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I finished The Long Walk a couple of days ago, let me echo the sentiment that it was excellent. It actually surprised me because I already knew the ending going into it, and I thought it would be hard to care about any of the characters since the premise is everybody dies, but gently caress me the last couple of chapters were so hard to read because I had grown attached to these characters. The only other Stephen King book I've read is The Shining, which was also great, and last night I started on IT.
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Apr 26, 2013 03:46
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I just re-read Desperation. I actually really enjoy it, but if I ever have to read the words THE LITERARY LION again in my life I will die. I also think I'm the only person who likes Rose Madder.
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Apr 28, 2013 00:18
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Nah, I also enjoyed Rose Madder. I read it in college between classes (about 10 years ago) and remember loving it.
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Apr 28, 2013 04:46
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I'm about 3/4s of the way through right now and I'm enjoying it, but then again I've enjoyed the other two woman-in-trouble books of his that I've read (Dolores Claiborne and Gerald's Game) even though they're generally panned when it comes to the King canon.
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Apr 28, 2013 05:02
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Emily A. Stanton posted:I also think I'm the only person who likes Rose Madder. Viva Ze Bull. Someone earlier in this thread, I think, said something like they enjoyed Lisey's Storey the first time that they read it, when it was called Rose Madder. I enjoyed Rose Madder too, but it's been a while since I read it. I think Stephen King writes female leads well.
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Apr 28, 2013 18:51
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I really enjoyed Blockade Billy. Its just got a good voice to it.
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Apr 28, 2013 19:16
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oldpainless posted:I really enjoyed Blockade Billy. Its just got a good voice to it. I thought it was alright. I was entertained and didn't feel like I wasted my money (though to be fair, I got it on clearance, so I didn't have a lot of money invested).
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Apr 28, 2013 23:06
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Emily A. Stanton posted:I just re-read Desperation. I actually really enjoy it, but if I ever have to read the words THE LITERARY LION again in my life I will die. I liked Rose Madder a lot. Particularly the Maze parts, and the minor connections to Lud and the Dark Tower stuff.
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Apr 29, 2013 01:42
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syscall girl posted:If it makes you feel better, I don't remember it and I read the book when I was a pre-teen. I do, unfortunately. It might help that I've read the book more than once. It's supposed to represent BONDING and LEAVING CHILDHOOD BEHIND and you could potentially read all sorts of other things into it like the most horrific consequences of the cycle of abuse (Beverly's father is physically abusive, it's suggested he's this way because he wants to sexually abuse her instead and this is his compensation and whatever small logical part he has left is warring with him over it, he gets worked up to murderous rage with the idea that she's hanging around with 'a bunch of boys', which ends up in some ways making her do exactly what she feared she would do with 'a bunch of boys'), but...yeah. It's one of those things that probably makes a lot more sense when you spend most of a decade in a cocaine haze.
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Apr 29, 2013 10:40
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racecardriver posted:I guess most of King's new stuff isn't very good either, although I haven't read his new short fiction collection. It can't get worse than "UR", the Amazon-Kindle-commercial. The first pages are almost comical. They read a bit like "And he noticed that the menu had a 'web browser' entry under 'Experimental'. So he navigated to that sub-menu using the four-way control keys, clicked on it and the web browser opened, where he could type in 'www.amazon.com' using the hardware keys." This might be exaggerated. Well, actually it isn't. I love 'On Writing', though. And his Harry Potter review in Entertainment Weekly. I guess King should be read for his non-fiction, not his dabblings in fiction. It's a pity that he makes so much money doing what he can't and not making that money doing what he's actually good at.
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Apr 29, 2013 21:44
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2uo posted:It can't get worse than "UR", the Amazon-Kindle-commercial. Don't forget how using the Kindle makes his estranged ex suddenly like him again because Kindle owners are just so hip and modern and attractive.  And then the Dark Tower stuff at the end is beyond self-parody.His Entertainment Weekly column, The Pop of King, was pretty good. I liked when he praised The Hunger Games while giving a nudge-wink acknowledgment that it was probably influenced by The Long Walk. In some ways I actually liked it more than Danse Macabre because DM had a sort of hot-headed, anti-critic, me-against-the-world attitude while his column was more reserved.
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Apr 29, 2013 22:02
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...of SCIENCE! posted:His Entertainment Weekly column, The Pop of King, was pretty good. I liked when he praised The Hunger Games while giving a nudge-wink acknowledgment that it was probably influenced by The Long Walk. In some ways I actually liked it more than Danse Macabre because DM had a sort of hot-headed, anti-critic, me-against-the-world attitude while his column was more reserved. Let me tell you a story about semicolons; long story short, they shouldn't be used ever but we pros can handle them.
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Apr 29, 2013 22:15
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syscall girl posted:Let me tell you a story about semicolons; long story short, they shouldn't be used ever but we pros can handle them. He straight up says "Do as I say, not as I do, until you're getting book deals like I do in which case go hog wild".
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Apr 29, 2013 22:27
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Install Gentoo posted:He straight up says "Do as I say, not as I do, until you're getting book deals like I do in which case go hog wild". Then again, I'm a little bitter considering I can sell internet jerkoff porn by the truckload but not anything 'serious'.
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Apr 29, 2013 23:02
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The first King book I ever read was Tommyknockers from my high school's library, and it turned me off to him as an author for years. I couldn't get over how much better and creepier it might have been if we weren't given the perspective of the one woman who dug up the alien ship and thus knew it was crazy alien radiation the whole time. If we didn't know what it was all leading to, what it all meant, not until the very end, it could have been a lot better than how it turned out. Last year I picked up the Dark Tower series and managed to get through the whole thing without thinking it was a terrible story. Admittedly, it got stuck firmly up its own rear end by the end, but maybe because I read it all at once I saw pretty early on that that's where it would be heading, so I didn't mind as much. That and I got spoiled about him showing up in person before I started reading.
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Apr 30, 2013 00:05
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Bobbin Threadbare posted:Last year I picked up the Dark Tower series and managed to get through the whole thing without thinking it was a terrible story. Admittedly, it got stuck firmly up its own rear end by the end, but maybe because I read it all at once I saw pretty early on that that's where it would be heading, so I didn't mind as much. That and I got spoiled about him showing up in person before I started reading. The ending was perfect, the leadup to the ending was EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!
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Apr 30, 2013 01:05
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The Dark Tower was written over an incredibly long spam of time, and it shows. Every book is like a little time capsule of the author's attitude and style at the time of writing. The only problem about this is that the ending trilogy was rushed and those books all feel really similar to each other, while being really different from the preceding stories. To me it's a little dissonant and sort of a piddly ending. But I guess any fan of King's work should be used to poor endings by now.
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Apr 30, 2013 21:57
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0 rows returned posted:I finished The Long Walk a couple of days ago, let me echo the sentiment that it was excellent. It actually surprised me because I already knew the ending going into it, and I thought it would be hard to care about any of the characters since the premise is everybody dies, but gently caress me the last couple of chapters were so hard to read because I had grown attached to these characters. I just finished it as well. Awesome book, reminded me of The Body but more intense. Didn't really like the ending.
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May 1, 2013 02:10
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A friend of mine has just finished the second Dark Tower book, and she wants to know what other King Books she should read to flesh out the world a bit more. There is a list of Dark Tower related books in the front, but it is huge and would take a year to read them all, so I thought I'd just give her the essentials. I told her The Stand and Eyes of the Dragon were at the top of the list, mostly for the Flagg backstory (and I think they are two of King's finest works), then Hearts of Atlatnis, The Black House and Salem's Lot. Insomniac was supposed to have some huge connection too, but from what I remember King retconned the poo poo out of it so I left it off the list. Any big ones I am missing? Did Thomas and Dennis ever get mentioned again? At the end EOD they set out to hunt Flagg down, but I don't remember them ever being mentioned again. You can find a way to shoehorn Father Callahan in, but not my boy Thomas? I wanted him to show up with Foe Hammer, but he must have gotten lost in the cocaine haze. Edit: She actually has already read the Talisman, and for some reason the guy at the bookstore told her The Gunslinger was it's sequel. Also I didn't see that there was a entire Dark Tower thread, if this is considered a derail I'll move it over there. Your Gay Uncle fucked around with this message at 14:07 on May 2, 2013 |
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May 1, 2013 23:01
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You covered all the important ones. I'd probably add The Talisman just for backstory on Black House, though it's a pretty good book in its own right. Also tell her to skip the first hundred pages of Black House that way she can actually finish the book.
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May 1, 2013 23:07
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Your Gay Uncle posted:Did Thomas and Dennis ever get mentioned again? At the end EOD they set out to hunt Flagg down, but I don't remember them ever being mentioned again. You can find a way to shoehorn Father Callahan in, but not my boy Thomas? I wanted him to show up with Foe Hammer, but he must have gotten lost in the cocaine haze. I'm with you tho, Eyes is such a great book, horribly underrated.
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May 2, 2013 02:58
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iostream.h posted:Don't hold me to it, I can't remember which book, but I really want to say that Flagg mentioned them at some point and how they gave him some trouble. Yeah, I'm almost certain that comes up sometime in the last three DT books and it's almost a throwaway line, which kind of pissed me off because Eyes was my introduction to King and I really like that book.
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May 2, 2013 03:44
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Ornamented Death posted:Yeah, I'm almost certain that comes up sometime in the last three DT books and it's almost a throwaway line, which kind of pissed me off because Eyes was my introduction to King and I really like that book. From http://www.stephenking.com/darktower/connections/ In The Drawing of the Three, we learn that Randall Flagg was once pursued by two desperate young men called Dennis and Thomas.
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May 2, 2013 03:48
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Do not hate the intro to Black House. Just read it. It's very Straub and I have seriously enjoyed all of his books (except the one about the kid texting from the afterlife or some poo poo... or the one where he meets his own female characters and even though he's gay they gently caress and it's amazing but the Blue Rose books and Floating Dragon and Julia and all the rest ... especially Shadowland ... have great stuff in them.
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May 2, 2013 04:36
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gently caress the intro to Black House. There have probably been at least a dozen people that have posted in this thread and say that they gave up 20 or 30 pages in because that poo poo is boring to a truly absurd degree. I'm a fan of Straub, but reading that first chapter is an exercise in masochism.
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May 2, 2013 04:52
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Ornamented Death posted:gently caress the intro to Black House. There have probably been at least a dozen people that have posted in this thread and say that they gave up 20 or 30 pages in because that poo poo is boring to a truly absurd degree. No. Edit for content: Straub has used this technique before. It informed the narrative. It's some pages before the action that, if you read them, prepare you for what is to come. Basically, what I am trying NOT to say (and now failing) is that if you don't possess the patience to read a few pages of setup, then you shouldn't read. Dr. Faustus fucked around with this message at 09:19 on May 2, 2013 |
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May 2, 2013 08:25
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Dr. Faustus posted:Basically, what I am trying NOT to say (and now failing) is that if you don't possess the patience to read a few pages of setup, then you shouldn't read. "If you don't enjoy this book in exactly the way I do, you don't deserve to read it."
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May 2, 2013 12:59
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Dr. Faustus posted:Edit for content: That's exactly what Straub should have done, yes.
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May 2, 2013 13:05
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I don't particularly care for the first part of The Black House, but once you get past it you appreciate how well it gets you acquainted to the setting and characters. I really think they should do one more Talisman book, I'd be really interested to see what Travelin' Jack does now that he's sort of stuck in the Territories.
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May 2, 2013 14:14
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Your Gay Uncle posted:I don't particularly care for the first part of The Black House, but once you get past it you appreciate how well it gets you acquainted to the setting and characters. I really think they should do one more Talisman book, MAJOR SPOILER That's a pretty big end spoiler there. Might want to edit that. Although I agree that it would make a great book.
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May 2, 2013 14:18
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I think there are plans for a third book, Straub and King just need to work put their schedules.
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May 2, 2013 14:29
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I've hated a few Stephen King book, but I've never been as thoroughly bored with a Stephen King book as I was with Black House. Talisman is one of my favorite books, but I can't tell you a single thing that happens in Black House. It seemed like a lot of pages of nothing to tie the Talisman a little closer into The Dark Tower. Also, it was filled with the sort of nostalgic nonsense that plagued the tail end of the Dark Tower, and which I fully expect to be the focus of Doctor Sleep.
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May 2, 2013 14:35
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I seem to remember the end of Black House being a better DT conclusion than the end of DT7
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May 2, 2013 20:56
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rypakal posted:I've hated a few Stephen King book, but I've never been as thoroughly bored with a Stephen King book as I was with Black House. There was a blind guy and some drunk but loveable bikers. The blind guy was really good at music appreciation or something and maybe worked in AM radio talking about northeast sports ball. The bikers maybe did a thing. Sorry for the spoilers but that book was just kind of about the experience. If you like King just going on and on setting the stage and then holy shitballs supernatural something or other it's a fun read. Apparently Charles Dickens, author of Bleak House, which this book references (?) was paid by the word. Make of that what you will.
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May 2, 2013 20:57
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I didn't realize Black House was the second book in a series when I read it and I completely loved it. When I found out about The Talisman I was excited, but I couldn't get into it at all. It felt like it had too much of the worst of King's habits while Black House seemed to have more of Straub's (helpful) influence. But then maybe I just liked Black House because I was young when I read it and not so critical.
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May 2, 2013 22:45
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I hate the Black House's writing style so loving much that I have never had a worse reaction to a book. The "describe the camera" poo poo it does is loving awful and the number one reason I'd never read that book again.
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May 2, 2013 22:56
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rypakal posted:I've hated a few Stephen King book, but I've never been as thoroughly bored with a Stephen King book as I was with Black House. Talisman is one of my favorite books, but I can't tell you a single thing that happens in Black House. It seemed like a lot of pages of nothing to tie the Talisman a little closer into The Dark Tower. Also, it was filled with the sort of nostalgic nonsense that plagued the tail end of the Dark Tower, and which I fully expect to be the focus of Doctor Sleep.
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May 3, 2013 04:59
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janklow posted:finally, i don't feel so alone in the world with my combination of love for the Talisman and complete disdain for Black House. to hell with the latter. Black House is one of the worst books ever written. Unfortunately I have some PTSD regarding this book that makes me forget that fact so I end up re-reading it every 5 or 6 years and thinking "man, that loving sucked, how do you go from The Talisman to this poo poo." It's a terrible cycle. I think I need to get all Memento about it and tattoo the fact it sucks across my chest.
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May 3, 2013 21:55
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I don't remember anything about Black House. I don't remember hating it or anything, and I remember what happens to Jack at the end and the obvious nod to the Dark Tower, but I literally can't remember anything else. Everyone is bitching about the first 100 pages...I don't even remember what happens after that. Why is it so bad?
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May 8, 2013 20:48
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Febreeze posted:I don't remember anything about Black House. I don't remember hating it or anything, and I remember what happens to Jack at the end and the obvious nod to the Dark Tower, but I literally can't remember anything else. Everyone is bitching about the first 100 pages...I don't even remember what happens after that. Why is it so bad? I think you've answered your own question there.
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May 8, 2013 20:50
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