The Colorado Kid, Stephen King

I will never deny it. Stephen King is one of my favorite authors in the modern writing world. It's not something I can say around my high-lit friends and professors. It's not something I should admit to when I, myself, have three books collecting dust on my hard drive. Really, it's not something that anyone in the artistic community really has any right saying around peers.

But that's not fair, I think. King inspired me to write, after all, when I was in the fifth grade and read It. He has the ability to get right to the heart of relationships, to make you feel close to characters (even antagonists), and he continues to create heart wrenching and gripping stories that leave me helpless but to bow to his ability.

I think that people give him a low-brow stigma due to his cult status. They say that he has no distinct voice; that he writes in a bland type of way. But I'll argue with that—it's not that he isn't distinct in his voice. It's that his voice is so ingrained in our culture that it's hard to call it anything but commonplace. None of the other chart-toppers have his voice, and, very rarely, can they out write themselves at every outing. Tom Clancy is boring as shit. Danielle Steele should just be dead already. I want Stephen to survive forever.

And, in actuality, he already is. The Stand has been inducted into The Modern Classics, and his novels will be (like Dracula) record holders as to being some of the longest of our era to never stray into the realm of 'out-of-print'.

He's one of my favorites. The end.

Now onto the book at hand.

The Colorado Kid was a big step for publisher Hard Case Crime, who deals mostly in small pulps or out of print pulps being revived. They are, actually, a pulp fiction publisher. An independent pulp fiction publisher. That King sent them the Kid is huge news—for one, it's his first time straying from the big gun publishers (not counting his experiences in online fiction). Secondly, Hard Case Crime hadn't really dealt with anyone that big before.

But I'm not going to get you all excited about it--The Kid is, essentially, a middle of the road book. King highlights his fantastic ability of suggesting relationships, he gives us characters that we really like even if we don't know them.

Then, he gives us a sub-par 'mystery'. He puts forth the evidence and circumstances regarding the Kid, keeps us in his grips as he continues to tell us more and more bizarre facts surrounding the kid's death. Then he gives us some trite ties to the possibilities, sets up our heroine Steph's future, and leaves it at that.

Certainly, if you're a Kingphile, you know all about his history with both islands off the coast of Maine and the area in and around Boulder, Colorado. You know that he spent a lot of time with these subjects, and you know that each character has a lot of weight for him.

But you also know how much more he has in him.

And that's what my problem with the book is. I'll be keeping my copy (on the shelf next to my 12 King hardcovers and 15 King paperbacks), and I'll, no doubt, re-read the book. I'll compare and contrast the book to the others, trying to find the threads that may or may not link it to other happenings in the King universe (Hallorann in It, the creature of Derry in Tommyknockers, Flagg, etc.), I'll spend too much time with it.

But, as of now, I'm neither impressed nor disappointed in the book. Mostly, I'm middle of the road.