36.13: Joyland, by Stephen King (2013 paperback)

I'm a huge King fan, so I enjoyed this crime thriller. Harkening back to pulp crime fiction, the novel is set in the 1980s and combines a love story and a cold-case crime, overlaid with just enough of the supernatural to maintain the King flavor.  

27.12: The Wind Through the Keyhole (A Dark Tower book), by Stephen King (Published 2012, iBook edition)

If you follow this blog, you know that I'm a Stephen King fan. For more on this--and for reviews of King books I've read since January 2011--simply click on the King tag in the right-hand column of my blog and you can catch up with my King fandom. 

Now that you are caught up, I'll have to say that I may love Stephen King books, but it's his Dark Tower series that I love the most.  Interestingly, the seven novels that make up King's original Gunslinger tales are likely the least known of his books. He's much more popular for his horror novels, and, while I'm a fan of those books as well, the Dark Tower series is superior for those who like books about fantasy worlds, such as Tolkien's Lord of the Rings or Pulling's His Dark Materials series. Since the books were published between 1974 and 2004 (Yep, that's a 30-year span, but you're a lucky reader because you won't have to wait for the next book to come out as I did!), I haven't reviewed them here, so let me provide you with a summary borrowed by the Official Dark Tower website: "The Dark Tower series tells the story of Roland Deschain, Mid-World’s last gunslinger, who is traveling southeast across Mid-World’s post-apocalyptic landscape, searching for the powerful but elusive magical edifice known as The Dark Tower. Located in the fey region of End-World, amid a sea of singing red roses, the Dark Tower is the nexus point of the time-space continuum.  It is the heart of all worlds, but it is also under threat. Someone, or something, is using the evil technology of the Great Old Ones to destroy it." If that intrigues you, click this link to visit the site for more details about the books, their inspiration (Browning and Tolkien), etc.

Frankly, while this book claims to be a stand-alone volume, a supplement that would fall somewhere between volumes four and five in the series timeline, I wouldn't recommend it if you aren't familiar with the Gunslinger and his ka-tet--Eddie, Susannah, and Jake--and their billy-bumbler companion named Oy. While King goes to some pains to explain these characters (and the entire series premise) in a foreword, it seems to me that the world within the pages of this book would be much paler and shallow without the knowledge of the kingdom of Gilead and its demise that are explored in the earlier books. If you're looking for a great new world of adventure, I'd certainly start by reading the first four books in the Dark Tower series and adding this as volume 4.5. 

Now! Read them now! (Really, I highly recommend the series and am a bit jealous that you have the chance to encounter them for the first time.)

One caution: While I compared the Gunslinger books to Tolkien and Pullman--both with series read by younger audiences--King's books are for more mature readers. While they are by no means overly graphic, they do contain references to sex, drugs, and violence, and the characters swear just about as much as do a good number of humans you know. I'd say that these books are most appropriate for the teens and mature 'tweens of parents who understand that kids can read literature with adult themes and benefit accordingly.

4.12: 11/22/63, by Stephen King (2011 hardcover, borrowed from Tracy D.)

In posts 46 (American Vampire) and 92.11 (Full Dark, No Stars), I expressed my admiration for Stephen King's storytelling skill. I have, I believe, read every book King has written, and at times I find myself defending my devotion. When I recently told a friend I was reading 11/22/63, he exclaimed skeptically, "Stephen King? Really?" Really.

I think many of my contemporaries read Carrie and The Shining, and even more saw the movies, but fewer have followed the rest of King's career. I took a 15 to 20-year break myself, until I stumbled upon The Dark Tower series King started in 1982 at age 19 and took 22 years to finish  (publishing additional volumes in 1987, 1991, 1997, 2003, 2004, 2004). It's claimed that King intentionally set out to write his own Lord of the Rings epic, and the alternative reality established in The Dark Tower books is just as compelling as anything by Tolkien--although a bit darker, as one might expect of King. The books, inspired by Spaghetti Westerns and borrowing from Robert Browning's poem "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came," follow the tales of Roland Deschain of Gilead (The Gunslinger) as he pursues the man in black (No, not Johnny Cash, alas.) who sets him on a journey to the Dark Tower. This review isn't about the Dark Tower, of course, so I won't go further into it, but what did come out of my reading the series was a new love of King's writing. Add the fact that he managed to weave in story threads from his previous novels--which I was then compelled to go back and read--and I was smitten.

While the Dark Tower series was King's venture into a completely different world/time, the majority of his books are set in contemporary American society. There's a great familiarity to events, people, and places--but with a twist of the unreal, unlikely, or downright insane. 11/22/63 starts off in a familiar 2011, with an average high school English teacher doing typical things. When Jake Epping steps sideways, though, into another time--1958--we're in the realm of Stephen King.  There's a lot to this realm, evidenced by the 842 pages it covers, but the main premise is that Jake sets off with the goal of stopping the assassination of JFK, armed with the meticulous notes of a man who set off to do the same but was unable to complete his mission once cancer and age caught up with him. The possibility of taking on a task such as saving Kennedy exists due to the particular characteristics of King's time portal--no matter how much time is spent on the other side, when Jake returns to this side, only two minutes will have elapsed. And, when he travels back, he arrives in the exact same place and time in 1958 as before, essentially resting anything he did during the previous visit.

King always does a remarkable job of making the impossible seem entirely normal, and that holds true in this book as well, mainly because the majority of things that happen are just so average--eating and traveling and driving cars and falling in love. Like Jake, who must live in an alternate time for five years after arriving in America at the end of the 1950s (14 years before he was born) in order to change the history books, readers are immersed in the time period. The past is obdurate, we learn with Jake, and resists change. And, if Jake can change events, what would ultimately come of a world where a watershed moment is remarkably altered? Would saving JFK also save Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King, as Jake and his predecessor hope? Would the Vietnam War be avoided, saving thousands of American lives? What of the Civil Rights movement?

Jake spends most of the book pondering these thoughts, which allows readers the same opportunity. It's exhilarating, and difficult, and a bit scary. It's King at his enduring best.

92.11: Full Dark, No Stars, by Stephen King (2010 hardcover)

I'm not a fan of short-story collections, preferring full-length novels because of their richer character and plot development. There are a few authors, however, for whom I make an exception and check out their shorter fiction, and King is among those. I know there are many people who might not accept King's work as serious "literature" because of his frequent forays into the supernatural, fantasy, and flat-out weird, but I strongly feel that's a narrow view--and one all too commonly held when it comes to authors of SciFi and fantasy. In truth, I feel there are few writers today who have the narrative skill and storytelling power King exhibits again and again, across genre and format.

The four stories in this collection (called "long stories" on the book jacket) aptly demonstrate King's remarkable ability to engage readers and draw them through to the plot's conclusion--despite the fact that the tales told are dark and distasteful. As soon as the premise of each story became clear (murder of a spouse, betrayal of a best friend, rape and revenge, discovery of a spouse's horrible secret), I paused to think about whether I really wanted to continue. However, as any fan of King knows, that opportunity to consider turning back came a little too far down the road: having started the trip under King's skillful direction, I felt compelled to see the journey though. Even knowing there were likely no "happy" endings, and further burdened by the fact that there were no supernatural elements (which would at least allow me the luxury to discount them as improbable), I continued to the destination King set. And, as disturbing as those conclusions were, amongst my feelings of relief upon completing the book, I also experienced a moment of joy: the joy of having a light shone into the darkness to reveal what resides there--without needing to investigate it alone.

46: American Vampire (Volume 1), by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque, and Stephen King (2010 hardcover trade, issues 1-5)

I like Stephen King, and I like vampires, so when I heard this comic was coming out, I eagerly awaited the release of the first trade. In this first story arc, readers are introduced to a particular species of vampire--the American Vampire--through the eyes of a young actress in 1925 Hollywood.  Young, beautiful, and naive, she is the perfect vampire target, so I needn't tell you that it doesn't end well for her.  Of course, I suppose that depends on how you feel about vampires...or becoming one.

In each comic, Snyder and King tell one half of the story, so in this collection of issues it reads as alternating chapters.  While King has had a few of his books made into comics, he's never written a story specifically for the format. Because of this, I'd have to say that Snyder's chapters are better written, but Albuquerque's artwork ties everything together vividly, and the combination of vampire lore and American expansionism is compelling.  King is a gifted storyteller, and I'm sure that more practice will lead him to excellence in the comic format as well. In fact, the second trade was just released, so I'll soon be able to report on his progress.