Stephen King!

[Treebeard's apprentice]

I love Stephen King. I was scared of King at first because of all the hype about being the Master of Horror and such, but now I love his books. The first one I read was The Gunslinger, as a Christmas present a few years ago. It wasn't at all scary! I have since read all 4 in the Dark Tower series as well as most of his other works, but the DT series is still my favorite. Tell me what some of your favorite King books are.

[poppy]

i thought id read quite a few of the Steven King book but it turns out i havent even scratched the surface Anyway my favarite at this presant moment in time is The Stand closely followed by Bag of Bones.. i also think Dean Koontze is pretty good too

[ringbearer]

If you want to be scared...read "It"!

[Treebeard's apprentice]

Yes, I noticed that The Stand is a favorite of most King readers, and it's one of mine, too. It's like the epitamy of Good vs. Evil. The Dark Tower series is sort of like that. You should check it out.

[IronParrot]

I've never seen the appeal of Stephen King... never really bothered to try out his works. I might someday, after I've gotten through my current (very long) personal reading list. But I really don't see what all the hype is about.

[poppy]

I read "IT" when i was in hospital having my twins that was scary, i've not tried the dark towers yet but have read his Four Seasons and it was a shock to find out he wrote Shawshank Redemption (love the film) i also found out i share the same maiden name with his wife which i think is great, But i do recomend at least trying one of his books because he's a really great writer he can draw you into a storey no matter what he writing about i had his auto biography given and if you cant guess i think that was a great read too

[fireworks19]

I actually don't like the few King books I've read...The Shining, The Stand, Needful Things (is that right?) and Carrie, of course...Thinner. They just seem...slightly repetitive...I'm willing to keep trying with it though.

There are definately much scarier writer's though. Try Clive Barker. He's a little twisted, more so than King.

[Bregalad]

I love Stephen King! Some of the old classics are my favorites, The Stand, The Shining, Night Shift, and the Bachman books. I got a little tired of him for a while, around the time he was writing Misery, and Gerald's Game, but I started reading some of his more recent stuff, Bag of Bones, and I once again like what he's doing. I gotta tell you, I loved "It" until about the last 5 pages (and for those of you who havn't read it, I'm about to spoil the hell out of it, so stop reading this! ) But to me, after reading 25b-zillion pages or so of one of the best thrillers I ever read, I get to the last 5 pages and I'm confronted with a big spider and a great big turtle. Whee. Look at me I'm shaking. Oh can't you just see how scared I am. Wow, a big turtle. Eeeek, a great big spider. I do hope the massive amounts of sarcasm are apparent in my typing. I'm sure there are folks out there who will argue with me about the great phsycalogical significance of the big scary spider and the great life giving turtle, but to me it still reads like Mr. King got to the end of that (until the last 5 pages) fabulous book and just didn't know what to do with it. So we got a big turtle. To me it was just a great reptillian let-down!

PS: Poppy, I like Dean Koontz too!! Especially Watchers!

[poppy]

I know what you mean about the turtle/spider thing i had to go back a few hundred pages to find out if id missed some but i think if i got it right Pennywise was the creation of the turtles when he had a stomach ache lol. I liked Watchers too,

[ringbearer]

Actually, the Universe, was the turtles "stomach ache" ...He puked it out! (He capped on purpose...get the hint?) I do agree that the end was "kind of a let down", but by far, "It" was King's
scariest novel. His BEST story, though, is "The Green Mile"!!!

[poppy]

I have seen the film The Green Mile thought it was fabulos but i have heard its nothing compared to the book, which i am now finding hard to locate.

[Ozymandias]

I've only read his Dark Tower books. I'm not much into the horror thing. DT is great, though - not horror at all, but a very, very dark fantasy/western...thing.

[Bregalad]

Poppy, Green Mile is fabulous! Both the book and the movie. I hope you can find the book because is is excellent. But I thought the movie did a great job of staying true to the book, and what a great cast!!

[fireworks19]

I read the Green Mile and cried. A lot. Then my boyfriend laughed and said it was cute. *shrug*

He also said the Green Mile had exact dialogues from Shawshank Redemption, which I have not read.

[Treebeard's apprentice]

I've only read his Dark Tower books. I'm not much into the horror thing. DT is great, though - not horror at all, but a very, very dark fantasy/western...thing.

If you like the Dark Tower, some of his more recent books incorporate parts of DT, such as Insomnia, Hearts in Atlantis, and Black House (his most recent, cowritten with Peter Straub). It seems to me that all of his novels are starting to melt together and revolve entirely around the Tower, which makes sense because the Tower is supposedly the axle that holds all worlds together. Stephen claims that he has at least 3 more novels before the DT is finished. I can't wait.

[ringbearer]

Treebeard's apprentice mentioned Peter Straub...his novel "Ghost Story" is a must read!

[ringbearer]

Back to Stephen King...I did not like Pet Semetary because...

Spoilers below!





















everybody died!

[Bregalad]

Ringbearer...
But you must admit even though....
spoiler below






everyone died! (lol) it is a very creepy book! I agree with you about Peter Straub's Ghost Story, excellent book! Have you ever seen the movie? Great cast of old classic actors, really worth seeing! And speaking of everybody dieing, in the book, Cujo, didn't everybody die? I remember thinking that they chickened out in the movie. Awful movie but I just love it!
Also speaking of Stephen King books being made into movies, which did you all prefer, the old "the Shining" of the new one? Despite the groovy special fx, I still prefer the old classic, and no one will ever be Dick Holloran to me except Scatman Crothers!

[Churl]

I usually have one of three reactions to a Stephen King novel or story:

1) Enjoyment at an interesting story well told … It, The Stand, Bag of Bones, etc. I'm particulary fascinated by King's effort at building an entire unified mythos (á lÃ* Lovecraft) which revolves around, but isn't restricted to, his The Dark Tower series.

2) Disappointment at a premise that never quite gels … "The Langoliers" in Four Past Midnight, "Trucks," "The Lawnmower Man," and countless other silly short stories, etc.

3) Utter revulsion at his unabated cruelty toward his characters … Needful Things, Desperation, The Regulators, etc. I'm tempted to add Pet Sematary to this list, but although it was incredibly depressing, its outright horror — which was missing in the others — and its ending's awful inevitability kept me from hating it entirely.

Of course, King often adds nice touches even to works that I dislike overall. Conversely, he sometimes injects stuff that falls flat into otherwise enjoyable works. (His endings especially are uneven to say the least).

I can't easily synopsize my reaction to King. Every time I think he's a genius, he'll scrawl some howlingly bad description or line of dialogue. Then when I'm ready to dismiss him as a hack, he'll write something of such perfect horror (or beauty) that it forces me to think he's a genius again.

[poppy]

Have you read Seven King On Writing in the first half of the book it seems to explain just a very little what makes him tick but in my opinion not enough