So, what did you do with your pandemic? Bake some sourdough? Sort out your sock drawer?
I resolved at the very start that I would learn the tonfa, an ancient Japanese peasant weapon that was the basis for the modern riot baton. What I learned was how easy it is to whack yourself in the head with a heavy wooden Japanese peasant weapon.
Stephen King learned how to make himself happy.
He also wrote an eleventy thousand-page book, but he knew how to do that already.
The book, Fairy Tale, is a portal fantasy.
Charlie Reade, a high school kid living in Sentry's Rest, Illinois, steps through this portal located down an old, crumbling well in the backyard of an ageing foul-tempered recluse, Howard Bowditch. Because, of course, he does. Otherwise, Fairy Tale would be a grinding social realist study of a seventeen-year boy’s quest to pay it forward because the Good Lord answered his prayers.
Sounds a bit like a hot, scattered mess when I describe it like that. And social realism? Eew!
But the King is just doing what the King always does.
Motherfucker is grounding his shit before he takes flight.
Stephen King wrote the first book I ever paid good folding money for; The Stand. I was just a kid, a few years younger than Charlie Reade, and I had a small fistful of dollarydoos in the back pocket of my purple Scoops as I trundled into town to buy myself a big read for the summer. This was in Ipswich back in the late 1970s, and there was an honest-to-goddamned bookshop in town, Brodies, but I didn’t go there because they were pretty spendy, and I didn’t have that many dollarydoos velcroed safely into the backass-pocket of my purple Scoops.
Just like this, but purple. Also, girlfriendless.
Instead, I went to K-Mart, which had cardboard bins full of books at steep discounts. It would be a long time before I wrote my own books and learned about the concept of retail ‘loss-leaders’ - discounting an in-demand product like a new Stephen King book to lure the punters through the sliding doors of your stupormarket Skinner Box. All I knew was I had limited funds and a whole summer to fill.
I bought The Stand because it was as thick as a house brick and offered a much better page-per-dollar payback than the disgracefully thin and unreadably serious novels at Brodies.
See what I did there?
You thought you were reading a review of Stephen King’s ‘multiverse-traversing, genre-hopping intertextual mash-up’ (New York Times). Instead, you got suckered into my Wonder Years adjacent prefatory bait-n-switch.
There’s about two hundred pages of this before we step through the portal at the bottom of Howard Bowditch’s well and into the fallen fantasy Kingdom of Empis. Two hundred pages of King drilling deep into the bedrock of American suburbia so that when Fairy Tale finally gets to the fairies, zombies, and man-eating giants, we experience the delicious whiplash of a sudden paradigm shift. At the same time, Charlie, our narrator, remains firmly grounded in the world of real things.
His real things are horror stories of a sort. A dead mother, an alcoholic (or recovering alcoholic father), and a life that’s threatening to unravel the way they can—easily—until he finds focus and rigour in service to Bowditch and, soon enough, to Empis.
It’s the same trick King has been pulling off for decades. Anchoring the fantastic in the prosaic.
But of course, the title of Fairy Tale promises the former up front, and while King is such an accomplished storyteller that he can sink us deeply into Charlie’s familiar social horror story, he sprinkles threats and expectations of what’s to come all the way through, from the weird, unearthly skittering sounds coming from Mister Bowditch’s shed to mysterious pile of gold pellets in his bedroom.
And when we do get to the fantasy world of Empis? He ties us back into reality, even as we explore a fallen empire and a vast haunted city. With Charlie narrating, of course, there is at least some hope that he will make it through, but he journeys to Empis to save Mister Bowditch’s old dog, Radar, and we can never entirely be sure that Radar is gonna make it.
Would Stephen King kill Charlie’s dog just to fuck us up? A old feller we’ve all come to love because he’s such a good boy?
Is that even a question?
The question of what happens to Charlie’s dad is unanswered, too, until the very last pages of Fairy Tale. We see enough of his destructive alcoholism and tenuous recovery to fear that the longer Charlie is away, the less likely George Reade is to make it.
Seems a little harrowing, now I think about it. And yet goddamn, I loved this book. I loved reading it and living in it. King says it came from a question he asked himself early in the pandemic, "What could you write that would make you happy?"
He answered over six hundred and eight pages and kept me happy, too.
On the one hand I though that this one was almost too slow a burn from King. It was hundreds of pages to build up, and then within Empis hundreds more pages to get to some action. By the time it kicked off, I was thinking that there's not a lot more book for this action to occur within.
But then I realised that enjoyed immensely all that other good stuff too. It was almost vintage King- the start of the Stand, the world of the loser kids in It, even the training and village life in Wizard and Glass. It was a change from the not-quite immediate 'splodey, but certainly faster moving, 11.22.63.
I've got a weekend away coming up, so I've clicked and bought Taste. Thanks JB.
Finished this last night - WOW! I too was bitten by "The Stand" back in the day, and actually devoured a lot of Mr King's literature when I was a lot younger - my first foray back to "Fairy Tale" did not disappoint, and the mental gymnastics required to understand his multi-verse made me smile.
I’m going to give a shout out for Jason Lambright’s King’s Ohio Rifles. It’s an alt history where the War of Independence and the American Revolution didn’t happen, and we follow the adventures of a Native American soldier fighting for King and Country in the trenches of WWI.
This book made me feel like I was in the trenches alongside Bill and his mates, to the point where when someone woke up in a crater after nearly being shelled and did the obligatory pat down to ensure everything was still intact I was almost overcome by the urge to check that genitalia I do not possess was still with me. Incredibly vivid and real writing. The rest of the trilogy is due to be published this year.
I’ll drop a recommend here that is at once a far cry from King but incorporates plenty of his humanity and horror. The book is The Dawnhounds, by Kiwi scribe Sascha Stronach, and it is batshit in the best possible way. I have heard it described as “what if Jeff Vandermeer wrote Discworld” and honestly, it pretty much is. It is an eldritch horror police procedural with badass lesbian magic pirates and maximum toothy solidly plus plenty else besides and I loved the imagination dripping from every goddamn page. Get amongst, all ye.
Read most of Fairy Tale on a 21 hour flight from Sydney to Toronto. Love Stephen King and loved this one particularly. I can't imagine he worries about things being made into movies / series anymore but this would make one killer streaming series....
From the book's wikipedia page: "On September 15, 2022, Deadline Hollywood reported that British filmmaker Paul Greengrass, known for the Jason Bourne film franchise, would adapt, direct, and produce a film adaptation of the novel, with American film producer Gregory Goodman co-producing the film alongside Greengrass."
Haven't read any SK recently but have just re-read Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre 40+ years after first doing so. Like the curate's egg, it was good in parts. But those two insufferable, pompous and self-important men, Edward Rochester and St John Rivers and their penchant for long-winded soliloquies made it a tedious read. Christ knows why Jane didn't just give them both the arse - surely she was bored to death. Am now cleansing myself with Hunter S Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. A most refreshing contrast!
The last Stephen King book I picked up was "IT" in the late 80's. I'd moved past wearing Scoops (Ipswich adjacent in Inala) by then, but I love the reference. I have never been one to read much horror and I am afraid I never finished that book. I also did not pick up another Stephen King book for a very long time for fear of reading nightmare inducing stories. The Stand was an exception (excellent work Stephen).
So it was with some trepidation that I took on the challenge of Fairy Tale. I choose audiobooks these days due to busy work schedules and the fact that if I pick up a real book to read in bed I am snoozing before I have finished the first page.
Fairy Tale was awesome. I know that I should have understood where the story was going based on the title but Stevie boy knows how to suck you in with a narrative grounded in Charlie's day-to-day life before heading down that rabbit hole.
I loved everything about this book. Someone should tell Stephen to write some more books.......
Keep the recommendations coming JB. The Splendid and the Vile was also quite excellent.
Can totally relate to your fear of reading nightmare-inducing stories! I used to have the time to been a prolific reader, but King was never on my list. Reading was my escape from the nightmare-inducing horrors of real life! One of 9 kids, our family was so poor we never had a TV until 1969¹
(kinda explains the overbreeding) so I was reading 'grown up' books before I'd outgrown the bedwetting caused by the nightmares.
I once saw a promo for The Shining. Terrifying! Lol
Anyway, I guess I'll have to get my hands on The Stand, now that I've read this thread.
FOMO trumps fear these days!
I'm bored, and I have time on my hands.
If I start wetting the the bed again I'll blame you lot!
¹ once we had a TV, my parents couldn't afford the TV License fee, so they always had the volume down low bcos they worried about getting busted! Crims!
I’ve been a fan of the King for most of my life (although interestingly I didn’t read The Stand until about 7 years ago). I’ve been keeping an eye on this one, JB, and your review has tipped it onto the digital reading pile. Possibly even next on that list.
Here’s a short review of the book I’m about 95% of the way through:
The Three Body Problem
The problem with The Three Body Problem is that it’s an unwieldy mess, it’s translated well but still doesn’t really translate, it’s trying to be heartfelt and extremely scientific at the same time, and there are huge plot holes that break the believability along the way.
That said, it’s a somewhat beautiful read, with lovable and hateable characters in equal measure, discussing a world on the edge of an emotional and physical breakdown, bringing together real life with extreme sci fi in a way that makes the latter seem (appropriately) completely unworldly. It’s a statement on humanity’s apathy and hatred of its world and itself, and the lengths people will go to to find meaning, even when the meaning is unknowable.
My advice: read it. Just don’t expect it to be a fun ride.
I wasn’t a massive fan of Kings time travel book that everyone seemed to love but I’ll give this a go sounds ace.
My King story- made a bet with my high school English teacher that I could read 100 books. I had a system, my librarian buddy would recommend an author then off I’d go down the list. I too started with The Stand, then chugged through 3 weeks of solid King until about 15 books in I woke up one night and was convinced the cover of Pet Cemetery was fucking glowing like a UFO on my desk and devolved into a week of shocking nightmares.
Admittedly this might have been from staying up well into the night for months reading on top of everything else I was doing but back then it felt like the book was going to open up and swallow me whole.
I did a similar deep dive of James Ellroy's work years ago, then stopped cold because it got too much, spending so much time in the minds of seriously disturbed men.
First King book I read was Carrie, when King was still an unknown. I don't think I've read one since Pet Sematary. Not a good book to read if you're the parent of a two year old kid. But now the kids have long grown perhaps I could venture back.
I did go all gung-ho when the book club was announced and read an oldie, a Ken Follett drama, and wrote a quick review so I didn't have to think about it later. And so, here it is:
45 years after first publication, Ken Follett’s “Eye of the Needle” remains engaging reading. You can get the scenario and guess the ending from reading the blurb, but the story-telling fleshes out characters and evokes the war-time setting so that social media lost its sway over my time for as long as it took me to finish the book… and the inclusion of Churchill seemed to be a sweet case of serendipity in light of JB’s previous review.
If, like me, you’d read “The Pillars of the Earth” and appreciated Follett’s talent for weaving historical fact within his grand narrative, you’ll find this, his first-ever published novel, worth picking up.
Thanks for the review, JB, I haven’t read Mr King for ages but I might give this a go.
I read The Shining as a pre or early teen, and The Stand a bit after that, both settled into the bedrock of my psyche. I think the last SK novel I read was Rose Madder, a great depiction of domestic violence that was spoiled by the supernatural stuff.
I just finished reading the Joe Pitt Casebooks by Charlie Huston, written 2005-09. I read them 10+ years ago and again just recently ‘cos I was in NYC and always enjoy reading something set where I am. If you like a bit hard boiled of vampyre noir I’d highly recommend. The point of this being, they were endorsed by Mr King.
Great timing, thankyou JB. Just today I was checking the release date (again! And it’s still only in April) for the audio book of Lords of Uncreation by Adrian Tchaikovsky, yearning for something epic and transportative to ‘read’ while I slog through a repetitive and large job. Oh Stephen King… as kids in the 80s, my brother and I used to lie side by side to read the same book, because our library had only one at a time and we were both HUGE fans. We wanted to be scared out of our wits simultaneously. So good. Looking forward to reading him again.
At the start of the COVID thing, Steven King inadvertently re-released an extra long version of The Stand. I’d already read it as a youngster, but thought sure - I’ll give it another go.
In the same way as Fairy Tale, he spent a lot of extra time painting the picture that forms the background to all the chaos. But it was terrifying reading that shit, and then turning on the TV to watch it unfold in real life.
Fairy Tale is a much harder read for me.. too slow to get started, and Charlie seems like a sadistic fuck at times - hard to see him as a hero - I’ll keep reading though.
Interesting that you got that about Charlie. King explains his devotion to Howard as gratitude for his father's sobriety, but by the end of the book we realise it's actually ATONEMENT.
heh. I really loved his earlier ones, but haven't been able to read much of anything since Dreamcatcher which I only read a few pages of and gave up. But others who've read Fairy Tale said it was a bit of a curate's egg. Great in some parts but weren't convinced by the whole. Still, it's a subjective thing, reading. So glad you liked it. Your review has tempted me to give it a go
On the one hand I though that this one was almost too slow a burn from King. It was hundreds of pages to build up, and then within Empis hundreds more pages to get to some action. By the time it kicked off, I was thinking that there's not a lot more book for this action to occur within.
But then I realised that enjoyed immensely all that other good stuff too. It was almost vintage King- the start of the Stand, the world of the loser kids in It, even the training and village life in Wizard and Glass. It was a change from the not-quite immediate 'splodey, but certainly faster moving, 11.22.63.
I've got a weekend away coming up, so I've clicked and bought Taste. Thanks JB.
I knew from the start that Clare Bowditch was evil. I think this book will scare the crap out of me!😳
Finished this last night - WOW! I too was bitten by "The Stand" back in the day, and actually devoured a lot of Mr King's literature when I was a lot younger - my first foray back to "Fairy Tale" did not disappoint, and the mental gymnastics required to understand his multi-verse made me smile.
I’m going to give a shout out for Jason Lambright’s King’s Ohio Rifles. It’s an alt history where the War of Independence and the American Revolution didn’t happen, and we follow the adventures of a Native American soldier fighting for King and Country in the trenches of WWI.
This book made me feel like I was in the trenches alongside Bill and his mates, to the point where when someone woke up in a crater after nearly being shelled and did the obligatory pat down to ensure everything was still intact I was almost overcome by the urge to check that genitalia I do not possess was still with me. Incredibly vivid and real writing. The rest of the trilogy is due to be published this year.
I’ll drop a recommend here that is at once a far cry from King but incorporates plenty of his humanity and horror. The book is The Dawnhounds, by Kiwi scribe Sascha Stronach, and it is batshit in the best possible way. I have heard it described as “what if Jeff Vandermeer wrote Discworld” and honestly, it pretty much is. It is an eldritch horror police procedural with badass lesbian magic pirates and maximum toothy solidly plus plenty else besides and I loved the imagination dripping from every goddamn page. Get amongst, all ye.
You had me at badass lesbian magic pirates
Splodey, not solidity, thanks autocorrect. But “toothy solidity” is almost good enough to keep.
I’ve added this to my TBR list!
Read most of Fairy Tale on a 21 hour flight from Sydney to Toronto. Love Stephen King and loved this one particularly. I can't imagine he worries about things being made into movies / series anymore but this would make one killer streaming series....
From the book's wikipedia page: "On September 15, 2022, Deadline Hollywood reported that British filmmaker Paul Greengrass, known for the Jason Bourne film franchise, would adapt, direct, and produce a film adaptation of the novel, with American film producer Gregory Goodman co-producing the film alongside Greengrass."
Oh wow! Day made.
Haven't read any SK recently but have just re-read Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre 40+ years after first doing so. Like the curate's egg, it was good in parts. But those two insufferable, pompous and self-important men, Edward Rochester and St John Rivers and their penchant for long-winded soliloquies made it a tedious read. Christ knows why Jane didn't just give them both the arse - surely she was bored to death. Am now cleansing myself with Hunter S Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. A most refreshing contrast!
I dip into F&L occasionally. Still got my original copy somewhere.
The last Stephen King book I picked up was "IT" in the late 80's. I'd moved past wearing Scoops (Ipswich adjacent in Inala) by then, but I love the reference. I have never been one to read much horror and I am afraid I never finished that book. I also did not pick up another Stephen King book for a very long time for fear of reading nightmare inducing stories. The Stand was an exception (excellent work Stephen).
So it was with some trepidation that I took on the challenge of Fairy Tale. I choose audiobooks these days due to busy work schedules and the fact that if I pick up a real book to read in bed I am snoozing before I have finished the first page.
Fairy Tale was awesome. I know that I should have understood where the story was going based on the title but Stevie boy knows how to suck you in with a narrative grounded in Charlie's day-to-day life before heading down that rabbit hole.
I loved everything about this book. Someone should tell Stephen to write some more books.......
Keep the recommendations coming JB. The Splendid and the Vile was also quite excellent.
Audiobook here too.
Can totally relate to your fear of reading nightmare-inducing stories! I used to have the time to been a prolific reader, but King was never on my list. Reading was my escape from the nightmare-inducing horrors of real life! One of 9 kids, our family was so poor we never had a TV until 1969¹
(kinda explains the overbreeding) so I was reading 'grown up' books before I'd outgrown the bedwetting caused by the nightmares.
I once saw a promo for The Shining. Terrifying! Lol
Anyway, I guess I'll have to get my hands on The Stand, now that I've read this thread.
FOMO trumps fear these days!
I'm bored, and I have time on my hands.
If I start wetting the the bed again I'll blame you lot!
Forgot footnote
¹ once we had a TV, my parents couldn't afford the TV License fee, so they always had the volume down low bcos they worried about getting busted! Crims!
I’ve been a fan of the King for most of my life (although interestingly I didn’t read The Stand until about 7 years ago). I’ve been keeping an eye on this one, JB, and your review has tipped it onto the digital reading pile. Possibly even next on that list.
Here’s a short review of the book I’m about 95% of the way through:
The Three Body Problem
The problem with The Three Body Problem is that it’s an unwieldy mess, it’s translated well but still doesn’t really translate, it’s trying to be heartfelt and extremely scientific at the same time, and there are huge plot holes that break the believability along the way.
That said, it’s a somewhat beautiful read, with lovable and hateable characters in equal measure, discussing a world on the edge of an emotional and physical breakdown, bringing together real life with extreme sci fi in a way that makes the latter seem (appropriately) completely unworldly. It’s a statement on humanity’s apathy and hatred of its world and itself, and the lengths people will go to to find meaning, even when the meaning is unknowable.
My advice: read it. Just don’t expect it to be a fun ride.
Can confirm this review.
I started reading Three Body Problem, but couldn't finish it.
I wasn’t a massive fan of Kings time travel book that everyone seemed to love but I’ll give this a go sounds ace.
My King story- made a bet with my high school English teacher that I could read 100 books. I had a system, my librarian buddy would recommend an author then off I’d go down the list. I too started with The Stand, then chugged through 3 weeks of solid King until about 15 books in I woke up one night and was convinced the cover of Pet Cemetery was fucking glowing like a UFO on my desk and devolved into a week of shocking nightmares.
Admittedly this might have been from staying up well into the night for months reading on top of everything else I was doing but back then it felt like the book was going to open up and swallow me whole.
I did a similar deep dive of James Ellroy's work years ago, then stopped cold because it got too much, spending so much time in the minds of seriously disturbed men.
First King book I read was Carrie, when King was still an unknown. I don't think I've read one since Pet Sematary. Not a good book to read if you're the parent of a two year old kid. But now the kids have long grown perhaps I could venture back.
I did go all gung-ho when the book club was announced and read an oldie, a Ken Follett drama, and wrote a quick review so I didn't have to think about it later. And so, here it is:
45 years after first publication, Ken Follett’s “Eye of the Needle” remains engaging reading. You can get the scenario and guess the ending from reading the blurb, but the story-telling fleshes out characters and evokes the war-time setting so that social media lost its sway over my time for as long as it took me to finish the book… and the inclusion of Churchill seemed to be a sweet case of serendipity in light of JB’s previous review.
If, like me, you’d read “The Pillars of the Earth” and appreciated Follett’s talent for weaving historical fact within his grand narrative, you’ll find this, his first-ever published novel, worth picking up.
steven king......yawn! to wordy and drawn out , i'm not interested in the chidhood trauma of EVERY character . just tell the dam story , PLEASE !!!
oi J.B when are we going to see another Girl In Time book ?
After I've finished the next Cruel Stars book, and the three AoT audiobooks and this secret China thing I got paid for and....
Those diamond encrusted hovercraft don't pay for themselves!
all good mate
Thanks for the review, JB, I haven’t read Mr King for ages but I might give this a go.
I read The Shining as a pre or early teen, and The Stand a bit after that, both settled into the bedrock of my psyche. I think the last SK novel I read was Rose Madder, a great depiction of domestic violence that was spoiled by the supernatural stuff.
I just finished reading the Joe Pitt Casebooks by Charlie Huston, written 2005-09. I read them 10+ years ago and again just recently ‘cos I was in NYC and always enjoy reading something set where I am. If you like a bit hard boiled of vampyre noir I’d highly recommend. The point of this being, they were endorsed by Mr King.
I have read all the Joe Pitt books!
DId your purple scoops make you look crash-hot?
Hotter than 4IP’s Top 40.
I had a pair of scoops
I’ll quietly mention that Chester is still waiting to be reunited with Titanic
Great timing, thankyou JB. Just today I was checking the release date (again! And it’s still only in April) for the audio book of Lords of Uncreation by Adrian Tchaikovsky, yearning for something epic and transportative to ‘read’ while I slog through a repetitive and large job. Oh Stephen King… as kids in the 80s, my brother and I used to lie side by side to read the same book, because our library had only one at a time and we were both HUGE fans. We wanted to be scared out of our wits simultaneously. So good. Looking forward to reading him again.
Thanks!!!
Ohmyfuggingod the audio book of Fairy Tale is co-read by Stephen King. Happiness happiness happiness.
Thanks again!
At the start of the COVID thing, Steven King inadvertently re-released an extra long version of The Stand. I’d already read it as a youngster, but thought sure - I’ll give it another go.
In the same way as Fairy Tale, he spent a lot of extra time painting the picture that forms the background to all the chaos. But it was terrifying reading that shit, and then turning on the TV to watch it unfold in real life.
Fairy Tale is a much harder read for me.. too slow to get started, and Charlie seems like a sadistic fuck at times - hard to see him as a hero - I’ll keep reading though.
Interesting that you got that about Charlie. King explains his devotion to Howard as gratitude for his father's sobriety, but by the end of the book we realise it's actually ATONEMENT.
These days making someone happy is a pretty worthy goal. Can he next write a book that will make someone kind?
Interesting - I'm hearing 'variable' reviews of this book.
Every one of his books gets variable reviews. 'Cept from me.
heh. I really loved his earlier ones, but haven't been able to read much of anything since Dreamcatcher which I only read a few pages of and gave up. But others who've read Fairy Tale said it was a bit of a curate's egg. Great in some parts but weren't convinced by the whole. Still, it's a subjective thing, reading. So glad you liked it. Your review has tempted me to give it a go