― Rob Bolton (Rob Bolton), Monday, 23 February 2004 10:08 (twenty years ago) link
― Stuart (Stuart), Monday, 23 February 2004 14:14 (twenty years ago) link
― Stuart (Stuart), Monday, 23 February 2004 14:17 (twenty years ago) link
Short stories: great. Dark Tower also good in principle (the first one was only good enough to get me vaguely interested in the seond one, which was great), but if it turns out that I'd have to read all his other books to understand the next volume, I'll be pissed off.
You have to reckon he's jumped the shark when he starts making TV miniseries of all his longer stories, including The Shining. Apparently the film was fine, but not what he was looking for.
And Christine to thread!
― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 23 February 2004 14:37 (twenty years ago) link
1. The Shining2. The Strand was good as I recall though the middle 500 pages dragged a bit3. He wrote some book about dragons. I forget what it was called but dragons are so awesome.4. His short stories I think are generally excellent, and much different from his fiction. They're published in the New Yorker and other such magazines quite often. He had an excellent one about highway restroom graffiti.5. Also he got hit by a truck, which is so crazy. Then he wrote lots of memoirs about being hit by a truck. The one celebrity we have in the whole state of Maine gets mauled by a drunk driver. I thought we should have put his giant creepy head on our state quarter, but apparently that wasn't taken into consideration.
― j c (j c), Monday, 23 February 2004 14:45 (twenty years ago) link
― j c (j c), Monday, 23 February 2004 14:46 (twenty years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 23 February 2004 14:46 (twenty years ago) link
― Stuart (Stuart), Monday, 23 February 2004 14:49 (twenty years ago) link
>Anyway, 4mph isn't very fast
True. This is the beauty of the contest. The 100 starters can go on for quite a while before the 1st person is shot, which is obviously a sobering event for the remaining 99. Only after about 48 hours things start to go a bit crazy. People start to freak out, as one would expect. Dunno why that story stuck with me for so long - it's a disturbing concept.
― Rob Bolton (Rob Bolton), Monday, 23 February 2004 14:51 (twenty years ago) link
-- anthony kyle monday
then why "stephen king's kingdom hospital"?
-- s1ocki
Stephen King signing on to the Kingdom remake is the only thing that got it made; it's been in and out of production for years, so I assume they're tagging it with his name because they aren't confident in it except as a King vehicle (whereas a Johnny Depp movie is a Johnny Depp movie, and you really don't need the Inspector 13 tag.
I haven't seen Dreamcatcher and don't know if I will, but coming so soon after the extended discussion of "trunk novels" in Bag of Bones (which, love it or hate it, is considerably different in scope, tone, and approach), and King's subsequent accident and public difficulties with returning to writing, I half-assumed it was a trunk novel itself. It certainly reads like one.
― Tep (ktepi), Monday, 23 February 2004 14:54 (twenty years ago) link
― Rob Bolton (Rob Bolton), Monday, 23 February 2004 14:56 (twenty years ago) link
(xpost)
― Andrew Farrell (afarrell), Monday, 23 February 2004 14:57 (twenty years ago) link
― Rob Bolton (Rob Bolton), Monday, 23 February 2004 14:58 (twenty years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 23 February 2004 14:59 (twenty years ago) link
No, we have Dean Koontz for that.
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Monday, 23 February 2004 15:52 (twenty years ago) link
― Sarah (starry), Monday, 23 February 2004 15:58 (twenty years ago) link
― Stuart (Stuart), Monday, 23 February 2004 16:16 (twenty years ago) link
― Tep (ktepi), Monday, 23 February 2004 16:31 (twenty years ago) link
i mean the thing with stephen king is he's really good at writing really readable stuff, and he has some neat ideas, but man oh man does he repeat himself. which is kind of interesting in a way, i guess. it's like he applies whatever good idea he has to the basic mold of "writer in maine" and lets it rip.
(obviously that applies more to the novels)
― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 23 February 2004 17:02 (twenty years ago) link
― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 23 February 2004 17:09 (twenty years ago) link
― s1ocki (slutsky), Monday, 23 February 2004 17:10 (twenty years ago) link
― kephm, Monday, 23 February 2004 17:20 (twenty years ago) link
Me?
I like him. I haven't read the new Dark Tower book yet, though. I've neglected literary pursuits quite badly of late. The revised version of the first volume is a big improvement, BTW.
(There goes my resolution not to post. Ego can be terrible.)
― ChrissieH (chrissie1068), Monday, 23 February 2004 21:31 (twenty years ago) link
Except Rose Madder and Gerald's Game.
― luna (luna.c), Monday, 23 February 2004 21:33 (twenty years ago) link
― Kingfish Cowboy (Kingfish), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 20:33 (twenty years ago) link
― pete s, Tuesday, 16 March 2004 20:37 (twenty years ago) link
― The Huckle-Buck (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 20:39 (twenty years ago) link
― strongo hulkington (dubplatestyle), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 20:39 (twenty years ago) link
― anthony kyle monday (akmonday), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 20:42 (twenty years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 21:02 (twenty years ago) link
― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 16 March 2004 23:54 (twenty years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 01:05 (twenty years ago) link
While on a v. short enforced vacation a couple of years ago, I tore through a couple of his early novels. Firestarter was much better than I was expecting, Carrie was OK and then Dreamcatcher was awful.
― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 01:09 (twenty years ago) link
his short stories are, of course, the bomb. his novels usually have the equivalent of two or three short stories crammed in there by way of exposition or introduction. those parts are great too.
gotta agree on the endings, though. tacky! and he does have a bit of a tendency to repeat himself, both in and between works.
― vahid (vahid), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 01:13 (twenty years ago) link
(I just started A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius last night and the first 50 pages are making me ill, so I need something new.)
― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 01:16 (twenty years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 01:19 (twenty years ago) link
― vahid (vahid), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 01:21 (twenty years ago) link
― vahid (vahid), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 01:22 (twenty years ago) link
― vahid (vahid), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 01:23 (twenty years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 01:40 (twenty years ago) link
― J-rock (Julien Sandiford), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 02:24 (twenty years ago) link
― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 18:16 (twenty years ago) link
"I Am Legend" by Richard Matheson is a good post apocalyptic story and possibly an influence on The Stand.
The Stephen King novel that I think holds up well is "The Dead Zone", I have read that one a couple of times. "Misery" is also pretty good, but the writer's novel part may get a bit long.
― earlnash, Wednesday, 17 March 2004 19:08 (twenty years ago) link
addictive stuff.
― Kingfish Cowboy (Kingfish), Wednesday, 17 March 2004 20:33 (twenty years ago) link
Man needs a fucking editor. But he can make you care a whole hell of a lot (why did that phrase just sound like a King phrase?) about his characters and their interactions (with each other and the "landscape/place").
Many classics: Carrie, The Shining, The Stand, Pet Sematary, It, The Dark Half, Misery, Eyes of the Dragon, Dark Tower series.
Indifferent: Needful Things, Christine, Salem's Lot, Thinner (great twist, tho), the Green Mile, Dolores Claiborne.
Duds: Rose Madder, Insomnia, Dreamcatcher, Tommyknockers, The Regulators, etc.
I think ultimately he'll be remembered/revered/lauded more for his novella collections -- The Bachman Books, Different Seasons, and Four Past Midnight -- than for anything else.
― David A. (Davant), Thursday, 18 March 2004 00:20 (twenty years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 18 March 2004 00:41 (twenty years ago) link
― Menelaus Darcy (Menelaus Darcy), Thursday, 18 March 2004 00:57 (twenty years ago) link
― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Thursday, 18 March 2004 01:39 (twenty years ago) link
― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 18 March 2004 03:26 (twenty years ago) link
― Bunged Out (Jake Proudlock), Thursday, 18 March 2004 03:51 (twenty years ago) link
Gibney is such a fucking horribly written character it’s a real handicap to every story she’s in (as I recall the outsider is ticking along fine until exactly that point) Now to take a big sip of coffee and see what he’s working on next
― gop on ya gingrich (wins), Wednesday, 25 May 2022 19:16 (one year ago) link
Yeah, The Outsider (TV version) ended slightly better than the book, but the book was better in just about every other respect.
Revival is really good.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Wednesday, 25 May 2022 19:37 (one year ago) link
The last several books I read (Sleeping Beauties, Institute, Outsider) were satisfying in their way but very much felt like extruded King product
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Wednesday, 25 May 2022 19:43 (one year ago) link
Revival is my favourite King book since 11/22/63
I consider it one of his best endings, not alone in that but opinion is somewhat polarised
It’s not too long so it’s worth finding out for yourself!
― Duane Barry, Wednesday, 25 May 2022 22:02 (one year ago) link
i have it, so will def give it a go on that recommendation:D
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 25 May 2022 22:14 (one year ago) link
The first in the trio of Hodges Det Ret books (Mr. Mercedes) is very good. The next book is pretty solid! The last book I cannot recommend,
― Legalize Suburban Benches (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 25 May 2022 22:16 (one year ago) link
I mean... I will cuz you you told me to, but I have no idea who that is so I'm just picturing a fish on a roller-coaster.— Shawn Nutting (@ZackGavin2) September 8, 2022
the best fans
― You can't spell Fearless without Earle (President Keyes), Thursday, 8 September 2022 15:25 (one year ago) link
i picked up the new one, “Fairy Tale”, from the library this weekend … it’s got me hooked early, loving it so far.
― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 5 December 2022 04:19 (one year ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zuiVwFNEqc
― papal hotwife (milo z), Monday, 30 January 2023 22:17 (one year ago) link
update: I read Revival and didn’t love it. The dedication to Mary Shelley let me know what the upshot would be from the start, and i got annoyed waiting and waiting for the other shoe to drop like honestly waiting til the last three chapters drove me NUTS i liked the childhood stuff early on though, and the pastor’s “fuck u god” sermon was a+
― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 9 June 2023 02:04 (eleven months ago) link
I'm not quite sure what to make of Fairy Tale. I thought the pacing and plot progression were all over the place. But it had some great sequences - the first walk through the abandoned city was fantastic, and the waiting room build-up to the "Fair One" was the most intense, horrifying thing he's written in a long time.
― Duane Barry, Thursday, 15 June 2023 14:19 (eleven months ago) link
perlstein on stephen king as the writer of the great death of democracy novel: https://prospect.org/culture/2024-02-14-cultural-artifact-meets-the-moment/
― 𝔠𝔞𝔢𝔨 (caek), Wednesday, 14 February 2024 16:05 (three months ago) link
Finally read The Gunslinger and… maybe hated it? I know the subsequent volumes are supposed to be much better, but *how* much better exactly? Roland is a a sticking point – he’s kind of a bore
― Chuck_Tatum, Saturday, 18 May 2024 11:09 (five days ago) link
It remains patchy as hell throughout imo but you might get on better with book 2 if you like 80s king, it’s a lot of fun & king starts to send up Roland a bit, both in the narrative voice & through the expanded cast of characters. Get ready for some peak sk problematic/tone deaf characterisation tho
― subpost master (wins), Saturday, 18 May 2024 13:09 (five days ago) link
Sounds like something a honk mahfah would say...
― peace, man, Saturday, 18 May 2024 13:24 (five days ago) link
wins OTM
Book 2 feels like it was written with the vivid memory of addiction (or in the depths of it)
― Marten Broadcloak, mild-mannered GOP congressman (Raymond Cummings), Saturday, 18 May 2024 13:41 (five days ago) link
lol peace man
wins otm
theres really not much recommending any of the first three dark tower books based on whether you liked the other two tbh
if you want something to read, fancy a shaggy gunslinger story and are ready for three genres and era of stephen king then forge on imo youll find something in there for you i think
― close encounters of the third knid (darraghmac), Saturday, 18 May 2024 14:31 (five days ago) link
That Perlstein essay linked above is really good.
― Instead of create and send out, it pull back and consume (unperson), Saturday, 18 May 2024 14:44 (five days ago) link
There is some good action scenes in both Drawing of the Three and the whole Lud part of the Wastelands.
― The Artist formerly known as Earlnash, Saturday, 18 May 2024 16:54 (five days ago) link