|
Thought this thread may enjoy this interview Neil Gaiman did with King. This is a pretty recently done interview. I'm particularly intrigued by: quote:Now he's finished the story he is trying to decide how much he can rewrite it, if he views the sequence as one very long novel. Can he do a second draft? He hopes so. Currently, Stephen King is a character in the fifth and sixth Dark Tower books, and Stephen King the non-fictional author is wondering whether to take him out on the next draft.
|
#
?
May 2, 2012 04:17
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 27, 2024 23:51 |
|
|
If he rewrites DT 5-7, I'll be so pissed at him that I'll wait almost ten minutes until after the bookstore opens on release day.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2012 21:45
|
|
|
mdemone posted:If he rewrites DT 5-7, I'll be so pissed at him that I'll wait almost ten minutes until after the bookstore opens on release day. Woah settle down there, how about you just make sure you are not first in line. No need to get drastic. I just started re-reading the whole series last night, loving it so far. I originally read the series from 6th-9th grade (I'm 23 now), so it is pretty much like new. Not only is that a long time but I was probably a little too young to appreciate all the themes/awesomeness the first time around.
|
|
#
?
May 2, 2012 23:16
|
|
|
mdemone posted:If he rewrites DT 5-7, I'll be so pissed at him that I'll wait almost ten minutes until after the bookstore opens on release day. Now he's got his groove back, King must be looking at those and wondering "what the gently caress." Hell, he can just rewrite 5-7 into one book. Whole lotta fluff in those three that can get cut.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2012 19:53
|
|
|
Mikerthan posted:Now he's finished the story he is trying to decide how much he can rewrite it, if he views the sequence as one very long novel. Can he do a second draft? He hopes so. Currently, Stephen King is a character in the fifth and sixth Dark Tower books, and Stephen King the non-fictional author is wondering whether to take him out on the next draft. Edit: But the foreward sure as hell better have a sincere apology for "EEeeeeeeeeee!" And Oy.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2012 20:18
|
|
|
Cut out Mia and Mordred. No great loss.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2012 21:54
|
|
|
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
|
|
|
Cut out book 6, no great loss.
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2012 22:00
|
|
|
jackpot posted:If he rewrote the series - without the baggage that almost dying obviously put on his shoulders - I'd read that poo poo in a heartbeat. I don't know how I feel about an author asking for a do-over on an entire series of books, but goddamn, I'd give it a chance. One of the best things about "The Wind Through the Keyhole" was Oy being alive. I cried like a drat baby when Oy died in "The Dark Tower."
|
|
#
?
May 3, 2012 22:33
|
|
|
Edwardian posted:One of the best things about "The Wind Through the Keyhole" was Oy being alive. This was definitely the most heart-smashing point of the series. What made it so much worse for me is that my best friend is a Cairn terrier that acts just like that drat bumbler. If he starts sniffing the north wind I might freak out.
|
|
#
?
May 4, 2012 02:52
|
|
|
Dark Tower spoilers ahead:Edwardian posted:I cried like a drat baby when Oy died in "The Dark Tower."  "
|
|
#
?
May 4, 2012 14:33
|
|
|
Honestly, I'd love for DT 5-7 to be rewritten by the guy who wrote 11/22/63, as opposed to the guy who rushed through the last books of a popular series because the Hammer of Mortality had been brought down upon his head. Truth be told I liked 5 quite a bit, I'm a "It starts to suck at 6" guy. Song of Susannah was... bad. Now I haven't read this series in over 5 years (I could re-read it, but I could also re-read Harry Potter, and poo poo I loved Inspector Rebus so much I could re-read those too, and there goes me reading anything new for the next year) but I remember REALLY liking the first half or so of DT7. And damnit, I like the ending too. But you've got Mia, Mordred, and the most boring showdown ever with a villain who's supposed to be on the verge of destroying reality itself yet it felt like a weird strategic boss fight to an Atari game. By all means, Steve- have a go at fixing the Bad Half of an overall Good Series. It's not like the original versions will stop existing if he somehow made them any worse. Ah, Christ, I think once I'm done my current book I'm gonna re-read 5-7 with a more critical eye than my teenaged self did.
|
|
#
?
May 6, 2012 12:23
|
|
|
Mordred was built up across 2 books then he spent most of the time nearly dieing from eating bad food before being killed in 2 pages Anti-climatic to say the least.
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2012 01:19
|
|
|
Seaside Loafer posted:Mordred was built up across 2 books then he spent most of the time nearly dieing from eating bad food before being killed in 2 pages And the payoff is a line describing his poo poo as something like "brown stew flooding down his pant legs". Delightful!
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2012 01:43
|
|
|
Seaside Loafer posted:Mordred was built up across 2 books then he spent most of the time nearly dieing from eating bad food before being killed in 2 pages 
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2012 03:15
|
|
|
Diet Poison posted:Honestly, I'd love for DT 5-7 to be rewritten by the guy who wrote 11/22/63, as opposed to the guy who rushed through the last books of a popular series because the Hammer of Mortality had been brought down upon his head. 11/22/63 felt like King was holding himself back, and I think that's why I enjoyed the novel so much. King doesn't refrain from adding some strange touches, but overall the story felt really solid and focused. He's been on a great streak lately.
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2012 04:07
|
|
|
Jealous Cow posted:God drat it, I am still sick of that word.
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2012 00:42
|
|
|
So what's people's consensus on the new Dark Tower book? I'm only about half-way through it (Tim's just returned home after his meeting in the Endless Forest with the tax collector guy to find the Widow Smack nursing his mother after his steppa' beat the everloving hell out of her) I'm enjoying it a lot - more than I anticipated I would. It's a nice way for King to have revisited Mid-World without skewing the actual happenings of TDT too much, at least in my opinion... but am I the only one that feels that way? I've just heard very little said about it at all so I thought I'd post and ask! 
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2012 05:23
|
|
|
Tim's story would be fine on it's own, but Roland's story is weak. I would have been happier with a Tales of Mid-World book that didn't require two mediocre framing devices to explain pausing the action to tell a story.
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2012 05:30
|
|
|
UltimoDragonQuest posted:Tim's story would be fine on it's own, but Roland's story is weak. I kind of agree, the "current day" (I guess? The part with Eddie and Jake and Oy and Susannah) part was totally worthless. The "olden days of Gilead" portion with Roland and Jamie was better but still very slight. I still loved the book though, more than any of the others in the series past The Waste Lands. If he thinks of any more stories about Midworld that don't revolve around Roland I hope he'll just write them without trying to tie them in to the bigger picture. I'm kind of interested at the possibility of the other novels getting rewritten, too. I would definitely give them a fair chance.
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2012 05:57
|
|
|
Yep reader of the full tower series and I can confirm its a good read. Adds hardly anything to the tower quest, basically they have to hide in a building to wait out a superstorm then roland tells 2 stories to pass the night, still good.
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2012 20:54
|
|
|
Greggy posted:I kind of agree, the "current day" (I guess? The part with Eddie and Jake and Oy and Susannah) part was totally worthless. The "olden days of Gilead" portion with Roland and Jamie was better but still very slight. I still loved the book though, more than any of the others in the series past The Waste Lands. That's pretty much my opinion of it too. The first two layers of this flashback (both with Roland, really) just feel like framing so King could tell the -real- story (Tim's). Still, I like it a whole lot.
|
|
#
?
May 12, 2012 23:08
|
|
|
I read the Long Walk on my Kindle about a month ago (thanks to this and the Bachman thread's suggestion), and loved it so much I bought a paper copy for my brother's birthday gift this year.
|
|
#
?
May 13, 2012 20:38
|
|
|
Just finished the new book and it's really good. Old School King 'sit down just to read the first few pages and see how it starts before I make dinner, how the gently caress did I just lose four hours' good.
|
|
#
?
May 14, 2012 04:03
|
|
|
UltimoDragonQuest posted:I would have been happier with a Tales of Mid-World book that didn't require two mediocre framing devices to explain pausing the action to tell a story. As for the main story, I loved it and hope to get more like it. I can't help it, I get a little thrill every time someone finds a new gadget by North Central Positronics. Come on King, life is short and it's time to get ambitious: go all Silmarillion on our asses and tell us about the dark days before Arthur Eld, or go way, way back to the Great Old Ones. I want to see Lud on the day Blaine and Patricia made their first trips. I want to know what made the Waste Lands, and what's "much, much worse" than nuclear war. I want to meet the other guardians besides Shardik. I want to be there when they pull the plug on the "old" beams and fire up the new ones. jackpot fucked around with this message at 17:13 on May 14, 2012 |
|
#
?
May 14, 2012 17:08
|
|
|
I finally got Wind Through the Keyhole finished up last night. Hooray! While a bit disappointed with the framing to set the story, just as others have been, have to say that Tim's story was absolutely, hands down, stunning. I love the entire setting of TDT, and as the above poster said.. I just want MORE. More history, more reasons of _why_, the dark and nitty gritty stuff. I really wish he would have touched a bit more on whatever it was down in the salt mine that corrupted the miner - the green glowy thing that spoke to them all. It seemed strange that they'd just leave it without trying to permanently seal it up, since the rocks can obviously be moved by one man it seems easy enough that some other person could go down there and get changed again, be it on purpose or not. Then again, there might have been a line about them closing it down.. I was half asleep as I was finishing it up, and everything went so fast at that point. :/ he 'end' bit of that also felt a bit rushed, but I suppose that's King for you. Also, the seemingly now commonplace "And then Character X said he would do Y thing, but little did he know he would never do Y thing again!" of course made it's appearance again here... Gosh, King, STOP THIS. NO ONE LIKES IT. >  I also felt like at the very end, the little 1 paragraph chapter 3 wasn't needed at all, and it should have just ended on Roland saying "Yes"
|
|
#
?
May 14, 2012 18:53
|
|
|
jackpot posted:Come on King, life is short and it's time to get ambitious: go all Silmarillion on our asses and tell us about the dark days before Arthur Eld, or go way, way back to the Great Old Ones. I want to see Lud on the day Blaine and Patricia made their first trips. I want to know what made the Waste Lands, and what's "much, much worse" than nuclear war. I want to meet the other guardians besides Shardik. I want to be there when they pull the plug on the "old" beams and fire up the new ones. a) I suspect he doesnt know and is making it up as he goes along (thats a writer innit  ? )b) Its not his style, he doesnt do that, things are inferred never much explained, so even if he does know, he aint telling us. Im not sure which is more cool.
|
|
#
?
May 15, 2012 01:40
|
|
|
jackpot posted:Yeah, I kinda feel like he could have left out Roland's part completely and just built the book around Tim's story. Roland's back-story started well, but (not much of a spoiler) when it wrapped up at the end in about five pages I got the feeling it wasn't a real high priority for King. I feel like he did it just so he could have the whole story-in-a-story-in-a-story thing happening. The comics kind of do that in the appendixes.
|
|
#
?
May 15, 2012 14:50
|
|
|
Darko posted:The comics kind of do that in the appendixes.
|
|
#
?
May 15, 2012 21:28
|
|
|
From Teefury: Me Wantee!
|
|
#
?
May 26, 2012 07:20
|
|
|
I started Night Shift this past week, and--after thinking I'd just read one or two stories before moving on to something else--I think I'm going to read the whole thing. Pound for pound, which short story collections of King are the best? Which are the worst? I feel Night Shift is one of his better one's, but I have no real evidence to back this up outside of my gut feeling.
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2012 18:03
|
|
|
crankdatbatman posted:I started Night Shift this past week, and--after thinking I'd just read one or two stories before moving on to something else--I think I'm going to read the whole thing. Pound for pound, which short story collections of King are the best? Which are the worst? I feel Night Shift is one of his better one's, but I have no real evidence to back this up outside of my gut feeling. Skeleton Crew is my favorite just because The Jaunt and Survivor Type are probably the only two King stories to actually scare me.
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2012 18:09
|
|
|
crankdatbatman posted:I started Night Shift this past week, and--after thinking I'd just read one or two stories before moving on to something else--I think I'm going to read the whole thing. Pound for pound, which short story collections of King are the best? Which are the worst? I feel Night Shift is one of his better one's, but I have no real evidence to back this up outside of my gut feeling. I've always preferred Skeleton Crew to Night Shift, but only slightly - they're both great. Most of his collections of shorter works are worth checking out, though, as I think King's very good at the short story/novella format.
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2012 18:11
|
|
|
The only stories out of Night Shift I really liked were "Graveyard Shift" and "Trucks." Theres some famous stories like "The Ledge" and "Quitters Inc" but on the whole, I don't think they're as interesting as his later short stories. Skeleton Crew kicks rear end with "The Mist", "Mrs Todds Shortcut", "The Jaunt", "Beachworld", "Survivor Type" and "The Reach." Really the only stories I don't like in the book are the two Milkman stories. Those stories piss me off. Nightmares and Dreamscapes is pretty good to me. "Dolan's Cadillac", "The Night Flier", "Popsy", "The Moving Finger", "Home Delivery", "Rainy Season", "Crouch End" and "The Doctor's Case", which is a Sherlock Holmes story are all winners in my book. So although the number of stories I list outnumbers SC, I still like SC more as I consider all those stories home-runs and these here are more ground-rule doubles. Everythings Eventual has "Autopsy Room Four", "The Man in the Black Suit" which is really good, a DT prequel in "Little Sisters of Eluria" which you should read and then discuss in the DT thread, "Lunch at the Gotham Cafe", and "1408". The others I really didnt care for at all. Just After Sunset is a piece of poo poo except for "The Gingerbread Girl", "N.", and "A Very Tight Place." For some reason I cannot explain and will probably be called out on, it seems like most of the stories in here felt like King was sitting down to write "literature" with the exception of "Cat From Hell" and maybe "Stationary Bike". Of course, "Cat" was written back in the 70s so that might explain the difference in feel since everything else was 03 or later. "Cat" would probably fit right in on Night Shift. I didn't bother to include his novella books like Four Past Midnight, Full Dark NO Stars, Different Seasons as they cannot be read in 20 minutes like most of his short stories but for the most part I recommend the novellas.
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2012 07:31
|
|
|
Ensign_Ricky posted:From Teefury: Cool, except for the part where an alcoholic beverage called "Redrum" already exists and is absolutely vile, so any reminder of it makes me queasy
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2012 08:01
|
|
|
oldpainless posted:. the two best stories in "Full Dark, No Stars" are "Fair Extension" and "A Good Marriage." The other two are kind of....meh.
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2012 15:37
|
|
|
oldpainless posted:Just After Sunset is a piece of poo poo except for "The Gingerbread Girl", "N.", and "A Very Tight Place." For some reason I cannot explain and will probably be called out on, it seems like most of the stories in here felt like King was sitting down to write "literature" with the exception of "Cat From Hell" and maybe "Stationary Bike". Of course, "Cat" was written back in the 70s so that might explain the difference in feel since everything else was 03 or later. "Cat" would probably fit right in on Night Shift. Hard to call you out when you're 100% correct. King started including stories that weren't really horror in Nightmares & Dreamscapes and each successive collection has had more of those and fewer horror stories. I hope his next collection reverses that trend.
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2012 22:15
|
|
|
There's a bit more info out on the new novel that was announced a bit ago! http://shelf-life.ew.com/2012/05/30/stephen-king-joyland-hard-case-crime/ quote:We already reported back in April that Stephen King was going back to his horror thriller roots with a novel called Joyland, but this morning the relatively young publisher Hard Case Crime — established in 2004 — announced that it will be releasing it come June 2013. According to the official announcement, Joyland is set in a small-town North Carolina amusement park in the early ’70s. College student Devin Jones arrives to work as a carny but finds himself confronting the “legacy of a vicious murder” and the “fate of a dying child.” If there’s anything scarier than a murderous, dimension-hopping clown — It scarred me for life — it’s a small-town carny in any form. Being from small-town western NC, I can't help but be excited... Especially having grown up going to so many of those little po-dunk 'themeparks' that we seem to have around here. I am a bit sad about the 'no e-book' part, especially considering King seemed like he was really into e-books. Oh well. :/
|
|
#
?
Jun 3, 2012 22:33
|
|
|
I interpret that more as King saying there will be a delay between the release of the paperback and the ebook, not that there will never be an ebook version.
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2012 03:53
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 27, 2024 23:51 |
|
|
Well, yes that's the same way I interpreted it - I just think it's silly. :/ Oh well, it's not like ebook prices aren't borked anyway.
|
|
#
?
Jun 4, 2012 04:42
|
|