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Rev. Bleech_ posted:re: Joe Hill, may be unpopular opinion around here but I loving love Horns. I'm a sucker for stories where completely inexplicable poo poo happens and is never explained. I mean, I appreciate "The Moving Finger" for gently caress sakes. Pop Art is so good. You start off amused by the premise and at the end you're like, pondering life. Also NOS4A2 absolutely slaps and is like "what if Stephen King wrote a really good antagonist AND had a good ending?".
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May 26, 2020 23:07
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Mat Cauthon posted:I went and looked at the synopsis for this, it really sounds like a grab bag of his dad's favorite ideas and themes remixed but if the pacing is right I can see how it would be very engaging. The details are really where it excels, it’s very well written and the whole thing with the talents that come with a severe price is very much one of those things where you realize after “oh, right, you had a brilliant but alcoholic/cokehead father”. Joe Hill has a talent for good turns of phrase that really sells the book. If I had my kindle handy I would post some highlights now, will probably edit them into this post in a bit.
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May 27, 2020 17:41
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I’m re-reading Tommyknockers and it’s amazing to me how this book is both incredible storytelling and also just, terrible at the same time.
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May 29, 2020 04:34
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I love the Tommyknockers, it's a book written to express the very real struggle King dealt with in the 80's of "drugs and alcohol can make you more creative, at the cost of destroying you" with a fun metaphor about aliens. And then it's a bloated rambling mess that does seem like it's written by someone struggling with those substances. I still like it though, that metaphor gets me.
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May 29, 2020 13:00
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FreezingInferno posted:I love the Tommyknockers, it's a book written to express the very real struggle King dealt with in the 80's of "drugs and alcohol can make you more creative, at the cost of destroying you" with a fun metaphor about aliens. It’s absolutely a bloated rambling mess, but I’ll be goddamned if the first few chapters don’t draw you in. It’s surprising (even with how awful King is about writing from a woman’s POV) if the sentence construction, brooding sense of unease, and backstory technique isn’t right on.
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May 30, 2020 04:24
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java posted:It’s absolutely a bloated rambling mess, but I’ll be goddamned if the first few chapters don’t draw you in. It’s surprising (even with how awful King is about writing from a woman’s POV) if the sentence construction, brooding sense of unease, and backstory technique isn’t right on. The pacing is the worst part. Sometimes it moves forwards fast (david's magic show!) and sometimes it moves in fits and starts/shits and farts. I identified well with Gard, who was well written, and hated Bobbi, who was not. It was a good book buried in an awful one but I will always remember the killer coke machine.
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May 30, 2020 04:29
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Ugly In The Morning posted:Duma Key was really good, my only complaint is that it laid on the foreshadowing incredibly thickly, even for Stephen King. That's the point. It's like watching a train barreling towards a cliff but the button that says "brake" just speeds it up
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May 30, 2020 06:00
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Ugly In The Morning posted:the killer coke machine. But enough about King's highschool nicknames
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May 30, 2020 23:51
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SSJ_naruto_2003 posted:That's the point. It's like watching a train barreling towards a cliff but the button that says "brake" just speeds it up I don’t mind the foreshadowing per se but it was just so heavy handed that it took me out of the book sometimes.
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May 30, 2020 23:57
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Ugly In The Morning posted:I will always remember the killer coke machine. I was always partial to the flying smoke alarms of death.
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May 31, 2020 00:52
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Ugly In The Morning posted:Duma Key was really good, my only complaint is that it laid on the foreshadowing incredibly thickly, even for Stephen King. Pretty sure I read that book when it came out and I cannot remember a single thing about it. Count me in for the Tommyknockers as underrated classic club. It's uneven but still some great writing in there.
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May 31, 2020 05:41
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Ugly In The Morning posted:I don’t mind the foreshadowing per se but it was just so heavy handed that it took me out of the book sometimes. it read like king was finally trying to follow an outline for a novel and reminding himself to stay on track and then he still pulls a jive-talking ventriloquist out of his rear end during the last act
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May 31, 2020 15:36
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Since I can't find a Joe Hill thread I'll keep talking about him here, as he is son of King. I'm reading his bibliography in chronological order and while 20th Century Ghosts was a fantastic anthology; Heart Shaped Box is almost daring me to continue reading it. I'm about a third through, but it's like my Kindle weighs 40lbs every time I try to read more. It's just so...meh. I know Hill can write a good novel (read NOS4A2 last year and loved it). This being his first full length outing, it almost seems like he feels he has something to prove. I hope it takes a turn, because it's just not really there.
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Jun 6, 2020 12:19
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I'm about halfway through NOS4A2 and it feels so much like a Stephen King novel I can't imagine not posting about it in the Stephen King thread. Good book so far though, though I'd say it feels more like post-van King than pre. That said I like post-van King a lot.
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Jun 6, 2020 12:23
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Untrustable posted:I'm reading his bibliography in chronological order and while 20th Century Ghosts was a fantastic anthology; Heart Shaped Box is almost daring me to continue reading it. I'm about a third through, but it's like my Kindle weighs 40lbs every time I try to read more. It's just so...meh. Just wait till you get to The Fireman. Boy, was that one a slog.
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Jun 6, 2020 14:52
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Son of a Vondruke! posted:Just wait till you get to The Fireman. Boy, was that one a slog. The Fireman kind of killed my hope for Joe Hill. It was bad.
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Jun 6, 2020 15:49
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Hill isn't for me, I think. Nos4a2 was the best one of the ones I've read (horns and hearth shaped box being the others) , but even that I'd only rank at mid-level king imo
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Jun 6, 2020 16:10
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Yeah, the Fireman was bad. I thought NOS4A2 was fun, Horns was okay. I do like Locke and Key though.
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Jun 6, 2020 16:43
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The Berzerker posted:Yeah, the Fireman was bad. I thought NOS4A2 was fun, Horns was okay. I do like Locke and Key though. Warning: I get wordy. My opinion, in chronological order cause I'm OCD like that. 20th Century Ghosts - a super solid collection of short stories, with Best New Horror & Pop Art lingering long after I finished reading them. Like years after. Heart-Shaped Box - I was expecting JH to be just like SK, but Box showed that Hill is capable of much more of an edge. Jude Coyne was kind of a dick, and not overly concerned with redemption, but by the end I kind of loved him. Horns - I think this is the book Hill had the most fun writing, and as heartbreaking as the end became (the letter!! I can't read it without misting up), the silly puns and song lyrics and snakes and bizarre confessions were just so balls-to-the-wall crazy that you either stomp out in disgust, or just go with it and have a blast. I was in the latter camp, and this one might just be my favorite of his books. NOS4A2 - This one reads like Hill was trying to be more like his dad. He mostly succeeds, and I thought the characters were great, and Manx and the car were creepy as hell and the ending tied up everything in a satisfactory way. There was just a little too much of everything. The Fireman - I.... wanted to love it. But it felt like a great setup followed by a fizzle and an extra hundred pages or so tacked on just because. I don't know, I just didn't feel it the way I did the others. All that said.... I have met Joe Hill a few times, and he's a VERY nice, personable guy, very grateful to the fans who come out to see him, smart, funny, and seemingly mostly unaffected by his father's fame & status. So I kind of hate to say anything negative about his books, because, well, he's just so NICE. But I think he's lost some of his passion & edginess & tolerance for risk. I don't know if it's because he was able to succeed without using his dad's name & can chill a bit, or whether his very public battle with mental illness has had anything to do with it (and the fact that he's spoken out so much, to try to fight the stigma makes me feel like a jerk even more). I am not certain, but I think he got divorced & remarried in there somewhere as well, so maybe he's in a calmer state of mind & can't summon the demons like he used to. But I'll keep reading his stuff regardless, because even when it's bad, at least some parts are always excellent.
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Jun 6, 2020 21:40
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April posted:But I think he's lost some of his passion & edginess & tolerance for risk. I don't know if it's because he was able to succeed without using his dad's name & can chill a bit, or whether his very public battle with mental illness has had anything to do with it (and the fact that he's spoken out so much, to try to fight the stigma makes me feel like a jerk even more). I am not certain, but I think he got divorced & remarried in there somewhere as well, so maybe he's in a calmer state of mind & can't summon the demons like he used to. But I'll keep reading his stuff regardless, because even when it's bad, at least some parts are always excellent. So, like father like son?
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Jun 6, 2020 22:22
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Khizan posted:So, like father like son? You're probably joking, but I think it's too early to say. SK has gone through cycles where he writes a lot of great stuff, then he gets sober and writes some garbage then he gets his mojo back but then he gets hit by a van and loses it again till he gets it back and so on and so forth. Hill may be going through a down cycle & he'll ramp back up, or maybe he only had a few great stories in him & will coast on fumes for a while till he just moves on to something else. I will be kind of sad if he completely loses his touch though, those early books are freakin delicious.
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Jun 7, 2020 02:30
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Untrustable posted:Since I can't find a Joe Hill thread I'll keep talking about him here, as he is son of King. I had written off (heh) Joe Hill after Heart Shaped Box was highly recommended and I didn’t care for it. Something about a retired death metal guy who gets a hand injury and spends most of the book refusing to go to the hospital? I watched Horns, also not good but that might have been Daniel Radcliffe being mopey. Will check out the short story collections, those sound better.
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Jun 7, 2020 06:10
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Hyrax Attack! posted:I had written off (heh) Joe Hill after Heart Shaped Box was highly recommended and I didn’t care for it. Something about a retired death metal guy who gets a hand injury and spends most of the book refusing to go to the hospital? I watched Horns, also not good but that might have been Daniel Radcliffe being mopey. His short stories are all good except the ones he wrote with his dad. Some of them aren't even really horror. Hill goes to some weird places and gives you weird slice of life stuff with no real resolution but it's ok because it's just slice of life stuff.
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Jun 7, 2020 12:37
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TheAardvark posted:I'm about halfway through NOS4A2 and it feels so much like a Stephen King novel I can't imagine not posting about it in the Stephen King thread. Good book so far though, though I'd say it feels more like post-van King than pre. That said I like post-van King a lot. He definitely had a bit of a slump after he got waffled by the van but he’s rebounded for sure- things like 11/22/63 and Revival are as excellent as Dreamcatcher was awful. Dreamcatcher was such a mess, I basically couldn’t follow it towards the end there.
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Jun 7, 2020 16:47
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Ugly In The Morning posted:Dreamcatcher was such a mess, I basically couldn’t follow it towards the end there. I read the book and saw the movie in theaters and I'm still not sure why I did either.
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Jun 7, 2020 17:50
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I remember a poop demon from the Dreamcatcher movie. Or at least some kind of monster that came out of a toilet. I mostly remember being surprised that THIS is what Damian Lewis decided to follow up Band of Brothers with.
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Jun 7, 2020 18:37
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Krispy Wafer posted:I remember a poop demon from the Dreamcatcher movie. Or at least some kind of monster that came out of a toilet. I mostly remember being surprised that THIS is what Damian Lewis decided to follow up Band of Brothers with. Shitweasals. Which is such a great name for a horror monster, I wish it was in a better book.
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Jun 7, 2020 18:41
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I always remember the segment where they're in the middle of a chase sequence and the friendly army guy starts reminiscing about getting a total rage-boner from smashing up his elderly neighbour's house.
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Jun 7, 2020 20:00
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You’d think poo poo weasels couldn’t be topped, but then you get Duddits. Then the movie director picked up that gauntlet and gave us those eyebrows.
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Jun 8, 2020 01:16
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Vulgar posted:You’d think poo poo weasels couldn’t be topped, but then you get Duddits. Then the movie director picked up that gauntlet and gave us those eyebrows. Making Duddits an alien in the movie was one of the most baffling alterations I had ever seen.
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Jun 8, 2020 13:51
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Ugly In The Morning posted:Making Duddits an alien in the movie was one of the most baffling alterations I had ever seen. That reveal had the previously silent and pissed off crowd laughing their asses off in the theater.
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Jun 8, 2020 13:58
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The script was so bad it killed Lawrence Kasdan’s career for a decade. That’s just insane.
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Jun 8, 2020 14:00
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Ugly In The Morning posted:The script was so bad it killed Lawrence Kasdan’s career for a decade. That’s just insane. What has he done since other than write Solo with his son?
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Jun 8, 2020 14:17
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I'm in the "tommyknockers was pretty entertaining despite lovely pacing" club. I thought it was engaging enough to keep going despite it being another story about an alcoholic novelist
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Jun 17, 2020 20:25
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Listened to Bazaar of Bad Dreams over the last few weeks. Really good production quality for an audiobook, except for Drunken Fireworks which had narration so terrible I just skipped it entirely. Any thoughts on Gwendy's Button Box? I enjoyed it, but it felt a little strange for RF to make an appearance again after so many years for a relatively inconsequential story. Is Gwendy's Magic Feather worth checking out?
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Jun 18, 2020 16:53
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The Tommyknockers posted:Then there were the Jorgensons out on the Miller Bog Road. Benny Jorgenson died of a stroke, and Iva remarried three years later, becoming Iva Haney. Not long after, her seven-year-old son and five-year-old daughter started having household mishaps. The boy fell getting out of the tub; the girl burned her arm on the stove. Then the boy slipped on the kitchen floor and broke his arm and the girl stepped on a rake half-buried in fallen leaves and the handle spanged her upside the head. Last but hardly least, the boy stumbled on the basement stairs while going after some kindling and fractured his skull. For a while it looked as if he wasn't going to pull through. It was a real run of bad luck, all right.
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Jun 25, 2020 23:33
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Stephen King really got the horror of abuse and how it's often swept under the rug. E: If the site doesn't continue on, it's been a lot of fun talking about my favorite author with all you guys over the last decade (holy poo poo, ten years?). Ugly In The Morning fucked around with this message at 23:53 on Jun 25, 2020 |
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Jun 25, 2020 23:49
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Lowtax is Steve Kemp and the bed he's jizzing on is a giant book called "How to Not Beat Women"
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Jun 25, 2020 23:56
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I won't be happy till Lowtax is sent to Altair-4
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Jun 26, 2020 06:07
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Teriyaki Hairpiece posted:I won't be happy till Lowtax is sent to Altair-4 What about wherever the Buick 8 sent people? Seems like a lovely spot.
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Jun 26, 2020 07:48
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