Tag: Stephen King

Stephen King: #61 – Roadwork

On By Luke FlorenceIn Books, Lists, Stephen King, Uncategorized, WritingLeave a comment

#61 – Roadwork

Plot

Barton Dawes’ unremarkable but comfortable existence suddenly takes a turn for the worst. Highway construction puts him out of work and simultaneously forces him out of his home. Dawes isn’t the sort of man who will take an insult of this magnitude lying down. His single-minded determination to fight the inevitable course of progress drives his wife and friends away while he tries to face down the uncaring bureaucracy that has destroyed his once comfortable life.

Review

I put the “Dates Read” section for two reasons. One, I wanted to convey how much time it took me to read the novel. Novels that you enjoy are often ones you read faster. And two, to showcase that the time and place that you consume art matters.

I began reading Roadwork after starting a brand-new job in 2020 and didn’t finish it until three months into the global pandemic. Life got in the way, and it slowed my reading consumption.

King wrote several novels under the pseudonym, Richard Bachman, including Roadwork. This had the bones of a decent book, but King’s writing let me down. It’s not that I didn’t understand what was happening, it was that I didn’t care. And ultimately, that lethargic energy was a constant throughout.

King mentioned in the prelude of this novel that it is his least favorite Richard Bachman book, which soured my opinion before I even started. I have very little doubt that if I were to go back and re-read this novel, I may have a completely different stance.

Details

Pages: 320

Dates Read: January – June 2020

Quote: “All places are the same unless your mind changes. There’s no magic place to get your mind right. If you feel like shit, everything you see looks like shit. I KNOW that.”

Best Part: The main character – Dawes – picks up a hitchhiker in the middle of this book, and it’s the most compelling part of the story.

Hint for #60: Think Syracuse basketball.

 

Until next time, peace be the journey.

Stephen King: #62 – Dreamcatcher

On By Luke FlorenceIn Books, Lists, Stephen King, Uncategorized, WritingLeave a comment

#62 – Dreamcatcher

Plot

Once upon a time, in the haunted city of Derry, four boys stood together and did a brave thing. Certainly a good thing, perhaps even a great thing. Something that changed them in ways they could never begin to understand.

Twenty-five years later, the boys are now men with separate lives and separate troubles. But the ties endure. Each hunting season the foursome reunites in the woods of Maine. This year, a stranger stumbles into their camp, disoriented, mumbling something about lights in the sky. His incoherent ravings prove to be disturbingly prescient. Before long, these men will be plunged into a horrifying struggle with a creature from another world. Their only chance of survival is locked in their shared past – and in the Dreamcatcher.

Review

Stephen King was involved in a near-fatal car accident in 1999. While recovering – and heavily partaking in Oxycontin – King wrote Dreamcatcher. It shows. This is a clunky and underdeveloped novel. As King himself said, “I don’t like Dreamcatcher very much.” Either did I.

On the surface – there’s a lot to like about Dreamcatcher. It involves four childhood friends. It reads from multiple perspectives. It includes flashbacks. It’s set in Derry, Maine.  However, the way King both paced and layered this book was clumsy. Clearly the publishers were just happy to keep printing King books that they overlooked the editing process.

An observant reader will notice a theme with several of the books at the bottom of these rankings: too long. (That’s what she said.)

Details

Pages: 621

Dates Read: February – April 2022

Quote: “SSDD. Same Shit Different Day.”

Best Part: Only Stephen King could come up with what happens to the stranger in the cabin bathroom.

Hint for #61: Typically, if you encounter this while in your car it will slow you down.

 

Until next time, peace be the journey.

Stephen King: #63 – Cell

On By Luke FlorenceIn Books, Lists, Stephen King, Uncategorized, WritingLeave a comment

#63 – Cell

Plot

The event became known as The Pulse. The virus was carried by every cell phone operating within the entire world. Within hours, those receiving calls would be infected. A young artist Clayton Riddell realizes what is happening. He flees the devastation of explosive, burning Boston, desperate to reach his son before his son switches on his little red mobile phone.

Review

Cell was one of the first Stephen King books I read (after finishing up The Dark Tower series) and it started off with a fantastic opening scene. However, the book drops off significantly afterwards and turns into a dystopian trainwreck. The premise was too silly, and the payoff was severely short.

Not only does Stephen King fail to write aliens well – but I would add zombies to that short list as well. This book is not well paced as it falls flat throughout the middle sections. Characters are not brought into focus and the zombies are just along for the ride.

Had a similar feel as The Stand – but would have been better served as a short story.

Details

Pages: 709

Dates Read: Pre 2012 (before I started tracking)

Quote: “Man has come to dominate the planet thanks to two essential traits. One is intelligence. The other has been the absolute willingness to kill anyone and anything that gets in his way.”

Best Part: The massively chaotic opening scene.

Hint for #62: You likely made one during summer camp – and if you’re anything like me – returned home and threw it in the trash (instead of its proper place by the bed).

 

Until next time, peace be the journey.

Stephen King: #64 – The Tommyknockers

On By Luke FlorenceIn Books, Lists, Stephen King, Uncategorized, WritingLeave a comment

#64 – The Tommyknockers

Plot

The Tommyknockers is a 1987 horror novel by Stephen King. While maintaining a horror style, the novel is more of an excursion into the realm of science fiction, as the residents of the Maine town of Haven gradually fall under the influence of a mysterious object buried in the woods.

Review

Normally I would say that even a bad Stephen King novel is still better than most. And that sentiment holds true for nearly every book on this list. Except The Tommyknockers. It’s awfulness stands alone. Bad writing, horrendous plotting, and zero-character development. Even King himself said, “it’s an awful book.” He wrote much of this novel while recovering from a near-fatal car accident and was heavily under the influence of Oxycontin. It shows.

As you will soon see in the bottom half of this list – Stephen King struggles to write aliens well. Part of what drew me to King’s books was his ability to write powerful prose from both the protagonist and the antagonist’s perspective. With The Tommyknockers – and other alien-centered novels of his – there’s no antagonist viewpoint that would have created much-needed balance.

This was a struggle to get through and took me most of two months to finish.

Details

Pages: 975

Dates Read: February – March 2021

Quote: “Late last night and the night before, tommyknockers, tommyknockers knocking on my door. I wanna go out, don’t know if I can ‘cuz I’m so afraid of the tommyknocker man.”

Best Part: Finally finishing and closing this book … forever.

Hint for #63: The Walking Dead meets Verizon Wireless.

 

Until next time, peace be the journey.

Stephen King: An Introduction

On By Luke FlorenceIn Books, Stephen King, Uncategorized, Writing1 Comment

Growing up I had a few safe places. Spots around town where I could truly be relaxed and completely myself. Nearly every memory I have in these safe places are good and filled with joy. The bowling alley, any ball-field between second and third base, my backyard and the library. It’s the safe place filled with books that will act as the catalyst for this article since we are going to discuss my infatuation with one of America’s most prolific authors – Stephen King.

I couldn’t get enough of the library. It was my home-away-from-home. Matt Christopher books, Beckett card grading guides, sports almanacs and autobiographies were my main focus. Fiction literature of any sort or anything that was not centered around athletics hardly crossed my mind. Some would say it is ironic that decades later my adult reading-self would strongly prefer an author who was once described as the “King of Horror.” Others would say this was extremely predictable, especially when you consider the circumstances.

The Circumstances

My Grandma Foster babysat me and my little brother the most during the early 1990s. Occasionally we would spend the night at Grandpa and Grandma Florence, and our cousin Kylene would sporadically watch us when our parents were out. Way down in the babysitting rolodex was my Aunt JoAnn. She was my favorite babysitter choice for several reasons: she made us laugh, let us sleep in her waterbed, and talked to us like we weren’t little kids. She also had the biggest bookcase I’d ever seen in my young life.

And it was filled with Stephen King books.

It was not love at first sight because even the font on those book covers was creepy. But the name (Stephen King) stayed with me. And at home a couple of years later I stumbled upon a King book called, “The Stand.” I was intrigued and started reading the first couple of pages. I couldn’t follow what was happening and the massive size (600+ pages) was enough for me to quickly close it and move on with my life.

Life took me to high school, to college and then to Madison, Wisconsin where I discovered the dreaded 40-hour work week. After a while, life also brought me back to the library where I again, stumbled upon “The Stand.” This particular version was labeled “complete and uncut” and came in around 1,200 pages. I can’t remember exactly why I purchased this massive book in late 2009, but I know when I finished it two months later that I doubted I would read a better novel. And better yet, I knew I wanted to read every single Stephen King book.

Thirteen years, 64 novels, 10,000,000 words, 30,000 pages and 675 hours later that goal was finally realized. Mission accomplished. The next goal was fairly straight forward and hopefully would not take nearly as big of a time commitment.

Rank all 64 Stephen King novels – which is the journey we are about to go on together.

This journey will take a little more than two months as I unveil one book every day (except for the upcoming Saturday NFL pick columns). For those of you that have started other Luke Florence-journeys, allow me to alleviate some much-warranted fears. The list – and the posts – are all locked and loaded and will publish automatically at midnight each day. Meaning all you need to do is subscribe/bookmark and you’ll be able to wake up each morning with a brand-new Luke Florence blog post. What a perfect way to start your day.

I’ll keep it light on spoilers – so feel free to read without worry. As always, comments are encouraged. Maybe you read the same book but feel completely different. Let me know why as I openly welcome conversation with fellow Constant Readers.

Stephen King once said, “I am the literary equivalent of a Big Mac and fries.” Get ready for a heavy dose of McDonalds.

Until next time, peace be the journey.