Stephen King - worth a go?

[Phoenix Lazarus]

I see where you're coming from, but I blame Doomlord for making me the freak of nature that I am to this day.

He'd be gluing himself to a motorway today, being the environmental activist he became in the later series.

[Small Man Big Horse]

He'd be gluing himself to a motorway today, being the environmental activist he became in the later series.

That's why I'm all about Servitor Zyn, I've no time for the rest of them.

[jfjnpxmy]

It takes a long time to get going and the psychic gift known as the shining turns out to have a bewildering plethora of features and applications, each new one appearing when King needs it for the plot.  There is quite a bit of tension towards the end when the big showdown is looming but once you realise that, whatever difficulty the heroes find themselves in, King will just unveil a new power of the shining that fits the situation perfectly, it all gets a little flat.

This is what ruined the ending of the Dark Tower for me as well. People [rightly] slag the grand finale being

Spoiler alert

an old mental case shrieking and throwing things at Roland until he gets wacked by a Deux Ex Machina

[close]

but the way everyone had a swiss army knife of psychic powers and the ability to pull information from the ether spoiled it way before then. Aye d'ye ken the hunchthink, commala? psychically swaps bodies with a raccoon, sends an SMS to my friend across two universes and 50 years using brain powers, farts.

[bgmnts]

Dark Tower probably lost me at book five and I just powered through, and then the bit near the end where King

Spoiler alert

killed off Oy

[close]

was like a fucking dagger in the heart.

[Keebleman]

I recently read The Outsider, which will probably put me off trying any of his other books for a few years.  It's presented as a crime novel and has a very intriguing locked-room-mystery as its premise...which soon turns out to have a supernatural solution.  Very disappointing.  And it isn't presented as a sequel to the Mr Mercedes books, even though it is, so there are characters whose personalities, history and relationships are already established.  Not a fun read.

[Gambrinus]

I recently read The Outsider, which will probably put me off trying any of his other books for a few years.  It's presented as a crime novel and has a very intriguing locked-room-mystery as its premise...which soon turns out to have a supernatural solution.  Very disappointing.  And it isn't presented as a sequel to the Mr Mercedes books, even though it is, so there are characters whose personalities, history and relationships are already established.  Not a fun read.

I was quite enjoying this until the supernatural nonsense turned up. Didn't end up finishing it in the end.

[dontpaintyourteeth]

I watched the tv adaptation of The Outsider and was similarly disappointed when it went all... well, Stephen King, admittedly, with the supernatural stuff.

[markburgle]

He's great but I find he has no re-read value. First read you're pulled right into it and you want to go on that ride again but when you do... ehhh. Maybe he relies so much on suspense that once that's out the window there's not much left

[bgmnts]

He's great but I find he has no re-read value. First read you're pulled right into it and you want to go on that ride again but when you do... ehhh. Maybe he relies so much on suspense that once that's out the window there's not much left

The Stand is the only book I've ever re-read and I enjoyed it the second time round but you're right, they are mostly page turners.

[Magnum Valentino]

Amazed that I have also read The Stand twice. OH to be young and have free time again!

[spaghetamine]

Only read Pet Sematary but was really impressed with it. It builds a very palpable sense of dread incredibly effectively and shit me up way more than I was expecting. I think it's a testament to his strength as a writer that even though there's some incredibly blatant foreshadowing,

Spoiler alert

Gage's death

[close]

is still a real punch to the gut when it happens. I've also spent a bit of time there so I dug all the descriptions of rural Maine, it truly is a spooky yet beautiful place.

[El Unicornio, mang]

Amazed that I have also read The Stand twice. OH to be young and have free time again!

Thirded. Although the re-read was the 1153-page version.

I've read 'Salem's Lot a few times as well.

[Artie Fufkin]

The Stand & It Both twice.
Salem's Lot about 4 maybe 5 times. I'm also going to listen to it at some point soon.

[Magnum Valentino]

I'm reading Skeleton Crew off the back of this thread and saving The Jaunt for last, such is its reputation.

I'm after reading Uncle Otto's Truck.

Would anyone else like to share their thoughts on this story as I am dumbfounded by it.

[Old Nehamkin]

I really love Night Shift and Skeleton Crew. As entertaining a bundle of short genre fiction as you're ever likely to come across. So much great stuff. King understands that the shorter the story, the more completely outlandish a premise you can get the reader to buy into. Haunted laundry mangler. Trucks coming to life and being homicidal. A big basement under a factory that just has increasingly massive and fucked up rats in it. Yes...hahaha...yes!

Salem's Lot another big favourite. Remember staying up all night and into the morning reading it in university, just glued. One of the most fucking... propulsive novels I've ever read. I  reckon if he'd never written another word it would still be a cult classic.

[Magnum Valentino]

Story about the stranded lad eating himself is a stone cold gas I tell ya.

Also enjoyed the one about the fella with the curse who wouldn't touch anyone and am currently reading the one about the spacemen on the sand planet.

[QDRPHNC]

Yeah, King's short stories are great. The Bachman novellas are very good too, especially The Long Walk. I think Different Seasons is my favourite collection, The Body of course is wonderful, and The Breathing Method is one that's always stayed with me - moreso for the framing device than the story itself. And yes, The Jaunt, he really has a knack for these unsettling ideas that linger.

[Gambrinus]

I'd love some more stories set in that weird gentleman's club from The Breathing Method and The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands

[Magnum Valentino]

Ah, it's been about 20 years since I read The Breathing Method so I didn't realize it was the same club.

Is that why the butler is implied to be supernaturally ageless?

[Gambrinus]

I guess so. There's a line at the end of TMWWNSH along the lines of "you know Stevens, you look just like your grandfather".

I liked The Sun Dog. The bit in it about the fella who got into gambling debt and had to work two jobs to pay it off has stuck with me. Underrated story I think.

[Magnum Valentino]

The Sun Dog has recently been reissued on its own as a novella alongside The Mist, Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption and a few others. I confess I'd never heard of it amongst the other well known longer shorts.

Confession I've watched the Langoliers maybe five or six times.

[Clive Dogshit]

I've watched the Langoliers maybe five or six times.

Oh man have you seen The Timekeepers of Eternity? A guy printed off all the individual film cells from The Langoliers onto sheets of paper, ripped, chewed and screwed them up, then animated them to make a totally mad re-edit of the original. I thought it was amazing, having the seen the Langoliers a couple of times. Well worth tracking down.

[Registering to lurk]

Yeah, King's short stories are great. The Bachman novellas are very good too, especially The Long Walk. I think Different Seasons is my favourite collection, The Body of course is wonderful, and The Breathing Method is one that's always stayed with me - moreso for the framing device than the story itself. And yes, The Jaunt, he really has a knack for these unsettling ideas that linger.

The Long Walk and The Jaunt are both great.

Has anyone else read Full Dark No Stars? There's a story in there called Fair Extension which really got under my skin.

[Joe Oakes]

Looking at his oeuvre, I appear to have read almost everything up to and including Rose Madder, and nothing after. Not that I remember Rose Madder being bad. Have to boringly agree with the thread consensus, his best work is contained within his short-stories and novellas. Some wonderful stuff.

The one thing that really started to grate with his longer work was his over-reliance on dream sequences, which isn't really his fault as I have a problem with them in general.

Yes, I fully understand that dreams in books and films always provide vital foreshadowing, blah blah, but I can always feel my mind start to wander and can never shake the feeling of "I don't give a fuck what happened in your dream, mate".

[purlieu]

I read the entire Dark Tower expanded universe thing a few years ago, all the books that tied into it and everything. It was kind of fascinating, thinking that there are books out there like Black House and Insomnia that aren't marketed as Dark Tower books despite being so heavily tied to the overall plot. My mum used to love his stuff and said she hated Black House as she had no idea what was going on. Not surprising given that it's a sequel to The Talisman and a major component of the Dark Tower story.

My experience of him is mixed. I think The Dark Tower is mostly great, but the thing of writing himself into it really spoiled the stakes to my mind: when you know that the characters aren't fully the protagonists it really spoils some of the drama. Otherwise I enjoyed it.

It I really, really tried with but gave up a few hundred pages in out of boredom.

The Stand was lovely except the literal deus ex machina.

Insomnia seems to have a less than positive reputation but I actually really enjoyed this one. I felt the slow pace helped me sink into the world of the books which made the gradual sink into insanity that bit more effective.

Hearts in Atlantis is my favourite thing of his that I've read. It ties in with the Dark Tower series in places, but then moves to other short stories which are connected to each other but totally unrelated, which made for a refreshing change of pace. There's some beautiful character work here and it definitely adds credence to the idea of his non-supernatural and short story stuff being his best. I should probably explore more in this vein.

The Talisman and Black House I enjoyed; the former is stylistically very Dark Tower, being a fantasy quest story, but thematically unconnected, but the latter brings them together and is a much darker story with some spooky rural horror going on before heading directly into the DT universe at the end.

The only book I've read that wasn't related to the Dark Tower series is Under the Dome which I felt was a great concept but appallingly realised. Every single character was a ludicrous cliche and I struggled to connect with it on any level at all.

[Magnum Valentino]

The Jaunt. Aye. Fuck off Stephen mate.

That's Skeleton Crew done. Enjoyed the story about the shadow on the lake that hypnotized dissolved and ate people, and the woman who was so good at driving she started aging in reverse.

[rilk]

Just finished Tommyknockers, bloated slog in the middle but thrilling in parts. It's about aliens. He's slagged it off as a gear book but it's a story about addiction anyway. His appealing qualities - writing about people and places in depth - are stretched to silly lengths at parts and it would have been better at half the length but it's good when it's good. Good horrible bit about the kid doing a magic trick that disappears his little brother to a barren planet, choking for air. But it's a drug and booze book in theme and execution which makes it both interesting and uninteresting.

[Artie Fufkin]

Has anyone else read Full Dark No Stars? There's a story in there called Fair Extension which really got under my skin.

Is that the one with 'N'?
Jeeze *shudder*

[dead-ced-dead]

I've only just started reading King's book. Finished a couple of his nippy, short Hard Case Crime books as a taster, then I moved on to Salem's Lot.

Correct me if I'm off base, but what's jumped out at me so far, is King is very good at showing his characters stuck in a situation of stagnation/ennui before introducing a supernatural thing, and that's what seems to be the secret sauce. Not necessarily miserable, just kinda stuck in a rut. Salem's Lot takes a long time needling peoples wants and desires before dropping the horror. He spends a long time making you care before going, "TADA! Vampires!" Is that common across all his writing.

[PlanktonSideburns]

I've only just started reading King's book. Finished a couple of his nippy, short Hard Case Crime books as a taster, then I moved on to Salem's Lot.

Correct me if I'm off base, but what's jumped out at me so far, is King is very good at showing his characters stuck in a situation of stagnation/ennui before introducing a supernatural thing, and that's what seems to be the secret sauce. Not necessarily miserable, just kinda stuck in a rut. Salem's Lot takes a long time needling peoples wants and desires before dropping the horror. He spends a long time making you care before going, "TADA! Vampires!" Is that common across all his writing.

Yea I could go with that, - i think there's more than that to love, but lots of his books have a satisfyingly welcome apocalyose/terrorfuck in them