Thought I'd depart from my usual subject matter for a bit and talk about a few of my favorite novels. Every would-be author should have some, after all. In no particular order:
The Dark Tower II and III by Stephen King. The Dark Tower saga inhabits sort of a strange netherworld among King's oeuvre. On the one hand, readers of hard fantasy like Tolkien or George Martin would probably consider them fantasy-lite, at best; on the other, they've got enough of a Lord of the Rings-type feel to be off-putting to many readers if epic quest narratives really aren't their thing. But to someone who inhabits the netherworld between thriller and dark fantasy like me, the Tower books are magical, and these particular two entries are especially so. Any fantasy writer hoping to appeal to a mainstream audience should read them. Twice.
Dying Inside by Robert Silverberg. Much like fantasy, the trappings of hard science fiction can be off-putting to many readers of more mainstream genre fare. And that's ironic, since while most of Silverberg's work would be classified as hard sci-fi (robots, spaceships and the like), Dying Inside has none of those trappings whatsoever. It's a very naturalistic story of a man with the ability to read minds, and the toll that ability takes on his life: how something that should presumably bring him closer to other people actually isolates him, making him a weirdo, an outcast. Anyone who's ever felt like the odd man out should give this one a try. And don't let the weird covers fool you.
Memoirs of an Invisible Man by Harry F. Saint. If David Selig, the telepathic hero of Dying Inside, had been invisible, this would have been his story. Don't worry, it's nothing like the movie.
Roadwork by Stephen King (writing as Richard Bachman). I don't know why I come back to this one again and again. In theory, I shouldn't be a fan of Roadwork, as I'm not a fan of Bag of Bones or Rose Madder or any of King's other attempts to write (mostly) mainstream, literary-type novels. This one doesn't even have the largely ceremonial attempts to shoehorn in supernatural elements that those other two books indulge in. But I read this as a teenager, and it's always stuck with me: the melancholy story of Bart Dawes, a middle management drone who loses the job he's spent his entire adult life languishing in after failing to close a deal on a new industrial site. His growing anger, the grief over his son's death that may or may not lie at the heart of his increasingly crazy behavior; even his brief, transient relationship with a female hitchhiker have never been far from my mind for very long. I don't really know if I can recommend this one, as something this dreary and elliptical is definitely not for everyone (and especially not most King fans); but it certainly leaves an impression.
Strangers and Twilight Eyes by Dean Koontz. I have a troubled relationship with Mr. Koontz. I devoured his older books when I was a kid, but his later stuff has gotten preachy (the author's increasingly libertarian-esque leanings coming to the fore), not to mention laced with an odd strain of absurdist humor that's just always been a tough sell for me. But these two are classics. Strangers, in particular, strikes me as a fine example of how to do an epic, Lost-style mystery involving sci-fi elements and over a dozen characters, and do it right; Twilight, meanwhile, is a great fantasy-tinged period piece with shades of Clive Barker's The Great and Secret Show and the sadly defunct TV show Carnivale. What more could you ask for?
The Passage by Justin Cronin. I don't know if I've ever been more surprised by a book. What starts out as a standard zombie/apocalypse novel (secret government facility, bio-engineered virus, mass death and destruction, etc.) shifts into an epic fantasy narrative about a third of the way through. The second book in Cronin's planned trilogy, The Twelve, isn't quite as good, but adds new wrinkles to the mythology of Cronin's world, and plays intriguingly with time, shifting back and forth between events taking place nearly a hundred years apart. Good stuff.
Breakheart Hill by Thomas H. Cook. Cook's a mystery writer, but not the typical quirky-detective-solving-a-crime variety. Breakheart is about an (apparent) murder that ruins the lives of several people, and about the guilt carried by the man responsible (though not in the way you might expect). Like many of Cook's novels, it's short, lyrically written, sad, and there's a twist at the end, one that packs a heartbreaking emotional punch. More than anything, this book captures the kind of bitterness and bile unrequited love can engender; though I'm certainly proud of it, I've been there, and I could imagine myself doing something like what the narrator here does. Riveting.
Speaks the Nightbird by Robert McCammon. Another mystery (though slightly more traditional), this one set against the backdrop of the pre-revolution American colonies. This one's long and loaded with period detail, and its sequels haven't lived up to it so far, but it's a great - if not necessarily fast - read. Check it out.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. As if anyone so inclined hasn't already read this one, or seen the movie, or seen the other movie, or seen the TV show. Probably the best mystery novel I've ever read, bar none. Read it.
The Ignored by Bentley Little. Can't believe I almost forgot this one. Little's often hit or miss, but this is a masterpiece, and it's got one of the greatest premises I've ever encountered in a horror novel. The main character (picture that guy who plays Jim on The Office, only more bland) is one of a subset of people who are so damn ordinary they're practically non-existent: college roommates don't remember them, family friends forget to call them when their parents die, they're invisible to their coworkers, and so on. Their efforts to get the world to take notice make up a large part of the book's plot. This isn't my favorite, but it's probably the one I recommend the most. You should definitely try and track it down.
This is by no means an exhaustive list, but these are the ones that sprang immediately to mind. Feel free to suggest more in the comments!
Breakheart Hill by Thomas H. Cook. Cook's a mystery writer, but not the typical quirky-detective-solving-a-crime variety. Breakheart is about an (apparent) murder that ruins the lives of several people, and about the guilt carried by the man responsible (though not in the way you might expect). Like many of Cook's novels, it's short, lyrically written, sad, and there's a twist at the end, one that packs a heartbreaking emotional punch. More than anything, this book captures the kind of bitterness and bile unrequited love can engender; though I'm certainly proud of it, I've been there, and I could imagine myself doing something like what the narrator here does. Riveting.
Speaks the Nightbird by Robert McCammon. Another mystery (though slightly more traditional), this one set against the backdrop of the pre-revolution American colonies. This one's long and loaded with period detail, and its sequels haven't lived up to it so far, but it's a great - if not necessarily fast - read. Check it out.
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. As if anyone so inclined hasn't already read this one, or seen the movie, or seen the other movie, or seen the TV show. Probably the best mystery novel I've ever read, bar none. Read it.
The Ignored by Bentley Little. Can't believe I almost forgot this one. Little's often hit or miss, but this is a masterpiece, and it's got one of the greatest premises I've ever encountered in a horror novel. The main character (picture that guy who plays Jim on The Office, only more bland) is one of a subset of people who are so damn ordinary they're practically non-existent: college roommates don't remember them, family friends forget to call them when their parents die, they're invisible to their coworkers, and so on. Their efforts to get the world to take notice make up a large part of the book's plot. This isn't my favorite, but it's probably the one I recommend the most. You should definitely try and track it down.
This is by no means an exhaustive list, but these are the ones that sprang immediately to mind. Feel free to suggest more in the comments!
I have not read any Stephen King for awhile and I can't say that Bag of Bones, the last novel of his I read, was that great. Yet, his style of characterizing has always stuck with me over the years and perhaps this is where his popularity resides. I rarely have time to pick up fiction these days but I do reminisce on the hours, days, and weeks spent in King's world.
ReplyDeleteKing's books started to get disastrously overlong around the Bag of Bones/Dreamcatcher period; on top of that, I think he was also trying to depart from his usual fare and "do something different." Bones, Rose Madder, and Delores Claiborne, for instance, contain little to no supernatural content - something King's fans had definitely come to expect - and Bones, like Dreamcatcher, is one of those books that just seems to go on FOREVER. I remember not caring much for it when I first picked it up, but I'd be interested in reading it again some day, just to see if my sensibilities have changed over the years.
ReplyDeleteI took a break from reading Stephen King for awhile after I finally finished the Dark Tower books.(Which I do agree anyone writing fantasy could benefit from. I feel I learned a lot from them that could help when I do venture away from my usual horror/paranormal realm and into the realm of Fantasy.) However, I recently went back to reading him after reading some other authors for a few months, and I ended up picking up his book, "Full Dark,No Stars". It's a collection of four different short stories that all deal with a theme of the dark side of human nature. The first story has a some paranormal aspects, but it's kept to a minimum and the rest of the stories really don't have any at all. I have to say his attempts to do something different worked pretty well in those shorter stories. If you haven't already read it, then I would suggest that one for you.
ReplyDeleteI've read Full Dark, Just After Sunset, Blaze, Under the Dome, The Colorado Kid, Cell, Lisey's Story, 11/22/63, and Duma Key (just speaking of the stuff he's done post-Dark Tower). He's branching out into e-books and audio books, I think, so there's still some stuff out there that I haven't read/listened to - they're on the list, though. And of course he's got that sequel to The Shining coming out...
ReplyDeleteHave you read anything by his son, Joe Hill? He's got two novels, a short story collection, and a comic book series out now, I think, and they've co-written a couple things together that I also need to check out.
I've only read the short story we read for that Horror Fiction class that Joe Hill wrote. I kept meaning to look up his other stuff, but never got around to it. I just started reading Under the Dome the other day.
ReplyDeleteI'll be interested to hear what you make of that one. Try Horns by Joe Hill - I think you'll like it. That short story wasn't terribly good, in my opinion; definitely not his best work.
ReplyDeleteIt really wasn't too impressive. I will the one you suggested, though.
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