Has Stephen King run out of ideas

[davejames]

I'm the only person I know who actually likes "The Langoliers."

I thought the short story was creepy as hell. It was just the movie that was complete shit.

As for King in general, I was a huge fan as a kid, but after awhile I kinda got tired of what felt like the same assortment of quirky characters in every novel-- the kid, the sleazy guy, the aging biker/novelist/detective, etc.

 

[CommanderRaytas]

Hasn't anyone read the Dark Tower books around here?

The characters in Lisey's Story are pretty different, too.

 

[Peter Q Taggart]

There was a book in the late 80's called "A Time To Remember" by Stanley Shapiro. A man goes back to prevent JFK's assassination because he believes that JFK will end the Vietnam war and thus save his brother who died there. Things go south, and so he keeps going back and makes things worse each time. The book was made into a so-so early 90's TV movie called "Running Against Time" starring Robert Hayes and Catherine Hicks.

 

[Admiral2]

Storm of the Century isn't based on a book though. It was an original screenplay.

That's ineresting, I didn't know that. Thanks. When I first saw the TV movie Andre Lanouche [sp?] still gives me the creeps. "Give me what I want and I'll go away." LOL

Linoge. His name is an anagram for "legion" (We Are Legion).

I thought it was a great mini-series.

 

[DeepSpaceWine]

I've seen an article about the Kennedy assassination recently (anniv. is Tuesday) and it indicated King was interested in writing a book about the day for decades and he read many many books on the subject. It is an old trope, but it's not as if he was drawing a blank a year or two ago and then decided to write the book. He was apparently inspired by the "You lie!" moment at the State of the Union and the similarity of the toxic atmosphere in the country then/now and back in Dallas in 1963. So the core idea in the story may me outdated, but I can understand his motivation in writing it and that this was an idea kicking about his mind for a long time.

 

[Robert D. Robot]

King writes about a guy going back in time to stop the Kennedy assassination. Roddenberry writes about guys exploring space in a spaceship. It is so sad that they both ran out of ideas and had to revisit old concepts that had been done before......

 

[The Dominion]

Roddenberry doesn't write anymore.

And I bet if King wrote this topic, it would end in an explosion like 80-90% of his stories.

 

[Starbreaker]

11/22/63 is amazing. He wrote a large portion of the novel in the 70's, but said it was too emotional for him to finish. There's actually a really good chance it will go down in history as his best novel. I read Lisey's Story and Full Dark, No Stars last year and it's some of his most emotionally engaging work ever. I really felt like I lived fro 1958-1963 when I read the book. It's the best thing I've read all year.

Haunted house stories are done to death. Exorcism stories are done to death. Vampire stories are done to death. Fantasy quests are done to death. It's what you do with the premise. Read the book before you judge.

 

[timothy]

I would love to see it as a movie.

 

[Base_Delta_Zero]

The Dark Tower series cratered after Wizard and Glass. Couldn't even finish the 5th book, it was so bad, and I loved the first three.

Eyes of the Dragon (set in the Tower universe) was pretty cool. I still remember that one.

The Stand (book and miniseries) was OK. I kept expecting it to get awesome, but it never did.

Storm of the Century was great, one of the few things of his that didn't suck out loud on TV.

The Mist short story was great. Movie was OK until they changed the ending to be edgy.

That book about writing he did was boring as hell, but I finished it. Started Bag of Bones and dropped it. Those and book 5 of Dark Tower were his last works I tried.

Could care less about yet another go back and save Kennedy story. It's as tired as go back and kill Hitler. How about go back and save someone else? No one ever seems to go back and save MLK, for example.

I don't know that he's run out of ideas, so much as I just don't like what he's been coming up with over the last ten years.

 

[indianatrekker26]

I'm about halfway through 11/22/63 and am loving it. He's written so many great books: Duma Key, Under the Dome, The Green Mile, Bag of Bones, Lisey's Story.
I've actually enjoyed his latter works more than his earlier.

 

[timothy]

don't forget the cell great book.

 

[Starbreaker]

Cell wasn't really that good.

 

[Sci]

I dare anyone to read Hearts in Atlantis, particularly "Low Men in Yellow Coats," and tell me King hasn't had a good idea in 20 years.

And I adored Wolves of the Calla.

 

[sidious618]

King started off great then feel into drugs and had to do rehab which is when his books fell to hit and miss. After that he was good but not great. However, sometime around 2000 he started churning out stuff that was different. Some of it was a miss but some of it was exceptional. Duma Key remains a masterpiece on reread.

I have his new novel but I haven't read it yet although I'm looking forward to it.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I would love to see it as a movie.

11/22/63 soon will be. Directed by Jonathan Demme. link

 

[Shanndee]

I absolutely love King's short stories, and he has released some fantastic compilations very recently...so I have to totally disagree that he has run out of ideas.

I'm also a huge fan of the Dark Tower series...who is it who has information on a new novel in the series? Is there a projected timeline for publication??

 

[Mysterion]

11/23/63 is the first Stephen King book I've purchased in about 20 years. Am about a third of the way through it and enjoying it very much.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I'm also a huge fan of the Dark Tower series...who is it who has information on a new novel in the series? Is there a projected timeline for publication??

Sometime next year. Set between DT volumes 4 and 5. link

 

[Shanndee]

Thanks so much for the info Mr. Laser Beam!