Stephen King

[sidious618]

I picked up a couple of King books from the store the other day as I've been going through his works over the past few years. I'm going through Itat the moment and it's a good novel but not one of King's best. You could cetainly see that the effects of cocaine and alcohol were making him get a little wonky.

That said, the man is a true talent. Duma Key, his most recent novel, is his best, I feel. It touched me like few books are able to: it made me laugh, shout with joy, become terrified and brought tears to my eyes. Obviously, King knows his horror but I feel he knows how to do so much more than scare you.

He's definitely one of my favorite authors and I'm curious to hear others' thoughts on him and his books. Favorite? Least favorite (Bag of Bones in my case)?

 

[Trent Roman]

Duma Key, his most recent novel, is his best, I feel. It touched me like few books are able to: it made me laugh, shout with joy, become terrified and brought tears to my eyes. Obviously, King knows his horror but I feel he knows how to do so much more than scare you.

I wasn't able to finish it. I accidently read ahead, saw who died, and couldn't bring myself to continue. I'll get back around to it eventually... it's just so heartbreaking.

Favorite? Least favorite (Bag of Bones in my case)?

Favourite King works are The Stand, The Regulators, It, Desperation on the longer side, The Mist and The Long Walk from his shorter pieces. I love how he builds living, breathing communities with such ease... then tears the living hell out of them. Least favourites are pieces like The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon and From A Buick 8, which were stories that basically went nowhere. Oh, and Road Work, which was simply so boring I gave up on it altogether after the first forty pages or so.

FIctitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Shurik]

Favorites - It, Pet Sematary, Tommyknockers, The Shining, The Mist, Salem's Lot.

The Stand had a great description of the end of civilization and of how people deal with it, but I didn't like all that old lady-vs-Randall Flagg stuff that came later. And the ending (Las-Vegas scenes) sucked.

 

[Gojirob]

For all its burps, bumps, and flaws : The Dark Tower. Its just too comprehensive for me to not admire the hell out of it.

Least fave : Storm Of The Century. It just seems that, once the evil came, all hope for beating/outwitting it was done. The villain did not seem to be lying about his threats, and his powers left them nothing but the worst choices. Was it their chosen isolation they were being punished for? It seemed like too much modern horror, a bad end for the sake of a bad end. Bad ends in and of themselves don't throw me, mind you. While horrific, the end of The Mist film was a logical outcome to understandable panic and fear. Even downer end manga like Devilman have a point to make. In 'Storm', I just could not see that point. I understand he novelized the script, maybe it shows deeper reasons for it all, but I have no desire to check it.

 

[Forbin]

I loved Carrie, The Shining and Pet Sematary.

I gave up on him in the middle of Cujo. I just couldn't stand reading about that woman's whiney annoying life any more. Subsequent books of his I've tried seemed to go on in the same annoyingly meandering way, so I haven't read him since.

Has he gotten the old fire back?

 

[WillsBabe]

Duma Key, his most recent novel, is his best, I feel.

I'm reading it at the moment. I'm finding it very difficult for reasons I don't really want to go into.

I've adored Stepen King for years. In fact the other night, reading Duma Key, I got to thinking that he will only be appreciated for the towering talent he is after his death.

 

[exodus]

Used to be a big fan of his, not so much anymore.

However, I've always had the sneaking suspicion that his wife not him wrote "Gerald's Game & Deloris Clairbourne". Those two stories don't contain the same themes and elements his other books do.

 

[sidious618]

I'm reading it at the moment. I'm finding it very difficult for reasons I don't really want to go into.

If you don't mind my asking, when you say difficult do you mean emotionally difficult or difficul as in its boring to get through?

However, I've always had the sneaking suspicion that his wife not him wrote "Gerald's Game & Deloris Clairbourne". Those two stories don't contain the same themes and elements his other books do.

Really? I've read neither of them. His wife has published books under her own name so I'd be surprised if she wrote under his. What would be the point, y'know? Those books were also written just after he detoxed so that may have affected him a bit.

 

[barnaclelapse]

I loved Carrie, The Shining and Pet Sematary.

I gave up on him in the middle of Cujo. I just couldn't stand reading about that woman's whiney annoying life any more. Subsequent books of his I've tried seemed to go on in the same annoyingly meandering way, so I haven't read him since.

Has he gotten the old fire back?

He actually mentioned in his book about writing (which is really, really, really good) that he has absolutely no memory of writing Cujo as it was during the peak of his drinking days.

For what that's worth.

As for King, I've always been a huge admirer of his work. It doesn't always come together, but the best of his writing is the work of a guy who truly seems to love what he does for a living and truly believes in the power a great story can have. He is absolutely the product of his own interests and to me has made a career out of trying to make people react to his work the way he reacted to the writers he loved.

I'm not sure that makes sense.

I truly think he will get more credit from the more prestigious corners of the literary world as time goes on.

Favorites: It, Different Seasons, The Green Mile, Carrie, Duma Key, Hearts in Atlantis, Desperation, The Stand, On Writing, The Dark Tower series

Least Favorites: Gerald's Game, Storm of The Century, From A Buick 8.

 

[exodus]

I'm reading it at the moment. I'm finding it very difficult for reasons I don't really want to go into.

If you don't mind my asking, when you say difficult do you mean emotionally difficult or difficul as in its boring to get through?

However, I've always had the sneaking suspicion that his wife not him wrote "Gerald's Game & Deloris Clairbourne". Those two stories don't contain the same themes and elements his other books do.

Really? I've read neither of them. His wife has published books under her own name so I'd be surprised if she wrote under his. What would be the point, y'know? Those books were also written just after he detoxed so that may have affected him a bit.

She'd make more money and get more acclaim?

 

[SinglePurpose]

I'm reading it at the moment. I'm finding it very difficult for reasons I don't really want to go into.

If you don't mind my asking, when you say difficult do you mean emotionally difficult or difficul as in its boring to get through?

However, I've always had the sneaking suspicion that his wife not him wrote "Gerald's Game & Deloris Clairbourne". Those two stories don't contain the same themes and elements his other books do.

Really? I've read neither of them. His wife has published books under her own name so I'd be surprised if she wrote under his. What would be the point, y'know? Those books were also written just after he detoxed so that may have affected him a bit.

She'd make more money and get more acclaim?

She's married to Stephen King so she doesn't need the money and she wouldn't get any acclaim if she didn't publish it under her own name. Not that it's impossible but it seems rather unlikely to me.

 

[LitmusDragon]

I'm a big fan of his work. In fact it was largely the experience of reading his books in high school that inspired me to attempt some creative writing of my own. His books "rock" in a way that most other literature doesn't. He also has a knack for setting up these perfect little scenes that you'll remember for the rest of your life. The end of the Dark Tower series, as provocative and controversial as it may be, is certainly not something I am ever going to forget.

Spoiler: The Dark Tower Ending

It's like I can picture that moment where Roland reaches the top of the tower and realizes he's going to have to do it all again, it's almost like a real moment, like something that I witnessed rather than something I read. King really has a knack for the visceral side of storytelling.

Favorites: The Dark Tower, The Stand, The Regulators, The Ten o' Clock People
Lease Favorites: Insomnia (about 300 pages too long)

 

[exodus]

If you don't mind my asking, when you say difficult do you mean emotionally difficult or difficul as in its boring to get through?



Really? I've read neither of them. His wife has published books under her own name so I'd be surprised if she wrote under his. What would be the point, y'know? Those books were also written just after he detoxed so that may have affected him a bit.

She'd make more money and get more acclaim?

She's married to Stephen King so she doesn't need the money and she wouldn't get any acclaim if she didn't publish it under her own name. Not that it's impossible but it seems rather unlikely to me.

Anybody here buy her books?

Anybody here know any of the titles written by her?

How many here know the book "Deloris Clairbourne"?
That's why she would publish it under his name.

 

[WillsBabe]

I'm reading it at the moment. I'm finding it very difficult for reasons I don't really want to go into.

If you don't mind my asking, when you say difficult do you mean emotionally difficult or difficul as in its boring to get through?

Emotionally difficult. Not boring or anything like that.

I've been a King fan for over 20 years. The first thing of his I read was Firestarter. I've read nearly every thing he's written, bar a few of the books he wrote in what I think of his "middle years" when I stopped enjoying his work. I'm thinking, Hearts in Atlantis; Rose Madder; Gerlad's Game - those works.

I've heard the rumour/myth that Tabitha King wrote under her husband's name, too. I have no idea how true it really is, all I know is that, for me, there were a sequence of novels I found so weak I didn't want to read them.

Has anyone read The Heart Shaped Box by Joe Hill? His writing is very influenced by his father, but I enjoyed it a great deal, because, or despite that.

 

[exodus]

I've heard the rumour/myth that Tabitha King wrote under her husband's name, too. I have no idea how true it really is,

Thanks, Willsbabe.

Yes, it's just a suspicion. Nobody has ever said for sure.

 

[Admiral2]

My favorites have always been the three C's

Carrie: Cause I like the notion of a telekinetic going mad ass on the elitist douchebags torturing her.

Christine: It's a big old "Detroit Steel" Plymouth driving by itself and killing people, then it play's fifties music and repairs itself. How is this not cool??

Cujo: Yes, Cujo. I'm afraid of big dogs. Sue me.

 

[Starbreaker]

1. The Dead Zone [C]
2. The Shining [A]
3. Bag of Bones [A]
4. Insomnia
   [*]The Green Mile [A]
   [*]The Eyes of the Dragon [C]
   [*]The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
   [*]The Long Walk [C]
   [*]The Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger [C]
   [*]The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three
   

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

His only recent work I've read was Cell, which was decent enough. It kind of sagged a bit in the middle, but there was lots of good stuff in there.

I'll probably read Duma Key someday, just because so many seem to like it.

 

[ManOnTheWave]

I actually liked Bag of Bones, but mainly as a character study in loss. I didn't really care for the climax, but he had said somewhere around there that he was really more interested in character dynamics that hwere plots go.

 

[byron lomax]

I've read a lot of criticism for From a Buick 8, and I agree the novel is a little frustrating in its lack of explanation, but some parts of the book really, really creeped me out. The descriptions of those undescribable creatures who emerge from the buick really made my flesh crawl.

Anyway, of what I've read, the best King novels: Salem's Lot, Pet Semetary (his scariest book, IMHO), The Girl who loved Tom Gordon (simple but superb), Needful Things, Desperation and The Regulators. The Stand is a masterpiece that fizzles in its final third.

As for short stories, Gramma scared the bejeezus out of me, and the conclusion to The Jaunt was truly horrific. The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet was strange and powerful. I am the Doorway, Sometimes they Come Back, Children of the Corn and The Raft also deserve a mention.

But overall, I think Different Seasons is Kings' masterpiece. Four perfect novellas in one book.

And worst? Dreamcatcher, an embarrassment in so many ways.