ElenaMarie wrote:
GKC wrote:
Added.
Have I mentioned that I've sold books to Stephen King, back around 27 years ago?

I didn't know that!
I'll admit I'm not a fan of the horror genre in any format. I have enough bad stuff in my head without adding to it via entertainment, and such things almost always result in nightmares that wake my husband. So my experience with King is limited to
The Stand and the Dark Tower series.
Thinking about
The Passage and
The Stand, I came up with several key differences without even trying.
The Passage lacks the evil human community of Randall Flagg. The antagonists are victims of a natural disease. Cronin delves into the nature of the soul and its relationship to the body while
The Stand has no such theme at all.
The Passage also explores the idea of terrible evil coming from an earnest desire to do good, very much in the vein of Chesterton's take on the virtues running amok, while
The Stand has no such theme.
The primary theme of
The Stand is the survivors choosing which side they want to live in: Randall Flagg's evil but orderly Las Vegas or Abigail's good but not as orderly Colorado. The primary theme of
The Passage is what does it mean to be human, how does the soul change (if it changes at all) when the body undergoes dramatic changes as a result of a disease.
Honestly, the only thing I think the two share is the military being involved at the beginning. Even that is vastly different in approach, though.
And you're correct: there are only so many hours in a day!
You've convinced me. But the sub-genre, as I said, is one that I actively avoid, like fried squash or fried chicken. An idiosyncrasy. I can think of one exception, sort of, but basically, I don't read that plot line, no matter how well it is written. Though, for a curious reason, a 1st/1st of a signed copy of THE STAND sat for several years on one of my personal bookshelves. Until I could convince my friend that he could take it and a signed copy of one of the Richard Bachman books, back home.
I do some classic horror, of the H. P. Lovecraft variety, and antiquarian ghost stories, a la M. R. James, and as many Arkham House books as I can afford, in my collection, but little in the contemporary stuff. My knowledge of the field made me the horror/ghost/SF guru for the rare book stores I worked for, 30 years ago. And when I was a store manager, a certain customer was assigned to my store, to service a desire for certain older, collectible, horror/ghost/SF books. I let one of my workers, who was more in sync with the contemporary horror field, handle this customer, who lived in Maine. (though he never spoke to the man, all business being handled by an administrative assistant. In those days, Mr. King was very open to signing books for fans. always insisting on personalizing the books. Hence, I got 2 signed King books in my collection. And my daughter got two also. Long ago.