Xomba is currently carrying an interview with Brian Keene.
Keene has certainly earned his position as one of the most respected horror (and crime) novelists of the new breed. He’s authored more than a dozen novels in the past decade, including the supernatural thriller Darkness on the Edge of Town, the apocalyptic horror story The Conqueror Worms and the Stephen King-like Ghoul. The Bram Stoker Award winner was also instrumental in creating the Books for Troops program (providing free autographed books to U.S. soldiers), he writes his own comics (The Last Zombie), and he’s in the process of maintaining his first online serial novel, Deluge: The Conqueror Worms II. His new book is titled A Gathering of Crows.
In response to a question about Stephen King’s The Stand, Keene says, “It’s not only my favorite horror novel. It’s my favorite novel. Period. When anyone, regardless of whether they’re a genre fan or not, asks me for a book recommendation, The Stand is what I hand them. It works on so many different levels. The Stand is a brilliant analogy for the Cold War, but it also examines religion and faith, and why bad things happen to good people. It’s multi-layered, and offers something different each time you re-read it. If a writer wants to learn about characterization, they need look no further than The Stand. It is, in my opinion, the quintessential American novel, ranking alongside Tom Sawyer, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Of Mice and Men.”
Catch the interview in its entirety here: Brian Keene
