I think too many people dismiss King because he's "mainstream" and "popular", it happens with all art; movies, music, books, hell even videogames. Something about popularity really hurts the author in the eyes of the geeks or "hardcore fans" (no I'm not talking about you cloud, just making an observation :) ). There are darker, more disturbing authors out there and even authors who write some better horror stories, but I'd be hard pressed to find an author that has written so many good to great horror novels.
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