|
Hemp Knight posted:gently caress off, that's one of the best things King's done. It wasn't so much that the middle was necessarily bad, but for fucks sake it was after the cliffhanger with Blaine. They get off, settle down, and Roland tells a story that takes up pretty much 7/8ths of the book with little to no progression towards the Tower until the end? Ugh. If it didn't rip you completely away from the quest for the Tower, and was maybe told in interspersed flashbacks while they kept moving (like how he did it in Gunslinger, and kind of LOST style), I wouldn't have felt so bored and ultimately annoyed with it. He definitely could have trimmed off more than half of Roland's flashback.
|
#
¿
May 5, 2009 15:13
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 19, 2024 16:14 |
|
|
The Gunslinger posted:I didn't care for Rose Madder and Songs of Suzannah, I think they were easily his worst books. I blew through Susannah, and honestly the only part I enjoyed was the shootout Roland and Eddie had after they went through the door.
|
|
#
¿
May 5, 2009 20:07
|
|
|
Dacap posted:So is it worth even starting the Dark Tower series? I had heard good things about The Gunslinger and a couple of the others, but I don't really want to read it if its just going to jerk me around in the end. Read up until book three or four, spoil the rest for yourself. Or make it up in your head, it will be better than what actually happens.
|
|
#
¿
May 9, 2009 01:43
|
|
|
AN ANGRY MOTHER posted:I forget which Dark Tower book had the 9/11 reference in it but that is the worst book. Song of Susannah I think, with Black Thirteen being placed in a locker underneath the World Trade Center.
|
|
#
¿
May 13, 2009 04:56
|
|
|
Subfocus posted:It's a shame, really, because I enjoyed the first few books and I'd like to finish the series (though everyone seems to tell me that I shouldn't). King himself steps in at one point and tells you not to finish it. Take that for what its worth.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 30, 2009 07:07
|
|
|
I want to believe Steve.......I want to believe. 
|
|
#
¿
Sep 24, 2009 05:05
|
|
|
H.P. Shivcraft posted:Don't forget that his hand grenades are actually motherfucking Harry Potter toys. SNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETCHES
|
|
#
¿
Sep 24, 2009 22:37
|
|
|
Well, Neil Gaiman seems to like Under The Dome. v v
|
|
#
¿
Sep 27, 2009 18:06
|
|
|
kosherpickle posted:How? How do you have this book already? My guess is Advance Release Copies are finding their way around.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 28, 2009 15:42
|
|
|
Myrddin Emrys posted:Also isn't Wizard and Glass where it's implied that in order to break the Cycle, Roland needs to find the horn he dropped in the battle? I think so, hence why the ending of the whole series can be interpreted as this will be the last cycle he goes through.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 28, 2009 22:23
|
|
|
Myrddin Emrys posted:Keep me informed. Seriously, shoot me a PM or something if you want to chat about it, I love talking about the Dark Tower. Mmhmm, Roland just blows the horn in the poem I think. I think for Roland the cycle will end when he blows the horn, and the door to the Tower doesn't open. And he just leaves and lives out the rest of his miserable existence 
|
|
#
¿
Oct 4, 2009 07:35
|
|
|
That is a badass loving cover.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 13, 2009 18:17
|
|
|
Raskolnikov2089 posted:Hey boys and girls, just wanted to show you, Under the Dome hardcover, only $9.99 at walmart.com I'm horribly tempted.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 16, 2009 18:50
|
|
|
Junkenstein posted:I thought IT's length was perfect. Cut out the kiddie sex scene then yes, perfect 
|
|
#
¿
Oct 20, 2009 14:48
|
|
|
northerain posted:The worst story in that book was the one with the nuclear bomb going off. It was basically ''I'm at a posh party and my life sucks oh look a nuclear bomb just exploded, the end''. Are you serious. That sounds like "Fallout: A Short Story by Stephen King" Oh hey maybe the party was taking place during The Stand and the bomb is the Hand of God!  Based on the ARC review in this thread though, I'm excited to read Under the Dome. I'm also reading The Shining for the first time, enjoying it. lamb SAUCE fucked around with this message at 20:50 on Oct 27, 2009 |
|
#
¿
Oct 27, 2009 20:46
|
|
|
I ordered Under the Dome from Walmart.com and they just refunded me a penny because they lowered the preorder price by a penny. The price war is still on, I guess. In other news, I'm a penny richer! 
|
|
#
¿
Nov 6, 2009 20:30
|
|
|
epoch. posted:The New York Times has a review up of Under the Dome. Yes it is, did he like the book? I can't even tell.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 7, 2009 00:08
|
|
|
Raskolnikov2089 posted:Yeah that actually made me cringe. And he's accusing Stephen King of bad writing? I can't tell what he's saying at all in that review. He's like talking in riddles.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 7, 2009 19:59
|
|
|
muscles like this? posted:I thought the $9 was only for walmart.com? Not instore. Yeah, it's pre-order only.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 9, 2009 05:23
|
|
|
Chamberk posted:Oh. Weak. Well, whatever - I'm sure I can find it relatively cheap. Local supermarkets with a book section are a best bet. New hardcovers tend to get good discounts for the first week or two.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 9, 2009 05:57
|
|
|
My copy of Under the Dome came today. Woo gently caress this is a big book. Comparing it to the size of Infinite Jest, it is slightly bigger.
lamb SAUCE fucked around with this message at 20:42 on Nov 9, 2009 |
|
#
¿
Nov 9, 2009 20:32
|
|
|
Chairman Capone posted:Isn't it supposed to be set in between Wizard and Glass and Wolves of the Calla? How would Cuthbert even be in that? More flashbacks, I guess... Interspersed hopefully, rather than just one big block of a flashback. Why am I speculating, I'm not going to read it.
|
|
#
¿
Dec 9, 2009 05:33
|
|
|
Junkenstein posted:He didn't plan anything. Anything. He freely admitted he was making everything up on a book-by-book basis. Yeah, he talks about it in On Writing. King doesn't plan. He just writes and writes and writes with no ending in mind, which is why his endings usually feel rushed and/or awful.
|
|
#
¿
Apr 20, 2010 12:08
|
|
|
Ortsacras posted:Well heck, she hosed a demon, so a demon baby a bit after definitely wouldn't be out of nowhere. I think the bit that sort of came out of nowhere was the demon actually being able to change genders, being the same gypsy or whatever Roland had sex with in the first book, making him the father of said demon baby. It wasn't really foreshadowed from what I remember. And FWIW, I agree Song of Susannah didn't do much in advancing the story, but it was definitely the book I ripped through the quickest. I remember really enjoying the shootout between Roland/Eddie and the gangsters in the general store after they pass through the portal door. lamb SAUCE fucked around with this message at 15:53 on Apr 22, 2010 |
|
#
¿
Apr 22, 2010 15:51
|
|
|
Just finished The Long Walk, and as great as it was it suffered from King's usual problems, even as Bachman. Just the feeling of King saying "Ah gently caress it, time to end this." McVries just bowing out like that, Stebbins being eliminated in the most anticlimactic way possible after he's been built up the entire book as being better and more suited to the Walk than the other guys. Out of nowhere he just gasps, and collapses. Then, we're left with a really ambiguous ending that could be read as supernatural, which is really lame since we went the entire book without any hint of anything weird going on. Enjoyed the hell out of it while it lasted, but it really petered out for me within the last 40 or so pages.
|
|
#
¿
May 4, 2010 15:02
|
|
|
onefish posted:I read the ending as non-supernatural, just your basic pessimistic protagonist has cracked deal. And as for the way the other main competitors finally lost - I mean, what would you have wanted, fireworks? Ray can't interfere with them. They have to either give up/die somehow, or just be shot after three warnings... and the standard three-warning shot would be less interesting than any other option, since it's the standard. McVries, actually thinking about it, I didn't mind as much. More of it was hoping he wouldn't die . More of my problem was with Stebbins. Since the Major was his father, I was hoping for a bit more struggle with him as he tried to keep up with Ray. Maybe the Major looking on, Stebbins losing his cool and erupting in anger at the Major, causing Stebbins to get his three warnings and his ticket from the Major himself. Really all that happened was he started to twitch a bit earlier and lose his composure when talking to Ray, then out of nowhere he just up and died from exhaustion, fainting. Pretty anticlimactic given all the set up he got as an antagonist for Ray, and as a character really.And I think part of me reading it as a supernatural ending is a side-effect of King's works being interconnected cause of the Dark Tower and automatically reading the "dark figure" as Flagg/Walter/etc. Like I said, aside from that I enjoyed the hell out of the book. lamb SAUCE fucked around with this message at 01:55 on May 11, 2010 |
|
#
¿
May 11, 2010 01:51
|
|
|
Tartarus Sauce posted:Why, I wonder? I mean, I've heard of "write what you know," but this is ridiculous! I mean, I'd feel embarrassed if I ever felt that my writings were starting to obviously reflect some kind of neurosis or obsession on my part. I think the peak was (DT spoilers) Jake actually dying by pushing him out of the way of the car and getting hit instead of King. That's not even cleverly hiding behind the guise of fiction in some way, its literally Stephen King getting saved from the car accident by someone.
|
|
#
¿
May 26, 2010 01:58
|
|
|
oldpainless posted: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. Same here. I remember him saying describing parts of a character's physique as "intelligent" or "determined" was lazy sloppy writing, which I agree with wholeheartedly. I also remember several times in the latter DT books he referred to characters having intelligent eyes and faces, and every time he did I would just roll my eyes.
|
|
#
¿
May 27, 2010 05:45
|
|
|
muscles like this? posted:I haven't read it yet but I'm going to say the new one he just released which is about baseball or something. Simply because it's $15 and short story length. I just peeked at an excerpt and on the first page the narrator directly addresses someone as Mr. King like they're being interviewed, which I guess implies the whole thing is some sort of story told to King and/or some hokey metafiction stuff.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 3, 2010 22:01
|
|
|
Automatic Jack posted:(What was that one King short story about the kid who was obsessed with Nazis? That one had some good moments, but the ending didn't feel like it had anything to do with the rest of the story.) Apt. Pupil I think.
|
|
#
¿
Aug 10, 2010 02:02
|
|
|
muscles like this? posted:Man, I wrote this long thing about that "Blockade Billy" book King released not too long ago but it got lost in a server hiccup. Suffice to say, it sucks and would be a waste of money to buy it. If you must read it get it from your local library. On the first page, is the narrator seriously addressing King like King is interviewing him?
|
|
#
¿
Sep 13, 2010 00:43
|
|
|
The Walrus posted:If you're Pacing was its strongest quality I think. It did not feel like an 1100 page novel. It read like a 400 page novel.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 19, 2010 00:46
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 19, 2024 16:14 |
|
|
I kept imagining Scarecrow Joe as Stephen Merchant. Anyone else?
|
|
#
¿
Mar 10, 2011 23:51
|
|