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Gully Foyle posted:Just to be pedantic, Bill isn't the fat one, Ben is. Bill's the author/Stephen King stand-in. I enjoy Stephen King, a whole lot, for what it is. Looking forward to his next book. But it ALWAYS feels like author insertion with him, at least to me. The protagonist is ALWAYS some poorly disguised aspect of one Mr. S. King. I don't mid that too much because he's apparently an interesting guy with some weird phobias who can write gripping prose quite well, but I feel that he "author inserts" for a living.
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Aug 13, 2009 02:20
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Gully Foyle posted:I know there's the whole 'write what you know', but sometimes it feels like author insertion. That scene had a little too much "author insertion", if you know what I mean. 
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Aug 13, 2009 02:23
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Mister Kingdom posted:That scene had a little too much "author insertion", if you know what I mean. Let's just hope he's not "taking his work home with him", if you know what I mean. He should probably "leave his work at the office", if you know what I mean. Otherwise, he's "at risk for undue work related stress during his leisure hours", if you know what I mean. Wait, what are we talking about again?
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Aug 13, 2009 02:30
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oddspelling posted:Most of the burnouts I've known aren't obsessed with toe-headed preteens with SPECIAL ABILITIES and thier genetals; and they don't like/write chapters and endings of books that seem like they were xeroxed out of the NAMBLA magazine's short-fiction section. The whole It orgy and his other mentions of pre-pubescent/adolescent sex doesn't really bother me that much. I started reading his novels (particularly It and Gunslinger/Wastelands) around the age of 10, and it made sense to me then. Yes, re-reading them later in years was very unsettling, but I think that's part of the horror. Dreamcatcher was the worst I've read so far. It started out very intriguing, but as someone said before, rear end invading poo poo weasels just kind of got out of hand. The Stand kicks rear end, although there were just too many goddamn characters to keep straight. I'm probably also one of the few that did not really mind the last couple Dark Tower novels - the bizarre fourth-wall and self-insertion stuff really isn't too hard for me to handle considering the massive scope of it all. I loved Duma Key, I tore rear end through that in about 3 days I think. I really hope he got all of the magical retards/cripples out of his system for a few years in that, though. Oh yeah and I liked Cell, it was fun to read but it's far from a literary masterpiece. Not much of King's novels can be said to be masterpieces, but if that's what you're looking for then he's just frankly the wrong author. nmg fucked around with this message at 03:39 on Aug 13, 2009 |
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Aug 13, 2009 03:37
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I haven't read most of these in this thread, but my least favorite King book (Bachman technically) is The Running Man. Not that it's a bad book or because of the movie, it's because in the copy I have he gives away the ending in his own introduction. Gee thanks rear end in a top hat. It's a close race between the Gerald's Game flashback and the sewer escape in It as the part I most could have done without reading. Homeroom Fingering fucked around with this message at 21:01 on Aug 13, 2009 |
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Aug 13, 2009 20:57
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People who are DEEPLY DISTURBED by the It orgy are babies it made perfect thematic sense EDIT: I mean the whole point is that it was disturbing but to say it was really lovely or w/e is to kind of Miss It
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Aug 13, 2009 21:32
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Aquarium Gravel posted:But it ALWAYS feels like author insertion with him, at least to me. The protagonist is ALWAYS some poorly disguised aspect of one Mr. S. King. I've always thought he gave the main character a career as a writer/painter/whatever because it's easier for him to move people around to advance the plot when they don't have to be in the office at nine. The only regular working people in the novels that span any period of time greater than a single day seem to be cops, and cops are easy to write because their line of work advances the plot. From the start King seems to have had an issue with this. We either get school kids - Carrie, It, Rage - or we get artists - Misery, Duma Key, etc. Some other novels have people actually going through the normal workday routine but they are ensemble pieces such as Needful Things. Which brings me to cops and the almost prequel Dark Half and Buick 8. The only other time that people tend to live normal lives between the horror are in books and short stories where they are either on vacation, tied to a bed in a psychotics house or tied to a bed in a cabin or in books where the time-frame is limited to an afternoon. The book I disliked the most was Rose Madder, but I find myself re-reading the dark half and needful things the most of his work because there is something that just clicks in for me when King is writing about Castle Rock. I'd love to see a Castle Rock collection including the collected short stories that have taken place there - It grows on you - and maybe some more unpublished stuff. I seem to recall him saying in an interview he had a story where a windmill chased someone around the Rock? That could be fun. Edit: The Storm Of The Century screenplay is worth getting. Liked the movie, loved the written work. Local Group Bus fucked around with this message at 00:05 on Aug 14, 2009 |
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Aug 13, 2009 23:59
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Gully Foyle posted:Just to be pedantic, Bill isn't the fat one, Ben is. Bill's the author/Stephen King stand-in. He literally put himself in as a character in two of the Dark Tower books. (#5 & 6 I think).
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Aug 14, 2009 01:38
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I know I'm raising this thread from the dead, but I have a good reason: about 3 days ago I scored an ARC of King's new book Under the Dome. Apparently they've been sending these out, sans dust jacket, to bookstores already. I haven't read it yet myself , but my fiance' just finished it tonight. Then, she walked over , thrust the book towards me, and said to hurry up and "loving. read. this. loving. book." Sounds good to me! For reference, she's never read any of the Dark Tower books, but thought Duma Key was okay, thought Cell was "meh," and loved most of his short story collections. She also immediately pre-ordered the super crazy $70 version of the book with all the extras. So I guess this post boils down to "holy poo poo I have the new Stephen King book and it sounds loving awesome!" I'm starting it tomorrow and will post thoughts as I go along. To begin with, the book is 1074 pages. drat. Links! Amazon Barnes and Noble with snippets of reviews, nothing too spoilery.
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Sep 24, 2009 04:54
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I want to believe Steve.......I want to believe. 
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Sep 24, 2009 05:05
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Zimadori Zinger posted:I want to believe Steve.......I want to believe. You are not alone...
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Sep 24, 2009 05:17
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Please God be better than Just After Sunset...
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Sep 24, 2009 06:30
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What was bad about Just After Sunset?
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Sep 24, 2009 06:56
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I finished the Dark Tower series and I honestly don't know what everyone thinks is so bad about the last book. I thought it was the best in the series. The whole thing in Algul Siento was awesome, I actually felt really bad for Eddie and Jake, and the last stretch to the tower was awesome in a bitter-sweet kind of way. I even liked the ending, although I think he should have ended on that cliffhanger before he urges you not to read anymore. But maybe I'm just easy to please. I thought the 7th book was great, the only books I didn't really like so much were the 2nd and the 6th.
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Sep 24, 2009 08:39
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The one I've liked the least is Cell, mainly because it loses steam by the end. Liked the beggining a lot, but mindhive floating zombies were a bit silly, if fun.
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Sep 24, 2009 12:49
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Bonus posted:I finished the Dark Tower series and I honestly don't know what everyone thinks is so bad about the last book. I thought it was the best in the series. The whole thing in Algul Siento was awesome, I actually felt really bad for Eddie and Jake, and the last stretch to the tower was awesome in a bitter-sweet kind of way. I even liked the ending, although I think he should have ended on that cliffhanger before he urges you not to read anymore. Finally, there is another. I loved it too.
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Sep 24, 2009 14:52
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I never really saw anything really wrong with books 5-7 of the Dark Tower series. Some little things were kinda bad but on the whole they were good books.
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Sep 24, 2009 16:51
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oddspelling posted:He literally put himself in as a character in two of the Dark Tower books. (#5 & 6 I think). He doesn't appear as a character in 5, but he is mentioned by name. He actually shows up in 7 (not sure about 6 because it was terrible and I've forgotten most of it), and say's that he's basically a conduit or prophet for God. Seriously.
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Sep 24, 2009 17:22
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Bonus posted:I finished the Dark Tower series and I honestly don't know what everyone thinks is so bad about the last book. I thought it was the best in the series. The whole thing in Algul Siento was awesome, I actually felt really bad for Eddie and Jake, and the last stretch to the tower was awesome in a bitter-sweet kind of way. I even liked the ending, although I think he should have ended on that cliffhanger before he urges you not to read anymore. Wow, last night I was actually thinking to myself everything you just wrote here.
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Sep 24, 2009 18:36
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fishmech posted:I never really saw anything really wrong with books 5-7 of the Dark Tower series. Some little things were kinda bad but on the whole they were good books. Me too. Then again I read through them all one after the other in a 6-month period rather than waiting half my life for them to trickle out every few years, so it could be my expectations weren't as high.
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Sep 24, 2009 19:30
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I'm currently starting on the 5th book of the Dark Tower. So far, I've liked just about everything except for the ending to Wizard and Glass, which I thought was disappointing after such a great middle section. So far, I'm liking Wolves of the Calla okay, but there is a definite difference between this and the other books. The thing that is bugging me most is all of the self-referential comments to the past books. I'm sure there is a reason for them, but all of the stuff about 19 this and 19 that and chuckling about how the thinny sounds Hawaiian is pretty heavy handed and annoying. Actually, Eddie is getting pretty annoying, so he had better do something cool soon. I do like the Magnificent Seven homage. Also, I just read The Stand for the first time, so maybe I'm setting the bar a little too high for Wolves....
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Sep 24, 2009 20:24
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The only read disappointment in the 7th book for me was The Crimson King himself. He was made out to be so cool during the books, and then it turned out that he is literally an angry crazy Santa Claus who is literally stuck on a balcony and has a box of grenades which he throws while shouting EEEEEEEEE!.
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Sep 24, 2009 20:50
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Bonus posted:The only read disappointment in the 7th book for me was The Crimson King himself. He was made out to be so cool during the books, and then it turned out that he is literally an angry crazy Santa Claus who is literally stuck on a balcony and has a box of grenades which he throws while shouting EEEEEEEEE!. gently caress yeah. I hated the ending and felt it made the series a waste of time in general, but Crimson King turning out to be lamer than many of his own henchman really loving burned me 
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Sep 24, 2009 20:57
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Bonus posted:The only read disappointment in the 7th book for me was The Crimson King himself. He was made out to be so cool during the books, and then it turned out that he is literally an angry crazy Santa Claus who is literally stuck on a balcony and has a box of grenades which he throws while shouting EEEEEEEEE!. Don't forget that his hand grenades are actually motherfucking Harry Potter toys.
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Sep 24, 2009 21:14
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H.P. Shivcraft posted:Don't forget that his hand grenades are actually motherfucking Harry Potter toys. SNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETCHES
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Sep 24, 2009 22:37
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Something must be wrong with me because I would probably hump every book he has ever written, even the non-fiction stuff. Danse Macabre was great for introducing me to things I hadn't read or seen yet and On writing made me laugh like a loving loon. The only thing I haven't read is The Colorado Kid, but I imagine I would love the poo poo out of even that. I cannot say how excited I am for Under the Dome.
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Sep 26, 2009 00:57
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Bonus posted:But maybe I'm just easy to please. This is the correct answer. The books get worse as they go on, and the quality drops considerably after he was hit by the van (in real life I mean).
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Sep 26, 2009 01:47
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I'm really excited for this book as well. It's been a while since I was really into King. I never started the Dark Tower books, so by the time he started wrapping up the series and I started reading the opinions, I lost interest in that. The last King book I read was Cell, which I really love (and I know I'm in the minority there). Before that, I think the last King book I read was Hearts in Atlantis, which I found mediocre at best. I remember I also tried reading Bag of Bones, but I just couldn't get through it. I still intend to get around to Duma Key, though, as I've heard it's pretty good. Somehow, as soon as I heard the length of this new book being compared to that of The Stand, I started getting excited. Something about the epic length just makes me convinced the book has to be good, that it has to be a return to the King I grew up worshiping. This is probably maybe the 3rd post ever that I've made in BB (nothing against the forum, I just rarely have a reason to post here). That will probably change once the book comes out and there's a thread for it. I'm really bummed that I still have to wait all the way to freaking November to get my hands on this one. UncleMonkey fucked around with this message at 03:11 on Sep 26, 2009 |
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Sep 26, 2009 03:09
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well, right now on King's website is a very, very rough version a 60 page story he started, called The Cannibals, that is something he tried to write initially using the same idea but gave up on. It basically stops just before anything of interest happens but it was right up my alley, I am not bored by his bullshit.
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Sep 26, 2009 03:18
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kosherpickle posted:well, right now on King's website is a very, very rough version a 60 page story he started, called The Cannibals, that is something he tried to write initially using the same idea but gave up on. It basically stops just before anything of interest happens but it was right up my alley, I am not bored by his bullshit. I believe he's started this story no less than 6 times, The Cannibals being like the 3rd attempt.
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Sep 26, 2009 05:17
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kosherpickle posted:Something must be wrong with me because I would probably hump every book he has ever written, even the non-fiction stuff. Danse Macabre was great for introducing me to things I hadn't read or seen yet and On writing made me laugh like a loving loon. The only thing I haven't read is The Colorado Kid, but I imagine I would love the poo poo out of even that. Danse Macabre introduced me to The Auctioneer, which is a drat good book.
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Sep 26, 2009 15:15
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All the complaints about King seem to stem from the fact that he's simply not good at plotting. In fact, he said he eschews plotting and lets the story take him wherever. The problem is, he tends to build up all the time the sort of suspense and intensity that seem to promise a great ending, but when we get to it we're almost always disappointed.
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Sep 26, 2009 18:25
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kosherpickle posted:Something must be wrong with me because I would probably hump every book he has ever written, even the non-fiction stuff. Dude, I'm with you on this entirely, but even the non-fiction stuff? I think I like his non-fiction better than his fiction. Danse Macabre was amazing, and I would love an updated version. I guess if I had to actually answer the thread title, I'd say The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon was the worst Stephen King novel, but even that did some things well.
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Sep 27, 2009 08:38
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I thought Dreamcatcher was great. Kind of odd, but I like it a lot. Put my vote down for The Dark Tower. And not necessarily because it was bad per se, but because of how utterly poorly it ended the series begun by The Gunslinger which was a masterpiece.
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Sep 27, 2009 09:59
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Zimadori Zinger posted:I want to believe Steve.......I want to believe. Hell, the premise is interesting...
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Sep 27, 2009 13:39
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Well, Neil Gaiman seems to like Under The Dome. v v
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Sep 27, 2009 18:06
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Zimadori Zinger posted:Well, Neil Gaiman seems to like Under The Dome. v Neat, I'm reading the same book as Neil Gaiman. Nerd boner bonus. 150 pages in and the book is still in setup mode. Not to say that there hasn't been any action, because plenty of people have died in horrible ways, but the story is just starting to come together. I'm not saying this is a bad thing. Those 150 pages felt like, maybe, 50 of somebody else's writing. More spoilerific stuff about characters and the basic story follows: So far we've got the main good guy and bad guys, and a bunch of people who could go either way. The good guy is an ex-Army Captain who, for reasons not yet revealed, got the poo poo beat out of him by one of the main baddies and crew. His nickname is Barbie. Barbie was hightailing it out of town when The Dome appeared and now he's stuck inside and forced to deal with: The baddies: The big bad so far is Big Jim Rennie. Used car salesman who doesn't swear since he got born-again, but still manages to embezzle plenty of town funds from his position as Second Selectman. As soon as everything goes down he starts his power grab. Big Jim's son Junior has been the most evil so far, already accounting for two murders. He's got a brain tumor and blames all his bad actions on the headaches. Junior and his friends beat up Barbie before the novel begins, then get drafted by Big Jim, who can make the town council do whatever he wants, to be police deputies during the crisis. As for the dome itself, it just appears. And for the first 100 pages or so people and animals keep running into it, some people/animals were sliced by the Dome when it activated. Where I left off, Barbie was just starting to get a little more info on the Dome from a military higherup. No clue on who or what created it yet, but my fiance' told me that info does come about. As of now, the military has established a dead zone on the outside of the Dome to keep people away and they've been testing the Dome to try and learn about it. Some cell phone calls can get through, but not many. Landlines and power are out, but almost everyone has enough juice for their generators for now. There have also been plenty of "false starts" where you learn about a character and start thinking they may play a big role in the story, but then they die abruptly. In brief, this feels like old, epic Stephen King. I'm loving it so far, but beginnings are King's strongpoint. I hope I stay this excited about the book the whole way through. I haven't read The Stand in forever but I'm gonna have to pick it up after Dome to see how they compare.
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Sep 27, 2009 19:54
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Ninja Bob posted:Dude, I'm with you on this entirely, but even the non-fiction stuff? I think I like his non-fiction better than his fiction. Danse Macabre was amazing, and I would love an updated version. In regards to Danse Macabre(also one of my faves) there is no update coming out as far as I know, but I've found out that Stephen has written a big rear end article for Fangoria magazine that will feature his favorite literary and movie horror (post-Danse Macabre) along with his views on modern horror movie fads. I think its the next issue coming out.
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Sep 27, 2009 23:11
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Ninja Bob posted:Dude, I'm with you on this entirely, but even the non-fiction stuff? I meant it more like, "yes, ALL OF IT." but now that I think of it I also haven't read the baseball book he was involved in. Static Rook posted:Neat, I'm reading the same book as Neil Gaiman. How? How do you have this book already? I didn't like Neil Gaiman but, uh, I've seen his library and I trust his judgment.
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Sep 28, 2009 07:40
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kosherpickle posted:How? How do you have this book already? My guess is Advance Release Copies are finding their way around.
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Sep 28, 2009 15:42
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