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Local Group Bus posted:She was also really good in Delores Claiborne. The movie deviates from the book a lot and is more concerned with Selena and her mothers relationship much to its betterment. Worth a watch if you've not seen it before. Bates is amazing in general so I imagine she could make even a lovely screenplay sing a little but yes- Claiborne and Misery were great, and in fact I kind of prefer Misery the movie to the book (it's one of the few occasions where that happens!). The actual portions of Misery that are included are interesting for a bit, but after a while I just skim them. I finished my re-read of Needful Things and was happy that, unlike Bag of Bones, it held up fairly well. Since it's really just a string of character sketches I should have realized it would stay together well but was kind of worried that the 'abracadabra motherfucker' stuff would be bad this time through. Nah! Alan's still pretty cool. I guess I'll re-read The Stand now rather than going back into my queue.
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Jan 16, 2012 23:59
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That is the most ridiculous benevolent cover to a King book I've ever seen. M-O-O-N, that spells Thomas Kincade. Count me in on the Needful Things love. It was the second King book I ever read, I was thirteen at the time, and twelve years later, I still haven't lost my taste for that one. I'd actually like it if King were to write another book in which Gaunt appears in a different town and starts loving poo poo up there.
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Jan 18, 2012 02:15
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The problem with that is it isn't a town we know and have read about over the past two novels. Watching Castle Rock explode all over the place and everything just going up in flames and bullet-holes was an amazing way to end the readers relationship with a town. A part of me wants King to do the same thing with the Dark Tower series. One more book after this one where Gaunt appears, or even Linoge from Storm of the century, and totally burns down the house. I think that's an ending we'd all get behind. Especially if it's as brutal as Needful Things was. Books later and we're still learning that there's fallout and the town is still in trouble. I want to see Midworld go the way of the Rock and just be torn apart and the DT never be the setting for an entire novel but rather have it relegated to the side-lines. It's going to be difficult with the final Talisman novel but I'd still like a proper once and for all ending to that series as it is a crutch King can lean on if he wants to. Guy obviously feels comfortable there and most novels that have been my favourites have been ones where the author tackled something outside their comfort zone. Look a P D James for instance. Stagnating as a mystery writer then The Children Of Men drops and it's so different that it ends up being something that's seemingly above the authors level of skill. Local Group Bus fucked around with this message at 01:26 on Jan 19, 2012 |
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Jan 19, 2012 01:23
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I still have a hardcover of Needful Things somewhere that has the "The Last Castle Rock Story!" tagline. Under the Dome reminded me alot of Needful Things with the large cast and steady buildup of craziness, but there's none of that strained melancholy at the end that recent King has been shooting for. Sure, the good guys eventually overcome Leland Gaunt's influence, but Gaunt just closes up shop all cool like and rides outta the town he just destroyed in his devilmobile laughing all the way. Come back, Stephen King who wrote that poo poo, come back!
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Jan 19, 2012 01:50
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I think you've just touched on my favourite part of the end of Needful Things. Everyone assumes the danger are the citizen-bombs that are going off and Gaunt has shut up shop and is around the back selling guns with poisoned ammunition having the time of his life. I could have done without the description of Cora Rusks unbuttoned dress and what it revealed though  That novel is pure King goodness though. Nobody actually wins, it's sort o a draw, and it works really well. Gaunt doesn't get to keep the souls and Alan doesn't get to kill the "monster". But both are changed by the ending. Watching Gaunt get angry really worked well too because at the start he is so urbane and in control until Alan rattles him and calls him out on a lie and then stands before him ready to square off. Not to mention that Ace finally gets what was coming to him since The Body. I read in the preface to an anthology that good horror has an ending where there is a victor; great horror has an ending where nobody comes out of it without being changed in some way. Can't remember the name of the writer though but it might be Douglas Winter, he seems to edit a lot of anthologies. Local Group Bus fucked around with this message at 02:05 on Jan 19, 2012 |
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Jan 19, 2012 02:00
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Last night I steamed through the final bits of 11/22/63, and I have to say I enjoyed it for most of the reasons mentioned. The middle parts didn't really ware on me too much. If I have any serious complaint, it's that he once again pulled the "and he never saw her again" poo poo except this time I found myself waiting for about 200 pages for the loving shoe to drop from the time that he breaks out and says "I did something stupid and made another bet in Dallas" for that one random chapter and the point where he gets severely hosed up by the bookie. I kept dreading for that moment to happen that when it did, I was actually relieved to be reading some fairly disturbing beat down porn. I found the ending satisfying, and liked that we only got small bits of the the "JFK lives" as a sort of dark and grimy place with no concrete images. The love story was neat, and I think totally worth it. Not sure if I will pick it up and read it again, but for whatever reason I rarely do that with his latter stuff. Salem's Lot, outside of his short story and novella compilations, is the one book I always want to pick up again. Although, all this talk of Needful Things has me looking quizzically at the copy on my bookshelf.
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Jan 19, 2012 04:19
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I just started Firestarter and up to now it's pretty awesome. It's surprising that it's so little talked about compared to just about every other of his books.
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Jan 19, 2012 04:59
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a silver spaceship posted:I just started Firestarter and up to now it's pretty awesome. It's surprising that it's so little talked about compared to just about every other of his books. A lot of King's books are awesome when they're just started.
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Jan 19, 2012 05:08
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hatelull posted:Although, all this talk of Needful Things has me looking quizzically at the copy on my bookshelf. Re-read The Dark Half before though. Dinner before dessert, but I really liked the Dark Half so .. Speaking of Dark Half, I'd love some George Stark novels. King could do a very good imitation of Westlakes "Parker" novels. Also, I didn't know Westlake died in '08. 
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Jan 19, 2012 06:18
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Local Group Bus posted:Re-read The Dark Half before though. Dinner before dessert, but I really liked the Dark Half so .. I thought King completely blew The Dark Half by revealing who the real culprit/thing was way too early. That said, it could've been worse. Could've been like Secret Window, Secret Garden when he revealed it way too late and made it nonsensical. Alexis Machine novels, though, would kick rear end.
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Jan 19, 2012 08:20
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Any opinions on Desperation and The Regulators? I'm into the whole post-apocalyptic thing so I'm wondering if they are worth checking out.
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Jan 19, 2012 21:50
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actionjackson posted:Any opinions on Desperation and The Regulators? I'm into the whole post-apocalyptic thing so I'm wondering if they are worth checking out. Desperation is a good book. The cross over is pretty cool, but I did not care for The Regulators.
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Jan 19, 2012 21:53
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From what I know the protagonist is the same in both - what is the main difference between the two books?
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Jan 19, 2012 21:58
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actionjackson posted:From what I know the protagonist is the same in both - what is the main difference between the two books? Different worlds. One is about a small town in the middle of nowhere. The other is about invaders in a neighborhood. The entire cast is more or less the same, but the books are unrelated.
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Jan 19, 2012 22:16
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Ridonkulous posted:Different worlds. One is about a small town in the middle of nowhere. The other is about invaders in a neighborhood. The entire cast is more or less the same, but the books are unrelated. It's been years since I read the regulators but didn't it basically recreate the conditions of The Mist but instead of a grocery store it was a group of neighbors trapped in their houses together and instead of monsters it was power ranger cowboys?
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Jan 19, 2012 22:34
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actionjackson posted:From what I know the protagonist is the same in both - what is the main difference between the two books? It's all the same characters in an alternate universe. Kind of.
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Jan 19, 2012 22:38
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Victorkm posted:It's been years since I read the regulators but didn't it basically recreate the conditions of The Mist but instead of a grocery store it was a group of neighbors trapped in their houses together and instead of monsters it was power ranger cowboys? Yes. But Regulators had more many supernatural bits about it, where as Desperation only had a Supernatural villain.
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Jan 19, 2012 22:41
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We kind of talked about Desperation/The Regulators in the Bachman thread.
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Jan 19, 2012 22:50
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I liked both books but there's no doubt that The Regulators had the shittiest ending.
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Jan 19, 2012 23:02
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The Regulators may be the weirdest book King has ever written. Think about that. edit ^^^^^^lol
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Jan 19, 2012 23:02
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I don't recommend reading one right after the other... (The Regulators and Desperation) I made that mistake and I couldn't get more than halfway through The Regulators before I gave up. I was so confused and getting the characters mixed up.
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Jan 20, 2012 01:52
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Local Group Bus posted:I liked both books but there's no doubt that The Regulators had the shittiest ending. spoiler because I don't remember it being that bad.
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Jan 20, 2012 04:04
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Ridonkulous posted:spoiler because I don't remember it being that bad. The little boy literally shits everywhere.
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Jan 20, 2012 04:20
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ConfusedUs posted:The little boy literally shits everywhere. Hahaha, I had forgotten all about that.
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Jan 20, 2012 04:49
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ConfusedUs posted:The little boy literally shits everywhere. Most of what I remember about Lisey's Story involves a ring of poo poo. Thanks a lot, Stevey.
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Jan 20, 2012 07:57
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But to be fair the tale of Scott and his brother was the best part of the book. It's almost an anti-The Body and I loved the book for that. If only the rest of the book was that tightly written and horrible it would have been in my top 10 King books. A novelist in a King book is a better storyteller than the novelist writing about the novelist. Try wrapping your head around that one!
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Jan 20, 2012 10:55
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For me, the outer sections of 11/22/63 were amazing (especially when Frank Dunning goes apeshit with a sledgehammer. THAT was King at his best in this novel). It's just unfortunate that the middle was filled with a ridiculous amount of Golden Age bullshit and that NOTHING HAPPENED for hundreds of pages. Really, how many times do we need to read that Jake hosed Sadie while the kids chanted "MIZ D!!!!!!!! MR. A!!!!!!!!"?
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Jan 20, 2012 16:55
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I've always been a big fan of Stephen King but haven't read anything of his for about 5 years or so. I'm currently at work and browsing this thread as today I have received a copy of Under The Dome in the post. Throughout the thread I noticed a lot of people mentioning King's foreshadowing of people's deaths, something which I don't really remember noticing. Just opened up Under the Dome and on the second page, "Their lives had another forty seconds to run." Just found it amusing that something I never really picked up on before came up immediately. Still looking forward to it though.
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Jan 20, 2012 17:25
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Lemon posted:I've always been a big fan of Stephen King but haven't read anything of his for about 5 years or so. I'm currently at work and browsing this thread as today I have received a copy of Under The Dome in the post. It's my favorite of the recent King books. My advice: Don't worry about the "why" of the story, just enjoy the ride with the characters.
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Jan 20, 2012 23:52
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hatelull posted:I found the ending satisfying, and liked that we only got small bits of the the "JFK lives" as a sort of dark and grimy place with no concrete images. The love story was neat, and I think totally worth it. I just finished the book. I'm a sucker for time travel stories. The ending wasn't too much of a surprise. I haven't read much non-Dark Tower King in years (exceptions being From a Buick 8 (which I did not like) and Cell (which I liked about the first 75%). As for your spoiler, I have to wonder if King saw the 1985 Twilight Zone story "Profile in Silver" in which a descendent of JFK goes back in time to stop the assassination only have horrible poo poo happen as a result ending in world destruction.
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Jan 21, 2012 02:41
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Well he started writing it in the 70s so he may have had the idea first.
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Jan 21, 2012 07:22
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blue squares posted:Well he started writing it in the 70s so he may have had the idea first. I wonder how far he'd gotten before giving up?
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Jan 21, 2012 13:45
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I don't think I had ever noticed the Magic Retard thing in King's work before this thread. I sure noticed his unending terror of children, though. Kids do some scary poo poo in his work, even if they're good little girls and boys. And that's not even counting That Scene.
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Jan 21, 2012 18:37
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Blade_of_tyshalle posted:And that's not even counting That Scene. Someone mentioned how this thread can't go a page without mentioning the scene. I'm beginning to believe that's true. The recent Needful Things chat has me wanting to read it immediately. Too bad I have another book I have to plow through first...
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Jan 22, 2012 04:45
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I just started re-reading (well, it's an audiobook this time, so listening) to The Shining, and god drat is that a good book. I actually needed to take a break from it half way through because it's so heavy and depressing. Also the narrator, Campbell Scott, does an awesome job with a dark and somewhat flat (in a good way) delivery, and gets bonus points for not doing awful dumbed-down kids voices like some voice actors do.
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Jan 22, 2012 05:12
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I only mentioned That Scene because it's been mentioned so often as I charged through the thread to the end. I just want to fit in.  crankdatbatman posted:The recent Needful Things chat has me wanting to read it immediately. Too bad I have another book I have to plow through first... Needful Things is phenomenal. And the movie, for me, is so correct that it informed all my subsequent readings and overrode any mental pictures of the characters I had before. Also: Hall of the Mountain King. The most vivid thing I remember from Cell was King's fixation on these two girls with pixie cuts. With his age, the impression I got from it was of some old guy on his porch shaking his withered fist at those damned kids with their hippity-hop and their triPods and what have you. Why, in my day...
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Jan 22, 2012 06:44
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Locus posted:I just started re-reading (well, it's an audiobook this time, so listening) to The Shining, and god drat is that a good book. I'm of the opinion that The Shining is King's first masterpiece. It's his first full-on "Great Novel."
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Jan 22, 2012 21:37
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Rogue1-and-a-half posted:I'm of the opinion that The Shining is King's first masterpiece. It's his first full-on "Great Novel." I absolutely love The Shining for a few reasons. It is one of King's earlier works and was heavily edited (as far as I heard, please correct me if I'm wrong). While I love all the exposition King gets into with all his characters (especially in other books), I think that The Shining had just the right amount of that sort of thing and the story was engaging and terrifying throughout. It definitely felt more polished than his other work. Also, I feel that The Shining is indeed King's first masterpiece, perhaps his best work period. I love King for being able to bring a whole town to life. Needful Things did a good job of this, I really enjoyed the sense of the town paired with the cunning of the shopkeeper, deftly manipulating an entire town into self-destruction. The opening sequence of Bag of Bones where Noonan talks about his dead wife slayed me. I cried in the car listening to the book on tape and felt like an idiot, but it was so good. Then the rest of the book was just.. meh. Also, maybe it's been mentioned; I've been reading this thread since it was new and I can't remember. Does anyone else think that there are tons of parallels between Bag of Bones and 11/22/63? At least as far as the relationships between the main characters and their ultimate fates. I feel like there's another SK book that is similar but I can't think of which one. Anyway, Under the Dome had a very interesting premise, I was psyched as hell to read it. There were some good characters, but I really thought the plot just fell apart at the end. They could have done a lot more with it. For example, they could have made it actually turn out to BE a military experiment that the military denies involvement in. I would have been happier with GOD DID IT than aliens not mentioned in this book until right now did it. I mean, I'd have to reread to be sure, but I don't remember ANY foreshadowing of aliens. I LOVE King but a deus ex machina is a piece of poo poo no matter who writes it, unfortunately. And thats what the aliens were.If I'm wrong, don't hesitate to tell me! Duma Key was certainly one of the best things King has written in years. I've read it twice since it's release and it's so reminiscent of older King works. Pre-accident works. The way the story introduces the more sinister elements of the island slowly really ramped up the tension for me. The part where they get sick driving through jungle overgrowth to the original house just gave me such a sense of dread. I was relieved to read that the protagonist wouldn't be a writer, but a painter. Not in Maine, but in the Florida Keys (and he did a great job with building that environment as well). Great characters in this book all around, and great imagery. I was always a voracious reader when I was young. Starting at like 7, my dad stopped taking me to the children's section of the library and intoduced me to Stephen King and I fell in love. A lot of the more subtle nuances certainly went over my head, but I've re-read it since. After that I read everything there was to read.. or so I thought!!! After some digging, I realized I'd never read Firestarter, The Dead Zone, The Running Man, Roadwork or The Dark Half and I think I should get started with it. Can anyone recommend which one to start with? I should mention I haven't read the dark tower series yet, but I have little interest. Should I go for it??? Auryn fucked around with this message at 07:07 on Jan 23, 2012 |
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Jan 23, 2012 06:36
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Firestarter is a fun book with a dreadfully boring midsection. It has a number of really memorable scenes and one of King's best villains. Rainbird owns. It also has one of King's weirdest sex scenes--well sort of. Some dude shoves his arm down a garbage disposal while wearing his wife's underwear after Charlie's dad twists his thoughts too much.. The Dead Zone is also good. There's not a lot of really memorable scenes, but the book as a whole is enjoyable. It's a slow burn throughout. It poses some interesting moral and ethical questions. It's very Bachman-book in its structure.
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Jan 23, 2012 06:46
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ConfusedUs posted:The Dead Zone is also good. There's not a lot of really memorable scenes, but the book as a whole is enjoyable. It's a slow burn throughout. It poses some interesting moral and ethical questions. It's very Bachman-book in its structure. See, that confuses me a little.  I have read and loved The Long Walk, Rage, Thinner and The Regulators. So obviously I enjoy his style. Is The Dead Zone comparable to any of the Bachman I've enjoyed? Can you describe the Bachman-book structure you mean? Because while Bachman certainly writes books with much fewer supernatural elements, the style is still unmistakeably King in my mind. His voice just comes through. It was especially evident in The Regulators. I guess I just don't see any extraordinary differences in style. I'd be fascinated to hear another viewpoint on this, of course! Auryn fucked around with this message at 07:24 on Jan 23, 2012 |
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Jan 23, 2012 07:16
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