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
http://www.avclub.com/article/idris-elba-and-matthew-mcconaughey-confirmed-star--233053
― sofatruck, Tuesday, 1 March 2016 21:34 (eight years ago) link
Enjoying mr Mercedes
― calstars, Wednesday, 2 March 2016 00:32 (eight years ago) link
any word on who will play Stephen King in the Dark Tower film? presumably won't play himself but who do you even cast to play him...might have to get Johnny Depp or something...
also mr mercedes and the sequel are great, if you like stupid hard boiled detective novels, not exactly King's wheelhouse but he's pretty good at it
― sheesh, Friday, 4 March 2016 01:37 (eight years ago) link
he wrote a sequel?
― carly rae jetson (thomp), Friday, 4 March 2016 01:44 (eight years ago) link
yep, called finders keepers, strays a little bit more into weird/supernatural King territory near the end, which is probably a good thing
though if you like mr mercedes at all I implore you to check out the "hard case" trilogy by dan simmons, another horror writer trying his hand at the hard boiled detective thing and doing a much better job imo, he could churn one of those out every month and I'd gobble it up like so much nasty candy
― sheesh, Friday, 4 March 2016 06:34 (eight years ago) link
So this seems like it's going to be a year of King adaptations going really big -- The Dark Tower and It kinda make for a hell of a one-two. Still no Dark Tower trailer yet but here's a footage report:
http://io9.gizmodo.com/we-have-seen-the-first-footage-from-the-dark-tower-1793703645
As for It:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnCdOQsX5kc
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 29 March 2017 17:07 (seven years ago) link
reading IT for the first time, about halfway through, obviously King's masterpiece - wish I hadn't waited to read it for so long... so much better than The Stand.
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 29 March 2017 17:09 (seven years ago) link
so this is set in the 80s and won't include the adult timeline?
― circa1916, Wednesday, 29 March 2017 17:13 (seven years ago) link
I dunno if Stephen king has a masterpiece but if he does its surely one from book 2,3 or 4 of dark tower
― virginity simple (darraghmac), Wednesday, 29 March 2017 17:14 (seven years ago) link
whoever's behind this must've been pretty stoked to see Stranger Things clean up
― circa1916, Wednesday, 29 March 2017 17:15 (seven years ago) link
no handjob scene no credibility
wasn't IT stephen king's cocaine novel?
― nomar, Wednesday, 29 March 2017 17:19 (seven years ago) link
he had a few. tommyknockers maybe the most notorious.
― circa1916, Wednesday, 29 March 2017 17:19 (seven years ago) link
Cujo is the one he can't remember
― virginity simple (darraghmac), Wednesday, 29 March 2017 17:21 (seven years ago) link
They're doing this as two parts, but yeah looks like they've shifted the first half of the book to the 80s, presumably the second half/film will be the present.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 29 March 2017 17:22 (seven years ago) link
well that trailer does look good tbh
― nomar, Wednesday, 29 March 2017 17:23 (seven years ago) link
he tweeted a couple weeks ago that he saw the movie, loved it, and said that it's just part one of the book.
― flappy bird, Wednesday, 29 March 2017 17:44 (seven years ago) link
should be noted that King reps for a lot of terrible things
this looks like it has potential though
― circa1916, Wednesday, 29 March 2017 17:46 (seven years ago) link
looks like it has the atmosphere down...i think the problem w/most king horror adaptations is they get the gore factor well enough, but they miss the pervasive creepiness.
― nomar, Wednesday, 29 March 2017 17:47 (seven years ago) link
Hope it's up to the standard of 1997's triumphant the shining
― a Brazilian professional footballer (wins), Wednesday, 29 March 2017 17:48 (seven years ago) link
trailer looks awesome
― Evan R, Wednesday, 29 March 2017 17:49 (seven years ago) link
i have a good feeling about this It
also agree it is the quintessential SK book (of the doorstop phase)
― chip n dale recuse rangers (Jon not Jon), Wednesday, 29 March 2017 17:51 (seven years ago) link
Is it a sure-thing this movie will be a two parter? This looks pretty stand alone, and no details seem to be confirmed for a second one
― Evan R, Wednesday, 29 March 2017 17:54 (seven years ago) link
It is very sure -- been widely reported/noted, including from King himself per upthread.
― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 29 March 2017 17:59 (seven years ago) link
According to IMDB, some fans tried to start a thing to get them to cast the child actors from the miniseries as the adults in this version. Which -- even apart from Jonathan Brandis being, you know, dead -- would be silly. Especially since one of them was Seth Green.
― Lauren Schumer Donor (Phil D.), Wednesday, 29 March 2017 18:07 (seven years ago) link
Petition for Tim Curry to star as pennywise's dad and if possible to have a line or two of dialogue about how the female ghostbusters was s terrible idea
― a Brazilian professional footballer (wins), Wednesday, 29 March 2017 18:12 (seven years ago) link
the trailer looks v good. i'm less sure about the time jump
― the raindrops and drop tops of lived, earned experience (BradNelson), Wednesday, 29 March 2017 18:15 (seven years ago) link
I'd've preferred that they cast the adults from the miniseries as the kids in the new movie.
― Ambling Shambling Man (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 29 March 2017 18:23 (seven years ago) link
This kid they've cast as Patrick Hockstetter definitely looks like the kind of guy who would give his pal a handy in the junkyard before getting eaten by flying leeches.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm4977122
― Lauren Schumer Donor (Phil D.), Wednesday, 29 March 2017 18:27 (seven years ago) link
heh I revisited it earlier this year (in audiobook form) and was surprised at the gay panic running all throughout. It's one of his coke novels but also maybe his AIDS novel??
― a Brazilian professional footballer (wins), Wednesday, 29 March 2017 18:36 (seven years ago) link
Yeah some of that was rough to read. I imagine the thing he'd most want to retcon out of existence though is that child sex scene
― Evan R, Wednesday, 29 March 2017 18:52 (seven years ago) link
You don't think we'll finally see that realised onscreen?
― a Brazilian professional footballer (wins), Wednesday, 29 March 2017 18:59 (seven years ago) link
christ this looks incredible!
― piscesx, Wednesday, 29 March 2017 20:59 (seven years ago) link
Is it bad that I'm looking forward to seeing the balloon in the library pop & be filled with blood
Or was that the spider
Either way HI YEP HELLO INTO IT
― Yoni Loves Chocha (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 29 March 2017 23:25 (seven years ago) link
I'm not ready for a movie that actually gets this right tbh
― virginity simple (darraghmac), Thursday, 30 March 2017 17:09 (seven years ago) link
lol
― flappy bird, Thursday, 30 March 2017 17:10 (seven years ago) link
It's weird, I've read It twice, and watched the mini-series a couple times as well, but that was all before I had kids of my own. Not sure how eager I am to revisit this now.
― You're going to see a lot of love. Okay? Thank you. (Dan Peterson), Thursday, 30 March 2017 18:23 (seven years ago) link
It's difficult (and, understandable, therefore attractive) to make a case for any other SK book as his best book. I mean, if IT was the only book he ever wrote, it'd still be a horror landmark.
― The Thnig, Thursday, 30 March 2017 18:26 (seven years ago) link
For all the many terrors in the book, one of the most horrible scenes for me is when Eddie's pharmacist tries to tell him he doesn't really have asthma and his inhaler is a placebo. Just that sense of betrayal by adult authority figures, plus the illumination of his mother's domineering personality and probably Munchausen-by-proxy going on.
― Lauren Schumer Donor (Phil D.), Thursday, 30 March 2017 18:28 (seven years ago) link
I might be inclined to give it up for The Long Walk. That thing is lean and perfect and horrifying.
― Ambling Shambling Man (Old Lunch), Thursday, 30 March 2017 18:28 (seven years ago) link
If not for the literal hand-of-god ending The Stand would be his best in a walk. Nothing beats the chapter in which he describes all the people who were immune to the superflu but died via their own misfortune or through terrible accidents.
― Lauren Schumer Donor (Phil D.), Thursday, 30 March 2017 18:30 (seven years ago) link
Well said Lauren: the book is full of so many of those moments -- it seems like thousands of them! -- that recalling the book is almost like recalling your own past, the infinite memories that pop up. It's just so much. It's overwhelming. Something about the fact that he made it about adults/kids and about memories lends it this staying power.
― The Thnig, Thursday, 30 March 2017 18:33 (seven years ago) link
(re: IT, not The Stand)
Yeah there's something about the kid part that almost feels like they're my own memories? The library scenes as a kid I pictured happening in my school library
― Yoni Loves Chocha (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 30 March 2017 18:52 (seven years ago) link
I still agree with my ranking from 5 years ago:
The StandItThe Long WalkMisery'Salem's Lot
― Rachel Luther Queen (DJP), Thursday, 30 March 2017 18:52 (seven years ago) link
Hard-pressed to argue with that ranking.
Also, yes, It should be read when you're a kid for the exact reasons posted.
― Ambling Shambling Man (Old Lunch), Thursday, 30 March 2017 18:59 (seven years ago) link
would like to see It filmed with the same tone as Stand By Me, they're pretty similar... assume this point has been made upthread in one of the 1k messages skipped but hey
― erry red flag (f. hazel), Thursday, 30 March 2017 19:18 (seven years ago) link