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Hedrigall posted:The next novel will be either a Dark Tower spin off, or a sequel to the Shining. I guess he has changed his stance on sequels? The last I heard, the only true sequel he ever talked about was a sequel to Salem's Lot.
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# ¿ Dec 4, 2009 06:23 |
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# ¿ Mar 29, 2024 08:22 |
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Blarticus posted:Thank you! John Coffey: Yes sir boss. Like the drink, only not spelled the same.
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# ¿ Jan 6, 2010 06:45 |
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Malaleb posted:
I disagree about It needed to be cut down a little. Maybe its because It is one my favorite three books to read, but even at its 1100 pages I wished the book was longer and had more stuff. And I usually think every one of King's books could stand to lose 10 percent or so of length.
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# ¿ Jan 8, 2010 00:20 |
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Malaleb posted:Yeah, I don't know. I really enjoyed It, but it just seemed long to me. By the end, I was happy to have read it, but I was also a bit relieved to finally be done. Still a fantastic book, though. You and I are mirror opposites of each other. At least on King books. Specifically, It and the Stand. More specifically on the length of the books. Even more specifically, we both wanted one to be shorter and one longer. OK, look I wanted It to be longer and the extended version of The Stand shorter and you felt the opposite way, are you happy now??!! I CAN STILL HEAR THE BEATING OF THAT HIDEOUS HEART!!!
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# ¿ Jan 8, 2010 17:00 |
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Schweig und tanze posted:I got about a third of the way through It and had to just stop..it became impossible to remember some of what I had read at the beginning because it just went on and on. I'll give it another try sometime, but I just got to the point where the payoff wasn't worth the slog. I'm assuming it was probably the part where all the adults get phone-calls and King spends like a hundred and fifty pages of them packing up? Yeah, even though I love the book, that has always been my least favorite part of it. Once you get past that and get to the pages where they are children, the book starts to get really good.
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# ¿ Jan 8, 2010 18:05 |
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Blarticus posted:Yeah I haven't read the story since I was 12 but seeing that a year or two ago must've got it stuck in my brain. Yeah, like i said, just get past the opening part to where they are kids and I think it's almost a totally different book. The opening i still like, but its really my least favorite part of the book. In fact, the pages of childhood are infinitely preferable to the grown-up sections.
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# ¿ Jan 8, 2010 18:53 |
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I have The Bachman Books in both the new paperback version and an old hardback version. I know King took Rage out of print and I can't really blame him. I've read Rage a few times, The Long Walk at least a dozen times, and The Running Man about 5 times. I agree that Richards is just so hard to like that it really feels like a hindrance to the story. But then again King wrote it in like three days so its still an amazing feat. As for worst King book, I choose you, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon!! I know he has such a huge amount of books and there have been some clunkers like TommyKnockers and even Rose Madder and any number of books that a few people always complain about, but in all those books I never felt like I was really wasting my time. I did with Tom Gordon, though.
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# ¿ Feb 3, 2010 06:36 |
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cheerfullydrab posted:Ah, crud. I hated, hated, hated Cell. I haven't heard anything about Lisey's Story except what I've read from the back of the copy I just bought and vague things in this thread and elsewhere about how bad it is. I've tried to ignore people talking about it up till now. Seriously, I thought it sucks. Like parts of the book were stop reading and roll my eyes at some of the dialogue. And I'm a fan of King's.
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# ¿ Apr 5, 2010 01:34 |
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commish posted:You guys are depressing. I read the first 4 of the Dark Tower series, but stopped. I was going to pick up the last few to finish, but there seems to be universal hate... The fifth book has a huge chunk of story not really related to Roland's quest, so thats a big turn-off for some people. Other than that, which IS a deal-breaker for many, I liked the rest of the book. I like the Old West setting and the characters and there's a nice sense of foreboding built up for the Wolves. The end starts to veer into the fantastic, though. The sixth is, in a word, ahugefuckingwasteoftime. I really didn't like it reading it and now can barely remember lots of the book. In fact, I don't know a single person who professes to liking the book. I think this is where self-insertion came into play heavily. And the seventh seems to be a love or hate deal with many of the readers. It's the end of a 30-year journey for the books and King, so naturally its not gonna live up to expectation but some people really hate it and some people think it concludes the series perfectly. I won't spoil the major stuff, but some major King characters, including ones from other books and all through the "King Universe", show up and have their fates decided.
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# ¿ Apr 16, 2010 20:15 |
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The Saddest Robot posted:I think the problem with Lisey's story (aside from the annoying words) is that it meanders. It takes forever to build up any sort of momentum and go anywhere. You could probably make a case for lots of King's books doing this. But if you like the book, you call it "characterization and setting the scene" while if you dislike it, its just "meandering and wasting time." Probably the best example is Needful Things. Many people seem to like that beginning of just describing how a small town works and all its idiosyncrasies because it does a superb job of showing the world the book takes place in and its inhabitants. While other people see it as slow, boring, and an exposition info-dump that could easily be edited down so we can get to the good stuff. But its hard to say anyone is subjectively right or wrong. I'm guilty of it myself depending on how much I like a book. If I like a book, for whatever reason, I'll happily read 50 pages of almost no action or meaningful dialogue because I'm caught in their world. But I'll complain loudly about being bored out of my mind reading about the neighbor's tree-house or when the general store opened in a book I'm not liking. And these are both King books I'll be reading. So, I guess its all subjective depending on enjoyment of the book.
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# ¿ Apr 20, 2010 21:48 |
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Pompous Rhombus posted:That's pretty close to my own views. I feel like the series would have been a lot better off if King had plotted it out ahead of time, but I know that's not how he writes. Make one if you like. poo poo, I'll talk about the goddam things all day.
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# ¿ Apr 21, 2010 02:57 |
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juliuspringle posted:Didn't King show up in his own drat books and basically tell people don't read my other books or some poo poo? I think your referring to a part in either the 6th or 7th book where Roland goes to a company who is dedicated to helping defeat the Crimson King in the "real" world. Anyway, they know about King and people read his books constantly and cross-reference all his stuff because in lots of King's books there are little bits of info tying it to the Dark Tower series. But what seemed to happened is King put stuff in other books that he couldn't actually make work in the DT series. So a book he wrote has some throw-a-way reference to something Roland does thats vitally important that King couldn't make fit into the series. So his way of getting around this is a character in the DT book saying "Oh yeah, King wrote all this stuff about the Dark Tower in his books, but it turns out lots of it is just bullshit and make-believe. So don't believe that just because he wrote it in another book it's gonna happen." So.....yeah.
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# ¿ Apr 25, 2010 05:53 |
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King made a lot of sense in On Writing, from basic grammar and structure of a book to how you proofread your work. I read that book and then I read his later books in the DT series and I wonder how the same man wrote both works. It's like King totally threw out almost everything he taught and talked about in On Writing while he was finishing the Tower series. "Omit needless words" being one of the biggest offenders.
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# ¿ May 26, 2010 22:42 |
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King specifically calls out adverbs ending in "ly" in On Writing. He basically says they suck and shouldn't be used and no good writer would resort to using them as a crutch. Like I said earlier, what happened to the guy who wrote On Writing that caused him to disregard all the rules and guidelines in his own later works?
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# ¿ May 27, 2010 14:01 |
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juliuspringle posted:What happened is he got hit by a car. You'd know that if you'd read anything written by him after the incident. Right, right. Except he wrote the book after the accident so he still knew all the rules and guidelines and should have been able to continue following them. You'd know that if you weren't a jackass.
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# ¿ May 27, 2010 20:51 |
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Protocol 5 posted:King did the "typewriter writes by itself" bit in "The Flexible Bullet"(pretty sure that's the title), in which an author goes nuts and kills himself after the magic elf in his typewriter is murdered by his maid's mischevious son. Not such a bad story, but obviously goofy as hell. I think it was "The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet." But lots of King stories could be called goofy as hell in concept or explaining the story. It's his characterization that makes lots of his stuff worth reading. At least his early stuff. To me, his later stuff shows a drastic decline in quality for about the last 8 years or so. But really, there are some goofy concepts in his stuff. "Word Processor of the Gods." "Gray Matter." "The Mangler." "Thinner." "Chattery Teeth." "The Cat From Hell." All decent enough stories reading them but explaining aloud kind of sounds dumb.
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# ¿ Jun 16, 2010 05:55 |
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mind the walrus posted:(though I'll probably read the Wastelands just in and of itself, does it work as a stand-alone?) You can figure out what happened in the previous books, but a big chunk recalls back to the first book specifically and why events are going the way they are. Also, the book ends on a huge cliffhanger so be prepared for that.
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# ¿ Jan 11, 2011 01:30 |
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RevBabyKiller posted:Finishing Insomnia and Bag of Bones was a battle. Hearts of Atlantis was something else entirely. I hated every word more than the last. Getting through that exercise in meandering tedium was brutal. The movie broke me though, didn't get to the end of it I honestly believe both Insomnia and Bag of Bones are those kinds of books that are much better when you re-read them because I really disliked both on first reading and went back a few years later and enjoyed them greatly. But maybe thats just me.
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# ¿ Feb 13, 2011 17:37 |
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Local Group Bus posted:Even bring Pennywise back. There's been a lot of hints about It still being in Derry and I'm sure there's a lot to say differently about childhood and adulthood than there was in '85. "IT" is my favorite King book and so I always like it when callbacks to Pennywise are dropped in his books. Then I start thinking maybe he's going to do another IT book and I get happy. Then I start thinking that the odds are not good that the book will be as good as I want it to be and I get sad.
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# ¿ Mar 4, 2011 15:45 |
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Ridonkulous posted:I am aware of what you are talking about but I have never heard/read him saying "ignore all the connections", to my knowledge they are deliberate. Should I even spoiler this? It relates to the Dark Tower series. (psst read the thread its awesome) In the last book, Roland goes to see someone who is away of all SK's books and all te connections between them. They have hired a group of people who do nothing but read his stuff and catalogue all the connections between the books. And basically, it is explained that "SK does this a lot, but a lot of it actually meaningless so dont get too excited about it." Yeah.
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# ¿ Sep 12, 2011 01:10 |
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I just remember one of the kids in Under the Dome saying radical or some other outdated slang. I rolled my eyes because its 2011 and come on Stephen. RADICALS ARE FOR MATH!!
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# ¿ Sep 22, 2011 04:54 |
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I prefer Mist to Shawshank on the page but Id much rather watch Shawshank than Mist.
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# ¿ Oct 15, 2011 03:56 |
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I Ozma Myself posted:
What IS wrong with you?! Anyway, I hope all the IT stuff over the years leads to something because IT is my favorite book. Also, the cycle takes place about 26-27 years or so and It was published back in 86
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# ¿ Dec 12, 2011 06:18 |
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Goddam, is it just me or does King put like 10% of his book in parentheses? I noticed it on like the 2nd page of 11/22/63 and randomly flipped around and there are all these half-thoughts in parentheses. So I actually grabbed other books and theres a shitload of them in everything, it seems. STOP USING SO MANY PARENTHESES STEPHEN!! The lion approached and smelled the blood in air (human, otter blood had more of a tangy quality)... Frank unhooked Lisa's bra (blue, just like Grandmas) and dropped it to the floor.... Gina drove to church because Bishop Hugecock always comforted her (though she was aware his interest in her was very "biblical" in a certain way)...
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# ¿ Dec 30, 2011 18:50 |
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Myrmidongs posted:I'm re-reading The Stand for my second go-around with it. I love the book, but I find I'm skipping through shitloads of it. Namely any time it switches to Mother Abigail's perspective, or Trashcan Man. The other biggest flaw I think is that the first act, the from the introduction and when everyone realizes they are all hosed just goes on for way, way too long. Still, though, the first act also has my absolute favorite part of the book - the random deaths of survivors of the flu. I guess I have a really dark sense of humor, but the one woman getting locked in her basement cooler thing always came off as hilarious to me. Funny, because Trashcan Man parts are some of my favorites. In fact, I find all parts concerning Las Vegas and Flagg a hell of a lot more interesting than the parts in Boulder, except for Harold's segments. But my eyes glaze over when Fran starts talking or Stu and Larry take center stage. gently caress Fran.
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# ¿ Jan 6, 2012 14:57 |
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Darko posted:Flagg was awesome in the mini-series. When I first saw it, I was like "what the hell, that's nothing like I imagined him!" but in retrospect, a jean jacket wearing jolly dude is perfect for him. Its been a while since I read The Stand, but I thought Flagg was explicitly described as a jeans-n-jacket kind of guy?
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# ¿ Jan 26, 2012 15:46 |
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Is there a reason Frannie is on the Freedom Board or whatever its called? If she's an immature 20 year old, how is she elected over people like the doctor or Harold who comes up with some good ideas? Again, its been a while since I read it so please refresh me. Although Harold is about 173 times more interesting than Frannie is, I do remember that.
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# ¿ Jan 28, 2012 06:20 |
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Thanks for the explanation. Maybe I just have an irrational dislike of Frannie but I never really got to like most of the good guys. Frannie, Larry and Stu just kinda worked my nerves after awhile but I liked Glen and didn't mind Nick. I'd much rather hear about Trashcan Man, The Kid, Flagg and Harold. But I guess King always made more compelling villains than protagonists. Gaunt, Pennywise, Big Jim, Rainbird et al were always so much more interesting than the heroes.
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# ¿ Jan 28, 2012 08:06 |
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Ozmaugh posted:It's funny that I'm defending her so much when I don't like her much myself. Listen! You don't have to like her either, but hate her for the reasons I hate her! No I think it was 94 and I was also 12. I have that miniseries on the shelf, along with Desperation, and tried watching it about 2 years ago or so and I remember thinking it was so crappy even with esteemed thespians such as Laura San Giacomo and Rob Lowe.
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# ¿ Jan 28, 2012 08:19 |
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Let us not forget The Langoliers miniseries. Terrifying.
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# ¿ Jan 28, 2012 08:35 |
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# ¿ Feb 1, 2012 20:53 |
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I have noticed King likes the phrase "not inconsiderable" for some reason. Its usually referencing someones stomach, like Brad's "not inconsiderable gut from too many cheesesteaks."
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# ¿ Feb 3, 2012 14:12 |
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Stephen King is terrific at giving his characters realistic voices and dialogue so long as those characters are: A) writers B) evil C) not a minority D) rich E) gunslingers F) billy-bumblers G) any combination thereof I've said it before but I don't know how King writes black people the way he does and his editor lets it through and neither notices how bad it is. Also he uses "lawks-a-mussy" or something like that a lot.
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# ¿ Feb 10, 2012 14:45 |
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Mister Kingdom posted:
Lemme stop you right there. If you HAVEN'T read Desperation yet, go read Desperation. If you HAVE read Desperation already, go ahead and read it again. Continue with life.
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# ¿ Feb 18, 2012 16:16 |
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Mister Kingdom posted:I HAVE read Desperation and I don't want to read it again. Is Regulators that bad? I thought it was loving terrible when it first came out. Then I gave it another chance 2 years ago because maybe I wasn't fair? It was loving terrible again.
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# ¿ Feb 18, 2012 16:47 |
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I still love the way the covers between The Regulators and Desperation matched up.
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# ¿ Feb 21, 2012 21:09 |
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Mister Kingdom posted:Well, I couldn't take it anymore, so I gave up on The Regulators. Why didn't you just listen to me in the first place?!?! TAK!
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# ¿ Feb 24, 2012 05:22 |
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Just Youtube Ron Perlman's parts and you can safely forego the rest in my opinion.
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# ¿ Mar 4, 2012 05:36 |
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Install Gentoo posted:My personal rule of thumb is that any popular media thing that's old enough to freely rent a car doesn't need spoiler tags anymore. For Stephen King that means The Eyes of the Dragon, The Dark Tower II: The Drawing of the Three, Misery and The Tommyknockers all just entered or are about to enter no need for mandatory spoiler tagging, and the next one to do so will be The Dark Half in 2014. Fixed.
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# ¿ Mar 30, 2012 02:56 |
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# ¿ Mar 29, 2024 08:22 |
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Y Kant Ozma Post posted:I still haven't read any dark tower books. I am familiar enough with it to get some of the references in other books, but- it just doesn't appeal to me. There's a Dark Tower thread if you just want to check it out for fun or something maybe it'll change your mind, no harm done. Its a pretty awesome thread and the OP is drat good, I mean simply fantastic.
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# ¿ Apr 2, 2012 21:40 |