Stephen King was recently honored with a very prestigious literary award. As a result, many critics blasted him as a hack and downplayed his writing and career. As a rabid fan and reader of his works, I must say that I regard a great deal of his work to be very good and quite a bit above that of most other authors of the classics. Books such as The Stand, The Green Mile, even Pet Semetary show a great deal of detail and forethought. His characters and use of symbolism are very rich. I would easily label him as one of the best and most important authors of the last 100 years. What are your thoughts?

Agreed. I haven't read many of his books lately, but only because I grew more interested in another genre: murder mysteries.

But I thought The Shining and Misery were two of the best books I'd ever read -- and the films made from them didn't do them justice at all.

Seems to be the American way -- build 'em up and tear 'em down. Happens to book authors as well as film and TV celebrities. When John Grisham was first published, he was hailed as The Second Coming... now he's being trashed in the same way as Stephen King. Guess that's what happens when people start to feel you are 'too' successful.

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- We must be the change we wish to see in the world -
Mahatma Gandhi

or maybe when you're so successful you think you can put out any old crap and people will buy it. do you read agatha christie or watch poirot?

Hey, even Laurence Olivier appeared in a few stinkers. :lol: :lol: Geez, does everything have to be excellent? Think it's so easy? You try it. (I'm kidding)

Yep, I've read Agatha Christie. I've seen a few of the Poirot series. Don't care that much for them. Some are OK, some are a little too "Murder, She Wrote" formulaic for my taste.

I like the more modern murder mysteries that are written with a recurring character in the series:

Sue Grafton's Kinsey Millhone series
John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee
Jonathan Kellerman's Alex Delaware
Robert Parker's Spenser

I started reading Ed McBain's 87th Precinct mysteries when I was about 14 years old and have been hooked on the genre ever since.

So sue me...

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- We must be the change we wish to see in the world -
Mahatma Gandhi

I think that Mr. King has written some of the best novels, short stories and collections of the past century. Critics, as with any art, tend to be dead wrong most of the time.

I vote Stephen King as neither. Literary snobs are too quick to dismiss him but he should slow down some for quality control purposes. It seems at this point that someone from his publisher stays in a track position next to him as he types, then sprints it to the print press when he is finished, nobody looking at anything in between. His recent stuff has been real weak with lots of fat. Too many people though view books like food: tastes good, bad for you, and reverse of that.

Forgot to add that I picked up a paperback of Salems Lot at my parents a couple weeks back. Flipping through it, there was such a funny comment about writing from the main character, a writer, early on. He lamented the latest literary trend as "plot was out, masturbation in." Still applies today and is part of why elitists ignore him. But again Stephen, slow the hell down.

Yeah he should totally slow down. However, I own the book "Different Seaons". This book is 4 novellas including "The Body", "Apt Pupil" and "Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption". Those were made into "Stand By Me", "Apt Pupil" and "The Shawshank Redemption". The first and third are great but the second screwed with the timeline and wasn't so great. But all three are incredible pieces of fiction and can be held as classics. I guess I would call him a literary master.

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I am reading the Wolves of Calla and I must say that the Dark Tower Series is by far my favorite. I love how it ties all of his other books together. If you have never read any of these books, you must. There is even a Salem's Lot tie-in in Wolves. Pretty cool! :clapping:

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Steve Johnston
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