Stephen King's Duma Key

I just got done reading Stephen King's Duma Key and I will have to say that I did like it. I am not a huge Stephen King fan - He is kinda hit and miss with me. I really got fed up with his writing after Needful Things. I had just read the Dark Half a few weeks earlier and thought it was just OK and thought I would give Needful Things I try. I hated it. It had what I think a lot of Stephen King books have - a horrible ending. The rest of the book was not bad. Very suspensful build up. This was and is the last of King's Castle Rock books so I was hoping for good things. A store owner turning into some kinda of B.S. mythological beast was just a plain let down. I seems King has great ideas sometimes but doesn't know how to finish them.

After Needful Things I swore off Stephen King for awhile. I came back to him when he did The Green Mile. I liked the idea of the serial books. I thought it was great. Great story, just a little bit of the ole voodoo and a good ending. After Green Mile I still wasn't too interested in reading King again so I put him off for another good year or so when I reread The Shining. Well, my wife saw me reading it and decided to get me a Stephen King book for Father's Day.

She bought me Lisey's Story. I fanatastic story where King weilds his crazy fantasies into a real life situation and does it seamlessly. OK now I was back. Next I read The Cell and was throughly disappointed.

The Cell again had weak ending and a not very believable story line - a virus goes out over the phone lines and makes everyone who hears it a Night-of-the-Living-Dead type zombie. Weak.

Well, My wife decided to buy me Duma Key for Valentine's day this year since I liked Lisey's Story so much. I was I little more than wary. This was Stephen King's first book set in Florida (an area I live and grew up in) and The Cell was so bad that I didn't think this would be much better.

I was wrong. Duma Key is Stephen King at his best. A believable background story - a man goes through a horrible car/truck accident, comes out a different person, his wife leaves him and he packs up and moves on to greener pastures, a twist of the fantasy - once he ends up in Florida's Duma Key he discovers his talent for painting is renewed and the paintings have a weird predicting the future thing to them, and a good ending - I won't say. The characters are beleiveable and he makes you feel their highs and lows. This book is not the page turner some of his books are but it will always bring you back wanting more.

There are always rumors about King's impending retirement. He has publicly said he will slow his writing down. I hope to get more stories like Duma Key and Lisey's Story and less of the Needful Things and The Cell types. Stephen King, in my opinion, is one the greatest writers of all time and almost always worth a shot. Pick up Duma Key - you'll like it.

read more at www.stephenking.com