Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Is "The Dark Tower" Stephen King's Masterpiece?

A graphic novel adaptation of the 7 volume "Dark Tower" series is coming and USA Today has a chat w King and an early peek at the artwork. King's more literary works -- like "Different Seasons" --usually get the better reviews. Some fans still think of "The Stand" as his masterwork. But for sheer ambition and King-like pulpiness, "The Dark Tower" series looms large. Someday soon, I'm gonna have to tackle it. What do you think is his best book or is "masterpiece" and Stephen King a stretch and we should just be talking about which is the most fun?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow - does any other author have as many published works as Stephen King. I often wonder if he simply signs books that were ghost written. I have not read a SK novel since the 80's.
Growing up, I devoured SK novels.
"The Stand" truly scared me, every time I visit Las Vegas I think about that book. I do believe it was one of his best. Not counting the short stories, my favorites were were "It", I can't walk past a storm drain without looking for the clown, "Pet Cemetary", another case of evil masked as innocence, and "Salems Lot".

Michael in New York said...

Nope, King writes his own stuff. In fact, he churns out so much stuff, he had to use a pseudonym (Richard Bach) to care care of the overflow. But he's not even remotely close to the most prolific authors out there right now. Romance novelist Barbara Cartland sold more than one billion copies of her 600+ novels and current romance/mystery novelist Nora Roberts is looking to give her a run for her money. Roberts easily puts out three or four new books a year and also used a pseudnym (JD Robb) for a romance/mystery series she wrote). Compared to them, King is a slacker.