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The Stephen King Thread - Part 1

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Description of End of Watch

Posted: October 8, 2015, 01:24:02
Section: Book » End of Watch (The Bill Hodges Trilogy #3)

From the Flap of End of Watch (contains spoiler for Mr Mercedes and Finders Keepers):

IN ROOM 217 OF THE LAKES REGION TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY CLINIC, SOMETHING HAS AWAKENED. SOMETHING EVIL.

Brady Hartsfield, perpetrator of the Mercedes Massacre, where eight people were killed and many more were badly injured, has been in the Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic for five years, in a vegetative state. According to his doctors, anything approaching a complete recovery is unlikely. But behind the drool and stare, Brady is awake, and in possession of deadly new powers that allow him to wreak unimaginable havoc without ever leaving his hospital room.

Retired police detective Bill Hodges, the unlikely hero of Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers, now runs an investigation agency with his partner, Holly Gibney, who delivered the blow to Hartsfield's head that put him on the brain injury ward. Brady also remembers that. When Bill and Holly are called to a murder-suicide with ties to the Mercedes Massacre, they find themselves pulled into their most dangerous case yet, one that will put not only their lives at risk, but those of Hodges’s friend Jerome Robinson and his teenage sister, Barbara. Because Brady Hartsfield is back, and planning revenge not just on Bill Hodges and his friends, but on an entire city.

In End of Watch, Stephen King brings the Hodges trilogy to a sublimely terrifying conclusion, combining the detective fiction of Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers with the supernatural suspense that has been his trademark. The result is an unnerving look at human vulnerability and up-all-night entertainment
 
I'm looking forward to reading it. :D
 
I was kinda excited to read Lisey's Story due to it being King's favorite book that he's written, but I was really let down. I just didn't like it. Could barely finish it.
 
I was kinda excited to read Lisey's Story due to it being King's favorite book that he's written, but I was really let down. I just didn't like it. Could barely finish it.

It's a very personal story for him, which is probably why it is his favorite book.
 
I was kinda excited to read Lisey's Story due to it being King's favorite book that he's written, but I was really let down. I just didn't like it. Could barely finish it.
Really? I liked it a lot. Bag of Bones is still my favorite, though. :)
 
There wasn't anything wrong with it really. It just never grabbed me like most of his other work.
 
How's Revival? One of my favorite King characters is Larry Underwood.
 
Second Description of End of Watch

Posted: November 12, 2015, 00:45:57
Section: Book » End of Watch (The Bill Hodges Trilogy #3)
Here is a second description of End of Watch:

End of Watch is a compelling and chilling suspense novel which sees retired detective Bill Hodges back on the trail of his nemesis Brady Hartsfield, the criminal the press called The Mercedes Killer. Foiled in his attempt to commit a second mass murder, Hartsfield is confined to a hospital brain injury unit in a seemingly unresponsive state. But all is not what it seems: Brady is able to influence both his physician and the hospital librarian to commit crimes in the outside world. Now, the technological genius has created a hypnotic electronic fishing game which compels users to commit suicide, and he is determined to target the three people who put him in hospital - Hodges and his sidekicks Holly and Jerome. Then he plans to initiate a suicide epidemic. For Hodges - and the city - the clock is ticking in unexpected ways...Both a stand-alone novel and the final episode in the Hodges trilogy, End of Watchis a tense read which takes the series into a powerful new dimension.
 
Get All 3 Bill Hodges Books In One Set

Posted: December 22, 2015, 08:46:01
Sections: Book » Mr. Mercedes (The Bill Hodges Trilogy #1), Book » Finders Keepers (The Bill Hodges Trilogy #2), Book » End of Watch (The Bill Hodges Trilogy #3)

On June 7 you will be able to get all three Bill Hodges books in this nice set. It's hardbacks and has a total page count on 1344 pages.

Pre-order your copy herehere.

billtriology.jpg
 
Let us know what you think when you're finished. I've been curious about that one.
 
More books coming...

Posted: January 6, 2016, 20:16:10

King has spoiled us with two books / year for some time now and often we have known about them way in advance. So, now with just one book on the horizon a fan got worried and asked about if there will be more after End of Watch and this is what the moderator of King’s board said.

That won't be the last book. He's working on a couple projects at the moment but I can't say more than that.


So, no details but there will be more books and that makes me happy. How about you?
 
Just finished Bazaar of Bad Dreams. Thought it was more than less decent. The artwork reminded me a fair bit of his earlier short story collections like Night Shift and Skeleton Crew. So with that comparison in mind, you can imagine I was eager to buy it and start it. Though I was strangely reluctant in actually finishing it. And I don't necessarily mean it in a good way. Quite a few stories, surprising to me, felt a little rushed or too abrupt in their ending. This is a usual point of criticism for his novels, I know, but I've never before found that to be the case with his short stories. Stories like The Dune (which I understand is a favourite of this collection), That Bus is Another World, and Afterlife - I just found them to be pointless, predictable little endeavours that weren't really worth the time taken to read them. My favourite stories were A Death, Morality, Bad Little Kid, Blockade Billy, Ur, Under the Weather, and The Little Green God of Agony. The skill with which he wrote those stories more than made up for my disappointment at some of the other stuff in here (I honestly had to skip Summer Thunder, I'm sorry to say).

I think King should write more and more love letters to the '50s, because I think he really paints a beautiful picture of that era in a way that doesn't need to be sugarcoated, and as such, I really enjoyed Blockade Billy. I'm British and so I'm not even really knowledgeable about Baseball and the like, but the everyman characters and the love with which he wrote about the sport was really intriguing. And Under the Weather, I thought was really clever in applying the main character's knowledge of advertising to the little tight spot he's voluntarily got himself into. I enjoyed it, overall.
 
Let us know what you think when you're finished. I've been curious about that one.

Finished it a couple of nights ago!

Starts out really strong, dealing with the main character's life in 60's Maine, his nuclear family, the town's faith and the new Reverend. When it time jumps forward to the characters 40's or so, it drags a little, and is IMO less interesting overall, the best parts are when he uses his current phase of life to reflect on the past. But it's not bad, by any means.

Things get interesting again in the last third/quarter of the book. Since the whole thing is framed as the main character basically writing his memoirs, there's a lot of hints, teases and build-up for the climax. It wasn't what I was expecting it to be, and I can see why it might be divisive considering it goes full-supernatural when there wasn't really too much of it before hand. But it was crazy, and since I made the mistake of plowing through the last hundred pages or so right before bed, the thought of it all was really creeping me out as I was trying to get to sleep!

Overall, really good, breezy read with engaging characters, a neat mystery and a freaky ending.
 
King is NOT Dead!

Posted: January 27, 2016, 21:54:54

How fun is this?

notdead.jpg


This was posted because there was a hoax circulating claiming that King was found dead today at his home in Bangor. It's not true, King is very much alive and well.
 
King is NOT Dead!

Posted: January 27, 2016, 21:54:54

How fun is this?

notdead.jpg


This was posted because there was a hoax circulating claiming that King was found dead today at his home in Bangor. It's not true, King is very much alive and well.
At least he has a good sense of humor about it, lol. :p
 
Has anyone checked out Bag of bones yet - is it worth the watch
 
The Talisman 3 At Least 2 Years Away

Posted: February 27, 2016, 00:44:58
Section: Book » The Talisman 3

In an interview with Miami Herald Peter Straub talks about the third book in The Talisman series and it looks like we won't see it in at least a couple of years...

Q. So is there any truth to the rumors that a third “Talisman” book is forthcoming?

I certainly hope so. It’s totally dependent on the patience of my saintly collaborator, Steve King. We were supposed to start it three or four years ago, but I had medical problems that stopped me in my tracks. Then I had problems with a book I was doing … so we’re no closer to being able to start it. But part of the reason he’s so patient is we have a great idea for the book. I won’t tell you what it is, but there was a famous story that happened in the world when we were young. He kept a scrapbook about it and so did I, him in Maine and me in Milwaukee. It has a lot of juice in it, and he and I both feel that way about it, so we are eager to do this book. I think he’ll cut me a break and let me go a year or two and then we’ll start working on it.
 
The Music Room; New King Story

Posted: April 4, 2016, 08:22:23

Lawrence Block confirms that King will have his new story The Music Room in his anthology In Sunlight or In Shadow: Stories Inspired by the Paintings of Edward Hopper that will be released in hardcover December 6. You can pre-order it now!

"Edward Hopper is surely the greatest American narrative painter. His work bears special resonance for writers and readers, and yet his paintings never tell a story so much as they invite viewers to find for themselves the untold stories within."

So says Lawrence Block, who has invited seventeen outstanding writers to join him in an unprecedented anthology of brand-new stories: In Sunlight or In Shadow. The results are remarkable and range across all genres, wedding literary excellence to storytelling savvy.

Contributors include Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Robert Olen Butler, Michael Connelly, Megan Abbott, Craig Ferguson, Nicholas Christopher, Jill D. Block, Joe R. Lansdale, Spider Robinson, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Warren Moore, Jonathan Santlofer, Jeffery Deaver, Lee Child, and Lawrence Block himself. Even Gail Levin, Hopper’s biographer and compiler of his catalogue raisonée, appears with her own first work of fiction, providing a true account of art theft on a grand scale and told in the voice of the country preacher who perpetrated the crime.

In a beautifully produced anthology as befits such a collection of acclaimed authors, each story is illustrated with a quality full-color reproduction of the painting that inspired it. Illustrated with 17 full color plates, one for each chapter.
 
Doesn't look like there will be a Kindle version of this, at least not yet. Maybe when it gets closer.... :(
 
I bought my tickets to see King when he comes to Charleston, WV in June. I'm excited to get to see the master in person.
 
King Between Books & Collaborating with Owen

Posted: April 8, 2016, 10:51:33

Here are some interesting news about the status of new King books...

In an interview appearing in the Radio Times in the UK this week, King says that he is between books at the moment, but is in the final stages of collaborating on a book with his son Owen.


Thanks to Chris Lancaster
 
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