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So I read The Long Walk. Was it supposed to end so abruptly or is there something wrong with my copy?
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Jan 21, 2016 15:36
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fishmech posted:Originally the Cycle of the Werewolf was going to be written as very short stories accompanying illustrations for a 12 month calendar. Didn't know that - thanks. Also, previous poster (phone posting, can't see ) The Long Walk ends with chapter 18 and the words '... found the strength to run.' At least, in my UK paperback version.
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Jan 21, 2016 16:27
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ruddiger posted:I was defending King the other day because some guy at work never read any of his books and started with the loving dark tower trilogy. Of course he didn't even finish and just poo poo all over the first book (!!!), I started going in on how King's a writer's writer and how his books have all these great little references and are well researched and he's at his best when he's telling the story of a town and its community rather than an epic sprawling fantasy and blah blah blah and then I get home and oh hey, dreamcatcher is on, I've never seen it or read the book, neat! Dreamcatcher is the one he wrote long hand while recovering from the van. Definitely an outlier, though its problems are just the usual King problems turned up to 11.
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Jan 21, 2016 16:51
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WattsvilleBlues posted:So I read The Long Walk. Was it supposed to end so abruptly or is there something wrong with my copy? "And when the hand touched his shoulder again, he somehow found the strength to run." If it doesn't end with that line then I guess there's something wrong with your copy; it didn't feel abrupt to me at all.
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Jan 21, 2016 16:58
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Teach posted:
How is the art? I love Bernie Wrightson. I have his Frankenstein hard cover.
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Jan 21, 2016 20:41
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So I started watching Stahm of the Century for ya know obvious reasons. Right off the bat the cop/narrator pulls a "and he would be the last person Martha Clarington ever..." I never noticed these before but thanks to this thread I was cringing before he even said it. It's like orange/blue color schemes in movies or the wilhelm scream. Done bun can't be undone.
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Jan 23, 2016 06:00
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BiggerBoat posted:How is the art? I love Bernie Wrightson. I have his Frankenstein hard cover. Pretty great  Some gruesome rear end images in there too.
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Jan 24, 2016 19:17
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BiggerBoat posted:How is the art? I love Bernie Wrightson. I have his Frankenstein hard cover. Perfectly in keeping with the book. I'll have a look again this afternoon with a critical eye, but I remember there being colour plates, and b&w illustrations. The colour plates can be a bit... gruesome isn't the word. It's a book about werewolves, illustrating werewolf attacks. The colour plates can be a little clumsy and obvious. I'll have a think, and have another look this afternoon. His Frankenstein stuff is much, much more mature.
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Jan 25, 2016 05:59
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Teach posted:Perfectly in keeping with the book. I'll have a look again this afternoon with a critical eye, but I remember there being colour plates, and b&w illustrations. The colour plates can be a bit... gruesome isn't the word. It's a book about werewolves, illustrating werewolf attacks. The colour plates can be a little clumsy and obvious. I'll have a think, and have another look this afternoon. His Frankenstein stuff is much, much more mature. My problem with the illustrations is their placement in the book. They're thrown randomly in their chapter, and spoils who dies before you read their death. How much more work would it have taken for someone to proofread the drat book and put the pictures in appropriate places? Overall, the book is a fun idea that disappoints, because Stephen King writing a werewolf murder mystery in a small town setting should be fantastic.
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Jan 25, 2016 13:42
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Franchescanado posted:My problem with the illustrations is their placement in the book. They're thrown randomly in their chapter, and spoils who dies before you read their death. How much more work would it have taken for someone to proofread the drat book and put the pictures in appropriate places? Well the thing is originally, in the calendar idea, you'd flip to a new month and the illustration would be right there and huge. And then below it and to the side, you'd have the text from Stephen King about why and how that scene was happening that month.
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Jan 25, 2016 16:01
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fishmech posted:Well the thing is originally, in the calendar idea, you'd flip to a new month and the illustration would be right there and huge. And then below it and to the side, you'd have the text from Stephen King about why and how that scene was happening that month. I get the idea, but that's even more of a reason for them to reformat the story. For the majority of its publication, it has not been a calender. King and his editors are willing to reprint a 700 page novel with an extra 400 pages and changing dates and references, why is changing the format from a calendar to a short book a problem? Why not just move the illustrations over a page or two, where it serves the story better? I'm not reading a calender at this point.
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Jan 25, 2016 16:43
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Franchescanado posted:I get the idea, but that's even more of a reason for them to reformat the story. For the majority of its publication, it has not been a calender. Because the way it's presented in books is the way the illustrator and King want you to see it. You're supposed to be "spoiled" for each of the vignettes by the art. It's kinda like complaining that comic books spoil parts of the story because you can see events a few panels ahead before you read the text.
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Jan 25, 2016 17:18
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Coincidentally, the most recent installment of "Stephen King Revisited" is about Cycle of the Werewolf: http://www.stephenkingrevisited.com/by-the-light-of-the-silvery-moon-by-bev-vincent/
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Jan 25, 2016 21:07
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Glamorama26 posted:Pretty great The Death of Maury Povich.
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Jan 25, 2016 23:37
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I know of King's connection to Maine, Florida and Boulder but does he also have links to Vermont? I am just wondering about the references to VT in the early books (Stand, Salem's Lot, Shining). Did King ever live/teach there?
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Feb 6, 2016 12:16
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syscall girl posted:So I started watching Stahm of the Century for ya know obvious reasons. I actually really like STORM OF THE CENTURY. It has some hokey elements, but it's probably by far the most successful thing King worked on for TV. Conversely, for King, it also nails the ending.
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Feb 9, 2016 14:05
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Storm has one of the best endings he's ever done. It makes everything before it worthwhile as well.
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Feb 11, 2016 19:22
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April posted:Coincidentally, the most recent installment of "Stephen King Revisited" is about Cycle of the Werewolf: This is pretty great. I love Bernie's artwork in that book, and the movie is surprisingly not too bad. Some good performances by Gary Busey and Everett McGill, and I love the dynamic between Marty and his sister. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzsRLmOnXkM The soundtrack is pretty killer too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18E5JYhkLMw Full playlist here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kYckUaA33Y&list=PLDmdF1ma6cZqyb0TZtfPwHu7iOHjjmD4c
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Feb 11, 2016 21:08
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First episode of 11.22.63 is up on Hulu. Not too bad, seems to be sticking close to the source so far. The exposition was a bit heavy handed but I'll keep watching.
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Feb 16, 2016 00:45
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Medullah posted:First episode of 11.22.63 is up on Hulu. Not too bad, seems to be sticking close to the source so far. The exposition was a bit heavy handed but I'll keep watching. I liked the book but as a not-baby-boomer I don't like Kennedy, especially King's reverence of him. Pretty interested in seeing the show though. I mean I think I've seen 98% of the adaptions and won't miss this.
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Feb 16, 2016 01:06
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Just finished 11/22/63 in a week and a half. gently caress what a great book. I'm sad. I'm happy. I'm everything all at once. What a great loving book.
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Feb 19, 2016 06:48
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I have to say, my first attempt at 11/22/63 I ended up dropping it somewhere around Sadie's past and THE BROOM, I just found it dull and struggled to get through a chapter so many times until I eventually stopped trying. I picked it up again on a lark and breezed through it. I even cried at the end, when they danced. Such a beautiful love story that could only have been told via a time travel story. I almost feel like King tricked us into reading about the assassination, only for the confrontation with LHO to blast by with nary a word from our antagonist so we could get back to the good stuff. In other news, (11/22/63 Hulu Miniseries spoilers, technically different from the book I guess)I'm on a self-imposed hiatus from the 11/22/63 miniseries thread, where two posts in I found myself already bitching about the adaptation. So many pointless changes that create giant plot holes. I fear we have another poor adaptation on our hands.
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Feb 19, 2016 07:04
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I really like Idris Elba, but I wouldn't have picked him for Roland. I hope I live to regret that, being 100% honest. Fake edit: It has nothing to do with his skin. I'd say he'd be a good pick for James Bond, to be completely contrary. 
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Feb 19, 2016 08:01
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Advice posted:I have to say, my first attempt at 11/22/63 I ended up dropping it somewhere around Sadie's past and THE BROOM, I just found it dull and struggled to get through a chapter so many times until I eventually stopped trying. I picked it up again on a lark and breezed through it. I even cried at the end, when they danced. Such a beautiful love story that could only have been told via a time travel story. I almost feel like King tricked us into reading about the assassination, only for the confrontation with LHO to blast by with nary a word from our antagonist so we could get back to the good stuff. Yeah I cried at the end as well. I'm with you about the LHO bit. I started to care less and less about LHO as the book went on and more about the developing love story. Then again, without the LHO climax, the ending wouldn't have been setup as well as it was. It was such a beautiful scene, that final dance.
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Feb 19, 2016 08:29
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Also concerning 11/22/63, I loved the constant setup for the butterfly effect, which I guess has a payoff in the awful future set up by preventing the assassination, but I feel had a secret real payoff in that Sadie's ex only injured her because Jake got involved with her. Her face is fine in the ending. A great grim reminder of the effects, positive and negative, we have on everything we touch. Interesting too that while Jake was willing to give his time, perhaps even his life to save the world from the horrors of Vietnam, in the end the time portal demanded more, demanded something he didn't even know he had, to appease the future. He presumably dies old and alone, saving the world from the apocalyptic wasteland it might have become.
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Feb 19, 2016 18:34
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Abby Lee, who played one of the wives in Mad Max: Fury Road, was just cast as Tirana, who apparently is a can-toi. So it seems like the low-men are going to be on Roland's trail right from the beginning in this version.
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Feb 19, 2016 21:13
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I thought the book was awesome and I saw the show and really liked it so far. I kinda like that they are amping up on the 'time tries to stop you' thing - iirc in the book there's maybe a tiny bit of that but not nearly like the show presents it. The time police people were really interesting to me in the book and I wanted more than what King gave us on that end so I'm glad they are giving that a decent chunk of screen time.
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Feb 19, 2016 21:49
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So I am reading Cell for a lit class(its one of the required readings) and i just finished it. i had read it before a few years back and thought it was alright, my opinion stays about the same, the psychic phoners are still kinda dumb, but it feels a lot less abrupt then it did the first time. i get tired of the kid talking about how the pulse works/brains/pc/reboot poo poo. its interesting the first time, but after the fifth loving time its annoying. what are peoples opinions on cell.
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Feb 20, 2016 05:13
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Dapper_Swindler posted:So I am reading Cell for a lit class(its one of the required readings) and i just finished it. i had read it before a few years back and thought it was alright, my opinion stays about the same, the psychic phoners are still kinda dumb, but it feels a lot less abrupt then it did the first time. i get tired of the kid talking about how the pulse works/brains/pc/reboot poo poo. its interesting the first time, but after the fifth loving time its annoying. what are peoples opinions on cell. Cell kinda reads like 3 different short story or novella concepts that got hastily taped together to make a full novel with a semblance of a through-running plot. Like each roughly third of the book could be a decent story on its own, but it doesn't really work together.
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Feb 20, 2016 05:31
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Dapper_Swindler posted:So I am reading Cell for a lit class(its one of the required readings) and i just finished it. i had read it before a few years back and thought it was alright, my opinion stays about the same, the psychic phoners are still kinda dumb, but it feels a lot less abrupt then it did the first time. i get tired of the kid talking about how the pulse works/brains/pc/reboot poo poo. its interesting the first time, but after the fifth loving time its annoying. what are peoples opinions on cell. It should be taught as an example of what not to do. It was amazing and scary in the first act but King didn't plot the course (obviously this works sometimes) and it ended in a forgettable mess. Not every book should be scripted from start to finish but he could have slowed down a bit and talked to his wife or friends or kids or I dunno, a professional editor about the story and such. He had a great idea that really made my eyes bug out in the initial parts but there was no follow through.
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Feb 20, 2016 05:35
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Dapper_Swindler posted:So I am reading Cell for a lit class(its one of the required readings) and i just finished it. i had read it before a few years back and thought it was alright, my opinion stays about the same, the psychic phoners are still kinda dumb, but it feels a lot less abrupt then it did the first time. i get tired of the kid talking about how the pulse works/brains/pc/reboot poo poo. its interesting the first time, but after the fifth loving time its annoying. what are peoples opinions on cell. I enjoyed about half of the book. I liked the opening chapter of seeing an apocalypse from a single perspective in a heavily populated city. When Eli Roth was attached, he talked about filming it like The Day After Tomorrow, as a world view of the event, which ruins the magic of that chapter, and even the book. Ambiguity was the strongest part of the book, which gets ruined as it goes along. It's like King felt like he had to justify and explain it after we've already accepted it. The fact that the main character was a comic book artist was fun, but it didn't get used a lot. I remember, near the end, where a character dies (the character that kills himself), and the main character is so shocked that he can only really comprehend it as a series of panels of a comic in his mind. That was wonderful. There's a scene at the beginning of a zombie (Should they even be called "zombie"? They're more like something from "The Crazies") eating a pumpkin, which was a small detail that always stuck with me. That and the baby shoe. The dynamic between the three main characters at the beginning (the guy, the maybe gay guy, and the young girl) was great, especially how broken she was as a person after the trauma. The book really went downhill once that dynamic was changed. The cruelty and unfairness of her death was also effective. I was very sad to see her go, and liked that just because we're in the apocalypse doesn't mean everyone is going to get along. The idea of the zombies having a hive mind collective, and have to recharge like a battery was an interesting idea, forcing mankind to become nocturnal. I would have liked to have seen that life-style explored more. It's when they start flying when I don't give a poo poo. While the book seems to be a weird Luddite message, the initial disaster of a single phone call sent to everyone is pretty terrifying. I've worked at several jobs where it's mandatory to make and answer phone calls all loving day, and the idea that I answer the phone and hear a siren or digital message that shifts my brain into a primal state is a fantastic concept. But it was stated best earlier in this thread: Cell is a book that starts off great and loses quality with each successive chapter until it just falls apart under its own weight of weird ideas that make zero sense. Also, I really hated the motif "Fo fo you you". I was confused with how to say it at first, and then it was repeated so often, it felt like King had heard about how Palahniuk writes and wanted to give it a whirl. Edit: I just checked, and I read Cell nine years ago. I'm surprised I remember it as well as I do, since I sold my TPB years ago. Franchescanado fucked around with this message at 06:02 on Feb 20, 2016 |
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Feb 20, 2016 05:55
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Cell is unique in that it's the only book that I've ever read where each chapter is noticably worse than the one before it. It started off strong enough that I finished it, but man, so much wasted potential.
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Feb 20, 2016 06:39
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Yeah, the whole thing with cell is that we are shown early on that killing the flock of phoners is a mistake, but then it turns out that killing a flock a third time is the real solution to the whole thing. It is anti-climatic and makes no real sense.
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Feb 20, 2016 16:30
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joepinetree posted:Yeah, the whole thing with cell is that we are shown early on that killing the flock of phoners is a mistake, but then it turns out that killing a flock a third time is the real solution to the whole thing. It is anti-climatic and makes no real sense. I took it as they blew up a "central node" of the hive mind. that pretty much hosed up the phoners in there area, it helps that the phone message was already corrupted to poo poo so the only phoners being made were half baked retards that didnt mesh with the collective. Franchescanado posted:I enjoyed about half of the book. yeah, pretty much my thoughts. the core ideas and the characters are good, but it slowly unwinds apart.
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Feb 20, 2016 21:42
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/\/\/\/\/\/\ Exactly what's already been said about Cell. Good, memorable characters; amazing start with atmosphere, tension, realism; the journey section is pretty good but as soon as they arrive at the school things start to fall apart; last third is dispiriting.
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Feb 22, 2016 00:06
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I've been away for awhile and am just catching up on the thread, so excuse the question, please: Someone mentioned there is an "11/22/63 miniseries thread"? Here in SA? Because I can't find it anywhere. Anybody want to point it out to me?
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Feb 23, 2016 05:04
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https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3764462
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Feb 23, 2016 05:07
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Thank you. I was looking in the Book Barn.
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Feb 23, 2016 05:30
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I just started rereading 11/22/63 and holy crap it's going so quickly. I forgot how much I loved this book.
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Feb 23, 2016 07:46
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GreyPowerVan posted:I just started rereading 11/22/63 and holy crap it's going so quickly. I forgot how much I loved this book. Yeah, I had the same experience recently 
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Feb 23, 2016 09:41
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