The Stephen King Thread - Part 1

[The Navigator]

I really liked Crouch End. I can't recall which anthology it was in, though.

"N" was pretty great as well, really got the Lovecraft hopelessness.

 

[Teelie]

Got through Strawberry Spring and The Ledge.

I figured out pretty quickly what Spring was going to be about regarding the narrator. Sometimes it's just too obvious who/what is going to be happening.

The Ledge I saw in the aforementioned miniseries anthology a while back. It held true to the story although I think it ended differently with how the mob guy dies.

 

[Teelie]

The Lawnmower Man and Quitters, Inc.

The Lawnmower Man is 99% different than the movie of the same name. The 1% that is related to the movie is the presence of a freaking lawnmower. It's also a bizarre story and one that really would have been hard to adapt to a movie without an NC-17 rating for nudity. This story was truly weird. The lawnmower man definitely did a good job cutting the grass though.

Quitters, Inc on the other hand was faithfully adapted along with every other story in the Nightmares & Dreamscapes miniseries so far. That's almost a disappointment. I know how these stories will go, how they will end and what to expect. But it's still good to read them for the minor alterations made in the miniseries.

 

[LEX]

About 20% into It so far. After Duma Key, which I read I don't remember when now, this one makes my second King book. He hasn't outright scared me yet, but his writing's definitely had me unnerved on occasion. Say what you will about the man, but he just sucks you in.

 

[:eek:]

Has Mr. Mercedes & Revival gotten a release date?

Posted: October 29, 2013, 00:17:59
Section: Book » Mr. Mercedes

On a question over at Stephen King’s message board about if King has finished editing Mr. Mercedes or completed the first draft of Revival the moderator gave the following answer:

He's waiting for the editors to do their thing. Release dates have been set but I don't think I'm at liberty to give that information out yet


So, both books seems to have a release date set. Do we dare to hope for 2014?

 

[GremlinZilla89]

Just finished Joyland and loved it.

It's a small story. Some who are looking for his usual supernatural stuff may be disappointed. There are supernatural elements but they are few and far in between are are rather benign. It's an intimate story about a period in a young mans life more than anything. I love a good coming of age tale and this is one hit all the right notes. Sweet, funny, melancholy, and suspenseful at times. King has a way of writing characters in such a way you relate fiercely to them but they also feel like their own people. That is hard to do without seeming like you are writing a Mary Sue or Johnny Sue.

8.5/10

 

[GremlinZilla89]

My reviews of what I consider underrated King novels continues with:

DREAMCATCHER

Fans would say this book is a mash-up of numerous other stories King has told over the years. Namely IT, The Body and Tommyknockers. These people really wouldn't be wrong because to be honest the plot of Dreamcatcher DOES resemble the aforementioned works. But, this novel manages to overcome the initial familiarity of Kings older works and become something unique.

I would say this is IT part 2, at least in spirit. Dreamcatcher has that same bittersweet look back at childhood and the bonds it creates. These 5 kids get into your heart like all of his best characters and you care about every single one of them. I found myself legitimately affected by certain deaths throughout the book. So, yet again Kings magical touch for characters is not lost in this book. If anything it's as strong as it ever had been previously.

Dreamcatcher has been criticized for being all over the place and loosey goosey with it's plot during the back end. I, to put it simply, just don't see how. The book starts off like a good slow burn and takes it's time establishing the characters, and tone. Ah, the tone! This is easily one of Kings most palpably atmospheric novels of his later career. He really works the suspense and feeling of unease to insane levels during the first part of the book. It's one of my favorite build ups to ANY of his works. Then it takes off like a rocket which I guess is where people start to have problems.

The plot isn't weakly put together so much as it is just breakneck, almost manic. There is a certain intangible feeling of King just sort of letting it all out at once in a half crazed frenzy of writing. His almost fatal accident probably being a huge factor for his energy. For a book on the longer side, it moves with ease, hardly ever feeling extraneous or like it has useless filler. It's not perfect, the two soldiers introduced in the second half of the book needed a bit more meat to them, which is off because Kings human villains are always a treat but there the one is simply competent, not phenomenal. This is really the only major gripe I have with Dreamcatcher.

Not only one of Stephen Kings most underrated novels...it's one of his best period.

 

[Teelie]

Got delayed in finishing I Know What You Need last night but just finished it now. It was interesting in how he always seemed to know just what was required at just the right time, although clearly he wasn't able to predict the future or his secret wouldn't have been found out.

Next up, Children of the Corn.

 

[DeGenerate10]

Has anyone read The Long Walk?

 

[The Navigator]

Has anyone read The Long Walk?

Yeah. It's not bad.

 

[GremlinZilla89]

Has anyone read The Long Walk?

One of his best.

 

[Whiskey Tango]

The Long Walk is one of my favorites. Still waiting on the movie, Darabont.

 

[Teelie]

I have although it was a long time ago. I'm going to read it again after I've finished off some other books first. As I recall it's sort of a proto-Hunger Games type story.

 

[Teelie]

Children of the Corn is so much alike and unalike the movie. In the movie the couple isn't so hostile towards one another, and they live. In the book, not so much. It's a much shorter story obviously and Malachi and Isaac only show up at the end briefly. Malachi isn't a dick in the story either and "He Who Walks Behind the Rows" isn't some kind of dirt-dwelling, unseen monster although we only get a glimpse of its true size and form in the book.

 

[Victarion]

Children of the Corn is so much alike and unalike the movie. In the movie the couple isn't so hostile towards one another, and they live. In the book, not so much. It's a much shorter story obviously and Malachi and Isaac only show up at the end briefly. Malachi isn't a dick in the story either and "He Who Walks Behind the Rows" isn't some kind of dirt-dwelling, unseen monster although we only get a glimpse of its true size and form in the book.

What does HWWBtR look like in the book? I remember seeing some kind of demon in one of the Children of the Corn sequels.

 

[Teelie]

In the book all we're told is very large, blotting out the view up to the sky in the corn rows, green, with football-sized red eyes and smelling of old corn husks. No accurate description of it's true size or shape.

 

[DeGenerate10]

I just finished The Long Walk. I really liked it but I'm mixed on the ending. I feel like that's an ending I'll really like after it's sunk it.

I also started Misery today and I'm close to 50 pages in. Love it so far.

 

[Teelie]

I've been lazy or distracted or forgetful to finish off the last stories in Night Shift but I'm going to try reading one tonight.

 

[Teelie]

I finished the last four stories last night. Most of them were fairly short so it went faster than I expected.

The Last Rung on the Ladder is a tragedy and not a horror story. Still good though.

The Man Who Loved Flowers is barely a horror story and more of a murder story. It was fairly short and uneventful up until the end which even then was barely a paragraph's worth.

One for the Road was definitely horror, featuring Jerusalem's Lot again. As it turns out this is indeed a semi-sequel to 'Salem's Lot just as Jerusalem's Lot was the prequel.

The Woman in the Room another not-horror story and more of a sad story. It was not the best way to end out the book of horror stories IMO.

 

[jonathancrane]

Night Shift is a solid volume; my favorite tales are 'Strawberry Spring' and 'One for the Road' (which is why I made a film adaptation.)

 

[Teelie]

The overall book is solid. It's a lot of his early works, being early in his career naturally but they all show what kind of story writing he can do. There's plenty of themes in them and obviously some would go on to be expanded into bigger things (Night Surf becoming The Stand for example, and both Lot and Road bookending 'Salems Lot).

 

[cabel]

Up to chapter 42 of Christine.

 

[cabel]

Finished Christine audiobook. Great listen, but drags in a couple spots. I can understand why they changed what they did in the movie, but they could've done better.

Now on chapter 19 of the Shining.

 

[Teelie]

I've read the introduction to Nightmares & Dreamscapes. It provides a little more insight into King's writing and at the time (1992) was a completion of a trilogy of short story compilations. He said the next time he published a compilation it would be in a year beginning with a 2.

It took until 2008, but he did eventually do another set of short stories.

I'm going to try reading a Nightmares short tonight.

 

[Victarion]

I consider Insomnia, Desperation and Rose Madder to be an unofficial trilogy. I can't remember the proper sequence, but there seemed to be some characters carried over and referenced among the three novels.

I watched Nightflyer on YT. Surprisingly it was a pretty good vampire movie.