Saturday, December 12, 2009

Duma Key Review - Article

I've recently finished reading the new novel by Stephen King called Duma Key. I wanted to write this short review about Duma Key to share with you what I feel about it.

Duma Key is a novel which portrays the strengths of Stephen King's writing over the years:

1. His ability to create compelling and deep characters
2. His ability to develop rich and natural dialogs.
3. His vast imagination which breeds continuous new terrors and ways to enthrall us readers.
4. His ability to frighten us and make us laugh at the same time.

There was a time, a few years back, when it seemed that King's writing has faltered a bit, as if he's lost his edge. However, now it seems that the fountain of King's creativity is far from dry. Duma Key is a living proof as it's a novel which I enjoyed immensely and which can assume a place of honor among King's numerous works.

Duma Key is the story of a man by the name of Edgar Freemantle who suffers an horrific work related accident which deprives him of an arm and inflicts upon him a severe head injury which impairs his memory. He retreats from his Minnesota home to a rented place in Florida, on a secluded stretch of beach called Duma Key.

Here he resumes his long lost talent of painting and begins producing work of astounding beauty and power. However, the force of Edgar's pictures isn't confined to the canvas, for soon, his work begins to infringe upon the real world and to threaten him, his friends, and his family. Now that Edgar realizes what that he has unleashed a terrible force, he must face this dark entity and fight what he has helped to awaken.

I won't say anymore so as not to spoil it for you. I truly believe that this is a book you should read. I highly recommend Duma Key to any lover of fiction and suspense.
To read more about this book, visit this webpage:

Duma Key Review [http://www.squidoo.com/Duma-Key-Book-Review].
John Davenport is an author and and avid reader. To read more about Stephen King's work, click here: Stephen King Review [http://www.squidoo.com/Duma-Key-Book-Review]
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Davenport

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Stephen King Novals Are Better - Article

Stephen King novels are better than watching a two hour movie about the same story. Let's face it... we've all read books and then went to see the movie versions. As much as we may enjoy the movie, it's still obvious the book was better. This is because it is impossible to capture all the details from a novel in the time constraints of a movie. Reading a good novel captures the imagination... your mind creates its own pictures, while the situation affects your emotions. They can include all the tiny details that may end up on the cutting room floor of a film. In a novel, you feel like you are a part of the character's life.

Stephen King has been capturing the imaginations of readers around the world since the 1970s. His 47 novels have a strong following, and Stephen shows no signs of retiring. Reading one of his novels helps you understand a little bit how this author ticks. His descriptions reveal a lot about his inspiration and motivation behind his writing.

Take "Salem's Lot," for example. In the story, author Ben Mears returns to his home town to write a book about a house that has haunted him his entire life. When he gets there, he finds the entire town infested with vampires. While it is difficult to get most of the town to believe him, he finds a small group to help him defeat these unearthly predators. Stephen King got the inspiration for this story while teaching a literature class on Fantasy and Science Fiction. Teaching his students about "Dracula," he began to wonder what would happen if a vampire suddenly appeared in America, circa the twentieth century. He placed the story in a sleepy little town, to give the vampires a place to set down a few roots. Having lived in several small towns, Stephen King is familiar with the dynamics of a small town, and how this might work to the vampires' advantage.

In his novel, "Carrie," Stephen King writes the story of a high school girl who just doesn't fit in, either at home or in school. Tormented everywhere she goes, she finally faces a public confrontation at the senior prom. Stephen King created "Carrie" as a combination of girls he grew up with. He also used this story as a platform to show how women find their own channels of power, even when all avenues seem to be closed to them. He also used it to illustrate what men really fear about women and their sexuality. This novel is really very powerful on many different levels.

"Cujo" sprang out of an actual experience. Stephen King took his motorcycle in to be repaired, and this giant St. Bernard was guarding the garage. The mechanic became Joe Cambers in the story, and the rest is history. Reading the story of Donna and her son being trapped in their car by this ominous dog becomes horrifyingly real.

He tried something different and wrote "The Eyes of the Dragon" as a fantasy. In this story, the king is murdered and his son is framed. The prince must battle a wizard and his uncle to regain the throne. Stephen King wrote this for his daughter, who wasn't a fan of horror stories. She did like this one, however. This proves that Stephen King's powers of story-telling go far beyond ghouls and the undead.

You can check out Stephen King novels at http://www.stephen-king-novels-are-better.blogspot.com

Wayne Telfairhttp://www.stephen-king-novels-are-better.blogspot.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Wayne_Telfair

Monday, November 30, 2009

Stephen King Is Amazing, Desperation A Must Read Article

I am a huge fan of Stephen King, I think I would turn into a pile adoring mush should I ever get chance to meet him (one can dream...) I've often thought he is one of the more misunderstood writers of our time. While he is one the most prolific writers I don't think he gets enough commendation as an artist. In short, the man is GIFTED. I had the great pleasure of studying King at Stirling University during my MLitt and it was a revelation! King has a beautiful way with language and storytelling, his work is the literary equivalent of a ice-cold beer on a long hot day.


Desperation by Stephen King is one of his greatest works, hands down. The novel documents starts with several strangers traveling through the U.S. A family of four traveling back home from Las Vegas who have an oddly wise son, an alcoholic writer traveling on a motorbike trying to come up with a idea for a novel, the writers roadie who follows his boss in a van, a hitchhiker and a married couple. One by one, they are all stopped and kidnapped in the Nevada desert by a sinister policeman who is possessed by an evil spirit who has the town of Desperation in it horrific grasp. It is up to these strangers to try and save themselves and stop the aforementioned sprit from releasing an ancient evil from the depths of the towns haunted mine pit into the world.


As usual King's characters are well rounded, believable and more importantly they are engaging. The sense of dread and the horror of the characters situation are slowly and sensually unfolded for your delectation. Personally the cinema scene is one of the best horror scenes ever written, as King lulls you into a false sense of security before scaring the very pants of you. You will struggle to put this book down and you will undoubtedly struggle to sleep afterwards, truly what's not to like!


And for those King super-fan's such as myself you will know that Desperation is in fact a companion book to The Regulators which King published under the pen name Richard Bachman...AND the very eagle eyed out there will spot characters from King's other novels. (I'm not saying who, send me an email if you spot her...oops I may have said to much!)
Hi! I'm Siobhan and I write at Facets of the Fabulous, an online magazine which amongst other topics regularly reviews book which have impressed me. If you would like to learn more please go my site!http://facetsofthefabulous.blogspot.com/
Article Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Siobhan_Hanlin

The Dark Tower Series Review- Stephen King Article

Book Review:

The Dark Tower Series -

The Gunslinger,

by Stephen King

Author: Christina Pomoni

The inspiration came from Robert Browning's poem "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" during King’s college years. Over a period of twelve years, King published a series of early novels that established him as one of the greatest horror authors in the history of horror literature. Among those novels, “The Gunslinger” is the first of a series of seven books in Stephen King's “The Dark Tower” series.

Written in 1982, “The Gunslinger” is rather a tale of traditional fantasy than a horror tale. Mingling elements of magic, wizard and strange creatures, King introduces the gunslinger, Roland, whose mission is to discover the Dark Tower. In his pursuit, he encounters numerous different characters, which all fit in an emotionless and cold world that, however, resembles an idealized contemporary Wild West. Roland makes his expressionless way along the trail of a mysterious "man in black," and an even more obscure goal, the Dark Tower.

The gunslinger doesn’t know much about the Dark Tower, but his goal is to get there only to save himself and the world. He is determined to defeat even death if necessary and he knows that only death can stop him. He lives in a fantasy world, in a projection of our world in the future and he fights with his demons and the magic creatures that King instills in the plot.

While crossing the desert, the gunslinger meets Jake. Jake is a boy, who died in New York, pushed to the wheels of a Cadillac by the man in black. The gunslinger and the boy begin a horrifying journey, only to question Roland’s honor when forced to choose between Jake’s life and his pursuit towards the Dark Tower.

“The Gunslinger” does not resemble the recent King writings. Written on a black and white pattern, is a rather emotionally dry book, mainly due to its main character, who is not open-minded at all and even becomes uninteresting and sometimes boring out of being so predictable. Roland is such an odd person, that it should have been unfeasible for King to get across the feel of him. Yet he does, brilliantly. On the contrary, the character of Jake instills some freshness and passion in the novel, but overall the book leaves the reader with the taste of a colorless austere read.

The novel can be easily read, although the plot is rather complex and heavy on baffling references. For example, in the series of the seven Dark Tower books, King should provide details about Roland’s teacher Cort, other fellow gunslingers, his lover Susannah and mostly the circumstances that led Roland to his 20-year pursuit. Although “The Gunslinger” provides some background information, it leaves many subplots obscure. This is done almost on purpose as Roland's character is not fully developed in the book so that the reader is hooked and looks for the rest of the series.

About the Author:

I work as a financial and investment advisor but my passion is writing, music and photography. Writing mostly about finance, business and music, being an amateur photographer and a professional dj, I am inspired from life.

Being a strong advocate of simplicity in life, I love my family, my partner and all the people that have stood by me with or without knowing. And I hope that someday, human nature will cease to be greedy and demanding realizing that the more we have the more we want and the more we satisfy our needs the more needs we create. And this is so needless after all.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - Book Review: The Dark Tower Series - The Gunslinger, by Stephen King