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Stephen King

I'm currently reading The Dark Half. Not one of his best works,but it's decent.

Gonna pick up The Talisman soon. Anybody read it?
 
Libra6Poe said:
The Stephen King Illustrated Companion: Manuscripts, Correspondence, Drawings, and Memorabilia from the Master of Modern Horror
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I just bought this from BN today and it is freakin' awesome. LOVE!
Great for any fan. Definitely pick this up.
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Interesting, I may have to take a trip to town today.

Lincoln Rhyme said:
I'm currently reading The Dark Half. Not one of his best works,but it's decent.

Gonna pick up The Talisman soon. Anybody read it?
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I read The Talisman many years ago. It was an enjoable read

with the parallel world and all

I remember as I was reading this novel trying to figure out which chapters were written by Stephen King and which chapters were written by Peter Straub.

I have the sequel Black Horse but have yet to read it (my "to-read" pile is always growing in size :blink:)
 
The Stephen King Illustrated Companion

brk_3 said:
Interesting, I may have to take a trip to town today.
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(The sticker on the cover said it was a BN exclusive...)

Those manuscripts alone make the price worth it (it's about $25). It's a fairly large, coffee table sized book. Inside are copies of things he's written in his early days, including a story he wrote when he was in middle/high school.
 
I recently read Under the Dome by Stephen. It was first king novel and I absolutely loved it. Stephen can create a totally fictional world with such real characters, that you get really involved in the plot. I spent many sleepless nights, as I just could not stop reading. No sooner one chapter ended, than I yearned to read the next one. But, I was slightly disappointed with the end.
 
Anamnesis said:
Vulture comments on King's entire body of work.

Some surprises: Roadwork is ranked in the Top 20, while Rose Madder receives the lowest spot :rolleyes:. If it were up to me, I'd probably select Lisey's Story or The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon as King's weakest title.
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The link doesn't seem to work - do you have another one?

I dunno, Lisey's Story is a bit of a stumble, but it has its good points. It's certainly nowhere near as bad as, say, Cell, Dreamcatcher or The Tommyknockers.
 
Thanks!

...Gerald's Game worse than Cell? Oh, come on. And The Long Walk way down in 47? The utterly forgettable Roadwork and From A Buick 8 in the top 20?

Hard to argue with the top 5 though. I should probably re-read some of these.
 
:blush: I should've looked things over before submitting that post.

The Tommyknockers was mostly good, although I do wish 200 or so pages were excised from the text. Some sections really did seem to just go on and on for no reason.

I always thought Gerald's Game was an absorbing thriller. It would definitely be in my Top 25 or 30 Stephen King titles.
 
Tobytook said:
> I can't stand not being able to read the book from cover to cover immediately!

That might present a problem with comics reading :rolleyes: Lies, old fruit. (See your thread on same in the relevant section of The Forum.)

By the way, I know your brothers, Damned Lies and Statistics. We did some time together.

As far as Stephen King goes, Hol, I'd say personally that he's often scuppered by his own popularity. He could publish a novel about someone wallpapering their front room and it would still sell like hot cakes. He's not challenged by the necessity to write well any more. In some cases, his introductions and afterwords are more meritorious than the story they bookend. That's not to say that he can't still write good fiction - newer works like Dolores Claiborne and The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon prove it. The non-fantastical first half of Rose Madder is also a good example - although there is a lot of speculation about how much of it may or may not have been written by his wife. But he has put out some stinkers, too - notably the tiresome Tommyknockers and downright ludicrous Insomnia. You have to go back to the early eighties (the superb but poorly titled It), and more realistically to the seventies for great works with terrific characterisation, top notch dialogue, and great storytelling. Novels like The Stand, Christine, Carrie and 'Salem's Lot can stand up proud in a lineup with any selection of so-called Literary Fiction. These days... well, I don't know. He's still got it in him, but it comes out less and less often. His long essay on the art of writing, called appropriately On Writing is an excellent and well-respected work, though, and demonstrates his (constantly threatened) ability to keep one foot in the posh doorway while hawking his populist wares out on the street.

Chew the bones out of that, as Pappy used to say. (And still does, actually.)

Tobytook
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I have to disagree with you about Insomnia, that is a terrific novel. Sure he isn't spot on every time, but what author is. To be honest, I didn't care for The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. Many of his latter novels shows his maturity as a writer and are absolutely wonderful reads. Duma Key, From A Buick 8, Full Dark No Stars, Everything's Eventual, Hearts in Atlantis, Just After Sunset, Nightmares and Dreamscapes, Dreamcatcher, Bag of Bones, The Green Mile, Gerald's Game, and yes Insomnia, not to mention the last three books of The Dark Tower will all be classics. I love his older books, they are what got me started, but it isn't just his name that keeps me reading him, it's the quality and effort that he puts into his work to this day that keeps me reading him.
 
D.L. Severn said:
I have to disagree with you about Insomnia, that is a terrific novel. Sure he isn't spot on every time, but what author is. To be honest, I didn't care for The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. Many of his latter novels shows his maturity as a writer and are absolutely wonderful reads. Duma Key, From A Buick 8, Full Dark No Stars, Everything's Eventual, Hearts in Atlantis, Just After Sunset, Nightmares and Dreamscapes, Dreamcatcher, Bag of Bones, The Green Mile, Gerald's Game, and yes Insomnia, not to mention the last three books of The Dark Tower will all be classics. I love his older books, they are what got me started, but it isn't just his name that keeps me reading him, it's the quality and effort that he puts into his work to this day that keeps me reading him.
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I agree. Though I really didn't enjoy Gerald's Game, I really did love Insomnia and I just finished 11/22/63 and, though I found it to be a great deal outside of his usual writing style - not as creepy - I did enjoy reading it.

Books, much like music, television and movies, are many times a matter of personal taste. You can say you didn't enjoy a song, but still credit the artists with talent. The same goes for the superb talent of Stephen King. You may not enjoy all of his writing, but you have a personal vendetta or no literary knowledge if you claim he is talentless.
 
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