stephen king c/d?

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,

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

i picked up the new one, “Fairy Tale”, from the library this weekend … it’s got me hooked early, loving it so far.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zuiVwFNEqc

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+

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.

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/

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

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

Sounds like something a honk mahfah would say...

wins OTM

Book 2 feels like it was written with the vivid memory of addiction (or in the depths of it)

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

That Perlstein essay linked above is really good.

There is some good action scenes in both Drawing of the Three and the whole Lud part of the Wastelands.

Just finished Holly, can't say I'd recommend it too highly. And apparently there's more of her on the way!

Kirkus Reviews assessed the novel as catering mostly to loyal fans of King, but also criticized the novel's pacing, King's language and his "creaky" cultural references.

C'mon now, asking King to give up boomer cultural references is like asking him to give up air.

yeah that seems kinda rude

The cultural references didn't bother me, and some of the Holly character stuff is handled pretty well, if not to justify King's ongoing fascination with her. But the never-ending Covid/lockdown/MAGA stuff was so tedious, and comes across quite clearly as King venting his spleen over the covidiots and anti-vaxxers he comes across on social media (and maybe IRL too). I mean, did people really bring up the specific vaccine they got as a conversation starter like that?

The villains were probably the most interesting thing in the story but I felt their potential was squandered. And I have NO idea what he was going for with those poetry/book deal subplots...

People really did bring up the particular vaccines they got like that.

Fair enough, it just wasn't my experience! Holly's reactions did sometimes feel realistic, given her hypochondria, it just wasn't fun when it was happening every single paragraph