Stephen King

[webwizard333]

Though I've only read a few of his earlier novels, I'm think he's a real great author (despite over-commecialization). I particulary like his stories in which people have abnormal powers, such as Firestarter and The Shining. Does anyone else here read his works?

[Grey_Wolf]

Originally posted by webwizard333
Though I've only read a few of his earlier novels, I'm think he's a real great author (despite over-commecialization). I particulary like his stories in which people have abnormal powers, such as Firestarter and The Shining. Does anyone else here read his works?

I'm waiting for the fifth part in the Dark Tower-series (actually for the sixth and seventh parts as well, since I'm not going to begin reading them before I got the entire septology)

[azalea]

As a teen I read Night Shift which I really liked despite the gore. I tried to read Pet Semetary but found that I didn't like his writing style, although I love his plots. I want to try to read The Stand. I've seen most of the movies made of his works and I've really enjoyed most of them. I also would like to read The Dead Zone, I loved the movie w/ Christopher Wulken, and now there's a cable series based on it. It premiered last week and I was pleasantly surprised. It will replace The X-Files as my Sunday night viewing.

[Khamûl]

I love Stephen King! Some of my favorite books by him are his short story collections. I love all three of them. My favorite novel by him is by far The Stand. It's a monster of a book (1141 pages in my edition) but I loved it. I also liked It and Pet Sematary. I'm ready for another short story collection from him.

[Treebeard's apprentice]

Mr. King is one of my favorite authors. My favorite novel (along with just about everyone else) is The Stand. I also love the Dark Tower Series and can't wait until it is finished. According tostephenking.com (http://www.stephenking.com/) , they should be published by late 2003.

Khamul, have you seen the newest collection of shorts called Everything's Eventual? I'm waiting until it is in my local library so I don't have to buy it (twenty-some dollars is too much for me).

[Khamûl]

What?! There's a new short story collection? Thank you Treebeard's apprentice! I'll check and see if the local library has it tomorrow.:) *does happy dance*

[Grey_Wolf]

Originally posted by Treebeard's apprentice
Mr. King is one of my favorite authors. My favorite novel (along with just about everyone else) is The Stand. I also love the Dark Tower Series and can't wait until it is finished. According tostephenking.com (http://www.stephenking.com/) , they should be published by late 2003.

Thank you, Treebeard's apprentice. That means I don't have to wait long.

Khamul, have you seen the newest collection of shorts called Everything's Eventual? I'm waiting until it is in my local library so I don't have to buy it (twenty-some dollars is too much for me).

[webwizard333]

I just finished the Stand and I thought it was great. He's a very descriptive writer, though it does usually take him a few pages :rolleyes: . I'm about to start Danse Macabre which looks very interesting.

[Rána Eressëa]

I almost read one his books once, but it was huge and I only had three days to read it, which wasn't enough time, so I didn't.

[BeardofPants]

I've read a few things by him - It and Misery IIRC. He's an okay writer, but certainly not someone I look out for. I'll only read his books, if someone recommends one in particular. I dunno - he seems too commericialised or something.

[Bregalad]

LOL Beardofpants, you've only read Stephen King books that I hate! I love Stephen King, especially the old stuff and the short story collections. (wasn't there a third one after Night Shift and Skelleton Crew?)
My favorite seems to be very popular here, I love The Stand. I am not suprised it has so many fans on a Tolkien site, though it is set in modern times, it is the epitome of modern day good vs evil novels, much as Tolkien's work is for his time period.
Some of my other fav's are:
The Shining
The Dead Zone
Firestarter
Tommyknockers
And I love all the Richard Bachman stuff
You know, I even liked Cujo! Though King excells at tales with a hint of the supernatural, only he can take a tale of a perfectly mundane event, like the tale of Cujo, and make it a complete creep-fest. He does the same thing in Misery, but I can't read that book because it grosses me out too much. Great movie though.
Speaking of movies, there have been some really awful movies made of King's work. Anyone see the movie they made of his short story, Trucks? AWFUL! Maximum Overdrive, I think it's called. Children of the Corn had very little to do with his short story of the same name. And The Lawnmower Man (while being an interesting flick) had nothing at all to do with King's short story. The only thing they had in common was the title. I think King sued them over that one.
On the other hand, The Stand miniseries is not bad at all, nor is The Regulators (i love Dean Stockwell!) The first movie of the Shining rocked, but I hated the Mini-series. Cool effects, but dreadful acting! And if you are just looking to be entertained, The Dead Zone, Firestarter, and Cujo are fun. Misery actually makes a much better movie than book, as does Delores Claiborne in my opinion.
If you like early Stephan King, check out Dean R Koontz. Maybe not the best books in the world, but very entertaining. I love Koontz!

[Lucy Brandybuck]

I could read just about anything Stephen King writes! My absolute favorite is the Dark Tower series...the gunslinger Roland caught my imagination from the very first line of book one. I can't wait to see how King wraps that up. I loved the Stand, Insomnia, Hearts in Atlantis, Bag of Bones, The Shining and Salem's Lot. However to any new King readers, I would suggest skipping Dreamcatcher, Gerald's Game and Delores Claiborne.

[Khamûl]

Originally posted by Bregalad

I love Stephen King, especially the old stuff and the short story collections. (wasn't there a third one after Night Shift and Skelleton Crew?) Yeah, it was called Nightmares and Dreamscapes.

[webwizard333]

I finally got Carrie, my favorite of his works, though tied with The Stand, so far now.

[Aeryn]

If you didn't like Pet Cemetary, I doubt you'll like The stand. But you might like Insomnia.

[TariCalmcacil]

Stephen King is one of my favorite authors (of which I have quite a few... *mentally lists them* Stephen King, Anne Rice, Marion Zimmer Bradley, JK Rowling (Sort of- just waiting for the series to end so i can rest in peace), and of course, JRR TOLKIEN!!)

I've read several book of his...

IT- I thought it was a good book... of course, people have different opinions...
Bag Of Bones- another good book. =D I want to read it again when I get through with the Tolkien-series
Carrie- I got through this book in a weekend, it was a good book..

and soon im gonna read "Salems Lot" and I know I read another book by him I just can't think of it right now...

He's a good author, but he may be a little over publized...

Tari

[Starr Polish]

I've gotten about halfway through The Stand twice. I can't finish it because I always get a cold while I'm reading it, and get scared. :D

[Khamûl]

LOL :D If you get a cold while reading it, you might as well finish it and die happy. :p

[Treebeard's apprentice]

That would be kind of scary. Read a bible-sized novel about a catastrophic virus and then you start getting the sniffles . . .

Oooooooh. Freaky:eek:

[Inderjit Sanghera]

I've read The Shining, the Stand, It and Needful things. The movie version of the Shining is the greatest horror movie ever in my opinion. There are quite a few references to LoTR related things in his book, I imagine he is quite a big fan.

[Estel13]

I have read The Tommyknockers, the uncut version of The Stand, 'Salems Lot, and Insomnia. Does anyone else here think that King is a Tolkien fan? Like on page 91 of The Stand, he makes a large reference to FOTR. Later....

[Starr Polish]

I think you answered your own question.

Is that the part where the girl (the prengant one) is thinking about how she always hopes that when she opens the door to her father's workshop that she'll be entering Bag End and meet up with Bilbo getting ready for his eleventy first birthday party?

There's also another reference when a woman says "the path goes ever on and on", and when asked where she got it from she comments on Tolkien. Even though it's "the ROAD goes ever on and on".

[glasses]

Has anyone read DreamCatcher? I read it a few weeks ago, and it was really good. The movie is supposed to be really bad, though.

[Estel13]

Originally posted by Starr Polish
I think you answered your own question.

Is that the part where the girl (the prengant one) is thinking about how she always hopes that when she opens the door to her father's workshop that she'll be entering Bag End and meet up with Bilbo getting ready for his eleventy first birthday party?

There's also another reference when a woman says "the path goes ever on and on", and when asked where she got it from she comments on Tolkien. Even though it's "the ROAD goes ever on and on".

Yeah, it is. And I noticed that too, about the path/road mix-up.:rolleyes: "The road goes ever, ever on, down from the door where it began.....
:D Ok, I'll stop quoting now. :p

[claudia silver]

Originally posted by Estel13 Does anyone else here think that King is a Tolkien fan?

You are right, King is a massive Tolkein fan. This site has info on all the references to LOTR in King's books.

http://castlerocknet.com/insideview/14/focus.htm

[Khamûl]

That is a great link. I never really drew so many parallels between LotR and The Stand, but now that I think about them, they're there. How very cool.

[gandalfstormcrow]

Not to mention all the parallels between Dark Tower and LOTR.

[Agalayth]

I haven't read any of his books, but I've seen his house. :D It's kinda creepy, with bats and stuff on the gates....

[Squirrel Bit]

I would read his books, but my parents are so "god" involved to let me do alot of the things that I want to.

[Nimrodel_White_Lady]

Squirrel Bit, I know how you feel! My mum had the whole collection of Stephen King, including The Stand First Edition, my dad came back from TDY in Saudi Arabia, and he had "changed" So what he did was made my mum sell all her Stephen King books for a quarter of the price of what they were worth, because they werent "Godly". Well, now theyre divorced and Im recollecting the Stephen King Books, and Movies :D

[Lady Arwen56]

I love Stephen King, I've been reading him since I was ten, and I don't know which book is my favorite...It's either Carrie, Cujo, The Black House, The Eyes of The Dragon, or Christine. :D :)

[Treebeard's apprentice]

I was just at a Type O Negative concert on Saturday and one of the dudes standing next to me looked just like Stephen King!
Of course, after about a minute of staring at him I assured myself it wasn't really him as he didn't look exactly the same (what would he be doing in Milwaukee at a goth-metal concert anyway?).
I never got up the courage to ask the guy, though. I think that could have been hilarious.

[Khamûl]

Well, you know Stephen King is a huge classic rock fan and even played in a band with some other writers. Maybe he was passing through Milwaukee and decided to expand his rock horizons. Or maybe not. :p

[azalea]

Yes, that's why AC/DC did the soundtrack for Maximum Overdrive. He is a heavy metal fan, so you never know!

[nessa]

Originally posted by Grey_Wolf
I'm waiting for the fifth part in the Dark Tower-series (actually for the sixth and seventh parts as well, since I'm not going to begin reading them before I got the entire septology)

Hi Grey Wolf. How will you resist temptation? I can't wait 'til November (I'd already convinced myself it was October). I've just re-read the four others so it's all fresh and ready in the brain waiting for number 5.

[Grey_Wolf]

Originally posted by nessa
Hi Grey Wolf. How will you resist temptation? I can't wait 'til November (I'd already convinced myself it was October). I've just re-read the four others so it's all fresh and ready in the brain waiting for number 5.

Hi Nessa!

I'm reading a lot of other books at the moment so beginning on an unifinished series doesn't apeal to me. The same thing applies to Wheel of time which is finally finished now with the tenth part (will begin on that one when I have time).

Kindest Regards,

Grey_Wolf

[BelegS]

I have read only a few books by King.

It, Misery, Salem's Lot, Pet Sematary, Hearts in Atlantis, Dead Zone and currently reading Needful Things.

Of these Dead Zone and Pet Sematary were good satisfying reads, Hearts in Atlantis as a whole was an excellent excellent book, [The Queen Scenes, The scenes with Carol and Bobby are among my all-time favorite passages] while Misery was sort of oakish, not as bad as Salem's Lot, but nowhere near any of the others I have read.

It, of all his works, is my favorite. Great, great, great book.

Stephen King is often overcomercialized which tends to reduce his literary value; he is an excellent writer and he knows how to captivate his audience and more importantly to hold their attention throughtout the story. And he creates some of the best children characters I have ever read. [It and HIA case in point]

After I finish Needful Things, [Which at page six doesn't seem anything special] or give it up, I am goin to either start 'Four Past Mid-night' or 'The Long Walk', written as Bachman.



Hmm, is the Dark Tower series any good? [I think I probably came across a couple of references in HIA, where someone mentioned beams and towers......

[BeardofPants]

I read the first Dark (Dork:rolleyes: ) Tower book - gunslinger - and I found it to be terrible read, personally. Main character wasn't engaging at all.

[Beren3000]

So anyone here into Stephen King?
I'm currently reading his The Tommyknockers and I find it interesting.
Discuss Stephen King here...

[jammi567]

wow. is he, or isn't he one of the best horror writers around. what's the scariest book you've read so far? mines 'Misery' because when Annie sticks that cross into the policemans back repeatidly, and then runs him over on a lawnmower *shudders*.

[Beren3000]

what's the scariest book you've read so far?
I'm afraid his only book I've read so far is Thinner (one of his Richard Bachman stories). That wasn't very scary but I liked the idea of "having a piece of your own pie". I think The Tommyknockers has the potential to be scarier than Thinner

[jammi567]

unfortunately, i've never read that book, so i can't say anything about it.

[tolkienfan]

I've got a ton of his books, I got them from my neighbor. So far I've read Carrie, Cujo, The Gunslinger, The Shining, Christine. The Shining was definitely the scariest, it was good. I didn't really like The Gunslinger, it's the first in a series. The other three were pretty good, I didn't really think Carrie was that scary actually. It was pretty good though. I liked Cujo. I don't have Misery, but I do have Thinner and The Tommyknockers. I think there was a Stephen King thread here before and a lot of people said The Stand was the best.

[jammi567]

yes, here (http://entmoot.tolkientrail.com/showthread.php?t=4913) it is.

[Beren3000]

yes, here it is.


Oops! My bad :o

[Ireth]

I read Stephen King's books when I have a lot of time on my hands. I've read Insomnia, The Tommyknockers, Dreamcatcher, Desperation, Gerald's Game and a few more that I can't remember.

I like his writing and Insomnia and Dreamcatcher are IMO the best books I've read.

Desperation carries the prize for scariest, though.

[jammi567]

My God, this is old! I've read 'the shining', 'Carrie', and 'Misery'. Out of them, i like misery the best because it has a really complex and interesting character, and a character, who now being trapped with the mental woman, has time to find the error of his ways. And you can find the link to this other, newer thread here (http://entmoot.tolkientrail.com/showthread.php?t=13302).

[Earniel]

Both active Stephen King threads have been merged.

[Farimir Captain of Gondor]

First of all, just because an author is popular or 'commercialized' doesn' make him a bad writter. What the hell is it with people thinking it's 'cool' to like something just because no one else does? :rolleyes:

Now for Mr. King: he is the best horror writter of all time. Like most here, The Stand is my favorite. I love the post apocalyptic, good vs evil thing.

People don't give Salem's Lot enough credit. I thought it was a very good vampire book. I remember being scared for weeks to look out my window for fear that some kid would be floating there begging me to let him in. :eek:

The Dead Zone. What a great idea for a book. Not really scary but a great book.

The scariest book, for me, was The Shining.

[ringbearer]

super bump...
The Green Mile