Stephen King Discussion

[Hommer]

Just recently, I read my first King novel: Skeleton Crew, As I am a short story fan, I thought I would like it. I did, but some of the stories were a little slow. My favorite stories were The Mist, the one about the mirror, and Mrs. Todd's Shortcut.

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

Two of the three you mention I'd consider slow.

[Hommer]

Which? The Mist kept introducing new plot points and monsters to keep me interested, the same with Shortcut, and I liked the mirror one because it had an ominous feel that made me want to keep reading. One story I disliked was The Raft, because it was just The Mist again (but shorter.)

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

The Mist and Shortcut seemed rather slow to me, but especially Shortcut. I liked them all though, especially The Reaper's Image. My favorite from Skeleton Crew is probably Nona.

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

I just finished the 7th book of the Dark Tower, effectively ending the main journey. I'm not really sure I can properly describe my feelings regarding it, and the series as a whole for that matter. My feelings rather often feel extremely contradictory. The Dark Tower is considered Mr. King's Magnum Opus. It is the series around which he wrote many of his other books, around which he tried to tie almost all of them. The story is interesting...and yet...I think that perhaps its great length keeps it from coming close to being his most enjoyable/best work, as far as I'm concerned. What I mean is it's so expansive that no one volume comes off as being as great as several of his standalone stories. It's funny really...in his afterthought to the last book he seems rather annoyed, but then he admits he didn't always enjoy working on it as he knows his fans didn't always enjoy things about it.

The last book is big, it covers quite a bit of story, some of it too fast for its own good I think, and yet I don't know that I'd have wanted anything stretched out further than what we got either...well no, I can think of at least two things that were too rushed for my liking, Mordred and the final confrontation with the Crimson King. Of the main characters only Susannah and Roland get happy endings...and Roland's is left vague intentionally. The rest die, and their deaths made me sad which is proof that I grew attached to the characters. The inclusion of King himself in the story doesn't really bother me, though the inclusion of Patrick Danville and his role as deus ex machina leaves the final confrontation feeling anti-climactic. If it were not for it's foreshadowing in Insomnia(a book King kinda trashes here) I'd actually have been enraged by it. But perhaps that's just a minor complaint. The ending is something I was spoiled on months ago, and I can see why it would have the horrible reputation it has, but I think what makes it adequate, if not really that good, is the hope that things will go better next time. I think I would have preferred Mordred as a threat prior to this final volume, then overflowing to this one. But as it is I actually enjoyed him early on here, through the first half or so. By the time Roland and Susannah defeat Dandelo though he's basically lost almost all intrigue as we're blatantly told he's done...a quick and weak ending for a character built up for so long...literally over the entire previous novel(though not on screen.)

Did I enjoy reading the Dark Tower series? I'd say so. If I had to pick a favorite book in the series right now it would probably be Wizard and Glass for the long and fascinating look into Roland's past. Least favorite isn't as clear. I can think of things to complain about regarding all of these books really. It would probably be one of the last three though. I at least enjoyed reading them all. As works of fiction, of entertainment, they are enjoyable....by my admittedly novice standards. As I said earlier though I don't like them as much as many of King's other works. I found the tale of the elder Ralph Roberts far more fascinating than any of these books, ditto Jake Epping, along with several others. Of course it's just my opinion and this rather jumbled mess of a post doesn't give justice to experiencing this behemoth of a story. Heh...it'd be great to see reactions from a movie audience if regarding the ending though, assuming it was kept as is, if there ever really was a film adaptation.

[Les_Wynan]

Faithful (which he co-wrote with Stewart Nan) is possibly my all time favourite work of King's.
Basically it chronicled the ups and downs of two red sox fans during an entire season, and quite frankly he picked a brilliant year to do it (2004 where the Sox ended the curse of the Bambino and won the world series for the first time in 86 years)
You don't have to be a baseball fan to enjoy the book but it helps, Stephen loves baseball and the Red Sox and waited 50 odd years to see them win the pennant, so it was an amazing experience for him

[D DEBBS]

Found out that the remake of the movie 'Carrie' is going to be releashed October 18 instead of next Friday.

[Hommer]

The Mist and Shortcut seemed rather slow to me, but especially Shortcut. I liked them all though, especially The Reaper's Image. My favorite from Skeleton Crew is probably Nona.

The reason I disliked Nona was that it was anti-climactic. It's a long story, and the ending is exactly what you would expect. Also, I remember another story I liked: Uncle Otto's Truck. Very spooky. It reminded me of a David Lubar story.

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

Nona is much moreso about the atmosphere and ideals. Soooooo great....Uncle Otto's Truck was okay.

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UK cover for Doctor Sleep better than US:

[iambobdole1]

Agreed

[Judge Fudge]

Have any of you read The Long Walk? I loved that one.

[iambobdole1]

That was my first King novel. Still one of the scariest, imo

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

Have any of you read The Long Walk? I loved that one.

It's highly enjoyable, top 5 material.

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11/22/63 now being made into a tv series? Interesting...

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/04/...dffa5a0e00003d

[Le Krusty Burglar]

I recently read Firestarter, and I have to say, I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. Just too....slow at points.

[shoz999]

Their's been a Stephen King discussion and I haven't been told about this? Huh, so anyone think the film adapation of Carrie will be more faithful to the novel or what?

[Le Krusty Burglar]

I dunno. Remember that short It TV Series? Eugh....

[Jacqui]

I started reading Stephen King books when I was eleven- my mum's a big fan and I nicked her copy of It when I went to high school. We had a free reading day every week in English lesson and I got told by my teacher that It was not "appropriate" reading for an eleven year old...then she went on Maternity leave, and we got a new teacher who saw me reading it and he spent most of the lesson talking about how far I had got through the book, and what I thought of it, turns out he'd read it several times.

With one exception, I prefer his older stuff to his newer stuff. I have the audiobooks of The Stand and Under The Dome on my phone, I listen to them when I'm in work (on my own most of the time, I'm cleaning). I only read halfway through Under The Dome (it's my mum's book) and I've got further with the audiobook, but I've not got to the end yet. It's quite good, but I prefer The Stand.

I also love The Talisman, the one that he wrote with Peter Straub, but I wasn't keen on Black House, although I made sure to read it when I finally got hold of it. My top shelf of my bookshelf is entirely Stephen King books, and that's not all of them I have. The Tommyknockers I really don't like (my mum said that the book is better than the film, though I've never seen the film), I have an old copy of the Bachman Books I found in a charity shop (the one with Rage still in it- it's a very good story I think, but I can totally understand why he took it out of publication), I'm not sure I've read the Shining since I was fourteen, and I've never even managed to get through the film...then again I've always watched it quite late at night.

I quite like the Green Mile, but it makes me cry. Christine I own but I don't think I have ever read it. I've got a few other short story books, I like dipping into them when I need something short to read- I love the Sherlock Holmes story in Nightmares and Dreamscapes, and I really like Apt Pupil, it's so creepy. The first short I read was The House on Maple Street, which I loved aged eleven or twelve, but it seems quite childish now. I read Lisey's Story, which I liked a lot.

However, my favourite Stephen King book is 11/22/63. It was really a return to form. I mean I have read some of his more recent ones- I tried Under The Dome as I said, but I didn't get through it, mainly because it's my mum's and I had to give it back...and the less said about Cell, the better. Ugh. Difficult reading, and a pretty boring storyline. I thought it was terrible. However, 11/22/63 I thought was brilliant. I loved the way that even though it was a story about time travel and the assassination of Kennedy, he was still able to develop a lot of the characters that Jake met in the past, because Jake had to live through several years before 1963. At some points in the story, I felt that it was a lot more a love story with a twist than a story about Kennedy's assassination. But Kennedy has always fascinated me anyway, I've been interested in his story for a long time. That's why my favourite Red Dwarf episode is Tikka to Ride. But I just thought that 11/22/63 was brilliant, like his older works. I've never read one of his books so quickly. I bought it on a Friday, started reading it on Saturday evening, and finished it Sunday lunchtime. It's replaced It and The Stand as my favourite Stephen King book.

I've never read any of the Dark Tower series- a friend of mine says it's the best series she's ever read. Unfortunately, I've never been able to get hold of the books- I moved away and it's a bit awkward to borrow the books from my friend. I'd like to read them though...


Crap, I forgot about Delores Claibourne, I love that book! The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon wasn't great, Duma Key I never got through (it had to go back to the library and I remember nothing about it...) and it always put me off because I read it as a phonetic version of "Dyma Ci", which means "Here's the dog" in Welsh...the joys of being almost bilingual...

I like the Stand, it's not my favourite, but I do like the story. Post apocalyptic stuff is always a plus for me. I kinda liked the film/miniseries/whatever you wanna call it, but I objected to Molly Ringwald. She wasn't anything like Fran...and Nadine looked weird...she was meant to be stunning in the book, but just looked a little strange to me.

The film/miniseries/you know of It, I kinda liked. My mum says that the films of The Stand and It are most faithful to the books, but I'm not sure I agree with her.

[Oh, that's raspberry!]

Looks like the 3rd episode of the Under the Dome series is gonna reference the plot similarities with The Simpsons Movie. That's kinda cool.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/yes-c...at-in-t,97173/