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I didn't like Talisman or Black House. Tried twice with the first, once as a 14 year old and once about 5 years ago and it just didn't work. I finished Black House but it was a slog. Revival is great because it grabs you out of the box and King really stuck the landing pretty well on that one. His short story collections are usually good to great because he doesn't really have to worry about that aspect and, in the event you don't like something, the channel changes anyway pretty quick and you're on to the next story. Which sounds perfect for a vacation or airplane book. This is just me talkin. I'd lean towards his older short story collections (Skeleton Crew or Night Shift) if you choose that route but if you want something longer, I didn't see Different Seasons on that list and all 4 of those stories are fantastic, if a bit longer (and also potentially "ruined" by being made into films). Good news as I'm looking at your homework here is that you have a LOT of really good unread books you can choose from.
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Aug 29, 2021 23:40
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OldSenileGuy posted:Going on vacation and need a new King to read. Last one I read was The Institute, which is exactly the kind of pulp I’m looking for. I just finished If It Bleeds. Four reasonably solid novellas told well and easy to get through. One of them features a private investigator who was a side character in a couple of his other books, and the story itself gave me kind of a Night Flier vibe. The last one was another tale of a tortured writer struggling to write his magnum opus in a remote cabin in Maine, but it wasn't horrible. If you like his shorter works I'd say give it a go because at the very least, none of the stories hang around any longer than they need to. King just gets in, says what he has to say, and gets out.
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Aug 30, 2021 00:06
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in my opinion, anyone who hasn't read Pet Sematary should read Pet Sematary
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Aug 30, 2021 03:19
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OldSenileGuy posted:There’s a few notable King heavy hitters that I haven’t read (It, Pet Sematary, Salem’s Lot) Read all of those. Salem's Lot and Pet Sematary are the best of those three. The short story collections (Night Shift, Skelton Crew, etc) are among his best work. I remember being very bored by Needful Things even as a teenager but it has some high points. Talisman was good but kind of plodding. Black House was fairly good as I remember it (for a sequel) but I haven't read it in at least a decade. Firestarter is probably the most "sci-fi bend" of the early stuff, you should prioritize that because it is very good. Mat Cauthon fucked around with this message at 17:54 on Aug 30, 2021 |
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Aug 30, 2021 03:43
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Salem’s Lot for me was one of those books that start of just slow enough where when things start happening they fly by in a good way.
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Aug 30, 2021 17:51
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Every time I read Salem's Lot I'm always struck by how well it creates the sense of the creeping inevitability of evil. From the reader POV we know the premise very early on and get regular glimpse of just how pervasive the problem is, but the full scope of how dire things are is obscured from us (and the protagonists) until the moment where it's clear that all the heroes can really do is run. Although we do get hints here and there that at least some of them can sense just how overmatched they are - like Callhan's thought that "The night the kudzu gets your fields, you sleep like the dead." The slow build up of dread and isolation is just top notch.
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Aug 30, 2021 18:33
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Revival is a solid read but I also enjoyed The Colorado Kid a lot too. Black House is a hard pass.
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Aug 31, 2021 00:19
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HARD PASS!
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Aug 31, 2021 00:28
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My favourite sci-fi adjacent King story is still The Tommyknockers. I love the entire book and all the weird detours and tangents the story goes on. Relistening to the audiobook version last year after reading it 15+ years ago was a real experience too. I definitely appreciated it a lot more the second time around.
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Aug 31, 2021 06:46
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Was there an Indian burial ground in The Shining? I'm reading a very interesting book on horror but out of nowhere it talks about the symbolism of Indian burial grounds and cites "The Shining (1980)" as an example. Wiki tells me that is when Kubrick's film came out. Was there a burial ground in that? I don't remember any in the book. Regardless, you'd think Pet Sematary would be the go-to example but oh well.
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Sep 1, 2021 19:53
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I don't think there's anything in the text of the film but the imagery is certainly prominent, along with the nazi typewriter I think it's more to put you in mind of atrocities in a broad sense.
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Sep 1, 2021 20:57
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NikkolasKing posted:Was there an Indian burial ground in The Shining? I'm reading a very interesting book on horror but out of nowhere it talks about the symbolism of Indian burial grounds and cites "The Shining (1980)" as an example. Wiki tells me that is when Kubrick's film came out. Was there a burial ground in that? I don't remember any in the book. Yes, there's a direct reference in the Kubrick film to the Overlook being built on Indian burial ground. Ullman is showing Jack around and telling him some info about the hotel, and drops the following line: "Ah... construction started in 1907. It was finished in 1909. The site is supposed to be located on an Indian burial ground, and I believe they actually had to repel a few Indian attacks as they were building it." In addition to that reference, Kubrick's Overlook is littered with Indian artwork, totem poles, visual motifs, etcetera. I'm not a HUGE Rob Ager fan or anything, but he has a pretty good video reviewing all the references throughout the film regarding Native Americans. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1InCfpuD4ow
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Sep 1, 2021 21:18
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Stuart Ullman apparently mentions it during the hotel tour early in the film. I believe this is a Kubrick addition with no basis in the book.
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Sep 1, 2021 21:19
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Mat Cauthon posted:Every time I read Salem's Lot I'm always struck by how well it creates the sense of the creeping inevitability of evil. From the reader POV we know the premise very early on and get regular glimpse of just how pervasive the problem is, but the full scope of how dire things are is obscured from us (and the protagonists) until the moment where it's clear that all the heroes can really do is run. Although we do get hints here and there that at least some of them can sense just how overmatched they are - like Callhan's thought that "The night the kudzu gets your fields, you sleep like the dead." I've read Salem's Lot 3 times and it always catches me off guard how quickly everything falls apart in town. It is really well written how helpless the protagonists feel watching everything change. And I've said it before but after watching 'What We Do In The Shadows' I can't take the baby vampire seriously. Like who thought that was a good idea? Why does Barlow think Salem's Lot needs that many vampires? It's like that character in Bridesmaids who realized she's taken too many puppy party favors.
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Sep 1, 2021 22:26
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Krispy Wafer posted:I've read Salem's Lot 3 times and it always catches me off guard how quickly everything falls apart in town. It is really well written how helpless the protagonists feel watching everything change. Well, what are you gonna do when vampires take over? There goes the neighborhood. Speaking of that, not a lot of chat here about Chapelwaite and it's led to as much action in this thread as Lisey's Story did. Which is to say none at all. Anyone checked it out? I've heard good things.
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Sep 1, 2021 23:02
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At least in 30 Days of Night, the vampires are so feral that they can't help but eat everyone, and purposefully avoid turning anyone. I have no drat idea what Barlow was attempting to do, or how he lived so long being so dumb.
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Sep 4, 2021 04:32
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I never understood why Barlow didn’t take his time. By making an army that has to feed you are taking away your own food source and of course announcing your intentions to everyone. What was his overall plan? Everything he did just seems so shortsighted, especially after all the planning to get him to the US. Still one of my all time favorite books. I might just have to reread for god knows how many times this fall.
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Sep 4, 2021 16:11
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Maybe Barlow didn't account for friendly New Englanders. Perhaps newly turned European vampires eat their victims, whereas all the bloodsuckers in Salem's Lot just wanted to make new friends to hang with. It was an honest mistake.
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Sep 17, 2021 12:21
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BiggerBoat posted:Well, what are you gonna do when vampires take over? There goes the neighborhood. I'm watching episode 4 right now and so far I'm enjoying it. I'm fairly uncritical when it comes to the media I consume, though, so yeah, my opinion might not be worth much. I like Brody and his character. The show is pretty, has good characters, and everything is creepy without being in your face about it. It's pretty slow while still keeping things interesting to keep me hooked. Perfect for a hungover first day of vacation like today is for me.
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Sep 20, 2021 19:34
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So I just read The Fireman by Joe King and I really enjoyed it. I thought it was really gripping and found it hard to put down until I was done. Some light references to The Stand which were appreciated without being gratuitous. What did the rest of the thread think?
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Sep 25, 2021 16:26
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MyLightyear posted:So I just read The Fireman by Joe King and I really enjoyed it. I thought it was really gripping and found it hard to put down until I was done. Some light references to The Stand which were appreciated without being gratuitous. the thing i dislike most about Joe King as a writer is his tendency to include characters that he thinks are badasses and he loads them up with epic cool guy interests and behaviors that i find very cringe-y and this book was extremely heavy-handed with that so i didnt really care for it.
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Sep 25, 2021 16:42
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MyLightyear posted:So I just read The Fireman by Joe King and I really enjoyed it. I thought it was really gripping and found it hard to put down until I was done. Some light references to The Stand which were appreciated without being gratuitous. derivative of the stand, under the dome, needful things, the tommyknockers, and a bunch of other stephen king books. sleeping beauties was a little better
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Sep 25, 2021 23:29
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I just finished my Under the Dome and let me say it’s one of the most depressing things I’ve ever read.
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Sep 25, 2021 23:31
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Casimir Radon posted:I just finished my Under the Dome and let me say it’s one of the most depressing things I’ve ever read. Did you read Pet Semetary? Also, I didn't know they were doing a Salems Lot remake so that's cool. The original TV series holds up surprisingly well. https://nerdist.com/article/stephen-king-salems-lot-remake/
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Sep 26, 2021 15:53
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The latest remake with Rob Lowe was pretty good, I thought. True to the book at least. But I am willing to watch as many versions of the best King novels as they will make, I still haven't seen my ideal versions yet. Mostly.
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Sep 26, 2021 18:03
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I was pretty excited to see they wrapped filming on a new Firestarter movie, but then I realized that it may be a lovely as that horrible Stand remake. Firestarter (1984) was pretty great in 1984, but it really could use an update now. I'm just worried that it wont a good update, and they will change it like they did with the Stand and take out the plague, which in Firestarter would be like taking out the fire.
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Sep 26, 2021 22:33
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Yeah. There were some good and even a couple of brilliant scenes and reinterpretations in the newest Stand (and updating Harold to a modern-day incel, while a pretty obvious evolution, was really well written and well acted)...but man, a lot of it just wasn't good. I hope Firestarter goes well. It's cool that they actually cast a Native American actor for Rainbird instead of (lol) George C. Scott or Malcom McDowell.
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Sep 26, 2021 23:51
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Eason the Fifth posted:Yeah. There were some good and even a couple of brilliant scenes and reinterpretations in the newest Stand (and updating Harold to a modern-day incel, while a pretty obvious evolution This was literally the only good part of it. Eason the Fifth posted:was really well written 
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Sep 27, 2021 00:05
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I'm missing what thunk is about here.  Harold was a proto-incel, and it would've been easy to make him a caricature since incel culture is common-ish knowledge now, but they kept him true to the conflicted character that King wrote. The update to Harold was well written compared to like, Lloyd, the Judge, the Trashcan Man, Ralph/Ray, and Nadine (though I did come around to the hippy Greg Kinnear version of Glen, as much as I loved the perfect dry-humor version from Ray Walston).
Eason the Fifth fucked around with this message at 00:54 on Sep 27, 2021 |
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Sep 27, 2021 00:33
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Eason the Fifth posted:I'm missing what thunk is about here. Me going cross-eyed and reading that as "the Stand 2020 was well-written" instead of "the updating of Harold was well-written". That's my gently caress-up, sorry. Eason the Fifth posted:(though I did come around to the hippy Greg Kinnear version of Glen, as much as I loved the perfect dry-humor version from Ray Walston). I take it back, constantly-high Glen was also good. They just ended up giving him so little to do that I forgot about him.
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Sep 27, 2021 13:32
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While they did a great job with Harold, they really didn't do good with any other character. Honestly the 2020 series was bad. No heart, no meaningful connection with any character, and in the end it offered nothing outside of the updating of Harold. I just looked, the 2020 series had a 2 hour and 24 minute longer runtime than the original miniseries, and still the original miniseries did a 10x better job connecting the viewers with the characters. I just want to forget the 2020 one exist. Also I looked at the writer and director of the new Salem's Lot and my hype went to zero. I hope they prove me wrong since it is my favorite King book. Just curious has anyone watch Chapelwaite on EPIX (a retelling of the Jerusalem's Lot short story)? I wonder if it is worth a watch.
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Sep 27, 2021 14:21
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Rev. Bleech_ posted:
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Sep 27, 2021 15:34
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lol, though I just realized he still had more to do than Nick
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Sep 27, 2021 16:21
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It was so bad. At first I was pissed that they started in media res and had the characters do pivotal things before we knew enough about them to care about them, but then I was pissed that they never even got around to making us care about them.
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Sep 27, 2021 17:53
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I've really enjoyed CHAPELWAITE. The Kingcast guys ended up recording an episode about the show because they've liked it so much. I only started watching because I read good things so I don't think there's a reason not to check it out. And just in time for the spooky season.
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Sep 27, 2021 19:31
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Ok that is great to hear. I’ll check it out next week.
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Sep 27, 2021 20:33
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nate fisher posted:Ok that is great to hear. I’ll check it out next week. Same. I've been looking for a cool horror thing to check out for this month.
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Sep 27, 2021 20:44
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I'm also enjoying Midnight Mass on Netflix which is similar.
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Sep 28, 2021 14:24
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Chapelwaite is real good, Adrien Brody was loving made to play a crazy 17th century whaler.
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Sep 28, 2021 14:29
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I highly recommend midnight mass. What Stranger Things is to Firestarter and IT, Midnight Mass is to Salem's lot and the Mist.
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Oct 13, 2021 20:11
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