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I was having a very strange dream this morning wherein my hometown had just elected a new mayor named Vincent "Boogers" Taliendo.
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Jan 14, 2014 16:15
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I tried to explain the plot of Doctor Sleep to a friend who's never read a Stephen King book, and I realized how ridiculous this book is to describe to people. "The little boy from the Shining grew up and became an alcoholic to suppress his psychic abilities and battle depression but now he's in AA, and he teams up with a little girl who's the most powerful psychic, and they battle people that are hundreds of years old but look young that also have psychic powers who drive around the country in RVs killing kids to suck up their psychic powers." He legitimately thought I was making up that plot to mess with him. He said that it's the dumbest plot ever. And now that I think about it, it's hard to disagree. Even after explaining that the alcoholism is the best part of the book, he lost it when I told him that the evil ghost of Jack gets expelled from Dan's mind to stay where the Overlook used to be. So, it's a book that starts off really strong, then meanders, then gets ridiculous, then ends on a strong note.
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Jan 14, 2014 16:56
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To be honest most King stories sound kind of stupid when you just summarize them in a few sentences. That's kind of his genius, he took pulpy ideas from the horror comics he read as a kid and fleshed them out and fancied them up until they could pass for a real novel that people in the mainstream would want to read. My mother told me yesterday that she's reading 11/22/63 and she would never even think about browsing the sci-fi section of the book store, its just not her genre. But with King she's willing to give it a shot because she respects his writing style and general ability write interesting characters.
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Jan 14, 2014 19:21
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Oh I love King, I've read him more than any other author, and I enjoy each book in some way (I even enjoyed aspects of The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon), it's just that for villains, the True Knot isn't the strongest, most fleshed out, or interesting. We're given a large cast of villains all with their own power that works for a mutual benefit. There was a lot of opportunities to explore their relationship, or give us some glimpse of their history, or some back story, but most of their interactions are trivial. Then they're wiped out by measles, Abra's great grandmother's essence, or just run away to die soon, and I just didn't care. Rose, Rattlesnake, and Crow are the only three villains that get any real spotlight, and only Crow is really menacing or dangerous, the rest are just one-mentions with quirky names. I get that it would have messed with pacing, but the middle of the book drags anyway. The characterization of Danny was great, Abra wasn't terrible, and a few supporting characters were good. I enjoyed reading the book. That said, I don't feel like it'll be something that I'll re-read, and I enjoyed Joyland much more. Like I said, it has a great first third. The middle drags. And then the last third gets suspenseful, then batshit in a fun way, and then things end in a satisfying manner. But after reading Carrie, The Shining, The Dead Zone, and Firestarter, Doctor Sleep is my least favorite book about psychics King has written.
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Jan 14, 2014 19:44
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Started reading some of his short stories, and I got to say that the jaunt is perhaps the most terrifying thing I've ever read. The idea of floating through space awake for billions of years is horrible.
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Jan 18, 2014 18:03
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joepinetree posted:billions of years (I was scarred by that story, I was pretty young when I read it.)
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Jan 18, 2014 21:18
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joepinetree posted:Started reading some of his short stories, and I got to say that the jaunt is perhaps the most terrifying thing I've ever read. The idea of floating through space awake for billions of years is horrible. Probably one of my all time favorite stories. That ending was just...
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Jan 18, 2014 21:21
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joepinetree posted:Started reading some of his short stories, and I got to say that the jaunt is perhaps the most terrifying thing I've ever read. The idea of floating through space awake for billions of years is horrible. Agreed. Also, if you like Stephen King sci-fi shorts try Beachworld.
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Jan 18, 2014 21:39
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syscall girl posted:Agreed. Also, if you like Stephen King sci-fi shorts try Beachworld. drat. I might have my copy of Night Shift around here but I think Skeleton Crew is three hours' away at my folks' house.
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Jan 18, 2014 21:44
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I love King's short stories, though at this point I've managed to run through all of the collections a half dozen times each. Anyone have any suggestions on some similar authors/compilations that might be worth a look?
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Jan 19, 2014 06:33
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Ockhams Crowbar posted:I love King's short stories, though at this point I've managed to run through all of the collections a half dozen times each. Anyone have any suggestions on some similar authors/compilations that might be worth a look? At the risk of catching some hate in the Word Nerd Barn, and then also considering the fact that you may have also read some, Neil Gaiman is a good writer of short stories. And DFW. Additionally, Annie Proulx writes a mean short story. Those are actually some of the more successful short story writers, by the way, and not necessarily the best. I also like Larry Niven's short form horror sci-fi but he is like the antithesis of King with regards to character development and, well a bunch of things. Oh, and since the thread is weaving into the sci-fi, fantasy and horror vein if you haven't read William Gibson's short stories, you should.
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Jan 19, 2014 06:54
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$8 dollars on Kindle and I've re-read "The Jaunt." I thought I remembered the worst of it, until I read this: ... a Jaunt researcher named Lester Michaelson had tied up his wife with their daughter's plexiplast Dreamropes and pushed her, screaming, through the Jaunt portal at Silver City, Nevada. But before doing it, Michaelson had pushed the Nil button on his Jaunt board, erasing each and every one of the the hundreds of thousands of possible portals through which Mrs. Michaelson might have emerged -- anywhere from neighboring Reno to the experimental Jaunt-Station in Io, one of the Jovian moons. So there was Mrs. Michaelson, Jaunting forever somewhere out there in the ozone. Michaelson's lawyer, after Michaelson had been held sane and able to stand trial for what he had done (within the narrow limits of the law, perhaps he was sane, but in any practical sense, Lester Michaelson was just as mad as a hatter), had offered a novel defense: his client could not be tried for murder because no one could prove conclusively that Mrs. Michaelson was dead. This had raised the terrible spectre of the woman, discorporeal but somehow still sentient, screaming in limbo...forever. Michaelson was convicted and executed. Worse than I remembered.
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Jan 19, 2014 07:49
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nate fisher posted:Probably one of my all time favorite stories. That ending was just... I wish I could empty quote this. I adore The Jaunt. Survivor Type is another one of my favourites… lady fingers they taste just like lady fingers.
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Jan 19, 2014 07:53
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uptown posted:I wish I could empty quote this. I adore The Jaunt. Survivor Type is another one of my favourites… lady fingers they taste just like lady fingers.
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Jan 19, 2014 08:29
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Ockhams Crowbar posted:I love King's short stories, though at this point I've managed to run through all of the collections a half dozen times each. Anyone have any suggestions on some similar authors/compilations that might be worth a look? I've only recently started reading her short fiction, but I can't recommend Joyce Carol Oates highly enough. She's adept at drawing out complex, intriguing characters who are often just utterly twisted, or having to deal with horrific situations, which is one of the qualities I like best in King. She doesn't write as much about scif/fantasy monster stuff, tending more towards crime or mystery scenarios, but her short stories are full of dread and wrongness, in the psychological/emotional sense, if that makes sense, plus a fair smattering of guts and gore, as well. Check out The Corn Maiden or The Museum of Dr. Moses, both great short story collections.
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Jan 19, 2014 09:30
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All good suggestions for short-story writers so far. I'd add T.C.Boyle - he's written a ton of short stories; they're not horror or sci-fi, they're just weird, odd people in strange situations, I would say he's comparable to Annie Proulx in ability if not subject matter. His longer fiction is not as good, but his stories are worthwhile. I'm currently reading "Falling Angel", the book that was the basis for that creepy movie Angel Heart, with Mickey Rourke, Robert De Niro and Lisa Bonet. It's really good, very scary and fast-paced.
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Jan 19, 2014 09:45
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So where does one find this The Jaunt? I don't believe I've ever read it.
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Jan 19, 2014 14:53
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juliuspringle posted:So where does one find this The Jaunt? I don't believe I've ever read it.
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Jan 19, 2014 15:10
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Dr. Faustus posted:O, it's longer than you think, Dad. Longer than you think!! That was how "Survivor Type" affected me. "Ladyfingers they taste just like ladyfingers...." Edit: gently caress, beaten. "Gramma" was good, as well. Lovecraftian as Hell. Ooooh, and "The Mangler." I watched one of the Mangler movies on FEARNet the other day, and realized that I thought the short story was scarier. Edwardian fucked around with this message at 15:42 on Jan 19, 2014 |
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Jan 19, 2014 15:39
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Edwardian posted:That was how "Survivor Type" affected me. Gotta watch I think it was Mangler 2, where it's suddenly a computer virus for some reason now.
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Jan 19, 2014 16:13
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I really liked King's Holmes story as well as "Crouch End."
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Jan 19, 2014 18:45
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oldpainless posted:I really liked King's Holmes story as well as "Crouch End."
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Jan 19, 2014 19:47
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Anyone else notice how King tells us about every single death in IT beforehand? That really stood out to me this time
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Jan 19, 2014 21:49
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Edwardian posted:"Gramma" was good, as well. Lovecraftian as Hell. It was made into an episode of the 1980s Twilight Zone (with a screenplay by Harlan Ellison.).
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Jan 19, 2014 23:36
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I vaguely recall reading "The Raft" when I was in the fifth or sixth grade and it scaring the living hell out of me. I also vaguely recall first reading "Gramma" in my mid twenties and it scaring the living hell out of me.
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Jan 20, 2014 07:16
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Okay, so I finally got my hands on a hardcopy of IT after deciding ebooks aren't for me. I don't have a proper reader so I have to read them from my laptop/computer which is fine for short stories but not for a full novel. It's so good. I'm only 260 or so pages in so it's all still very much in the setting the stage kind of thing, but I just can't seem to put it down. I'm really glad I didn't read it when I was in my teens because I now have the benefit of my English studies to really appreciate the plot, narrative structure, etc, and I didn't even get to the really good parts yet. e: Unfortunately, I have this cover:  Very lackluster compared to some of the others out there, but oh well. Taeke fucked around with this message at 13:01 on Jan 20, 2014 |
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Jan 20, 2014 12:54
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Edwardian posted:That was how "Survivor Type" affected me. The Mangler is one of King's funniest stories, IMO. The image of a possessed laundry machine running amok is hilarious. Did anyone else wish that he would have fleshed out the Milkman short stories? That would have been an amazing novel.
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Jan 20, 2014 16:18
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Taeke posted:Very lackluster compared to some of the others out there, but oh well. I like this cover because I'm slowly converting my King collection to be all that style, and they look good on a shelf together  As far as funny short stories, The Lawnmower Man is goddamn hilarious and also somehow terrifying at the same time. It's just so surreal.
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Jan 20, 2014 17:05
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I immediately went back and re-read the Richie/Bev portion of 11/22/63 after finishing It. Surprising how well it dovetails despite being written so much later 
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Jan 20, 2014 17:10
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The Berzerker posted:I like this cover because I'm slowly converting my King collection to be all that style, and they look good on a shelf together I would not hire that man, nor give him lemonade. The surreality of the movie, after reading the story was indescribable. And then The Mangler 2: Job's Electric Boogaloo apparently got made, somehow.
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Jan 20, 2014 20:53
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Has anyone read anything by his older son, Owen? I saw the Amazon summary of Double Feature and it looked weird.
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Jan 21, 2014 03:56
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IT BURNS posted:Did anyone else wish that he would have fleshed out the Milkman short stories? That would have been an amazing novel. Every time I read those I always get the feeling there's so much more, that they're interconnected to his other stuff somehow, but it always eludes me.
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Jan 21, 2014 05:11
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Chef Bromden posted:Has anyone read anything by his older son, Owen? I saw the Amazon summary of Double Feature and it looked weird. I read a review of the book when it came out and it said that it was pretty good.
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Jan 21, 2014 05:15
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rypakal posted:Anyone else notice how King tells us about every single death in IT beforehand? That really stood out to me this time
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Jan 21, 2014 10:55
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Chef Bromden posted:Has anyone read anything by his older son, Owen? I saw the Amazon summary of Double Feature and it looked weird. I read it and really enjoyed it, but it was much closer to John Irving than Stephen King. If you like John Irving, definitely give it a try.
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Jan 21, 2014 13:47
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Edwardian posted:Ooooh, and "The Mangler." I watched one of the Mangler movies on FEARNet the other day, and realized that I thought the short story was scarier. I like how the short story was just an accidental demon summoning because the right materials jusssst happened to fall into the machine. However, the movie did have Robert Englund hamming it up, so it had that going for it.
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Jan 21, 2014 16:49
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Ockhams Crowbar posted:I vaguely recall reading "The Raft" when I was in the fifth or sixth grade and it scaring the living hell out of me. I listened to "Gramma" in audiobook form and it freaked me out as well. I think it was the combination of a grandmother dying (I knew four of my great-grandmothers before they died, and both of my grandmothers are still alive) and the idea of "something evil is going to happen and there's nothing you can do to stop it" made it really freaky for me. As I'm reading It now, I get some of that same feeling again. I'm a far more rational person than I was as a child, and just the idea of something so far outside the realm of reality happening is scary. Like Stanley said as a child describing his first experience with It at the Standpipe, it's not that it scared him, but that it OFFENDED him as something that just messed with his head.
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Jan 21, 2014 19:53
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Finished It this week. Wow, incredible. Picked up Night Shift, but I think I'm gonna reread 11/22/63 first because man, I love that book, and I want to see Bev and Richie again  I did read I Am The Doorway though, since someone mentioned it here. Creepy.
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Jan 22, 2014 04:46
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Re-reading 'salem's Lot now. I know Susan's supposed to be, like, 26 or so, but I can't help picturing her as an 17- or 18-year-old and it makes Ben seem much creepier.
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Jan 22, 2014 05:16
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Chef Bromden posted:Has anyone read anything by his older son, Owen? I saw the Amazon summary of Double Feature and it looked weird. Pretty sure Owen is the younger son, and that books is supposed to be a comedy, not horror.
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Jan 22, 2014 05:29
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