Thursday 5 February 2009

Applause for Stephen King, Please

At last year's Dragon*Con I was tickled to hear author Peter David say that he would love to have a book on the NY Times bestseller list like Stephenie Meyer's sappy vampire series but "I can't write that badly" - which drew applause from the audience of published and aspiring writers alike.

Now, Stephen King minces no words as he also slams Meyer. I particularly love the quote:

"The real difference is that Jo Rowling is a terrific writer and Stephenie Meyer can't write worth a darn." (Wow, does King really use the word "darn"??? I don't remember ever reading it in his many novels.)

I love that! Yes, there are those of us out there who would just as soon use the books as paperweights or flower presses. In fact, when this latest installment came out, Amazon had a huge outpouring of negative reviews.

I don't know about y'all, but I'm looking forward to the full interview of King in the March 6-8 issue of USA WEEKEND.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have to agree with his analysis of Dean Koontz. Sometimes - especially of late - his books are just stale, tired, and recycled. They certainly aren't compelling.

Also, at the other store, AJ used to actively dissuade people from buying James Patterson books.
"You know this guy can't write, right?"
"Excuse me?"
"These books. They're crap. And seriously, a new book every two months? You know they're ghost-written."
During such times, it was really hard not to laugh out loud from the other register.

Morandia said...

that is so funny... although I don't agree on all points. I think Rowling is NOT a good writer. Her story was fantastic, but her writing was pretty bad - especially after the first 3 books.

James Patterson is ok if you are bored. I agree on Dean Koontz. Early stuff was great, but later stuff?