It's actually funny that you rate Stephen King so high. I can think of a dozen or two writers off the top of my head that I would much rather read then some of the drivel he turns out. Quantity does not always trump quality. Some of his dialogue is crap. I think your Stephen King pyramid is a house of cards.
The few that I have tried to read are good page turners...good pulp fiction... but far from great writing imho.
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Originally Posted by raychensmith
I believe Stephen King is the most talented commercial writer working today, and his best novels, like his recent 11/22/63, are so beyond the abilities of most novelists, it's not even funny. His way with prose, character development, and most especially dialogue is just stellar. Even minor characters (for example, Lee Harvey Oswald's mom in 11/22/63) are fleshed out to an extent that rivals other writers' MAJOR characters.
Having said this, some of his stories are pretty bad. Long and meandering and anticlimactic. I nominate Under the Dome as probably his worst book; at least, his worst recent book. This novel is like 1000+ pages long and has the most ridiculous protagonist in it (this wimpy soldier guy [I forgot his name] who is somehow entrusted by the US government to help out but is promptly arrested and stays in jail for like half the story). Worse is the ending. It's like Stephen King said to himself, Hey, my novel's starting to get too long, and he just threw his arbitrary tragedy into it that abruptly ends everything. I can't really explain it more without spoiling it (though this turd of a story can't really be spoiled), but it just truly sucked.
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