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Desperation kind of got to me at the time. I was 17 and not an atheist yet, so a book whose entire thesis is based around "God is a real cruel sonofabitch" struck me fairly well. Still adore it more for atmosphere than plot now.
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Jul 9, 2022 05:19
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMf1fKznOAw Don’t sleep on this deal
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Jul 9, 2022 05:23
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Re 11/22/63 ending: i liked the part where he finds out it all went to poo poo when they saved jfk. i did not like the fact that the time travel guy comes in and says "well even if it worked out, any change would have destroyed the earth anyways." Felt like a thumb on a scale that did not need to be there.
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Jul 9, 2022 05:40
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might wanna change the thread title 
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Jul 9, 2022 09:10
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I'd be down for a thread title change. Stephen King thread: It's longer than you think Stephen King: Literature? No. Shitweasels? Yes!
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Jul 9, 2022 11:00
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joepinetree posted:Re 11/22/63 ending: eh, you kind of need that part if for no other reason than to have an actual reason the protagonist doesn’t immediately do what he almost did and rewrite stuff anyway immediate on coming back and resetting the bad timeline. It’s one thing to change one of the biggest events in history and have it blow up in your face, but it’s harder to bullshit yourself into thinking just changing that one thing is bad and it’ll be good if you just redo everything but that part without negative ramifications when a time keeper comes up you and says “my guy, how have you not figured out you and your pal have made dozens of parallel universes and that loving with time to any extent is a bad idea?
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Jul 9, 2022 13:01
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Rev. Bleech_ posted:Desperation kind of got to me at the time. I was 17 and not an atheist yet, so a book whose entire thesis is based around "God is a real cruel sonofabitch" struck me fairly well. Still adore it more for atmosphere than plot now.
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Jul 9, 2022 17:25
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I guess it depends on if this uses Neil Gaiman rules or not, but "the judeo-christian god is real, omnipotent, and kind of a prick sometimes" is pretty much in line with judeo-christian texts and if He's omnipotent and definitely real you're kinda stuck worshiping Him or dealing with His worse side.
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Jul 9, 2022 18:44
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I don’t remember any of that from reading desperation lol. It was…14 years ago? That’s the one with an alien in a mine pit controlling a police sheriff or something? And there’s a scene of some people locked up in a jail cell. A deaf boy like in the stand? Finished Firestarter. I liked it, but it and DeD Zone feel a tier below Carrie, S LOT And Shining, but those are way too good, so it’s not too surprising. A shame both firestarter adaptations apparently suck hard. The native character in Firestarter reminded me of another King character, but I’m not sure which one.
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Jul 9, 2022 21:29
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Mr. Nemo posted:I don’t remember any of that from reading desperation lol. It was…14 years ago? Nobody is deaf in Desperation. His super power is believing in God and being skinny enough to slip through jail cell bars. And Collie Entragian (especially as portrayed by Ron Perlman) is one of King's most memorable villains. Even if he is just a vessel for Tak.
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Jul 9, 2022 22:40
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Last Celebration posted:eh, you kind of need that part if for no other reason than to have an actual reason the protagonist doesn’t immediately do what he almost did and rewrite stuff anyway immediate on coming back and resetting the bad timeline. It’s one thing to change one of the biggest events in history and have it blow up in your face, but it’s harder to bullshit yourself into thinking just changing that one thing is bad and it’ll be good if you just redo everything but that part without negative ramifications when a time keeper comes up you and says “my guy, how have you not figured out you and your pal have made dozens of parallel universes and that loving with time to any extent is a bad idea? I find an ending of a 5 year older man having to decide whether to try again, every time, potentially alienating her by already knowing her, a far more poignant ending than "eh, it was all for nothing anyways, because even if it worked out you'd have to reset it to prevent the end of the world"
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Jul 10, 2022 00:37
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Rev. Bleech_ posted:Desperation kind of got to me at the time. I was 17 and not an atheist yet, so a book whose entire thesis is based around "God is a real cruel sonofabitch" struck me fairly well. Still adore it more for atmosphere than plot now. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6YXZUx99ic This one seemed to heavily pop up in my childhood.
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Jul 10, 2022 02:22
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What's the general opinion on Under The Dome? I read it when it first came out and enjoyed it. Then I read it again in 2012 or so and didn't enjoy it as much. The villains are cartoonishly evil with no greater scope. IIRC they even wear badges later in the book identifying them as bad guys. Plus that ending was pretty poor and comes out of nowhere despite the 400+ pages of build. I hold some nostalgia for it so I'm interested in reading it a third time to see if my opinion has changed.
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Jul 11, 2022 16:10
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Kosmo Gallion posted:What's the general opinion on Under The Dome? I read it when it first came out and enjoyed it. Then I read it again in 2012 or so and didn't enjoy it as much. The villains are cartoonishly evil with no greater scope. IIRC they even wear badges later in the book identifying them as bad guys. Plus that ending was pretty poor and comes out of nowhere despite the 400+ pages of build. It was King's not subtle at all response to Bush and Cheney's brand of bad leadership. I dont like it when writers feel like they have to proselytize even if i agree with them. (Crichton was bad at this too in his later years.) That said, i did like the book and think its top 10 King.
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Jul 11, 2022 17:12
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However bad the "aw gently caress, how am I gonna explain this" ending was, it's still 100x better than the poo poo the TV show got up to
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Jul 12, 2022 15:55
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I forget, was the ending it was a bunch of alien kids with godlike powers playing with humans like ants in an ant cage thing (idk what they’re called) and the humans finally asked the aliens to not play with them like the ants they were in the cosmic scale of things?
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Jul 12, 2022 16:43
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There's also a psychic dog as well, although it's been so long since I've read it I can't remember what the dog does.
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Jul 12, 2022 19:22
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Gambrinus posted:There's also a psychic dog as well, although it's been so long since I've read it I can't remember what the dog does. I thought that was a Koontz thing. Glad I never finished it.
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Jul 12, 2022 21:25
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Gambrinus posted:There's also a psychic dog as well, although it's been so long since I've read it I can't remember what the dog does. The dog was the best character.
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Jul 13, 2022 01:34
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Rev. Bleech_ posted:However bad the "aw gently caress, how am I gonna explain this" ending was, it's still 100x better than the poo poo the TV show got up to This by a mile I liked UtD a lot and for some reason didn't mind the ending; or at least not as much as a lot of his others. I was expecting the domers to find like a cave or a sewer tunnel that led to satan's lair or some poo poo. And that TV show was god awful, along with The Stand remake
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Jul 13, 2022 04:29
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Sorry if this is unnecessary planning when I should just read some dang books but, I've been starting to delve into King's work and I'm wondering how people recommend approaching the Dark Tower series. Basically I've read Carrie, Salem's Lot, and over a long period have just about finished up the audiobook of the Stand, am about to start reading the Shining, and after that I'm gonna start skipping around, but I still intend to go mostly chronologically. I plan to decide on something like 15 to 20 of his more universally loved books, but I'm wondering if it would be better to leave the Dark Tower stuff for the end of that journey rather than trying to mix it into a chronological approach to his releases. I don't know a ton about the series but obviously I'm aware it kind of builds a unifying multiverse for his entire body of work, and I'm wondering if that would be best left as a final thing to tackle after I've had my fill of his normal books? Or would it be just fine and dandy to, say, read The Gunslinger and then hop back and forth to Pet Sematary, It, then Dark Tower part 2, etc. Martman fucked around with this message at 02:23 on Jul 14, 2022 |
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Jul 14, 2022 02:20
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Martman posted:Sorry if this is unnecessary planning when I should just read some dang books but, I've been starting to delve into King's work and I'm wondering how people recommend approaching the Dark Tower series. Basically I've read Carrie, Salem's Lot, and over a long period have just about finished up the audiobook of the Stand, am about to start reading the Shining, and after that I'm gonna start skipping around, but I still intend to go mostly chronologically. I plan to decide on something like 15 to 20 of his more universally loved books, but I'm wondering if it would be better to leave the Dark Tower stuff for the end of that journey rather than trying to mix it into a chronological approach to his releases. keep reading in release order and put them on the list with his regular books. they never foreshadow anything
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Jul 14, 2022 02:59
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I know I'm in the minority about this, but the first Dark Tower book that I read was Drawing of the Three, because the first couple times I had attempted to read The Gunslinger I gave up, because (in my opinion) it's a pretty mediocre book. Not anywhere even close to the three books that follow it in the series in terms of quality, which I think can be manageable and even a little charming if you're already a fan of the series and the characters. But it's not so great if you're a first-time reader unsure what to expect from the Dark Tower series who might make the mistake of thinking that first book is at all representative of the rest of the series in quality, tone, writing style, pacing, etc...
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Jul 14, 2022 03:33
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I guess that might actually be a good reason to split up the series, could be a bit of a slog to do them all as one block if it's a rough start. Thanks.
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Jul 14, 2022 03:41
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I fell in love with The Gunslinger from the first page, and it's not especially long, so I don't know if I'd call it a rough start. Its tone and writing style are different from the later books, though. Especially if you're reading the original edit. But the original edit does have more charm I think.
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Jul 14, 2022 03:44
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Martman posted:I guess that might actually be a good reason to split up the series, could be a bit of a slog to do them all as one block if it's a rough start. Thanks. theres a lot of slumps. song of susannah is one of the longest books and the whole thing is a slump
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Jul 14, 2022 04:23
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I think I had only read Carrie, The Shining, Pet Sematary, and Cell when I started the Dark Tower series. I enjoyed it quite a bit but I think it would be very cool to read them chronologically mixed in with King's other books. Agreed that Gunslinger is difficult to get through but once I started Drawing of the Three, I didn't put the series down until I was finished. Wind Through the Keyhole came out a couple years after I finished VII.
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Jul 14, 2022 04:35
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Gravity Cant Apple posted:I fell in love with The Gunslinger from the first page. Same here. It might be my favorite in the series. It's got more of a grim western feel that the others lack. Which is right up my alley.
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Jul 14, 2022 04:57
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scary ghost dog posted:theres a lot of slumps. song of susannah is one of the longest books and the whole thing is a slump
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Jul 14, 2022 05:06
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escape artist posted:Song of Susannah is actually one of the shortest books. it really doesnt feel that way
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Jul 14, 2022 05:06
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I thought I read it all the way through with just one book detour, but I broke up my read quiet a bit. Reading order went Gunslinger Drawing of the Three The Long Walk Wastelands Cujo Wizard & Glass The Stand Song of Susannah The Dark Tower ruddiger fucked around with this message at 05:17 on Jul 14, 2022 |
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Jul 14, 2022 05:13
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Son of a Vondruke! posted:Same here. It might be my favorite in the series. It's got more of a grim western feel that the others lack. Which is right up my alley. I feel the same. Gunslinger is a great read, and very short. Loved that shootout scene in that town. The worst Dark Tower books are unfortunately the last 3 when the characters suddenly start speaking like total morons.
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Jul 14, 2022 11:13
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I tried the Gunslinger on several occasions and even got quite a bit in at some point but never finished it. I decided the Dark Tower series just isn't for me.
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Jul 14, 2022 11:29
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Wizard & Glass is one of King’s best books, but it is as far as I made it in the series. The next book I just couldn’t finish at the time. I might retry again, but I think I’m ok if don’t ever finish the series. I will also say if you have no plans to read the whole series read Wizard & Glass as a stand-alone at least.
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Jul 14, 2022 11:38
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nate fisher posted:I will also say if you have no plans to read the whole series read Wizard & Glass as a stand-alone at least. I endorse this. I loving love Wizard and Glass, and it's almost entirely a flashback so it works well as its own story.
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Jul 14, 2022 17:38
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The Gunslinger was the first King book I read, and I started the series right before the 7th book came out so I burned through all of them back to back. I haven't read a ton of his books since then and would describe myself as a fan but not a huge one. I enjoyed all the DT books and have reread most of them. I thought the ending, and the after-ending, were both fine, though the final push was exactly that. But the first book really struck me when i read it and stands out to me today as one of my favorites. Other than Moby Dick it's the only book whose opening line has stuck with me.
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Jul 15, 2022 04:32
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https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/stephen-king-mr-harrigans-phone-netflix-donald-sutherland-jaeden-martell-1235024060/Hollywood Reporter posted:Veteran actor Donald Sutherland and Jaeden Martell, who appeared in the It movies, will star in Mr. Harrigan’s Phone, an adaptation of a Stephen King short story being produced by Jason Blum’s Blumhouse and Ryan Murphy. The announcement was made as part of the second annual BlumFest, which celebrates the many spooky projects from scaremaster Blum.
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Jul 18, 2022 21:14
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Speaking of spooky phones, I just watched The Black Phone last night, which is an adaptation of a short story by Joe Hill. All in all, it was a decent thriller and I'd recommend it.
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Jul 19, 2022 16:21
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Read the books in order, unless you find The Gunslinger too difficult, in which case do what I did and go straight to Drawing of the Three and go back to Gunslinger whenever you feel like you might understand it better. It's odd that it took me Drawing of the Three, The Wastelands and Wizard and Glass to serve as a primer to get into The Gunslinger but hey.
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Jul 19, 2022 17:23
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Canuckistan posted:Speaking of spooky phones, I just watched The Black Phone last night, which is an adaptation of a short story by Joe Hill. All in all, it was a decent thriller and I'd recommend it.
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Jul 19, 2022 18:33
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