Stephen King: Hack or Artist?

[Triumph36]

[ QUOTE ]
great writer, but he's become so big no one edits him anymore, so his works in the past 15 years have all been bloated, over-written books with sparks of brilliance.

If his publisher had any balls, they'd insist on King using a great editor again.

[/ QUOTE ]

The last post is the truest one. I've read a lot of Stephen King's books when I was in high school - the man is absolutely brilliant with coming up with little details and small stories within his works. I think it's possible that people still read Stephen King in 100 years, but so much of his work have little nuances of the times in which they take place. He's not like Charles Dickens. His works don't have much character depth or symbolism, nor do they say very much about the human condition. But his earlier books are damn fine reads. Dark Tower IV is about where I gave up on Stephen King forever - but I think I'm the only person who liked the Tommyknockers, too.