Reign of Fear: Fiction and Film of Stephen King

Rating:
Summary: An entertaining book about Stephen King
Review: This is a fairly hard to find book now, especially the signed and slipcased edition. But it's well worth it. Most articles and essays take place in the aftermath of IT. There's an interesting interview with SK, a review of IT by Whoopi Goldberg, an essay about meeting King from Frank Belknap Long, an essay about King's use of brand names in his books (mostly pharmaceutical, written by a physician), a look at King's movies, and various looks at King's works from different aspects.

However, the most interesting (and controversial) chapter just may be the last, by book editor Don Herron. He severely criticized King for wasting the promise shown by earlier efforts like The Shining and making horrible, indulgent works like IT. It was very entertaining to read a detailed criticism about King, even though I disagreed with some of it. You either love IT, or you're unimpressed. It's all about point of view. Yet even though I didn't agree with his conclusions, it was still thought-provoking enough for me to sit back and think about what I like and dislike about King... so I find Reign of Fear to be a definitely welcome addition to my King library, which is mostly made up of slavering praise to King. Reign of Fear is definitely not such a book (at least, not Don Herron's chapter).

This book is the fourth in a loose tetrology consisting of Fear Itself, Feast of Fear and Kingdom of Fear, and Reign of Fear. All are by Underwood/Miller, and all four are entertaining books about my favorite author.