thad in the first place meets a horrific end that jolts the reader with its brutality.<br />
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Thad’s fingerprints are all over the murder scenes but he has an iron-clad alibi that clearly puts him hundreds of miles away at the time and the investigating sheriff doesn't know what to make of it all either. Then Thad starts getting threatening calls from George Stark, who tells him they need to write another book to keep George alive. Write the book or Thad’s family is killed.<br />
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Stark is one of Kings best and creepiest creations. Slicing his way through people he believes are responsible for his death in the first place, his cold determination to get to Thad and force him to keep him alive is chilling and well paced. He is deteriorating rapidly and is soon stinking of rancid meat and covered in bloodied bandages. “You're dead George, you just don’t have the sense to lie down,” Thad tells him at one point.<br />
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Throughout the book, the ominious phrase "The sparrows are flying again" is written at the murder sites, yet George doesn’t seem to know what it means. As he and Thad are holed up writing, sparrows gather outside the house. They are psychopomps who deliver souls to the land of the dead & they have come for him whether he likes it or not.<br />
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The strange bond between Thad & George is partially explained in the prologue where a young Thad has brain surgery and its discovered an unborn twin has been absorbed in utero by him. But there’s more to George than that. Part of Thad liked the guy when he was a pen name and nothing else - tough and manly, not clumsy like Thad was.<br />
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Douglas Winter said “The Dark Half” was a riff on the Frankenstein theme. Thad created Stark but is horrified at the creation that he can’t control after its come to life.<br />
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I still think this book is one of Kings best. It's compelling, grisly, has great pace and more than its share of horrors. It was also turned into a damn good film as well by George Romero. “The Dark Half” has some echoes with both “Misery” and “Secret Window” in exploring the darker side of fiction writing, but it’s its own novel in itself. An excellent book that deserves re-reading.<br />
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<br />
Andrew Murray lives in Adelaide South Australia and has been a fan of Stephen King since reading “Cujo” in high school. He hopes to publish some fiction of his own, but despite a few close calls has yet to crack the market. Perhaps a pen name would help....Mark Westhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12103997496549941279noreply@blogger.com1