Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Locked thread
Minimalist Program
Aug 14, 2010

Professor Shark posted:

Stephen King is very upset at his generation and writes about them really, really well. The "Hearts in Atlantis" section is really good, and every story ties together and is good. It is a Good Book that is overlooked except by Dark Tower nerds who only care about the first part.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Lonos Oboe
Jun 7, 2014
I really enjoyed Hearts in Atlantis in a "Only going to ever read this once on holiday" kinda way.

As a Tower nerd I find the first part pretty good especially after reading that it was going to affect the tower books. The second part is definitely my favourite, adding a sense of mortality with the draft for Vietnam to the age old art of drifting in college and flunking out. It is primo King.

I have to admit, one of the king writings I always go back to is Callahan's Odyssey in Wolves Of The Calla. It had a good mix of King's beautiful writing about the romance of America and a great cat and mouse as we gradually see the machinations of Roland's true enemies. The idea of being lost in time and space, wandering the hidden highways without a past or future. Forever meeting people on their own journeys and affecting their lives as they affect yours. Like a kind of Incredible Hulk meets Quantum Leap. You can't say there is nothing good about the 5th book.

That's why I always liked the White Lands of Empathica section of the last book. It felt like one last big journey across mysterious beautiful lands before the end.

Zeniel
Oct 18, 2013
Mike stared in disbelief as his hands fell off. From them rose millions of tiny maggots. Maggots!? Maggots. Maggots. Maggots. Maggots. Maggots. All over the floor of the post office, in Leytonstone.

Professor Shark
May 22, 2012

I saw on the Dark Tower wiki a user posted that Pennywise is in 11/22/63. I haven't read the book, but is there anything that suggests that?

FedEx Mercury
Jan 7, 2004

Me bad posting? That's unpossible!
Lipstick Apathy
No there isn't, to my recollection. It's a fairly grounded historical fiction, with the exception of one chapter that tries to deal with the consequences of time travel.

PsionicAnt
Jul 16, 2001

Rupert Buttermilk
Apr 15, 2007

🚣RowboatMan: ❄️Freezing time🕰️ is an old P.I. 🥧trick...

I didn't read much of the Dark Tower books, but I know stuff about the whole thing, as well as the books that are tied into it. I always kind of wished that The Green Mile was one of those books, considering how King writes about John Coffey just 'showing up out of nowhere'. Always kind of thought he came from the Dark Tower universe.

FedEx Mercury
Jan 7, 2004

Me bad posting? That's unpossible!
Lipstick Apathy
He came from the magical negro/magical retard dimension, like most of King's support characters.

Professor Shark
May 22, 2012

Rupert Buttermilk posted:

I didn't read much of the Dark Tower books, but I know stuff about the whole thing, as well as the books that are tied into it. I always kind of wished that The Green Mile was one of those books, considering how King writes about John Coffey just 'showing up out of nowhere'. Always kind of thought he came from the Dark Tower universe.

I just assumed he was and that he was some sort of foil to Flagg, the initials being a common trait (John Coffey, Jesus Christ)

Minimalist Program
Aug 14, 2010

notZaar posted:

He came from the magical negro/magical retard dimension, like most of King's support characters.

lol

ElGroucho
Nov 1, 2005

We already - What about sticking our middle fingers up... That was insane
Fun Shoe

4outof5 posted:

this is wrong you are wrong I wish we could have more young roland books.

That was probably the best book in the series, imo

loquacius
Oct 21, 2008

:agreed:

The weird fantasy/Western mashup world Roland came from and its vague downfall were a really compelling setting and I was always sad it didn't get more fleshed out than it did

FedEx Mercury
Jan 7, 2004

Me bad posting? That's unpossible!
Lipstick Apathy
Wastelands is my personal favorite.

pr0k
Jan 16, 2001

"Well if it's gonna be
that kind of party..."
Well this thread sure took an interesting turn.

Can we talk about the greatness of the '85 film "Cat's Eye"?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FeVTVsiCJs

Everything about this movie is awesome. Drew Barrymore, Kenneth McMillan, James Motherfucking Woods.

Cracked_Gear
Nov 4, 2013

lot of good books from him, some even after he got hit by the van.

read From a Buick 8 and expected a rehash of Christine. Was pleasantly surprised.

Bardeh
Dec 2, 2004

Fun Shoe
my thoughts on stephen king are that it's nice to see someone with Downs Syndrome make something of themselves

Rickycat
Nov 26, 2007

by Lowtax

loving lol

the Bunt
Sep 24, 2007

YOUR GOLDEN MAGNETIC LIGHT
If I'm being truly honest, Gerald's Game is probably my favorite Stephen King novel. As the catchphrase of this thread goes, I really hated the ending. The cool thing about Gerald's Game is you can just stop right before the final chapter and it works fine imo.

I thought ending the novel with Jesse saying "my dad did it" (paraphrased) was pitch perfect. it was a bit on the nose i guess, but it hit the whole theme of the book home really well...but then I saw that there was a more. There was honestly no good reason to explain who the Thin Man in the corner of the bedroom was. Let alone drag the entire thing out with dramatic courtroom scenes and litigation.

It's probably the only book of his that really bothered or disturbed me on a significant level because the plot setup is scarily plausible.

Other books I liked:
Misery (minus all the story-within-a-story poo poo)
Christine
That short story where a finger was poking out of a sink drain and harassing a dude? what was this?
Desperation
Regulators
Green Mile

Mooktastical
Jan 8, 2008

uwaeve posted:

The Dark Tower ending was amazing. Anyone itt asking if they should give it a go should, sorry if you had people prejudice you towards thinking it's gonna suck.

:laffo:

ShaqDiesel
Mar 21, 2013

We need an anthropomorphic van pointing at him.

Rupert Buttermilk
Apr 15, 2007

🚣RowboatMan: ❄️Freezing time🕰️ is an old P.I. 🥧trick...

the Bunt posted:

That short story where a finger was poking out of a sink drain and harassing a dude? what was this?

The Moving Finger, from Nightmares and Dreamscapes.

I really enjoyed that one story about the guy who kills his brother or partner, but eventually goes insane and it's all because of something he drank. I might be misremembering it, but I thought it was based off of how bumblebees die when they sting something, so this drug kills those who kill. Could be wrong, though.

The Fuzzy Hulk
Nov 22, 2007

ASK ME ABOUT CROSSING THE STREAMS


Rupert Buttermilk posted:

The Moving Finger, from Nightmares and Dreamscapes.

I really enjoyed that one story about the guy who kills his brother or partner, but eventually goes insane and it's all because of something he drank. I might be misremembering it, but I thought it was based off of how bumblebees die when they sting something, so this drug kills those who kill. Could be wrong, though.

The end of the whole mess.

They discover the water in a town makes the people living there peaceful, so take a bunch of it and toss it into a volcano right before an eruption. The plan is to make the whole world peaceful but it has the unforeseen side effect of making everyone slowly go retarded instead. The book tapers off as the man poisons himself and dies as he writes it.

I have the audiobook read by Matthew Broderick.

sunken fleet
Apr 25, 2010

dreams of an unchanging future,
a today like yesterday,
a tomorrow like today.
Fallen Rib

Professor Shark posted:

I saw on the Dark Tower wiki a user posted that Pennywise is in 11/22/63. I haven't read the book, but is there anything that suggests that?

When Jake is scoping out Derry on his first trip through the time thing there's a little montage of things he sees. And one of them is some sort of thing in a drain pipe that he feels is probably responsible for all the bad poo poo that happened recently. But now it's playing possum or resting or something. On my phone so no exact quote sorry. Also the whole time he's in Derry there's constant references to It, including a few mentions of a murderous clown. Source: this thread prompted me to start rereading that book.

naem
May 29, 2011

Pennywise would starve today because kids can't go outside ever without their helicopter parents

epoch.
Jul 24, 2007

When people say there is too much violence in my books, what they are saying is there is too much reality in life.

Sinking Ship posted:

When Jake is scoping out Derry on his first trip through the time thing there's a little montage of things he sees. And one of them is some sort of thing in a drain pipe that he feels is probably responsible for all the bad poo poo that happened recently. But now it's playing possum or resting or something. On my phone so no exact quote sorry. Also the whole time he's in Derry there's constant references to It, including a few mentions of a murderous clown. Source: this thread prompted me to start rereading that book.

Also Jake watches Bev and ... Bill? Maybe Ben dance at a highschool dance or something and it made me cry irl because I read IT when I was twelve and they were the best friends I ever had because I'm a loser baby so why don't you kill me?

Commie NedFlanders
Mar 8, 2014

i went nuts after first reading stephen king as a child. it was so provocative for me to be reading books with the kind of adult content, even more shocking that they carried some of these books in my school library deep in the south.

i haven't read any in a very long time, well over a decade, but i remember the books that had the biggest impact on me

IT
The Mist (short story)
The short story of the guy doctor / heroin smuggler who crashes in a desert island and journals his descent into autocannabilistic psychosis
The Green Mile (first book to make me cry from reading)
Pet Semetery
Firestarter
The Shining (probably scared me the most of any of his stories)
Misery



i thought Christine was a real stinker

Commie NedFlanders
Mar 8, 2014

naem posted:

Pennywise would starve today because kids can't go outside ever without their helicopter parents

Pennywise would be happier than ever today because he could just use social media and not have to hang out in sewers and lockerrooms

Commie NedFlanders
Mar 8, 2014

the Bunt posted:

That short story where a finger was poking out of a sink drain and harassing a dude? what was this?

it was properly short, simple, and horrifying

Solice Kirsk
Jun 1, 2004

.
Does anyone remember the name of the short story where this guy is buying flowers and everyone is talking about how in love he looks and then he kills a woman with a hammer? I can't remember the name of it and my work blocks search engines for some strange reason.

edit:
Never mind! Its The Man Who Loved Flowers

Solice Kirsk fucked around with this message at 18:57 on Aug 5, 2015

Diesel Fucker
Aug 14, 2003

I spent my rent money on tentacle porn.
With regards to The Raft being overly violent and gruesome, it has its place in literature. "Splatterpunk" is definitely a genre that I think is due for a comeback.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Pistol_Pete
Sep 15, 2007

Oven Wrangler

Blazing Ownager posted:

Am I the only one who thinks the best Stephen King movie had no actual involvement at all with Stephen King? Namely, In The Mouth of Madness.


Thanks to this thread, I just downloaded and watched this and it loving RULED. Lots of good actors delightedly hamming it up for all they were worth.

The early 90's seem a strangely long time ago: those crappy cars, subtly odd fashions and all the smoking indoors. Also, animitronic special effects the BEST special effects

  • Locked thread