Rating Stephen King...

[Wing Nut]

Stephen King is without a doubt, the hardest author to place in terms of quality for me.  How could a person responsible for such incredible work as 'The Shawshank Redemption' or 'Stand by Me (The Body)' also have done such crap as Silver Bullett or Maximum Overdrive?  Both of the first movies practically moved me to tears because of the thoughtfullness and intelligence in their stories.  The second two moved me to tears because they SUCKED so bad!  'The Shining' is the scariest book I have ever read, hands down.  'The Stand' is a masterwork.  But the you have garbage like his Bachman Books with 'Thinner' and 'Rage'

So where do you place Stephen King?

[JBaymore]

A smart guy who knows how to make a buck when he needs it with volume, not necessarily quality .

best,

.............john

[cfsfido]

I have been wondering now for some time if S. K. is writting for his readers or his publishers?

                Fido

[HerSELF]

He can be a good writer but he tends to go on a bit.

[Travis]

Deffinitely a smart character.  His writing started out being very much geared towards reading, making the stories a great sitdown-and-read, but these days, I can just say "I'll wait for the movie."  And even when I do read them, I find they are basically just scripts for the movie they will (inevitably) become.  Sad, really . . .

[Smoke2much]

I have to agree with Pippin on this one.  He's a lot like my daughter really.  When he's good he's really good but when he's bad he's appalling.  The Stand and IT are phenomenal books, but Insomnia is a little tedious to say the least.  I think his main problems are that his readership is so vast and he cannot be all things to all men.

I would imagine that there is an element of his publishers being aware that they will make a profit if they print his shopping list but it is difficult for me to attack him for "bad" writing.  Writing books is bloody hard work, allowing others to read what you write is akin to letting them into your head.  Having tried unsuccesfully for the last ten years to start writing a book, hat off to the man for doing it for so long and at times so well.

Will

[Paz]