Gone Todash

​Two more Stephen King books to go and then he retires. I wonder if he'll retire the way slam poets retire. You know. Decry everything, take a few month vacation, then come back guns blazing.

I doubt it.

He's been starting to wrap up all his books ever since Insomnia with characters from old books popping up in new ones. Not only does one of the major characters from Salem's Lot become a major player in Wolves of Calla but the freaking book Salem's Lot, text and all shows up.

I love a writer who starts out on an an epic tale and finishes it. I also love when each book is complete, and with the exception of The Waste Lands which ended in the middle of a freaking chapter (Oh, how I hated that), the first five books of The Dark Tower could each stand as their own book.

I also love it when one epic ties into others. So far The Dark Tower spends a great deal of time intertwining with every Stephen King book ever written, The Wizard of Oz, Star Wars, Marvel Comics, and even Harry Potter snuck in.

Wow. Only a few more months before Song of Susannah, and even The Dark Tower is set to be released before the year is up. I can't wait until they're all out so I can give them as a gift set to my stepmother. She's read everything by Stephen King except The Dark Tower Series because she hates the inter-book suspense. Criminy, the first four books were released more than twenty years apart. The last three come out within a year of each other.

I just hope Stephen King doesn't go all Charles Schultz and die on the release date of The Dark Tower. I'd like to interview the guy when the series is finally over.
Current Mood:  enthralled
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Sat, Jan. 10th, 2004 05:19 am (UTC)
scottwoodsStephen King has influenced me a lot over the years, in different ways.
I don't do his fantasy stuff, but most everything else I love, more or less.

I don't believe for a second that he's going to retire in the traditional sense; never publish new work again. Will he stop commiting himself to the business of writing, where he's got to get x/y/z novels/screenplays done by a/b/c dates? Sure, at leats for a while. But in the end he's a writer through and through, and even though he's found some of his work derivative of himself, I think he just needs to take some time off when people aren't expecting anything (LOTS of pressure), recharge his batteries, take some more time off to just read stuff and think, and then we'll see a new Stephen King book before too long.

Even his death wouldn't stop this. If he died tomorrow, we'd see more new Stephen King books after his death than we saw in the last 5 years of his life. He'd become the literary 2Pac. Unless he's got Tabitha on a Harlan Ellison clause ("burn it all").

Good to know you're a Kingsman. I knew I liked you for other reasons I couldn't put my finger on.
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Sat, Jan. 10th, 2004 11:54 am (UTC)
akamuu: I Wanted to Make the 2Pac Reference!I guess I'll have to settle for saying that I think they'll go full fledge Bukowski when he dies.
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Sat, Jan. 10th, 2004 05:45 am (UTC)
theklute: 'Salem's Lot?From the novel version or the short story which was a total rip of H.P. Lovecraft's The Rats in the Walls?
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Sat, Jan. 10th, 2004 11:53 am (UTC)
akamuu: Re: 'Salem's Lot?The novel version, which is much better. I want to go back and reread it, but I should really be focusing on things like work and writing. *sigh*
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Sat, Jan. 10th, 2004 07:12 am (UTC)
loudpoet: Down with the King!Though I haven't read a book of his in ages (ironically, I kept falling asleep on Insomnia!), Stephen King remains one of my favorite writers ever. Pet Sematary and The Talisman are probably my all-time faves but I loved everything up to Needful Things, the last thing I read, except Tommyknockers, which sucked hard. I too am waiting for the complete Dark Tower series to come out so I can attack them in one fell swoop.
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Sat, Jan. 10th, 2004 11:51 am (UTC)
akamuu: Re: Down with the King!I agree with The Tommyknockers knock. It's the one book of his I haven't finished besides From a Bucik 8, which I didn't even know existed until Wednesday afternoon.

There have been some good ones since Needful Things. Everything's Eventual is a fantastic collection of short stories. A must have for every Stephen King fan (though you'll probably want to skip over The Dark Tower story that's in there.
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Sun, Jan. 11th, 2004 08:24 am (UTC)
akamuu: Re: Down with the King!I've seen the Talisman follow-up in stores, but heard it wasn't as good as thr original, but it's tied into the Tower series? *sigh*
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Sun, Jan. 11th, 2004 11:47 am (UTC)
loudpoet: Re: Down with the King!That would be Black House. Was waiting for it to come out in paperback and just realized it did back in September! Haven't read any reviews on it but just saw this on Amazon:

While The Talisman was a straightforward myth in 1980s packaging, Black House is richer and more complex, a fantasy wrapped in a horror story inside a mystery, sporting a clever tangle of references to Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, jazz, baseball, and King's own Dark Tower saga. Talisman fans will find the sure-footed Jack has worn well--as has the King/Straub writing style, which is much improved with the passage of two decades. --Barrie Trinkle