The plan is to reread all of Stephen King’s works in the order that they were published. Richard Chizmar of Cemetery Dance had the vision. I’m doing it because I am a writer and I want to improve my fiction. And I love Stephen King’s stories. I think there is something to be learned through this process.

You can also go back to the beginning and read Before Carrie or any of my other posts up through this one and beyond by checking out this link to the Master List of all my #StephenKingRevisited posts.

I kind of wonder if the title of Later was a joke. Stephen King asked his editor what it should be called. The guy answered, “You use the word ‘later’ so many times in this story we either need to make that the title or take some of them out.”

This book was published in 2021, the same year in which I read it. Hard to believe I finally caught up. Later is the latest Hard Case Crime book joining the excellent Joyland and the dubious experiment The Colorado Kid. Like Joyland, I think Later is stronger for being briefer than other King works.

The novel is dedicated to Chris Lotts and opens with the Michael Landon quote “There are only so many tomorrows.”

We don’t have a writer main character, but we do have a literary agent… who decides to write.

Whereas the story in The Institute built upon the philosophy that “life turns on small hinges”, Later is told by a first-person narrator who believes all roads lead to fate. Obviously, King is a masterful writer who can write from the viewpoint of different characters. I do think it is impressive that he wrote these two novels so close together in time that essentially operate from exact opposite philosophies about the nature of life and the universe, and both viewpoints are written very well.

The narrator notes that a lot of writers die at their desks. He concludes that writing must be a Type-A profession.

The dead have to tell the truth. That’s the rule this horror story operates under. It doesn’t quite seem like a horror story most of the way through, but Stephen King through his narrator reminds us multiple times “As I said at the beginning, this is a horror story.” You’ll see later.

“The worst part of growing up is how it shuts you up.” Great line.

The idea of the Ritual of Chud appears in this book and was used in earlier King stories as well. The darklights and deadlights are mentioned here as they were in It and Revival. There is a bit of a dark picture hinted at and painted of the afterlife much like in the novel Revival.

This is a solid story told in a concise and interesting way.

My next post in this series will be Before Billy Summers which will be linked on the Master List of all my Stephen King Revisited posts.

Jay Wilburn

Jay Wilburn has a Masters Degree in Education that goes mostly unused since he quit teaching to write about zombies. Jay writes horror because he tends to find the light by facing down the darkness. His is doing well following a life saving kidney transplant. Jay is the author of Maidens of Zombie Kingdom a young adult fantasy trilogy, Lake Scatter Wood Tales adventure books for elementary and middle school readers, Vampire Christ a trilogy of political and religious satire, and The Dead Song Legend. He cowrote The Enemy Held Near, Yard Full of Bones, and The Hidden Truth with Armand Rosamilia. You can also find Jay's work in Best Horror of the Year volume 5. He is a staff writer with Dark Moon Digest, LitReactor, and the Still Water Bay series with Crystal Lake Publishing.

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