For years I thought Stephen King was a schlock writer. I couldn't imagine actually reading anything he wrote. When, because someone recommended it, I read IT, I decided maybe he isn't a bad writer after all. I wouldn't call him "great" but he can write.
For years I saw Dean Koontz's name on mass-market paperbacks in the markets and I thought he had to be a second-rate Stephen King, and I imagined that he wrote horror stories and I was far from interested. Recently, though, I have gotten two Dean Koontz books from Mary's friend Jim, and of course I read them, and it is with some shock that I confess that I liked them. Quite a lot. And they weren't horror stories.
I consider both to be writers of airplane fiction, although when I think of King's short stories I think there may be a few stories that transcend that level, that actually have bigger things to say. If I were to choose between the two, though, I'd go with Koontz. I actually like the characters he creates and I like the way they painstakingly find a way around unbelievable challenges, and I like that these stories are not predictable except in one respect: we know the good guys will win, somehow.
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Which two Dean Koontz, please?
The two Koontzes:
Life Expectancy
The Husband
If you've read these, are they typical in any way?
I think of Stephen King's writing as "gateway reading". That's what it was for me. I started his stuff in the eighth grade. At that age, it was scarey fun and helped me cut teeth on long books. But once you've read a few of his novels, you've pretty much read them all. He's a firm believer in self insertion and recycling. It gets worse the older he gets, too.
"It" was a good one to start with. But I think my all time favorite is novel he wrote with Peter Straub, "The Talisman".
I don't think I would actually go out to buy a Stephen King novel. I think of him as a "storyteller" and even though I like telling sims stories I am not that fond of storytellers. They don't go anywhere "real" to me. I also couldn't connect much with King's characters.
I went back to my bookcrossing post on Koontz's Life Expectancy and found that I hadn't liked it as much as The Husband - I called it "a not-so-funny story about a baker pursued by clowns". I recall that I thought he was trying too hard. So I suspect I would not love everything he has written either.