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The Stephen King Thread

dcbc

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dcbc

dcbc 14556

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I'm working my way through the catalogue.  Over the last couple of years, I've read the Shining, 11/22/63, IT, and Different Seasons.  I'm currently about a third of the way through 'Salem's Lot.  I am loving it, but have stalled out on reading for about a month.  Need to get back into it.  Only made it about 400 pages through The Stand, but was bored.

Let's get this topic going again.

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LCHorn

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On 6/5/2018 at 3:45 PM, Noah Fence said:

Currently reading The Outsider

I finished it the other night.  It was fine--I'm a little weary of the "recovering addict" trope he keeps hitting in the last few books of his I've read.  Minor King, unfortunately no Dark Tower Easter Eggs (or if they were there I missed them). 

 

He's still a fine storyteller (really, that's underrating it, he's one of the greats), but it seems like the balls-to-wall temperament of his earlier fiction isn't something he wants to revisit. 

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TwiceHorn

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8 minutes ago, LCHorn said:

I finished it the other night.  It was fine--I'm a little weary of the "recovering addict" trope he keeps hitting in the last few books of his I've read.  Minor King, unfortunately no Dark Tower Easter Eggs (or if they were there I missed them). 

 

He's still a fine storyteller (really, that's underrating it, he's one of the greats), but it seems like the balls-to-wall temperament of his earlier fiction isn't something he wants to revisit. 

Funny thing is, the unrecovered addict is featured in his pre-87 stuff pretty prominently.  The man is aging and he's sober.  Cool by me.

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TwiceHorn

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On 7/7/2018 at 4:28 PM, Neonmoon said:

Just finished the Outsider. It was good, not great. Felt like I’ve read it before 

I'm about a third into it.  From what I can see, it's got a really timely treatment how a bad prosecution goes down: overzealous DA, a cop that ignores some glaring things because of the heinous nature of the crime. I realize it's going to go/end up somewhere else, but so far it's great.

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closetojumping

closetojumping 62918

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On 8/18/2018 at 11:08 PM, Viper said:

Currently listening to IT. 33 hours in, 11 left to go

Sorry, just reading through some threads on this subforum, so I'm responding now. 

"It" is one of two books that I've read in my life where I ended up putting it down and never finishing it. When the alien basically takes over the narrative and starts talking about why he prefers to eat kids and such, it was just too fucking disturbing. I'm curious about how someone feels who's read it/heard it much more recently feels. 

BTW, the other book I stopped reading was "Forged of a Hotter Fire". HenryJames, troll that he is, ordered it and had it mailed to my office when it came out. I'm a billy goat when it comes to reading as I'll damn near consume anything, but holy shit. I got through 2 chapters. It wasn't just abysmal, it was utterly boring.

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Viper

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@closetojumping

Really, I thought the part with Patrick Hockstetter was the hardest to get through, but not as bad as listening to Gerald's Game, that one I had to stop for a few minutes as I was feeling light headed. All the dead children do start to get to you though, and hearing it read makes it a bit more real. The narrator did pretty good with Pennywise's voice, though not great. He was a little inconsistent with the children's voices, sometime slipping into a particular voice, and sometimes not but it was easy enough to keep up with. And wow, hearing it read really brings home how annoying Bill's studder is and how absolutely annoying Richie is. I thought Richie was annoying in the movie, but he's got nothing on his book self. With Bill I kept flashing back to the Happy Gilmore line and getting annoyed so I guess kudos to the narrator for that.

But it was still a great book, even though it was so long. I think it had a lot of layers, as a metaphor for how we all forget our childhood when we're adults, how hard it is to go back home, and how scary life can be as child. I also see it as a sort of fairy tale or mythology of small town life, creating this big monster that is the explanation for all the evil done by the ordinary people in the town throughout history. Why parents are abusive, why bigger kids bully outcasts, why people ignore the evil happening in a small town where everyone knows everyone, and how real friendship is the best way to survive.

Then there are the connections to Kings other works, not the least of which is his larger Dark Tower mythology with the Turtle and the appearance in other books of other creatures like Pennywise or perhaps her children. There is a lot to digest in there.

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Deej

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On 10/3/2018 at 6:11 PM, closetojumping said:

Sorry, just reading through some threads on this subforum, so I'm responding now. 

"It" is one of two books that I've read in my life where I ended up putting it down and never finishing it. When the alien basically takes over the narrative and starts talking about why he prefers to eat kids and such, it was just too fucking disturbing. I'm curious about how someone feels who's read it/heard it much more recently feels. 

BTW, the other book I stopped reading was "Forged of a Hotter Fire". HenryJames, troll that he is, ordered it and had it mailed to my office when it came out. I'm a billy goat when it comes to reading as I'll damn near consume anything, but holy shit. I got through 2 chapters. It wasn't just abysmal, it was utterly boring.

So you missed the boys running a train on the one girl in the group? Lucky you.

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dcbc

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On 10/4/2018 at 8:19 AM, Viper said:

@closetojumping

Really, I thought the part with Patrick Hockstetter was the hardest to get through, but not as bad as listening to Gerald's Game, that one I had to stop for a few minutes as I was feeling light headed. All the dead children do start to get to you though, and hearing it read makes it a bit more real. The narrator did pretty good with Pennywise's voice, though not great. He was a little inconsistent with the children's voices, sometime slipping into a particular voice, and sometimes not but it was easy enough to keep up with. And wow, hearing it read really brings home how annoying Bill's studder is and how absolutely annoying Richie is. I thought Richie was annoying in the movie, but he's got nothing on his book self. With Bill I kept flashing back to the Happy Gilmore line and getting annoyed so I guess kudos to the narrator for that.

But it was still a great book, even though it was so long. I think it had a lot of layers, as a metaphor for how we all forget our childhood when we're adults, how hard it is to go back home, and how scary life can be as child. I also see it as a sort of fairy tale or mythology of small town life, creating this big monster that is the explanation for all the evil done by the ordinary people in the town throughout history. Why parents are abusive, why bigger kids bully outcasts, why people ignore the evil happening in a small town where everyone knows everyone, and how real friendship is the best way to survive.

Then there are the connections to Kings other works, not the least of which is his larger Dark Tower mythology with the Turtle and the appearance in other books of other creatures like Pennywise or perhaps her children. There is a lot to digest in there.

I read IT for the first time last year and after reading some other books, I found I missed IT and am now listening to the Stephen Weber audiobook.  It's really well done.  The thing with Hockstetter and the cocker spaniel puppy really got to me.  Tough listen.  I really am enjoying listening to the book the second time around.  There is so much foreshadowing about the turtle throughout.  And, of course, there's tons of 3 Billy Goats Gruff references since that story is the basis of IT, i.e., not just troll under the bridge, but monster under (both literally and figuratively) the whole town.  Just finished the Losers' going to 29 Neibolt St.  The finales lie ahead (and beneath). 

In going through the book a second time, I'm even more convinced that nothing short of a 10 part miniseries can touch it as far as putting IT on the screen.  Don't get me wrong.  I enjoyed the movie.  But the characters in the novel are so well developed, it can't be matched even in a four hour two part movie.  Even though it wasn't perfect, I thought they did better with 11.22.63 on Hulu.

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Deej

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Just finished rereading IT, thirty years after the first read. I read/listened. I like that my Kindle and Audible sync up, so I can listen while driving, then just start reading where I left off.

I found a more than some of the book to be pretty awkward, now, mainly the kids and the sex thing. Friends and family of King staged an intervention shortly after to make him face his coke problem. I imagine he'd have made some different choices, sober.

Started the Stand again. Think it's a much better book. Enjoy the guy narrating it. Think he does a much better job than Weber did with IT. His interpretation is a bit more subdued and nuanced, IMO.

You're right that it may be impossible to do service to IT with anything other than a long miniseries. The tv version didn't age well.

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dcbc

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22 hours ago, Deej said:

The tv version didn't age well. 

That's the truth.  It did try to stay true to the structure of the novel though by blending the adult/kid stories.  Interested to see how the movie works out.  I assume there will be some kid flashbacks.

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Viper

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23 hours ago, Deej said:

Just finished rereading IT, thirty years after the first read. I read/listened. I like that my Kindle and Audible sync up, so I can listen while driving, then just start reading where I left off.

I found a more than some of the book to be pretty awkward, now, mainly the kids and the sex thing. Friends and family of King staged an intervention shortly after to make him face his coke problem. I imagine he'd have made some different choices, sober.

Started the Stand again. Think it's a much better book. Enjoy the guy narrating it. Think he does a much better job than Weber did with IT. His interpretation is a bit more subdued and nuanced, IMO.

You're right that it may be impossible to do service to IT with anything other than a long miniseries. The tv version didn't age well.

Ha I'm listening to the Stand too right now. So far it's been good usual King style of introducing all the different characters. I like how he's slowly moving the plot along in the background. 

I thought Weber was a little better but am not that far with the Stand yet and they usually get better about a quarter of the way through the book. He does the accents really well though. 

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philsjwfu

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Funny, I just finished reading the Outsider and got the notion to reread The Stand, I've read it at least twice before when I was a lot younger. I picked up on a lot more this time around, and it was a little unsettling being right in the middle of flu season, adding to that all the anti-vaccer idiocy going on and it hit a little close to home.

Enviado desde mi SM-G950U mediante Tapatalk

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dcbc

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Finally finished The Stand, two years later.  Started with the book.  Got bored at about 400 pages in.  Stopped, read IT.  Loved it.  Read Different Seasons.  Read about half of Salem's Lot.  Listened to It on Audiobook.  Then, started the Stand on Audiobook.  Listened to it up to the last 40 pages, which I finished in the book.  I finally like the Stand, but don't absolutely love it.  It's quite the landscape and the description of the post-Trips world is cool.  It's pretty much a slow burn all the way through.  The characters take so long to develop, like 75--100% of the book for some.  I didn't dislike the end.  In fact, I enjoyed the last 10% of the book as much as the first half.  But I think there are better books out there.

Going to finish the last 30% of Salem's Lot now (enjoying) and listening to the audiobook of 11.22.63 (one of my favorites from a few years ago) on my commute.

So what next?  Heard good things about Duma Key.  I'm a Derry freak.  So, maybe Insomnia? 

I'm not big on super fantasy type stuff.  So I have resisted the Dark Tower stuff. 

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TwiceHorn

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12 hours ago, dcbc said:

Finally finished The Stand, two years later.  Started with the book.  Got bored at about 400 pages in.  Stopped, read IT.  Loved it.  Read Different Seasons.  Read about half of Salem's Lot.  Listened to It on Audiobook.  Then, started the Stand on Audiobook.  Listened to it up to the last 40 pages, which I finished in the book.  I finally like the Stand, but don't absolutely love it.  It's quite the landscape and the description of the post-Trips world is cool.  It's pretty much a slow burn all the way through.  The characters take so long to develop, like 75--100% of the book for some.  I didn't dislike the end.  In fact, I enjoyed the last 10% of the book as much as the first half.  But I think there are better books out there.

Going to finish the last 30% of Salem's Lot now (enjoying) and listening to the audiobook of 11.22.63 (one of my favorites from a few years ago) on my commute.

So what next?  Heard good things about Duma Key.  I'm a Derry freak.  So, maybe Insomnia? 

I'm not big on super fantasy type stuff.  So I have resisted the Dark Tower stuff. 

I enjoyed Duma Key.  Also Bag of Bones and Liseys Story.  However, these Kng books are mostly non-supernatural (there is still some) and kind of a departure.

I would recommend going through more classic King before those:

Carrie

Dead Zone

Pet Sematary

The Bachman Books

Thinner

Cujo

Firestarter

All of the short story collections are mighty fine.

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dcbc

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Thanks for the responses.  Before I read them, I had narrowed my choices to Carrie, The Dead Zone, and Pet Semetary.  Downloaded Carrie yesterday.  Should be a quick one. 

Good to know about Insomnia and Duma Key.  I have read mixed reviews elsewhere.  But I think something shorter was the right call before I take on another big one.

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austingirl

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On 4/7/2018 at 5:11 PM, dcbc said:

I'm working my way through the catalogue.  Over the last couple of years, I've read the Shining, 11/22/63, IT, and Different Seasons.  I'm currently about a third of the way through 'Salem's Lot.  I am loving it, but have stalled out on reading for about a month.  Need to get back into it.  Only made it about 400 pages through The Stand, but was bored.

Let's get this topic going again.

I don't think we can be friends.

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dcbc

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On 3/3/2019 at 6:41 PM, austingirl said:

I don't think we can be friends.

400 pages through The Stand? So you've almost met all the main characters and got through their introductions?

 

That was a year ago. 

 

I revisited The Stand in audiobook form and have since gotten through the whole thing.  I appreciate it  a great deal more, even though its definitely a slow burn.  Part of my problem the first time through was that I'm a fairly sporatic reader, only getting to really dive into books for more than half hour stretches when my, i.e. my kids', schedules allow.  I was having to keep a lot of characters and locales straight, and it was hard when I'd spend good chunks of time away from it.  The audiobook along with the character map some nice person put together helped a lot. 

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Elmer_Fudd

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9 hours ago, South Austin said:

I really liked Revival.

Finished earlier today.  Looking at the image off of post #2 on this thread I kept thinking an ant was going to come through and spear Reverand Jacobs and take him to the other side.  

As you said, I really liked it.

Going to read Outsider next and whenever I have a lot of time read IT.

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SydneyCarton

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Hmm. last year I powered through a ton of the Dark Tower affiliated books and the Dark Tower series. I think it was like 20 or 25 of his books/stories total. Enjoyed IT, skipped The Stand (because I read in in HS), Eyes of the Dragon (also read in HS), and Rose Madder and A Buick 8. I pretty much combined the reading order and books of these two links:

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/101894.The_Dark_Tower_Extended_Reading_Order
http://thetruthinsidethelie.blogspot.com/2012/04/the-dark-tower-suggested-reading-order_2128.html

The Dark Tower books themselves got less enjoyable further into the series, for certain. IT was great, and I really surprisingly enjoyed Bag of Bones quite a bit. But I'd say the standouts for me were Salem's Lot, The Tailsman, and Black House, the last two being books he co-wrote with Peter Straub. Desperation and The Regulators were kind of fun as binary stories. 

Salem's Lot, however, was definitely one where when I finished it I was disappointed there wasn't more story to explore. It was a fun read. 

Oddly enough, I think next I'm going to go Old School and give Firestarter a read if just to compare it to the horrific freaking movie. 

 

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TwiceHorn

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1 hour ago, NorthLoop said:

Thoughts on the Mercedes trilogy? I have book 1 in my cart but wanna make sure it doesn't suck before I dive into a series. 

It's a little different, but enjoyable.  If you like King's writing generally, you will enjoy.  Some funny shit in it.  Gets supernatural in vol. 3.

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South Austin

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Yeah, I really enjoyed the Mercedes trilogy.  It lacks the horror and supernatural elements of King’s earlier novels (although as TwiceHorn said you get more of that in the third book), and it seems like his work is trending away from that, but the guy is still a really great storyteller.

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