

Nick never loses faith in humanity, even though he was attacked and left for dead. Nick is befriended by a kindly sheriff and his wife and deputized to help keep law and order as the superflu spread. Nick is a deaf mute who is attacked outside of Arkansas during the early days of Captain Trips, the super flu that wiped out most of the world’s population. Nick and Tom, two of the heroes of King’s The Stand, prove that courage and heroism come in many forms. Read More: Stephen King’s 10 Best Horror Novels 8. Rose may not be a vampire hunter or a demon slayer, but her light shows readers that there is hope in any situation, that nothing is inescapable, and that there is a special form of heroism in just saying “Enough.” So many people trapped in Rose’s situation cannot break the chains of abuse, but Rose does and masters another world in order to punish the man that hurt her. Rose’s real courage is in her desire to change her life for the better. When Rose’s husband tracks her down, Rose retreats back into the painting and faces off against her abuser one final time, this time in a setting of her own choosing. Just as she bravely escapes her husband and breaks a long cycle of domestic violence, Rose faces down the terror of another world to save an innocent, because that’s what heroes do. She sees a task that needs doing and she does it. Rose doesn’t flinch from saving the baby. The infant’s mother, Dorcas, whom Rose refers to as “Rose Madder” because of her obvious insanity, promises that she owed Rose Daniels a favor. In this world of monsters and madness, she saves an infant from a one-eyed bull named Erinyes. Turns out, the painting is a magical portal to another world, and like so many heroes before her, Rose steps through and into an adventure. Instead, she buys a painting at that pawn shop. Rose goes to pawn her wedding ring, which she discovers is worthless. It took courage to escape the domestic trap she was in and find a new and better life for herself, but Rose’s heroism wasn’t done yet. Her husband is a skilled police detective, and Rose knows he would be able to track her, but she left anyway.īeaten down but determined, Rose arrives in a small town and found a new life for herself, settling in at a clinic for battered women and finding a job and a purpose. Rose is a woman who suffers at the hands of her abusive husband, and one day, after spotting an old bloodstain on her sheets, decides she had enough. At heart, she is not strong or skilled, but she was so much more than that.

Rose Daniels, the brave heroine of Rose Madder, faces many challenges. You may not have had strange powers like many of King’s heroes, but you had courage and will. Men like Bill are the unassuming lights in the darkness ready to take a stand and be that thin line between good and evil. All Bill Hodges has in his mind, his will, and the loyalty of those he inspired to catch a killer that is ready to destroy even more lives. Mercedes can commit an even more horrible crime.īill has a paunch, a heart condition, and is oh, so human, an unglamorous man in his early years as a senior citizen who will not allow age to keep him from stopping an evil before it strikes again. A middle-aged woman who suffers from mental illness is able to overcome years of irrational fears and help Bill find the killer, while a brilliant young student finds purpose in aiding Bill on his case as the three track down the killer before Mr. When the murderer sends Bill a taunting letter, the ex-cop decides that he will put aside his demons and be a champion of justice to find the man who snuffed out the lives of so many innocents.Īlong the way, Bill serves as an inspiration for a number of characters that helped the retired cop try and solve the crime.

When Hodges retires, he is lost, depressed, and on the verge of suicide.
ALL STAR TOWER DEFENSE KING OF HEROES DRIVER
He failed to find the driver of a fateful Mercedes that left eight people dead and fifteen wounded. When readers first meet Bill, he could be considered a failure. Possibly the most human of King’s many heroes, retired cop Bill Hodges, does not have special powers or great strength, but he has a will to confront a very real act of evil that threatened to tear his life apart along with the lives of many others.
