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My vote goes to The Regulators. That one was just straight up stupid. Killer vans from TV come to life? Thanks to a retard? WHAT THE gently caress. Although I will say King does a really great job (in my opinion) of creating that really intense feeling of "oh god they're coming they're gonna get me I'm running out of time HOLY poo poo HERE THEY COME!!" which is always the most effective scare for me because I have nightmares along the same lines on a regular basis. It was the one saving grace in that book. Lisey's Story, too, although I thought the plot in that one was stronger than The Regulators, the execution was just really clumsy.
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May 11, 2009 16:25
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Bosushi! posted:Oh no no no, don't make me read the book to find out the context. I can't stop laughing, oh lord. Seriously, it's the worst book ever, but I imagine it'd be a little better if you got into it for comedy value.
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May 13, 2009 14:54
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I just finished Roadwork (a Bachman book), and while it's certainly not the worst, it was really dry and hard to get through. The ending was anti-climactic, and I felt like the explanation for Bart's behaviour was half-assed and glossed over. It could have been fleshed out a lot more. Overall it was just very "meh." I'm starting The Long Walk next.
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May 22, 2009 16:24
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I really liked Just After Sunset; I thought the only really terrible stories were The Gingerbread Girl, N., Ayana, Rest Stop, and Stationary Bike. As far as his worst short story, I'm gonna go with The Bogeyman. That was some seriously retarded 11th-grade level plot bullshit. Edit: some of my favorites are The Man In The Black Suit and You Know They've Got A Hell Of A Band.
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May 26, 2009 21:11
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egon_beeblebrox posted:I liked The Bogeyman. It wasn't great, but it was short enough to work without having to be all that thrilling. "You Know They've Got a Hell of a Band," "Umney's Last Case," and "The End of the Whole Mess" are my favorite short stories of his. Well the thing with The Bogeyman is that I read it first when I was like 8 years old and it scared the living poo poo out of me. When I revisited it a few years ago I couldn't believe how it ended - because when I was younger what happened to the son scared me so bad I didn't keep reading. I dunno, it just seemed like a really random ending, kinda deus ex machina. I haven't read Umney's Last Case, but I think he's at his weakest when trying to write in someone else's style. Same thing with N and Crouch End - he just can't do Lovecraftian-style horror, and I wish he wouldn't attempt it. The End Of The Whole Mess was great though. I'm also fond of Battleground and The Road Virus Heads North. I really need to watch the Nightmares and Dreamscapes miniseries thing that was on TV...
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May 27, 2009 00:54
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cycowolf posted:I too actually liked Dreamcather the book. The movie doesn't exist. I guess I don't go into his books looking for some uber deep philosophical bullshit like a certain author this forum loves that I think is a douche. Best part of Dreramcatcher was the disturbing descriptions of poo poo weasels. I do kind of wish his wife had not talked him out of changing the title. Uh, I don't think anyone reads Stephen King looking for "deep philosophical bullshit." I don't think it's too much to ask that a book or story be at least competently written or that a plot be cohesive. Don't get all butthurt just because you're of the minority opinion on that book.
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Jun 5, 2009 16:01
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cycowolf posted:Got some sad news my friend. I could care less that people don't like it. Doesn't matter to me. I have never and will never feel bad about liking something that others don't. I'm not the one that's butthurt as you say. I do find it funny that so many people read his stuff that obviously don't like it even going into it. I think the joke might be on them.  No one else is mortally offended here, MY FRIEND. People just happen to dislike some of his books, as you do yourself. What exactly is the issue?As for his new story in Esquire, "Morality," it's not terrible but it feels rushed, and like there are big chunks of backstory missing, stuff that would help the characters' actions make more sense.
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Jun 8, 2009 15:00
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cycowolf posted:I have no idea. I made a post saying I liked Dreamcatcher. You took that and responded that I was butthurt. If your looking for a reason I made that whole passage, look no farther then yourself. I just made a comment on thinking that maybe people expect too much from a author like him and it seemed to make you very angry. I was actually surprised when I saw your response about how you expect a competent cohesive plot in every book. In all, I think your taking this whole thread a little too serious. I think your reading comprehension skills are a little lacking, but whatever. Also, yeah I guess it's super weird of me to expect a competent, cohesive plot. Who needs stuff like that in a book??  Foppish posted:If I recall correctly Just After Sunset's standouts (in my opinion) were N, A Tight Spot, Graduation Afternoon and possibly The Things They Left Behind (not great but nice). N was the most interesting story to me, and Graduation Afternoon was so quick and vivid that I think it'd be stupid to skip it (like passing on taking a look at an interesting photograph because you don't have the time). While GA isn't some earthshattering revelation in the world of King, it's length-entertainment ratio is pretty good. I didn't care for N, but the others you listed were pretty good. A Tight Spot is the best in the book in my opinion. In terms of variety and quality, I think Everything's Eventual is one of his best collections. Lots of great stuff in there, particularly The Man In The Black Suit, That Feeling, You Can Only Say What It Is In French, The Road Virus Heads North and Lunch At The Gotham Cafe. Schweig und tanze fucked around with this message at 17:02 on Jun 9, 2009 |
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Jun 9, 2009 16:58
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Foppish posted:My reccolecion of EE is pretty fuzzy but I just remember not liking the story about the kid who writes letter that kill people and I hated the Gotham Cafe story after I heard the audio book version with King making that Eeeeee! sound...the book version was really good though. Yeah the title story was only so-so and I can imagine an audio version of Lunch at the Gotham Cafe would be seriously grating, but I like the sense of "oh gently caress what am I gonna do??" he created in the story and the way the whole day just went all to hell for no particular reason. I liked Everything's Eventual because it has ghost stories, creepy stories, wtf stories, and some horror. It doesn't adhere to any one genre. Skeleton Crew and Graveyard Shift were both great but it's been a long time since I read either; I need to revisit them I think.
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Jun 9, 2009 20:18
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CrankyProf posted:Nope. thought he was, but during her recovery, she finds out he's real. She goes to his trial/competency hearing, and he mocks her by shouting "You're not anything! You're just made of moonlight!" -- which is what she yelled at him -- while shaking his hands in imaginary handcuffs. I actually like Gerald's Game up until that part. Should have left it as her mind loving with her. The necrophiliac cannibal poo poo was just plain dumb.
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Aug 4, 2009 20:00
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I just picked up Skeleton Crew last night; can't believe I hadn't read it yet (or maybe I did a longass time ago). I'm really enjoying The Mist, and goddamn he's good at creating that claustrophobic and hunted feeling. Now I'm debating whether to watch the movie or not. It makes for good reading but I think actually seeing what's in the mist would render it completely silly. Edit: After reading the movie synopsis on wikipedia, the ending sounds like total garbage and I can't believe King liked it. Schweig und tanze fucked around with this message at 19:16 on Aug 6, 2009 |
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Aug 6, 2009 16:24
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I'm getting into Duma Key and I love the way Eddie is written. He's believeable, and King seems to have left off his usual weird writing "tics," for lack of a better term. The daughter Ilse, though, is really awkwardly written. I'm only ~150 pages in, but I can't wait to finish it.
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Jan 6, 2010 19:46
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oldpainless posted:I disagree about It needed to be cut down a little. Maybe its because It is one my favorite three books to read, but even at its 1100 pages I wished the book was longer and had more stuff. And I usually think every one of King's books could stand to lose 10 percent or so of length. I got about a third of the way through It and had to just stop..it became impossible to remember some of what I had read at the beginning because it just went on and on. I'll give it another try sometime, but I just got to the point where the payoff wasn't worth the slog.
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Jan 8, 2010 18:02
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oldpainless posted:I'm assuming it was probably the part where all the adults get phone-calls and King spends like a hundred and fifty pages of them packing up? Yeah, even though I love the book, that has always been my least favorite part of it. Once you get past that and get to the pages where they are children, the book starts to get really good. Yeah, I got to the point where they had left the Chinese restaurant after getting back to Derry, but stopped then. I just had other stuff I wanted to read and didn't want to wait forever (most of my reading time these days is unfortunately about 10 minutes on the subway in the evenings, and sometimes during lunch at work if I can step out). I'll probably pick it up again in the summer. I'm just about done with Duma Key and I'm loving it. Nice solid ghost story, that one.
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Jan 8, 2010 19:37
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cheerfullydrab posted:Ah, crud. I hated, hated, hated Cell. I haven't heard anything about Lisey's Story except what I've read from the back of the copy I just bought and vague things in this thread and elsewhere about how bad it is. I've tried to ignore people talking about it up till now. There are a lot of his stupid writing "tics" and character hokiness, but I thought the actual story itself wasn't terrible. I read it on a beach vacation though, so mindless retardation didn't bother me. Duma Key is way, way better. Like, it could have been written by a different author better.
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Apr 5, 2010 15:52
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