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I've never really understood all the Regulators/Desperation hate. I like both novels, and I think they're fairly unique in terms of concept and execution. Granted, Regulators is the weaker of the two, but they're both better than a lot of other books King wrote.
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Oct 28, 2009 21:37
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I hated Cujo, the Dark Half, the Dead Zone, and Wizard and Glass, Bag of Bones, and the Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. I loved From A Buick 8, but I'm really into the weird poo poo that never gets explained sort of stuff. The self-insert bits of the Dark Tower books were absolutely awful and we could have got by without them. I was pretty pissed off with the reveal of the Crimson King and with what happened to Flagg, though - they'd both been built up so drat much over the past few years, and what happens? Bumhugs, the lot of 'em.
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Oct 28, 2009 21:52
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I really like The Regulators, and have never made it through more than half of Desperation. I've tried reading it four or five times.
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Oct 28, 2009 22:47
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I found a hardcover copy of 'On Writing' yesterday and finished it front to back in one sitting. Fantastic read.
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Oct 28, 2009 22:52
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Mad Hamish posted:I hated Cujo, the Dark Half, the Dead Zone, and Wizard and Glass, Bag of Bones, and the Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. I keep saying he should have had Richard Bachman be the author of the series they must save (hence the notes in some of the Bachman books that say he's died and King's finished them)--that might've been generally clever without being egocentric/dumb. Or hell, have it be Peter Straub.
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Oct 29, 2009 01:42
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timeandtide posted:I keep saying he should have had Richard Bachman be the author of the series they must save (hence the notes in some of the Bachman books that say he's died and King's finished them)--that might've been generally clever without being egocentric/dumb. Or hell, have it be Peter Straub. For all we know he's going to unleash a "revised" book 5-7 like he did for 1 and 2, and make those changes.
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Oct 29, 2009 01:46
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madprocess posted:like he did for 1 and 2 You mean 1. I was looking on Wikipedia and read this: quote:In an interview in March 2009, King stated, describing an idea for a new short story he recently had: "And then I thought, 'Well, why don't I find three more like this and do a book that would be almost like modern fairy tales?' Then this thing started to add on bits and pieces so I guess it will be a novel." According to King, the idea is a new Dark Tower novel. King said, regarding the Dark Tower series, "It's not really done yet. Those seven books are really sections of one long uber-novel." I really should read book 4-7 and the comic series. Or maybe start again from book 1, it's been 5 years since I finished book 3. Hedrigall fucked around with this message at 02:03 on Oct 29, 2009 |
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Oct 29, 2009 01:58
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Hedrigall posted:You mean 1. 2 had minor revisions made after either 3 or 4 was released, forget which. They don't mention it on the book, but later editions have some things changed.
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Oct 29, 2009 02:10
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Hedrigall posted:I really should read book 4-7 and the comic series. Or maybe start again from book 1, it's been 5 years since I finished book 3. You really shouldn't read the comics. They're as bad as most people claim books 5-7 are.
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Oct 29, 2009 02:19
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Hedrigall posted:You mean 1. I just read the article that's quoted from, and he says he actually might revise the other books (I'm not sure if that includes 5-7), and talks about how it might've been a bad idea to write all three Dark Tower novels back-to-back.
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Oct 29, 2009 03:09
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Astfgl posted:I've never really understood all the Regulators/Desperation hate. I like both novels, and I think they're fairly unique in terms of concept and execution. Granted, Regulators is the weaker of the two, but they're both better than a lot of other books King wrote. I liked Desperation but The Regulators just felt too "cheesy."
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Oct 29, 2009 04:15
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muscles like this? posted:I liked Desperation but The Regulators just felt too "cheesy." This further confirms my theory that I have it somehow backwards. Nobody but me seems to like The Regulators more.
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Oct 29, 2009 05:14
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egon_beeblebrox posted:This further confirms my theory that I have it somehow backwards. Nobody but me seems to like The Regulators more.  I did too.
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Oct 29, 2009 06:11
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timeandtide posted:I keep saying he should have had Richard Bachman be the author of the series they must save (hence the notes in some of the Bachman books that say he's died and King's finished them)--that might've been generally clever without being egocentric/dumb. Or hell, have it be Peter Straub. I seem to be in the minority with this opinion, but while I believe that books V-VII each had some weaker sections of the plot, I didn't have a problem with King making himself a character. At that point, the story had already gotten so crazy that I thought his self-inclusion fit the feel of the story and was kind of a fun, post-moderny, breaking the 4th wall type thing in line with something from a silver age comic book or Grant Morrison's run on Animal Man. Essentially the Dark Tower universe is a slightly less silly version of the DC multiverse where one of the universes is actually our own. King has already written himself into plenty of his books as the English teacher who becomes a hero or the popular fiction writer who becomes a hero that I think that what he did in The Dark Tower series was actually less egocentric.
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Oct 29, 2009 07:00
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I loved Desperation if only because of Collie and his wacky antics. The whole, "Jesus is my best friend and he talks to me and I'm going to pray real, real hard!" part almost ruined it, though. I also like how there's actually a cell phone produced at one point. As for The Regulators, a quarter of the story being about a filthy, severely autistic kid getting boners, wanting to gently caress his mom, and having to take a poo poo was almost too much. Though the evil Power Rangers were pretty funny.
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Oct 29, 2009 18:11
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Hedrigall posted:I really should read book 4-7 and the comic series. Or maybe start again from book 1, it's been 5 years since I finished book 3. Comic series isn't bad, and you can read it between 4 and 5 if you're looking to postpone the precipitous drop-off in quality of the last three installments. I recommend re-reading the first three not because you need to but just because they're pretty awesome (  the wastelands)
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Oct 29, 2009 18:53
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Oldbill posted:I think you mean "The Gingerbread Girl" or something like that. And yeah, that actually was pretty suspenseful. I was feeling that old Stephen King feeling for just a minute. And then during the big chase sequence she tears off her torn running shorts because she couldn't hold them up and keep running as fast as she could. A page-and-a-half later, the shorts have mysteriously reappeared and are torn off again much, much later. Jesus Christ, King. This actually isn't correct, I have the book next to me she does yank repeatedly at them but she is yanking them up, not off. She keeps the shorts on and ends up losing them in the ocean during their final fight. I kept waiting for her to tear them off because I would have done it(and likely died for my efforts). All better? Is anyone else attempting this contest they have going on where you search for and/or put together some 5,000+ pieces of the new book hidden on the internet? I would, but I don't have the time to concentrate on it at the moment. If nothing else it could be a way to read some of the book before it comes out in a couple weeks.
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Oct 30, 2009 05:28
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After reading The Dark Tower books, The Stand, and 'Salem's Lot in the last 6 months, I've been buying lots of used King novels to read. I just finished The Dead Zone. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but the old paperback edition I have sure misrepresented the actual story. The back of the book reads: "Johnny, the small boy who skated at breakneck speed into an accident that for one horrifying moment plunged him into THE DEAD ZONE Johnny Smith, the small-town teacher who spun the wheel of fortune and won a four-and-a-half year trip into THE DEAD ZONE John Smith, who awakened from an interminable coma with an accursed power -- the power to see the future and the terrible fate awaiting mankind in THE DEAD ZONE." While the description is technically correct, it's pretty misleading. It makes the book sound like it is going to be some sort of alternate dimension sci-fi thriller. The book has some good elements in it to be sure. I enjoyed the focus on Johnny's recovery from the coma and drama with his parents and ex-girlfriend, but the book seemed to have a pretty awkward pacing to it. It was very episodic with little excursions into other peoples' stories that left you wondering "Hmmm..I wonder when this is going to fit in to the main narrative?" They all connected, but it didn't seem like the story flowed very naturally. The book seemed to take a long time to go anywhere, and when it did go somewhere, I felt a little unsatisfied. So, while I haven't read enough to say which book is the worst, The Dead Zone is certainly the least satisfying Stephen King novel I've read so far. For the people that have read more of his books, what do you think of The Dead Zone? Oh, and I just started Misery and was hooked after just a couple of pages! Very different pacing from any of King's books that I've read so far.
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Nov 4, 2009 01:25
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Malaleb posted:Oh, and I just started Misery and was hooked after just a couple of pages! Very different pacing from any of King's books that I've read so far. That's because it was originally going to be a Richard Bachman book before he was exposed. Grab a copy of The Bachman Books if you haven't already.
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Nov 4, 2009 02:30
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Malaleb posted:Oh, and I just started Misery and was hooked after just a couple of pages! Very different pacing from any of King's books that I've read so far. See the movie. While I haven't had a chance to read the book yet, I can tell you the movie was incredible well done, Bates gives an amazing performance thats must be seen. I can easily put it up with their with the Shining as far as moving adaptations goes.
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Nov 4, 2009 02:47
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Sporadic posted:That's because it was originally going to be a Richard Bachman book before he was exposed. Grab a copy of The Bachman Books if you haven't already. I think you'll find it's because The Dead Zone is a terrible book.
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Nov 4, 2009 06:42
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Mad Hamish posted:I think you'll find it's because The Dead Zone is a terrible book. 
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Nov 4, 2009 10:40
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Malaleb posted:The Dead Zone is certainly the least satisfying Stephen King novel I've read so far. For the people that have read more of his books, what do you think of The Dead Zone? I think The Dead Zone is an incredible book, one of my favourites actually, from King. It's pacing is off, but the characters and their situations more than make up for it. If nothing else I think it would've really benefited from being two books, one that focused on Johnny after the coma, and one that focused on his vision of what Stillson was going to do.
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Nov 4, 2009 14:20
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PriorMarcus posted:It's pacing is off, but the characters and their situations more than make up for it. I can see it working pretty well as a collection of novellas, maybe one of them would have Stillson as a the main character, another one as a detective story featuring the sheriff trying to find the serial killer, etc. If anything, I appreciated the book for the fact that aside from the supernatural aspect of the premise, it seemed like a very plausible and realistic depiction of what could happen if a man slipped into a coma and woke up with telepathic powers. For a large amount of the time, the telepathy would take second place to a man just trying to get his life together. But the aspects of it that gave it a more "realistic" plot made it a less engaging story for me.
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Nov 5, 2009 01:53
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Does anyone know how long the Amazon discounts last? I want to get my dad Under the Dome for Christmas but if the discount is going to remain at nine bucks until then so I won't bother to worry about it now.
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Nov 6, 2009 01:11
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Chairman Capone posted:Does anyone know how long the Amazon discounts last? I want to get my dad Under the Dome for Christmas but if the discount is going to remain at nine bucks until then so I won't bother to worry about it now. It's probably a preorder only offer. Just preorder it now and save the book until christmas.
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Nov 6, 2009 02:00
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I barely got through Duma Key, but by far the worst is the previously mentioned, Kindle-only book UR. You know how they made Transformers and G.I.Joe cartoons just to sell some toys? This book was made just to sell some Kindles. Marketing at its very worst.
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Nov 6, 2009 04:43
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I ordered Under the Dome from Walmart.com and they just refunded me a penny because they lowered the preorder price by a penny. The price war is still on, I guess. In other news, I'm a penny richer! 
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Nov 6, 2009 20:30
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The New York Times has a review up of Under the Dome. (It's a pretty lovely review, btw)
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Nov 6, 2009 21:40
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epoch. posted:The New York Times has a review up of Under the Dome. Yes it is, did he like the book? I can't even tell.
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Nov 7, 2009 00:08
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Zimadori Zinger posted:Yes it is, did he like the book? I can't even tell. It's just a mush of vague ideas and fancy sentences.
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Nov 7, 2009 02:17
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Malaleb posted:I seem to be in the minority with this opinion, but while I believe that books V-VII each had some weaker sections of the plot, I didn't have a problem with King making himself a character. At that point, the story had already gotten so crazy that I thought his self-inclusion fit the feel of the story and was kind of a fun, post-moderny, breaking the 4th wall type thing Y'know, after reading this thread a couple months ago, I started with the first Dark Tower book and re-read them all, in order, one by one, and I agree with you - King's self-characterizing isn't really that bad. In fact, even the Dark Tower book I thought was the weakest, Song of Suzannah, wasn't too awful the second time around.
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Nov 7, 2009 03:46
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JnnyThndrs posted:King's self-characterizing isn't really that bad. Agreed. If anything I loved how everybody so openly loathed him, both as a fat druggie in the 70s and as a healthier but still procrastinating man in the 90s.
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Nov 7, 2009 05:52
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epoch. posted:The New York Times has a review up of Under the Dome. Yikes, I stopped reading it the moment I saw vituperation.
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Nov 7, 2009 08:37
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epoch. posted:The New York Times has a review up of Under the Dome. That's the literary-review equivalent of sniffing one's own farts in a wineglass.
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Nov 7, 2009 13:46
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Safe Driver posted:Yikes, I stopped reading it the moment I saw vituperation. Yeah that actually made me cringe. And he's accusing Stephen King of bad writing?
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Nov 7, 2009 18:16
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Raskolnikov2089 posted:Yeah that actually made me cringe. And he's accusing Stephen King of bad writing? I can't tell what he's saying at all in that review. He's like talking in riddles.
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Nov 7, 2009 19:59
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Raskolnikov2089 posted:Yeah that actually made me cringe. And he's accusing Stephen King of bad writing? All the info about the actual book and whether or not it's worth reading could be cropped down into a single (short) paragraph from that review. Still, it gives the basic premise, though I didn't think real world politics played as much of a role in the book as the reviewer apparently thinks it does. It's not like King stops the story to say "Hey Obama is great!" or "Boy that Bush guy sucked amirite?!" Anything having to do with politics comes from the characters and makes sense as characterization. Though it is fun to note that all the people that are religious and hate Obama also rape and murder and are generally on the "bad" side. The reviewer is a jackass, but he's right that the Chef character gets the best lines.
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Nov 7, 2009 23:50
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I have the Kindle and apparently Under the Dome isn't going to be released for the Kindle until December 24th. I love Stephan King and can't wait to read it. I guess I'll have to buy the hardcover edition. I've read almost all of his novels and I have liked them all. There are some that are better than others, like The Stand. There is one book that I absolutely cannot read. I've tried so many times to read it and I just can't get past the first 50 pages. That book is Bag of Bones. I still want to read it but for some reason its so dull and boring that I can't!
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Nov 8, 2009 02:02
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Lemony Fresh posted:I have the Kindle and apparently Under the Dome isn't going to be released for the Kindle until December 24th. I love Stephan King and can't wait to read it. I guess I'll have to buy the hardcover edition. What sucks is its after those first 50 pages that it gets really good.
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Nov 8, 2009 03:12
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