Yesterday, I received my copy of The Dark Man, a new Stephen King book. I suspect that most people who read my blog will have heard of it, so you know what we’re talking about already, but for those of you who did not know about this book, here’s a summary.
The Dark Man is a Cemetery Dance hardback release of a poem Stephen King first published in 1969, in a college literary journal. The poem is a mere 41 lines long, which means that even if you pay really close attention to it, you can read it in a few minutes.
To be blunt, this is an extremely minor work of King’s. Now, y’all know me. I own the Sci-Fi Channel remake of Children of the Corn on Blu-ray. I own — and reviewed — Creepshow 3, which doesn’t even have anything to do with Stephen King. I’m not one to let a lack of quality deter me from being as completist as possible when it comes to my King collection. So when The Dark Man was announced, I rolled my eyes, sighed in mild frustration, and reluctantly set the money aside. Was I filing this under the “cash-grab” category?
Yes indeed.