Reprinted from Green Man Review.
The largest typeset blurb on the back cover of The Complete Stephen King Universe sets a high standard for the book to meet, and posits a lofty literary thesis, to boot, “The myriad worlds and universes King has created are, in reality, one world, one universe. Here is the guide to that universe.” Not a guide, mind you. The guide. No small claim, but considering the breadth and depth of the volume’s contents, it’s a fair one.
Revised from an earlier edition, The Complete Stephen King Universe includes all of King’s published novels as of March, 2006. Can’t ask for a more up-to-date reference book than that. A word of warning up front — one I had to take myself — there are spoilers aplenty between the covers (in fact, there’s a wee one in this review!). To get the full picture, you’d want to read every snippet in each section. If, like me, you skipped the books you haven’t read, you’ll miss a few clues, but remain spoiler free.
Prefacing the meat of the book are a snappy introduction and a chronology of Stephen King’s life from birth through 2005. Following are 478 pages entirely devoted to just about everything King has ever written, providing brief plot summaries, character (and entity) bios, adaptations (movie and TV, usually) and trivia for each.
Golden, Wagner and Wiater have divided the contents into eight sections, largely based on geography — or on the connections King has drawn between the stories. The first section covers in detail the seven volumes of the Dark Tower series and The Stand, which share an obvious cross-over, both in location (Roland’s ka-tet cross from his world to that plagued by Captain Tripps) and character (Walter/Randall Flagg). Less obvious at first glance are the related books and stores listed — Black House, Eyes of the Dragon, The Talisman and more. It’s fascinating to see the subtle ties that have played across literally decades’ worth of seemingly unrelated books.
The next three sections cover stories that take place in what the authors call the Prime Reality, specifically in Derry, Castle Rock, Jersusalem’s Lot and the various small towns in Maine that King makes use of. Here we not only get to hear about the stories and characters, but the towns themselves — their histories, their peculiarities, and their personalities. Stories here include It, Dreamcatcher,
Section seven is devoted to King’s Bachman books, which too have their links back to King’s main works (the authors mention a character in The Regulators is a fan of Misery’s Paul Sheldon, and a character from Rose Madder appears in Desperation). The final section, “Tales from Beyond, Further Parallel Realities,” is the smallest and most nebulously defined part of the book, seemingly cobbled together of the stories that didn’t seem to fit elsewhere. Here you’ll find such disparate tales as “Trucks” and “The Mist.”
Long time King readers will recognize many of the connections, but even I was surprised, for example, by the connection between Firestarter and The Tommyknockers (The Shop factors in both), two novels I read way back when they first came out, so there’s something even for diehard fans in here. And it’s definitely incentive to reread books and stories read ten, twenty years ago. . . .
To close out this excellent, well-researched volume, the authors include three appendices: a list of recommended reading about Stephen King, a list of recommended Web sites (including King’s own official Web site), and all of King’s fiction in order of publication — plus a thorough index.
(St. Martin’s Griffin, 2006)
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