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King of MaineStephen King is retiring. So that means he has how many novels left?

Posted Thursday, Jan. 31, 2002, at 6:59 PM ET

Stephen King is retiring! That is, after five more books. And a miniseries or three. Still, let the appreciations begin. Click here to read Michael Wood and David Edelstein discuss Bag of Bones and wonder why in King's novels "the heart of darkness beats as predictably and monotonously as the bass drum in a Sousa march."

And is King a guy thing? Read this club and decide for yourself. Marjorie Williams and Sarah Lyall judge King "the least cynical of popular writers" and the best at "nailing your attention to the page," but protest the "lovingly detailed farting," the "mystic hugger-mugger and so much operatic scenery-chewing," and "the scatology and the diarrhea" that splash his novels.

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