Stephen King, master horror and suspense author, tackles time travel and the Kennedy assassination

Stephen King is one of the undisputed masters of horror, sci-fi, ghost stories and all other novels you are not supposed to read when by yourself, in the dark with just a single lamp over your head or during heavy rainstorms. And now this master has tackled the venerable subjects of time travel and changing the course of the Kennedy assassination with his 800 plus page novel titled 11/22/63. This novel, like all other King novels is a masterpiece, even though as with nearly everything else of King's I have read it takes place in Main and the protagonist is a writer. I've always thought of that as kind of annoying, but I concede that it's not really all that important.

Now that King is a mega best seller, his publishers don't care how thick his books get. They will always sell, so you get over 800 pages to read. That means King can take his time illustrating the differences between 1959 (where the little time portal takes you) and 2011 (when the book was published). And he does a great job at that. He also tackles time-travel paradoxes and what would really (probably) happen if you did something to change past events. (Think Jimmy Stewart, and you won't be far off the mark.)

However, my favorite part of the book is how he brings Lee Harvey Oswald to life. Saving Kennedy means killing Oswald, so the goofy assassin was well researched by King and beautifully described. I was particularly impressed with this novel because I have published a somewhat similar (although much thinner and less researched book) featuring Oswald titled "Waiting to Run." It's available on Amazon at: 

http://www.amazon.com/Waiting-Run-W-H-Matlack/dp/1625260644/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453244163&sr=1-1&keywords=Waiting+to+run

"Waiting to Run" features a much more fictional Oswald as well as some other characters from the fabled Kennedy assassination. I certainly don't want to compare myself as a writer to King, but my novel features a bit more plausible explanation of how all the "present day" characters are able to interact with characters from the past. The secret is in manipulating quantum physics and the holographic universe instead of  just saying "there is a stairway that takes you to 1959."

Well, okay, my premise may be a bit more plausible than King's, but it's still a long reach into fiction. Although someday we may figure out how to apply quantum states of probability that only effect sub-atomic particles to the clean cause-and-effect Newtonian universe consisting of complex atoms and molecules. Hey, we've got driver-less cars. Quantum manipulation can't be that far off.

So, what I'm getting at with all this is why not read King's impressive book and then follow it with mine? Kind of like a whiskey chaser to a mug of cool, well-crafted beer.

Labels: Solstice Shadows, Solstice Publishing, paradoxes , quantum physics, Stephen King, historical, fantasy, time travel, JFK assassination, 1950's, 1960's,