what the dickens?!
LOL. Okay, I've spent the last half hour Wiki-ing Dark Tower, and Robert Browning, The Lord of the Rings, Arthurian Legend, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is pretty much exactly why I stopped after book one. I know he considers this his magnum opus, but I really don't have the interest or patience to read about Maerlyn's Grapefruit...
― Same old bland-as-sand mood mouthings (Dan Peterson), Thursday, 15 August 2013 16:20 (ten years ago) link
dark tower rules, inspite of its flaws (of which there are a great many)
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 15 August 2013 16:23 (ten years ago) link
from the Drawing Of The Three through to Wizard And Glass it's AMAZING. everything else....not so much.
― Jamie_ATP, Thursday, 15 August 2013 16:42 (ten years ago) link
Yeah, there are individual scenes of greatness in each of the remaining ones, but they get lost in a sea of "Huh?"
― Here's the storify, of a lovely ladify (Phil D.), Thursday, 15 August 2013 17:03 (ten years ago) link
> I've spent the last half hour Wiki-ing Dark Tower, and Robert Browning, The Lord of the Rings, Arthurian Legend, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
oz books too.
― koogs, Thursday, 15 August 2013 17:22 (ten years ago) link
Just finished On Writing...top stuff. I found Misery in the street a while back, worth a go? I've not read ANY of his fiction.
― the Shearer of simulated snowsex etc. (Dwight Yorke), Thursday, 15 August 2013 18:04 (ten years ago) link
Misery's probably my favorite (haven't read it since age 18-19) because it's all psychological and no supernatural.
― only dogg forgives (Eazy), Thursday, 15 August 2013 18:05 (ten years ago) link
Misery is great
― OH MY GOD HE'S OOGLY (DJP), Thursday, 15 August 2013 18:08 (ten years ago) link
I re-read Misery a few years ago while proctoring exams at a local college. I was on the edge of my seat (literally!), despite already knowing the story.
― Sara R-C, Thursday, 15 August 2013 18:16 (ten years ago) link
misery always kind of bored me tbh, even the movie
book and movie objectively great, but like dolores claiborne i just wasnt drawn. not supernatural enough for me i guess
― "fear of putting out" in one's early thirties (darraghmac), Thursday, 15 August 2013 19:03 (ten years ago) link
The movie version of Misery is definitely a Rob Reiner movie, for worse and worse. The book, though, is top 5.
― Boven is het stil (Eric H.), Thursday, 15 August 2013 19:37 (ten years ago) link
I can now talk a little more freely about DOCTOR SLEEP. It's a real letdown, folks. It has a fantastic opening that dives right into the Overlook aftermath, and then jets ahead to Danny as a shiftless drunkard adult -- great stuff because of how heartbreaking it is to see Danny that way. And then, man oh man, does the book turn into mush. Basically Danny becomes the typical SK earthy-yet-perfect protagonist and the action is relegated to two characters duking it out physically, which is about as interesting on the page as computer hacking is on screen. The are virtually no stakes. After a string of very good books from SK, this is big clunker.
― The Thnig, Thursday, 15 August 2013 19:53 (ten years ago) link
a shame to hear that
― balls, Thursday, 15 August 2013 21:18 (ten years ago) link
glad to hear you can talk freely about it tho
― socki (s1ocki), Thursday, 15 August 2013 21:21 (ten years ago) link
Crap. They don't duke it out *physically*, they duke it out *psychically*. Big difference.
― The Thnig, Thursday, 15 August 2013 22:13 (ten years ago) link
Does anyone else think that Joe Hill's Locke & Key employs a shitloada the same tropes his father used to great effect, only with Joe's own spin?
― Your Own Personal El Guapo (kingfish), Monday, 16 September 2013 07:56 (ten years ago) link
AV Club is right on about Doc Sleep.
http://www.avclub.com/articles/stephen-king-doctor-sleep,103172/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=SocialMarketing&utm_campaign=Default:1:Default
― The Thnig, Monday, 23 September 2013 17:09 (ten years ago) link
I was recently re-reading The Dark Half, which I probably haven't read in 20 years or more, and noticed the clever (or "clever") trick he pulls in the opening chapter. He gets all the exposition/back story out of the way by having the main character in the book you are reading read a magazine article about himself.
― Marlo Poco (Phil D.), Tuesday, 24 September 2013 02:30 (ten years ago) link
Currently reading Under The Dome and it's fairly entertaining as long haul King epics go, but his occasional attempts to speak directly to the reader and guide him to the next part of the story are jarring and terrible and have no place in this book.
"Let us go then, you and I, while the evening spreads out against the sky.""We'll stop for a quick check on Barbie and Rusty shall we?""Let us float through certain half-deserted streets..."
He even goes so far as to tell us we are invisible and the people we drift past will only feel a faint draft from us. Awful stuff.
― We don’t have a Paul McGrath (onimo), Tuesday, 24 September 2013 10:05 (ten years ago) link
The first of those is T.S. Eliot.
― how's life, Tuesday, 24 September 2013 10:09 (ten years ago) link
Still, the conceit of the readers floating around invisibly sounds pretty terrible.
― how's life, Tuesday, 24 September 2013 10:11 (ten years ago) link
Last, too
― Øystein, Tuesday, 24 September 2013 10:12 (ten years ago) link
(xp obv)
Is it? Like a tribute or homage or a direct lift?
I remember reading a Terry Pratchett book that employed the same "let us float over" technique and hated it then too. I'm generally opposed to any "dear reader" breaking of walls.
Also jarring and off-putting "One fisted hand is pressed between the scant nubs of her breasts as she looks at that pink freak of a moon." - do we, dear readers, really need to know the size of this 13-year-old girl's breasts?
― We don’t have a Paul McGrath (onimo), Tuesday, 24 September 2013 10:19 (ten years ago) link
Oh lord no.
― how's life, Tuesday, 24 September 2013 10:21 (ten years ago) link
Like a tribute or homage or a direct lift?
nm found it(i should read more poetry and I'd spot such things straight off)
http://www.bartleby.com/198/1.html
― We don’t have a Paul McGrath (onimo), Tuesday, 24 September 2013 10:21 (ten years ago) link
Rooty toot.
― how's life, Friday, 18 October 2013 17:34 (ten years ago) link
would be awesome if "We'll stop for a quick check on Barbie and Rusty shall we?" was in Prufrock too
― brio, Friday, 18 October 2013 21:14 (ten years ago) link
http://www.deadline.com/2014/05/cannes-stephen-king-novel-geralds-game-to-be-adapted-by-oculus-helmer-mike-flanagan-and-intrepid-pictures/
― how's life, Sunday, 18 May 2014 17:16 (ten years ago) link
Loved Absentia. Missed Oculus in theaters, but will pick it up the second it's available in a home format. Never read Gerald's Game, but from what I gather, it's more hated than loved.
― how's life, Sunday, 18 May 2014 17:19 (ten years ago) link
ughhh i hate gerald's game so much. i wish i could unread it
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 18 May 2014 17:21 (ten years ago) link
Am I the only one silly enough to be reading Doctor Sleep? Can't decide if it's decent entertainment or complete garbage.
― Darin, Sunday, 18 May 2014 19:06 (ten years ago) link
I read Doctor Sleep. Its def second or maybe third tier King, but was entertaining enough. I wish he hadn't associated it with The Shining.
― sofatruck, Sunday, 18 May 2014 20:27 (ten years ago) link
I just recently got Insomnia from the library. Wow, did that suck.
― Humorist (horse) (誤訳侮辱), Sunday, 18 May 2014 21:27 (ten years ago) link
http://consequenceofsound.net/2014/12/behold-the-stephen-king-cinematic-universe/full-post/
― yodarman, Wednesday, 3 December 2014 18:13 (nine years ago) link
Bc of that site name I excitedly thought for a moment it was gonna be a round up of the film scores for all the SK films over the years.
(Maybe I'll do that)
― a drug by the name of WORLD WITHOUT END (Jon Lewis), Wednesday, 3 December 2014 18:20 (nine years ago) link
If they managed to actually pull this off, I'd be totally into it. My guess, though, is that the rights for the various works lie in different hands. And that any attempt to actually pull this off would be ham-fisted and awful.
― Scrumptuous Morsels For Your Tummy! (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 3 December 2014 18:22 (nine years ago) link
That's a lot of potentially awful movies/series to greenlight. But I am living for the idea of Stu Redman played by Scoot McNairy.
― Eric H., Wednesday, 3 December 2014 18:30 (nine years ago) link
http://www.theguardian.com/books/series/rereading-stephen-king
― koogs, Wednesday, 21 January 2015 21:27 (nine years ago) link
it's weird that I loved horror novels/short stories so much as a teen but could not abide horror movies at all unless they were pitched as "science fiction" or "psychological thriller" or "action movie"; something about the connection of the concept "horror" to actual visuals short-circuits something in my brain and stampedes directly to an unpleasant place in my brain
― DARING PRINCESS (DJP), Monday, September 10, 2012 10:48 AM (2 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
YES
― RAP GAME SHANI DAVIS (Raymond Cummings), Thursday, 22 January 2015 00:04 (nine years ago) link
I read the bookstop version of "The Stand" in 2001, ravenous. Some of the incidental end-of-days shit from that book haunts me even now.
― RAP GAME SHANI DAVIS (Raymond Cummings), Thursday, 22 January 2015 00:05 (nine years ago) link
Did anyone else give Mister Mercedes a go? I did the audiobook version - the ending was meh but everything building up to it was so gripping (and so well read by Will Patton) that I didn't listen to anything else for a few days.
― RAP GAME SHANI DAVIS (Raymond Cummings), Thursday, 22 January 2015 00:08 (nine years ago) link
I've been reading the kindle version on my phone. It's entertaining. King at his airport-thriller breeziest.
― Punny Names (latebloomer), Thursday, 22 January 2015 00:12 (nine years ago) link
OK, reading the various plot summaries from that Consequence of Sound post: people will eat up any old ludicrous shit King puts out, won't they?
― ornamental cabbage (James Morrison), Thursday, 22 January 2015 01:43 (nine years ago) link
Mister Mercedes struck as something that might have been a leftover from the Richard Bachman days, but overall I liked it.
― Οὖτις Δαυ & τηε Κνιγητσ (Phil D.), Thursday, 22 January 2015 03:17 (nine years ago) link
i gave up on mr mercedes v early
i know its supposed to be couched in hard-boiled cliches but i found it almost intolerably cliched from the beginning
idk. maybe i was just in a bad mood
― difficult-difficult lemon-difficult (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 22 January 2015 03:24 (nine years ago) link
Mr. Mercedes -- a nice, kind of humble everyday detective story. It's the start of a series -- two more are coming.
Revival is pretty good, despite a mid-book 200 pages or so that was, like, so unnecessary, but in SK fashion, readable anyway.
― The Thnig, Thursday, 22 January 2015 15:23 (nine years ago) link
Revival has its share of typical SK lapses -- some poor editing, odd pacing, and laughable OTTness -- but overall I enjoyed it. Usually I expect his books to start strong and fall apart in the last act, but this was the opposite ... the first chapter or two are so wholesome and bucolic I was tempted to bail, until some gore was splattered; the final chapters, while derivative, are intense, creepy, and ultra-dark.
I enjoyed those Guardian posts linked upthread but was sad the writer stopped with Gerald's Game ... it's the books after that I'd like more help to sift through.
― Brad C., Monday, 26 January 2015 20:56 (nine years ago) link
11/22/63 so far is really good!! The show, haven't read the book.
― JacobSanders, Thursday, 25 February 2016 20:33 (eight years ago) link
The ending of Revival scared the bejeezus out of me. It's the first time in quite a while I genuinely regretted finishing a book before lights out. For a while there it actually really upset me, until I just thought, "Well, of course that doesn't happen". I think SK tapped into a certain fear really effectively there.
― Duane Barry, Thursday, 25 February 2016 22:35 (eight years ago) link