The Life and Works of Stephen King Stephen King is an author who has inspired a generation of new writers, earned countless awards, and written some of the most memorable novels of the past century. With his focus on fantasy driven horror that echoes reality, he's captivated millions and inspired the same. Having written nearly 50 novels over his long career, many of which became critically acclaimed best-sellers, it's not hard to see why he received the highest honor an artist can lay claim to; the National Medal of Arts, presented by the President of the United States himself. In this, I intend to detail his personal life, from the beginning, offer brief insight into his greatest works, and talk about how, and perhaps more importantly, …show more content…
Whether it be the recent crime novel Mr. Mercedes, which follows a retired detective trying to solve the mystery of one of the bloodiest murder sprees his sleepy little town has ever seen, or the sprawling Lord of the Flies-inspired Under the Dome, King shows prowess across all genres. While these novels are just slight turns in other directions, King's magnum opus is a total curveball from his greatest association. The Dark Tower is a seven book long (technically eight, counting a short story) series of complete fantasy novels. While fantasy has been a genre King has borrowed from in the past, he's never gone into the deep end, at least, besides this series, which may as well have skipped the deep end entirely and jumped into the Pacific Ocean. The Dark Tower is crazy. The Dark Tower stars a lone "gunslinger" in an eerily quiet world much, much different than ours. It's a combination of sci-fi, spaghetti westerns, and medieval tales of heroism all rolled into one. Our hero is searching for something called "The Dark Tower", a place in the center of the world, all worlds, that he believes can fix everything that's gone wrong, because, you see, things have gone really wrong. It's the greatest series of books I've ever read, and it's without a doubt King's best