|
Dreamcatcher. It's so horrible on every possible level. Most of the other books here at least had some redeeming feature. Tommyknockers had the awesome gadget montage near the climax, and it ended well. Cell was decent for the first two thirds before poo poo went off the deep end. Cujo is scary in the sense that such a thing could happen to anyone. Rabies is a scary disease. But Dreamcatcher has nothing for it. It is awful.
|
#
¿
May 4, 2009 18:06
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 05:17 |
|
|
egon_beeblebrox posted:That's exactly how I feel. I refuse to read anything of his published after Cell, but still have a few of his older books to read. Duma Key is rad. You're missing out.
|
|
#
¿
May 6, 2009 21:32
|
|
|
Wrojin posted:I saw The Mist--- The short story is wonderful.
|
|
#
¿
May 7, 2009 02:57
|
|
|
Barrelfox posted:Just finished Tommyknockers yesterday night. I though it was at least good, not as good as IT or the The Stand by any means, but certainly good. Best part was that i didnt feel it the lack-lustre ending that many of his works suffer from. I like the Tommyknockers. Quite a bit, actually. It drags pretty hard around the 1/3 mark, but it picks up steam pretty quickly after that. The gadgets are awesome, with the Coke machine being the best, and the exchange between the two cops is great. "Sir I have just discharged my weapon and killed a coke machine." "You didn't even fire a warning shot." And it has one of King's best endings. It doesn't seem rushed or out of character for anyone. Yeah, it's somewhat ambiguous, but that's alright with me.
|
|
#
¿
May 9, 2009 07:33
|
|
|
Kwik posted:As for the best? It's good, but I still have a bit of a soft spot for The Running Man. It really can't be stated enough, the only thing that story shares with the movie version is the drat title. The Running Man is arguably the best of the Bachman books. I love how the chapters count backwards.
|
|
#
¿
May 10, 2009 04:07
|
|
|
fishmech posted:I'm pretty sure that line showed up in Drawing of The Three or Waste Lands, easily predating 9/11. The Running Man easily predates 9/11, too, since we're talking about planes crashing into buildings.
|
|
#
¿
May 26, 2009 03:40
|
|
|
Pet Semetary is still King's scariest book, to me. It just builds and builds, getting worse with every burial. And it's one of King's few books with an ending that works on multiple levels. There's no lengthy denouement, no sense of rushing to shear dangling plot threads, it simply ends in a fashion that both makes sense and hints at far worse things to come. It, however, is still my favorite, closely followed by The Stand. I'm also fond of The Tommyknockers for some reason. I know it's not one of King's best works, but I still re-read it from time to time.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 24, 2011 04:51
|
|
|
spixxor posted:I loved Tommyknockers right up until the "Oh, it's aliens." realization. I just don't find aliens scary, in book form at least. I kind of liked how the aliens were handled. It's one thing to just say "Hey, look, little green men." It's another entirely to have some sort of weird atmospheric contamination slowly twisting the local population into little green men. Also, the gadgets were awesome.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 24, 2011 17:49
|
|
|
Ugly In The Morning posted:I had to stop and put the book down for a bit when I got to that part. I've never been that creeped the gently caress out by a book before, it was amazing. That first, detailed trip through the woods is really, really well done. King shows just enough to let your imagination fill in all the gaps, and whatever vague images roll through your mind will be worse than anything he could come up with. The only other scene in the book that scares me is when the undead kid picks up daddy's scalpel and starts in on everyone around him. poo poo I'm gonna have to re-read the book now.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 25, 2011 00:44
|
|
|
MyLightyear posted:I found the Altair 4 stuff pretty chilling for some reason. Overall the book got a little silly at the end but considering King's busted mental state when he wrote it I found it pretty damned good. On the beach, at the beginning, right? I always thought that, if that were the same Jack, the characterization was off. That Jack seemed too sullen.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 25, 2011 07:35
|
|
|
FreezingInferno posted:Man, do I love The Tommyknockers. It has its very silly moments and it's a little too long for its own good... but by god, is it creepy. That rant is amazing. King can really write when he tries.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 25, 2011 17:06
|
|
|
Oldstench posted:So...I read The Shining and The Stand 10-ish years ago and enjoyed them, but this thread is making me think that nothing SK has written is worth a poo poo. Are there any books of his that are worth reading? In short, yes. In long form... I'd say that most of us in here are fans, in spite of all King's flaws. I can recognize where he is weak (endings, reusing certain themes), but when compared to his strengths (nearly everything else), it's not that big of a deal. The guy can write dialogue and colloquial dialect like few others. He can build a home, a town, or a world. Relationships rarely seem forced, and he's a deft hand at building that sense of wrongness that underlies most good horror. We have, for the past half page, been discussing Pet Semataray as one of his best works. It is. You should read it. You should read It, too, which is excellent other than one really weird scene at the end. Most of his short story collections, especially the early ones, are great. Night Shift is probably the best of those, with a good half dozen of excellent reads. The Dead Zone gets praise, if not as much, and is fairly unique amongst his works. King co-wrote The Talisman with Peter Straub, and it is very, very good. Most people will agree that most of the books above are good. Not all, but most. And I'm entirely sure I'm leaving a few out. Carrie has a following, as does Misery, for example. You already mentioned The Stand and The Shining. Once you get past those core books, the rest are somewhat hit and miss. Some people hate The Tommyknockers. I like the book despite its flaws. I found The Running Man to be stellar, but there's others who prefer the cheese-tastic 80s Arnold film. Okay, so I like the movie too. There's plenty of other King books like that. Some people love them, others don't. Firestarter is one such. Salem's Lot. Insomnia. The entire Dark Tower series is particular polarizing, books four and seven in particular. So, yes, it is worth reading Stephen King. Most agree that his newest stories are weaker than his earlier, drug-fueled dark fantasies, and that is probably true. So start with his early stuff. Read onwards. Stop if and when you feel he lost his touch.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 25, 2011 20:04
|
|
|
Ornamented Death posted:Wait... There are people that don't like 'Salem's Lot? Who are these broken individuals? I personally know a couple. I thought it was great!
|
|
#
¿
Jul 25, 2011 21:30
|
|
|
Ridonkulous posted:Are they vampires? ...maybe? One of them does tend to sleep all day, works nights, and has for as long as I've known him. The other, definitely not.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 25, 2011 23:46
|
|
|
Mister Kingdom posted:My favorite bit was the flying Coke machine. A pity it didn't make it into the mini-series. Mine too! A close second for Tommyknocker gadgets is the flying weed-whacker that reads brain waves
|
|
#
¿
Jul 26, 2011 03:09
|
|
|
King is great at caricatures in general. His fanatics are usually very well done!
|
|
#
¿
Jul 26, 2011 03:30
|
|
|
Ensign_Ricky posted:But when he does do research, he goes balls out. I love the story on the research for Dolan's Cadillac. Dolan's Caddilac is an amazing story!
|
|
#
¿
Jul 27, 2011 03:56
|
|
|
Octy posted:Yeah, what is up with Maine? All the magical retards went south for the winter. ---------- I just saw the movie version of The Mist and it was surprisingly good!
|
|
#
¿
Aug 7, 2011 01:19
|
|
|
I very much see the Dark Tower as a story about the journey, not the destination. The ending did not bother me at all.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 10, 2011 01:57
|
|
|
trandorian posted:Plenty of other Stephen King stories have people reading books, watching movies etc that were created by characters in other King stories. It's really about the same as many of his stories referring to the towns of Derry, Castle Rock, etc. Or Christine cameoing in It. I don't remember the Christine cameo in It, and I thought I had caught everything. Care to tell me when and where it occurs?
|
|
#
¿
Sep 11, 2011 17:47
|
|
|
ZoDiAC_ posted:When Pennywise gets Henry Bowers out of Juniper Hill, she's implied to be his ride I never caught onto that. But it's been a very, very long time since I read Christine.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 11, 2011 21:31
|
|
|
The Running Man is still my favorite of the Bachman Books. By a long shot. I like the campy Arnold movie, too, even though it's about as different as different can be.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 16, 2011 01:29
|
|
|
Sir Prancelot posted:I don't have my copy to reference it (gave all my King books away It exists, right before everything goes to hell.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 18, 2011 17:19
|
|
) but I swear to God it's there. I remember being so thoroughly skeeved out at thirteen that I just had to put the book away for a little while.
|
Sir Prancelot posted:What up Mist buddy? The Mist owns. The novella is really good, and (is this considered heresy around here?) so is the movie. They're different, of course, owing to the basic differences between book and film. But that doesn't make one inherently better than the other. I went into both cold about the time the movie came out. I read the novella, then the movie. A few months later, I re-watched the movie, then re-read the book. They're both good stories. I don't find one's ending superior to the other. The best part of the movie's ending, where the father kills everyone but himself in an act of mercy, including his son, before running out of bullets is that it makes the crazy Christian cult lady right. Not that I agree with the sentiment, but that it's another layer of irony on top of a story shrouded in metaphor. In the movie version, she's right. It does take a sacrifice, an almost Abrahamic sacrifice to win the day. The book's ending is more bleak overall and still entirely fitting. I love the group's final trek into the unknown. My imagination comes up with a thousand different results, each of which is surely more awesome and terrifying than the story that preceeded it. It's a good ending. And so is the movie's.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 11, 2011 13:29
|
|
|
Farbtoner posted:I've been trying to catch up on some of the older King books that I never read so I've been reading through Firestarter. The whole time I was like "wow, this is actually a fun little sci-fi what-if story with almost none of his usual creepiness" and then bam transvestite garbage disposal jerk-off session out of nowhere It wasn't out of nowhere. He spent a long time building that up.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 18, 2011 13:20
|
|
|
ZoDiAC_ posted:I Don't Even Remember Writing The Tommyknockers I love the onion. Great stuff daily.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 26, 2011 19:05
|
|
|
Locus posted:Joe Hill I have a Kindle book of short stories called 20th Century Ghosts by this young man and it's like reading King in his prime. So many good stories. I got it on sale for $0.99 a long time ago, but it's well worth the $10 Amazon is asking for it now. The stories are widely varied, though many of them feature young teens in a central role. My favorites are about a kid who wakes up to find he's now a giant insect and another about a kid whose mentally challenged brother builds forts that lead to another dimension. Well, I say those are my favorites, and they're good, but when it comes to "Pop Art", I could probably write more words in praise than the author wrote for the story itself. "Pop Art" is absolutely wonderful. It's touching, it's sweet, it's weird, and above all, it's very, very good. It is easily the best short story I've read in a years.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 1, 2011 02:19
|
|
|
Edwardian posted:Tommyknockers, tommyknockers knocking on the door. I love the Tommyknockers. It drags a bit before Gard gets to Maine, but the beginning and the end are absolutely fantastic. So much good, random, horrific stuff in that book.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 31, 2011 20:58
|
|
|
Myrmidongs posted:Still, though, the first act also has my absolute favorite part of the book - the random deaths of survivors of the flu. I guess I have a really dark sense of humor, but the one woman getting locked in her basement cooler thing always came off as hilarious to me. "No great loss." I think that's the quote. So awesome.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 6, 2012 06:04
|
|
|
The Regulators may be the weirdest book King has ever written. Think about that. edit ^^^^^^lol
|
|
#
¿
Jan 19, 2012 23:02
|
|
|
Ridonkulous posted:spoiler because I don't remember it being that bad. The little boy literally shits everywhere.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 20, 2012 04:20
|
|
|
Firestarter is a fun book with a dreadfully boring midsection. It has a number of really memorable scenes and one of King's best villains. Rainbird owns. It also has one of King's weirdest sex scenes--well sort of. Some dude shoves his arm down a garbage disposal while wearing his wife's underwear after Charlie's dad twists his thoughts too much.. The Dead Zone is also good. There's not a lot of really memorable scenes, but the book as a whole is enjoyable. It's a slow burn throughout. It poses some interesting moral and ethical questions. It's very Bachman-book in its structure.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 23, 2012 06:46
|
|
|
Auryn posted:See, that confuses me a little. The supernatural elements are very downplayed. The book is quite bleak and ends in Bachman's signature bittersweet way, with heavy emphasis on the bitter. And at many points, the protagonist's frustration practically leaps off the page. Despite that, like most of the Bachman books, it actually ends in a satisfactory manner, which is more than I can say for 2/3rds of King's books written as King.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 23, 2012 07:32
|
|
I have read and loved The Long Walk, Rage, Thinner and The Regulators. So obviously I enjoy his style. Is The Dead Zone comparable to any of the Bachman I've enjoyed? Can you describe the Bachman-book structure you mean? Because while Bachman certainly writes books with much fewer supernatural elements, the style is still unmistakeably King in my mind. His voice just comes through. It was especially evident in The Regulators. I guess I just don't see any extraordinary differences in style. I'd be fascinated to hear another viewpoint on this, of course!
|
Ozmaugh posted:I enjoy reading him even if I kvetch about some of his stuff here. I honestly believe that Pet Sematary is the scariest book King has ever written. It seems to get left out of discussion and that's a crime. It's just as good as the big S books: Shining/Salem's Lot/Stand.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 17, 2012 21:59
|
|
|
Darko posted:How you take Regulators probably matches how "serious" the frame of mind you get into when you read is, and if you can appreciate the craziest, randomness stuff being thrown at you. I liked it because it was ridiculously goofy and over the top, unlike Desperation, and think it should be read similar to watching some of Takashi Miike's wilder films. If you read it "flat," then you probably won't like it. I'm one of those people who preferred the Regulators over Desperation, precisely because Regulators was batshit insane. It's a weird book. Love it.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 21, 2012 03:36
|
|
|
jackpot posted:Definitely give it another try, it's a great story. Dead Zone is my favorite under-appreciated King book. Firestarter is really close, but it drags like hell around the halfway mark.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 5, 2012 18:13
|
|
|
Locus posted:Speaking of which, I'm listening to The Running Man audiobook, and in the introduction about Bachman, Stephen King just... spoils the ending. That's actually in my physical copy too.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 6, 2012 21:17
|
|
|
when worlds collide posted:
General consensus is that Desperation is better. However, I absolutely love the surreal, nihilistic world in the Regulators. Unironically, I find it good enough to re-read every year or two, and vastly prefer it over Desperation.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 28, 2012 03:21
|
|
|
UltimoDragonQuest posted:Cut out Mia and Mordred.  If the Mordred arc went anywhere at all, it would have been fine. I hate everything to do with Mia in Song of Suannah. SoS is also the only DT book I dislike to re-read, but can't skip. Buried beneath all the Mia crap is another bizarre and intriguing Dark Tower novel.
|
|
#
¿
May 3, 2012 21:59
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 05:17 |
|
|
Vogler posted:I've only read one half of a Stephen King book. It was called 'Dreamcatchers', and I hated it. I'd like to give him one more chance, for some reason, but I don't want to leaf through something which spine holds more than 700 pages. Preferably not more than 400. And the book has to be scary. Thank you. Dreamcatcher is in the running for King's worst book. It's bad. The Langoliers owns. Also get The Mist.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 27, 2012 01:29
|
|