Stephen King 101

Where do I start?


*Originally published on 7/17/09



Stephen King has a lot of published books under his belt.  As such, it's probably pretty intimidating to new readers who want to start reading his books, but aren't sure where to start.  You probably remember I linked to an article over at avclub.com that covered this same topic when I gave you some general updates.  It's a helpful article, no doubt, but it doesn't list a lot of the essential reads in the King library.  Submitted for your approval, ladies and gentlemen, my list of 10 "must read" books for newcomers to Stephen King's work in no particular order.

10.  On Writing
Half biography, half how-to guide for writers, this book doesn't deliver in the scare department (though there was one medical procedure King talks about that weirded even me out).  This will give you a good look into King's writing style and personality.  I especially recommend this book to any writer or aspiring writer as it's one of the most helpful books I've come across.


9. Bag of Bones
This is one of the King books that even got acclaim from the literary elite, who King has not spoken well of in the past.  It's a tad thick (you'll notice that's the case with a lot of his work) but it never drags and I enjoyed it very much.


8. Thinner
This is a book that King wrote under the pen name of "Richard Bachman".  It's a quick read that tells the tale of a lawyer who gets cursed by gypsies.  Did you ever notice how whenever a character is cursed, it's almost always because of gypsies?  I digress.  I recommend checking this book out.

7.  Carrie
King's first novel, and still one of his best.  What better place to start with the man's work than with his first published book?

6. Misery
This book contains one of the greatest villains King has ever come up with (where she ranks on the list varies by opinion).  There are no demons or ghosts here, just a celebrity trapped in a cabin with his worst nightmare...his greatest fan.

5. Salem's Lot
Admittedly, I only recently read (or should I say, listened to) this book.  It's definitely a great read and a great jumping on point for people new to the work of Stephen King.

4.  The Shining
This is one of my personal favorites.  For a long time I considered this King's best book.  It still ranks high on my list and I still highly recommend you check this out.  The characters are fleshed out, it's well paced and very creepy.

3. Christine
A lot of people joke that all of Stephen King's books are about killer "insert item here".  This is one of the books that they often cite.  Still, it's a good read.  One of the things I found fascinating was the POV shift a third of the way into the book.  The narrator gets injured so while he's in the hospital, the story shifts to third person and then returns to him when he gets out.

2. It
I'm sure you're all sick of reading about how much I love this book so I'm going to try and keep this brief.  Don't let the 1,000 plus pages scare you off.  It almost did me and I would've really missed out.  This book is worth every page.  Trust me, it doesn't feel like a thousand pages at all, even 500 pages feel like nothing.

1. The Stand
This is considered by many of King's fans to be his greatest work.  Like It, the book is over a thousand pages (and that was the edited version, King released an unabridged version which I linked to) but it's an epic story that is a definite must read.







What's the deal with this Dark Tower?


*Originally published on 7/21/09



While books like It, Carrie, and Cujo are pretty well known to the general public, regardless of whether or not the person read the book, King's epic magnum opus may not be that well known to people.  With Examiner's 101 project, I figured there's no time like the present to give people unfamiliar with the series a brief rundown.

It started over 20 years ago, King began work on a project that combined the western genre with fantasy, science fiction, and horror.  King knew from the get-go that it was a multi-book project that made even door stoppers like It and The Stand seem small in scale.

What was really neat about this series though was how it tied all of King's work together.  King had been doing this for sometime, many of his books allude to events from other books, but this series turned the volume of the concept up to 11 and wowed fans.

Which books do you need to read?  Well, that's a bit tricky.  There are 7 books in the series proper.


The Gunslinger
The Drawing of the Three
The Wastelands
Wizard and Glass
Wolves of the Calla
Songs of Susannah
The Dark Tower

You can read these books in order and get a complete story.  When I read the books, I didn't read the tie ins and I had little trouble keeping up.  It's true that Insomnia introduces the Crimson King, but when the characters first come across the siguls in Wizard and Glass, they're as perplexed about this entity as the reader is so it still works pretty well.

As the series progressed, more plot elements started to leak into stand alone stories.  Books like Insomnia and Black House tie directly into the series (which by proxy ties It and The Talisman into the series).  You also have short fiction that ties into the series like Hearts in Atlantis and The Little Sisters of Eluria.

Books like Salem's Lot and The Stand are self contained and work on their own.  They do, however, tie into the series after the fact.  Eyes of the Dragon is also linked in a similar fashion.
I also read Salem's Lot after the fact, as you all know.  This didn't hinder me either as Father Callahan gives a recap so that new readers get the necessary background information.

You know, now that I think about it, the only books you really need to read going in are The Stand and Eyes of the Dragon (these are the two books that feature Flagg as the villain).  Oh, the more books you've read beforehand the better, but those are the only two that seem vital.  As for when to read Black House and Insomnia, you have two options.  You can either do as I did and read them afterwards, or you can go with King's suggestion and use the order of publication to get a sense of when events occur.  This would put Insomnia between The Wastelands and Wizard and Glass; and Black House between Wizard and Glass and Wolves of the Calla.  If you do read Black House, you need to read The Talisman before, as Black House is a sequel.  OK, this is starting to get a bit overwhelming and confusing.  I think a straight forward list will do right about now.

The Stand

DT1

The Talisman

Eyes of the Dragon

DT2

DT3

Insomnia

DT4

(Hearts in Atlantis would go here if you chose to read it)

Black House

Everything's Eventual (this features The Little Sisters of Erluria)

DT5

DT6

DT7

I could go further and include books that connect to books that connect to books that connect to the Dark Tower series (Dreamcatcher and Bag of Bones both tie to It, which ties to Insomnia) but that would just make things even more confusing.  Just for your own knowledge, I will say that  King's short story, The Mist, ties into the series and some say that his novel, For a Buick 8 ties into it as well.  I wouldn't say that they are vital to the series and need not be added to the list (though you should read them anyway as they are quite good).

Truthfully, listing every tie in would almost become a list of every book he's written.  With all the nods and allusions King makes in his novels,  you could pull the "six degrees of seperation" game and tie everything to everything else through some elaborate web.

King said early on that he saw this series as the Jupiter in his system of work in that it dwarfed and encompassed all the work he had done and would do.  As you can see here, he clearly was not kidding.









What is the importance of Derry?


*Originally published on 8/12/09



If you're just starting to get into King's work, you may notice that a few of his books mention a town called Derry.  The town was featured in some of his short stories, but didn't really get to shine until it was used as the main setting for King's novel, It.

Derry is a poster child for King's small town with an evil lurking beneath the surface.  By and large, the denizens of Derry live peaceful lives.  The town does have a violent history as there have been several violent crimes committed throughout the years.

While most of the townspeople don't know it, these crimes coincide with the hibernation cycle of an extra-dimensional monster that crashed at the site that would soon become Derry millions of years ago.  There are also, of course, the murders committed by the monster itself.  These go largely ignored by the media as Derry is a small town.  It is also suggested that It has enough power to make sure that the stories don't get out.

The horrors don't end with the demise of Pennywise, though he may not be as dead as one would hope.  It seems Derry is a Mecca for supernatural activity.  Whether It was somehow able to draw other entities or the town just has a high PKE level, Derry had more to deal with than just a demonic clown.

In Insomnia, the Crimson King orchestrates a plan to commit an act of terrorism and sends his lackey, Atropos to ensure all goes according to plan.  This was largely incidental as the Crimson King was just making a pre-emptive strike against a person who he knew would be pivotal in his defeat in the future.  That person just happened to be in Derry.

Also, in Dreamcatcher, the four main characters encounter a strange boy named "Duddits" who they later discover is an extra-terrestrial entity.

While Derry seems like a peaceful enough town, we're lucky that it is just a fictional location.  It's interesting to note that while Derry, Maine is only a figment of King's imagination, I found out at a family reunion, that there is a town in New Hampshire called Derry.  Pennsylvania also has a town called Derry.  Sure there aren't any sewer lurking clowns in either of these towns, but being a King reader I don't know if I would ever move to a town called Derry.  It would make for a good conversation piece though, wouldn't it?










Who is Richard Bachman?



*Originally published on 9/5/09



In a recent article, we covered the first novel written by Richard Bachman.  Richard Bachman was essentially a pen name used by King in his early days.

The Bachman Books opens with several pages, written by King himself, that make an attempt to explain why he decided to use a pen name.

Evidently, the idea just hit him to try and publish one of his manuscripts under a different name, one of those whimsical hunches that hit us all from time to time.  King also says that he wanted to try and write in a voice other than his own.  As it turns out, he liked it.  Moreso, publishers were worried that King was getting books written too quickly, so coming up with an alter-ego was a way to keep both parties happy.

King went all out with it.  Bachman had a photo (actually his agent) for the book jacket, a wife named Claudia Inez, and a full bio.

Bachman was born in New York and spent time in the Coast Guard before settling in New Hampshire to become a reclusive novelist.  He had a son, who died at the age of six after drowning in a well.  Bachman later developed a brain tumor, which was able to be removed safely.  Bachman died in 1985 (due to cancer of the pseudonym).

King writes that he used Bachman as a way to get a better sense of himself as well as his career.  He notes that Thinner only sold 28,000 copies, but ten times that many once it was revealed that Bachman was in fact, Stephen King.

In total, Richard Bachman got five books published in his lifetime.  The four that appear in The Bachman Books (Rage, Long Walk, Running Man, and Roadwork) as well as Thinner, which was the only Bachman novel that fell into the horror category.  Two novels would be published post-mortem after King "discovered" them.  These are The Regulators (a twin novel linked to Stephen King's Desperation) as well as Blaze.

Whether or not more novels will be pulled from Bachman's "Trunk", only time will tell.