|
I just started Under the Dome and it's pretty good so far. I'm about 150 pages in, though, and I do have one small problem. The character of Big Jim seems more like a laundry list of things King hates in people instead of a believable character. Does he ever become more than that?
|
#
¿
Apr 7, 2010 18:10
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 14, 2024 01:17 |
|
|
Glad I'm not the only one, I thought maybe I was being ridiculous. It's actually distracting me. King's villains are usually pretty good, but Big Jim seems like the kind of parody a kid who just got out of freshman political science would write.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 7, 2010 22:09
|
|
|
My first intro to King was actually a copy of The Wastelands that my mom bought. I was really young and reading snippits of that book, and then when I got into the sixth grade I started the Gunslinger. I didn't love it, but I immediately read The Drawing of the Three and was hooked.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 10, 2011 06:02
|
|
|
I'm really surprised that Rose Madder is so universally reviled - I've only read it once, and it was when I was much younger, but I enjoyed it. I remember it having a neat premise, a pretty good antagonist, and it tied very loosely in with Dark Tower. What is so bad about it that I'm forgetting?
|
|
#
¿
Sep 11, 2011 05:41
|
|
|
I read Needful Things when I was probably too young and remember a scene where Polly Chalmers and Alan Pangborn screw and there was a whole lot of description of her getting fingered. I could be misremembering it, though.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 19, 2011 03:20
|
|
|
I could be wrong, but I think that in On Writing he mentions that he's pretty sure there's a God, but he has absolutely no use for organized religion.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 30, 2011 05:27
|
|
|
Regulators was a really strange book. It's not very good, but I have to admit I loved the part where the group of neighbors goes to get help and discovers that they're trapped in this kid's fever dream, there is no way out, just an endless surreal desert.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 19, 2012 01:15
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 14, 2024 01:17 |
|
|
Transistor Rhythm posted:Just as a counterpoint, I abhor the revamped and revised The Gunslinger and think it effectively ruins the tone of the book and more than some of the mystery. It has always felt very "Star Wars: Special Edition" to me, with the changes standing out in attention-seeking, day-glo CGI. So much of the tone of the original feels bleak and empty, very much a "Dying Earth" seventies novel, and it's only throughout the series that we get more and more information about this world and other places and creatures. Particularly jarring to me was the inclusion of a Taheen early on, and talking about Algul Siento and so on. That in particular jumps multiple books ahead instead of keeping the world bleak and possibly empty, and feels about as suble as a CGI Rancor in the background jumping up and down and waving its arms. Also particularly egregious is a line, merely 5-10 pages into the book, that essentially says "Roland felt dizzy for a moment and wondered whether he had lived multiple lives and done this journey countless times before, then took a drink and continued onward. WOW, King, way to be subtle. According to Wikipedia, Roland's cold-hearted killing of Allie is changed to make him appear more humane. Originally, when the town of Tull turn on Roland, Allie is seized by a townsperson and used as a human shield. She begs Roland not to fire before he ruthlessly guns down both her and her captor.[6] In the revised version, she has been driven mad by Walter by the time she is seized, and begs Roland to put her out of her misery." This seems wildly at odds with not only the end of The Gunslinger but also the next two books at least. Roland is somewhat of a monster in the beginning, he'll do whatever it takes to save the Tower. Then, Eddie and Susanna humanize him again. It seems really stupid to change his cold-hearted nature at the beginning, then have him let Jake die later on.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 13, 2012 01:47
|
|