I am a Stephen King fan. I like most of his work, but for me this novel fell flat. I think I would have liked it better except for the fact I am also A Dean Koontz fan, and this novel reminded me a lot of Koontz's writings. The premise of the story is an author, who has written under a pen name, reveals his true identity and "buries" the pen name, complete with a tombstone. If you can't figure out what happens next you haven't read much Stephen King. Of course the pen name comes to life and the story is on. The book is very violent and the ending was confusing. The violence doesn't bother me, but that ending was a disappointment.This book was inspired by the revelation that King wrote books under the name Richard Bachman. Overall this is not a bad book bit not spectacular, either.
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King shows a definite progression in terms of his worldview and writing ability.
If you read "Bag of Bones," you learn a novelist's secret: Write several books when you're "hot," then squirrel them away to be published when you're "not." The protagonist in "BofB" does this, and I'm quite sure King has done it numerous times. His 1999 accident undoubtedly laid him up for a long time, unable to finish a new novel. He has declared an intention to retire at least once since then; yet, the books keep coming. His Richard Bachman pseudonym was invented so he could keep publishing without seeming to saturate the market.
Reading "Cell" and some other more recent offerings from King has me convinced that he's been pulling from the "rainy day pile" quite a bit over the last decade. "The Dark Half" came before the accident, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was released under similar circumstances.
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