Anyone read Stephen King?

[Une]

l only like some of Stephen Kings

Misery (great film & book)
Shawshank.

[Erisianmonkey]

I HATE Stephen King. The only thing that I know of that I've liked from him was the film version of Shawshank. Which is doubly surprising as I'm not real big on Robbins either. If I want to read horror, I am likely to pick up a John Saul novel. My sister got me started on him years ago. If you're into horror type novels, you owe it to yourself to check out some of Saul's stuff. I would recommend The God Project as one of his best. Also noteworthy are The Unwanted and Creature.

EDIT TO ADD: This caveat though: Don't pick up a Saul book if you are in a mode to just skim through and not get deep into subtext. I've yet to see a Saul work that can just be slid through on mental cruise control.

[Tattoo Bradley]

I just finished up Duma Key. What a FANTASTIC story. I'd recommend it to anyone.

And Ersian, I don't consider Stephen King as strictly "horror." He's one of those authors... love him or hate him.

[kmaclea]

Random resurrection of old thread.

I once "hated" Stephen King, even though I hadn't read any... I was projecting my thoughts on some of the movies that had been made, and expecting the writing to be juvenile.

I actually am not a horror fan, but some of King's work borders/slides into fantasy, so I decided to try The Stand.

I actually didn't much care for The Stand, I thought the plot had some holes in it, and it had some "suspension of disbelief" issues for me. The movie was worse.

I decided to try the Dark Tower series (right before he finished it) on the advice of a good friend. Wow, what a difference. (Granted, I am a fantasy fan.) I thought it might be terrible because I don't really care for Westerns sometimes, and the whole theme of the gunslinger in the first book--I wasn't sure if I could get past that.

But I definitely did. This is really good writing, and has some (few) horror elements, but is mostly a fantasy. His world is VERY believable. I find myself thinking of it still, very original and interesting. I wasn't sure he'd be able to weave it all together, but he really did. The end of the series did not disappoint (a big fear after 7 books!), although King has a "half-ending" where he basically tells you "it should be good enough for you to stop here, my preferred ending... but if you're too weak for that, go ahead and read the last section." After 7 books, I wasn't sitting that out. If King wanted it to stop there, he should have just stopped there and not taunted his readers. Plus, the "second" ending is much more satisfying.

Anyway... my feeling about King has changed dramatically. I may never love his horror stuff, but I really respect him as a writer now. And I try to challenge people who hate him to give the Dark Tower a try if they like fantasy or unusual epic tales at all...

I also really liked "On Writing"... a good how-to for writers, with a lot of King's story in it too. Interesting stuff!

Enough of my thoughts. But I found this thread and even if old I had to comment.

kmaclea=

[Alaskan Kilted Guy]

I am re-reading Different Seasons right now. Wow, I forgot how great these stories are. I actually have only read one other King book, The Green Mile. That was awesome too. Heck, I might have to pick up some of his other stuff....

[robthehiker]

The Stand is one of my favourite books. Loved the character development. I haven't cared for his works since the accident.

[Tattoo Bradley]

I finally read that copy of The Stand I mention earlier in the thread (uncut version.) MAN! I absolutely LOOOOVED that one too. I recently read The Mist, and blogged a tad about it and The Stand as well (blog link is in sig line if anyone cares to read.) I'm currently reading Moby Dick. Yes, that's right. And you know what? It's great! I never read it in school, and I'm very pleased I've chosen to now. I'm waiting for Amazon to release the Kindle version of Salem's Lot they keep showing me but not yet made available!

[Panache]

Hi All,

This thread was removed from the open forum due to political posts.

Those posts have been removed and the thread restored.

Even in the Off Topic forum we need to remember the forum rules.

Lets keep in fun

Cheers

Jamie

[kmaclea]

:yes:

K=

[Panache]

I have to say that I have enjoyed the first 5 of the Dark Tower Books (as well as the short story "Little Sisters of Elluria" (sp?) quite a bit. My favorite is still the first book, there is a wonderful mythic tone that King evokes in it. "Wastelands" and "Wizard and Glass" and also very good. I stopped after "Wolves of the Calla" because I had this dreadful feeling that the series was going to ultimately disappoint. Perhaps some part of me thinks that Childe Roland should never actually make it to the Dark Tower but continually quest for it.

I would suggest kmaclea that you try "Bag of Bones". It's a very mature work for King. good literature, and a scary story to boot.

Cheers

Jamie

...I decided to try the Dark Tower series (right before he finished it) on the advice of a good friend. Wow, what a difference...This is really good writing, and has some (few) horror elements, but is mostly a fantasy. His world is VERY believable. I find myself thinking of it still, very original and interesting. I wasn't sure he'd be able to weave it all together, but he really did. The end of the series did not disappoint (a big fear after 7 books!)...