The Gunslinger by Stephen King

Stephen King’s The Gunslinger is a post-apocalyptic Western-fantasy hybrid about the gunslinger Roland Deschain and his pursuit of the man in black across a desert.

At first glance, the Western plays the largest role in The Gunslinger. Roland carries two heavy six shooters with sandalwood handles, and he can fire them both with deadly accuracy. He wears a duster, leads a pack mule when we first meet him, and is chasing his quarry across a seemingly endless desert. So it is not surprising that King cites The Good, the Bad and the Ugly as an influence in his introductory essay “On Being Nineteen (and a Few Other Things).”

The Western may be the more prominent inspiration for Roland, but his quest would make any author of epic fantasy jealous. It is not Read More

The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King

There is a lot to be said in praise of Stephen King, but one of his most admirable talents is his ability to vest his heroes with such unlikely and frustrating vulnerabilities. King certainly wastes no time castrating the recently victorious Roland Deschain in The Drawing of the Three, the second of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower novels.

We barely have time to blink at the mountains and the ocean before we find Roland, the last gunslinger in Mid-World, under attack from “lobstrosities.” Though he survives, Roland loses an index and middle finger to these sea monsters, a significant loss for our pistol-bearing hero. The wounds fester as Roland doggedly continues his journey, and he eventually finds three doors that carry him to New York.

On the other side of these three doors, Roland finds hi... Read More

The Waste Lands by Stephen King

The Gunslinger introduces us to Roland Deschain, the last cowboy-knight of a world that has moved on. In The Drawing of the Three, King gives Roland partners. The Waste Lands, the third novel of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower novels, focuses on fleshing out the details of Roland’s quest.

But not too many details.

It turns out that a Crimson King is doing everything in his power to destroy the universe from atop the Dark Tower. After centuries of searching, Roland has begun to make real progress in his quest to find the Dark Tower because he and his heroes have come across one of the beams that control the world. Like most of King’s creations, it reads better in the book than in summary.

King forces a healthy dose of the bizar... Read More

The Wizard and the Glass by Stephen King

The Wizard and the Glass, the fourth of Stephen King’s The Dark Tower novels, returns to the Mid-World of Roland’s youth. Having recently bested his teacher in combat, Roland is now a gunslinger, one of the cowboy-knights of Gilead. However, Roland is young, and his father sends him away from his court — and away from the villainous sorcerer Marten Broadcloak. With his two companions — clever Cuthbert and the steady, cerebral Alain — by his side, what’s the worst that can happen?

Unfortunately, there are no safe places for Roland in Mid-World. “Good Man” John Farson’s rebellion against Gilead has reached the distant Barony of Mejis. Worse, Marten Broadcloak has charged The Big Coffin Hunters, exiled gunslingers that failed their final test, to hunt down and kill Roland and his friends. Roland�... Read More

Wolves of the Calla by Stephen King

In Wolves of the Calla, the fifth novel in Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series, Roland and his posse defend a village from monsters. King borrows the great ideas of a variety of favorite stories, yet his final product is ultimately less than the sum of its parts.

Calla is a farming village preyed upon by the Wolves of the Thunderclap. The Wolves come once per generation, take children, and return them “roont,” mentally handicapped and destined to grow gigantic before dying young. Should the village continue to live with this curse, or should they stand and fight? Enter Roland and his band of gunslingers, the last of Mid-World’s heroes.

King’s focus is divided between the primary Calla storyline and advancing the overall quest to reach the Dark Tower. It turns out that there’s a rose in 19... Read More

Song of Susannah by Stephen King

In his famous series, The Dark Tower, Stephen King has so far divided his time between assembling a posse of unlikely gunslingers and paying homage to his literary heroes like Tolkien and Sergio Leone. In Song of Susannah, King shifts gears and instead begins to wrap up Roland’s quest to find the Dark Tower.

Susannah is pregnant. Her child’s, or “chap’s,” father is at once Roland and a demon. Both the Crimson King and the Man in Black have made plans — and deals — regarding the possession of the chap after it’s born. Unfortunately, Susannah is largely unaware of these arrangements because Mia, a new personality, has taken over their mind. Mia takes both Susannah’s body and their chap to another dimension, away from Roland and th... Read More

The Dark Tower by Stephen King

Stephen King’s concluding volume of The Dark Tower series, The Dark Tower, is nothing if not surprising. Since its release, fans have squabbled over whether King hits a homerun or hits the ditch in the final volume of what has been described as his masterwork.

Without giving away the ending, I think the resolution of The Dark Tower is fantastic.

When The Dark Tower opens, Roland and his posse of gunslingers have divided their forces. Susannah/ Mia is about to give birth to a chap, an entity somehow fathered by both Roland and The Crimson King. Randall Flagg is lurking in the shadows and character/ author Stephen King is about to be run down by a van. Both a rose and the Dark Tower itself need to be saved, not to mention the universe. It’s a pretty exciting... Read More

The Wind Through the Keyhole by Stephen King

Stephen King’s latest, The Wind Through the Keyhole, is a DARK TOWER novel. The cover assures readers that they can read this novel even if they have not read the rest of the series, which is probably true, but the already converted will be interested to know that The Wind Through the Keyhole is something like the 4.5th book in the series. While King may not (cannot?) offer any revelations here that will significantly alter the course of the series, he does offer readers another chance to join Roland and his posse of gunslingers as they make their way toward the Dark Tower.

Mid-World has “moved on.” Although the world is desolate, its language continues to thrive and evolve since King clearly revels in adding to both its formality and its callous slang. The storm that waylays the gunslingers is a... Read More

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft is not just for aspiring writers or Stephen King fans. I'm neither, but I was completely entertained by On Writing. The first half of the book is Stephen King's autobiography of his first 50 years of life. He talks about his family, his childhood adventures with his brother, his relationship with his wife, some of the inspiration and research for his stories, how his alcohol and drug abuse affected his writing, and his accident with the van in 1999. This was interesting, informative, and very funny in parts. I listened to On Writing in audio format and it was read by Stephen King himself, which added poignancy to the narration.

The second part of On Writing contains some short lessons about what makes good writing and a look into some... Read More

Cell by Stephen King

In The Stand, Stephen King basically wrote the book on contemporary post-apocalyptic settings. However, one of the few things that 1000+ page novel missed was zombies. King corrects that omission in Cell, a novel in which cell phones turn users into zombies.

Unlike in The Stand, King wastes no time assembling his heroes. Clayton Riddell, who is, of course, from Maine, writes graphic novels. Clay barely has a moment to enjoy his first big break in publishing before the world is ending after the “pulse.” Amidst the ruin, Clay meets Tom McCourt and Alice Maxwell, and they flee Boston together.

Their quest is to survive and to save Clay’s wife and child. It takes them north until they finally reach a prep school — a way station where Clay and his companions will regroup and figure out how to procee... Read More

Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King

In Full Dark, No Stars, the latest short story collection from Stephen King, our heroes explore the boundaries between victim and predator, often exchanging roles as they navigate their way through the twisted passages of King’s mind. These characters are often out for no one but themselves, and they will use every resource — even burlap sacks and GPS — in their quest to get what they want.

Of the four stories, “Big Driver” stands out as Tess, a mystery novelist, is brutally raped and sets out for revenge. Tess fears that she will make headlines, becoming forever the writer that was raped, and she worries that people will see her pretty face and say she was asking for it. Just as she decides not to go public, Tess begins to take comfort in her pistol. And of course King knows exactly where to take a story from there.

Read More

Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse edited by John Joseph Adams

John Joseph Adams assembles a wide variety of apocalypse-related fiction in Wastelands. some of which are older than I am, while others are more recent. What you end up with is a diverse anthology covering topics such as religion, war, and exploration while containing horror, comedy, and a sense of wonder.

The majority of the stories are easy to get into. Some stories are more subtle than others. Overall, Wastelands is an enjoyable read and the selection seems balanced. Having said that, here are my top three stories:

"Bread and Bombs" by M. Rickert is one of the more horrifying stories in this anthology, and this is achieved through her characterization and commentary on society. It's easy to jump into Rickert's text and there is a foreboding established early on w... Read More

The Living Dead edited by John Joseph Adams

I never knew there were so many ways to tell a zombie story. I pretty much thought that the George Romero version was it — dead people wandering around holding their arms out in front of them and calling out “braaaaaaains,” looking to munch on the living. I never did know why they had to hold their arms that way, but they all did — I thought.

John Joseph Adams has chosen his material wisely in The Living Dead, a collection of short stories about zombies by some of the biggest and best names in the horror business, as well as the newest and hottest. I resisted this book for a long time because I’ve never been fond of zombies, but upon diving in, I discovered that the zombies aren’t really the point; the point is to tell a good story. And these authors do that, with a vengeance.

My favorite story is “Almost the Last St... Read More

The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction: Sixtieth Anniversary Anthology by Gordon Van Gelder (ed.)

The Very Best of Fantasy & Science Fiction: Sixtieth Anniversary Anthology is an excellent collection of 23 stories picked from the treasure trove of short fiction that's been published in the eponymous magazine over the past 60 years. Editor Gordon Van Gelder — also the editor of the magazine since 1997 — has done an admirable job, picking stories that illustrate the diversity of both the genre and the magazine. As such, this is a great anthology for SF&F fans as well as newcomers looking for a taste.

The line-up of authors in this collection looks like a veritable Who's Who of speculative fiction: Ray Bradbury, Read More

Sympathy for the Devil edited by Tim Pratt

Please allow me to introduce Sympathy for the Devil, a fine new anthology filled entirely with short stories about the devil... who is, as we all know, a man of style and taste. However, you won’t just find the smooth-talking stealer of souls here. In addition to that famous version of His Grand Infernal Majesty, you’ll also find funny devils, monstrous devils, abstract devils and strangely realistic ones. Devils scary and not-so-scary, devils who are after children’s souls and others going after old men. Devils with a surprising amount of business acumen, and devils who try to get what they want, no matter the cost. There’s even one who engages in a competitive eating contest — the prize is, of course, someone’s soul.

Sympathy for the Devil, edited by Tim Pratt, offers up 35 very diverse short stories (and o... Read More

The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer

I haven’t actually read every page of The Weird: A Compendium of Strange and Dark Stories, yet I’m giving it my highest recommendation. Edited by Ann and Jeff VanderMeer, Master and Mistress of Weird, The Weird is 1126 pages long and should really be considered a textbook of weird fiction. It contains 110 carefully chosen stories spanning more than 100 years of weird fiction. Here’s what you can expect to find in this massive volume:

A “Forweird” by Michael Moorcock gives us a brief history of the weird tale, discusses how it has defied publishers’ attempts to categorize it into neatly-bordered genres, and gives examples of writers who are revered by modern readers but whose weird fiction caused them to be... Read More

The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Four edited by Ellen Datlow

Anything Ellen Datlow edits automatically finds a place on my list of books to read. For many years, this included the excellent anthology series The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, which Datlow coedited with Terri Windling. When that series disappeared, much to the dismay of fans of short fiction everywhere, Datlow undertook to publish The Year’s Best Horror, which has been published by the terrific smaller press, Night Shade Books, for the past four years. This year’s volume, the fourth, is chock full of memorable stories certain to keep you up at night.

It is unlikely that your favorite part of ... Read More

No, it's not a horrible magazine; it's a horror magazine, and a fine one at that.  It's only the Monday that's horrible.

Cemetery Dance is published irregularly, usually three to four issues per year, and covers the entire field of horror, from film to comics to novels. It is heavy on the nonfiction, with excellent reviews and multiple interviews. There are six stories in this issue, all of them excellent. Issue 66 impressed me so much that I’ve already ordered the next, and am likely to subscribe.

The first story, “Lines” by Bill Pronzini, is a surreal tale of Hood, who is looking for the woman who left him for another man, taking $2000 of Hood’s money with her. He has tracked her easily, and catches up with her in Line, Nevada. He intends to kill her and her lover, and he does. It’s what happens after that that makes this story Weird.

I’m becoming a big fan of Steve R... Read More

Haunted Heart by Lisa Rogak

It must be difficult to write a biography of someone who is still living, who has not donated his papers to a library where one can get access to them, who is still active in his career, and who has a healthy sense of privacy. Even when the subject agrees to an interview, a biographer has to be aware that the subject is telling what he wants to tell and leaving out that which he does not care to discuss. If the interviewee is sufficiently charming, or is completely forthright on a particular subject that casts him in a poor light, the interviewer can easily lose sight of questions not asked. And when the subject has himself written a book or two about his past, you have to wonder just what you can come up with that’s new and interesting.

Lisa Rogak’s Haunted Heart, a biography of Stephen King, is interesting and entertaining, but does not p... Read More