alice_in_wonderland, I liked Thinner and FireStarter. But I haven’t liked anything else by him.
I thought the dialogue was annoying. It was about as good as Cell, which is good enough to finish, but not good enough to recommend.
“Head Down”, thank you, that’s the one. Anyone who hasn’t read it–I would encourage you to do so. (Nothing scary or supernatural–lots of humanity and respect for the little league kids and even moreso, their coaches.)
CapnPitt mentioned “Survivor Type.” Is that the story of the man who survives a plane crash but is immobilized and has to find stuff to eat? Yeah, that’s a great one.
I think part of my King fandom comes from growing up in Bangor, Maine–King’s current home and the transparently disguised location of It. “Derry” is Bangor, complete with canals, a real-life, tragic, gay-bashing homicide, and that goddamn Chinese restaurant (now closed, I believe). Matter of fact, I knew the family who lived in King’s house before him and foggily remember some beer-fueled high school parties there.
Never met King and can’t vouch for or against his purported assholishness, but he and his wife have generously supported the local library and youth/rec facilities for years. (That earns him some points from me, but then again, with the money he has, how could he not support the local community?)
As mentioned above, King can write great “Books that really could happen,” with no supernatural or horror element. Misery, Gerald’s Game, & The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon come to mind.
I agree that Rose Madder would work better as a non-fantasy world novel, with Rose kicking the shit out of Norman, and then freaking out when she thnks he has come back and wants to talk to her real close.
King knows way too much about domestic violence.
No mention of Apt Pupil which I thought was one of Kings best
Gosh, I guess I’m alone. I thought it was the worst Stephen King book I’ve ever read, and possibly the worst book I’ve ever read that wasn’t intended for people who use pacifiers.
I loathed the incredibly, unbelievably Mary Sue-ish, wise, powerful, utterly brilliant celebrated brave clever witty wonderful dead writer character. I especially hated the way Scott and Lisey’s relationship was portrayed - the constant condescension toward Lisey (coming mostly from the author) was annoying in the extreme. Of course Lisey doesn’t know anything - Scott would know, she thinks every time she can’t remember something or doesn’t know something. The ceaseless hammering home of the point that Scott was brilliant and “little” Lisey, bless her little heart, was a distinctly lesser intellectual light - but ain’t she plucky, kids? - got creepy after a while, especially since Scott was such an obvious stand-in for King himself.
I also hated the villain. He was such a stock “evil character who is basically stupid but somehow supernaturally capable of outwitting not just our presumably intelligent lead character, but the entire law enforcement system, in spite of having absolutely no actual supernatural nature or powers.” Really, the whole second half of the book was so stupid - all Lisey really needed to do was tell the cops she’d been assaulted, turn up the heat, and possibly buy a gun and a large, protective dog. But no - none of those things would work. Why? *Uh, just because. Stop thinking and see how I use the word “smucking!” *
Ugh. Hated this book so much.
No, no, you’re right. It was a stinker. But did you read Dreamcatcher? :eek:
I recently re-read “Skeleton Crew,” and I hated “Survivor-type.” After a ways into this story, I skimmed it and moved on to the next one. Bleah.
I didn’t mind “The Cell” too much, but yeah, there was definitely a feeling of “Didn’t he already write this story, and much better?” It’s “The Stand’s” poor, anemic cousin. Still, I’ll take all the post-apocalyptic fiction I can find.
This story made me realize that King was, if nothing else, a damned good journeyman writer who can craft a damn fine story, period. Anyone who can keep me spellbound about a kid’s baseball team has to be. Didn’t this story win a prize of some sort?
At his best, King’s a damn fine writer. But most of his novels needed a firm-handed editor to pull out the good story line buried under hundreds of pages of dreck. (Even The Tommyknockers had a good protagonist and an excellent description of alcoholism in the first hundred pages; could have been a good book.) Often this would mean simply doing away with the supernatural element, because I really don’t think that’s his forte. (Dump the second half of The Stand, continue the story with equally strong themes of good and evil, but no annoying mystical psychic ancient enchanted black lady, no hokey Satanic “dark man” – and definitely get rid of that “God” character. Real asshole; adds nothing to the story. Do that, and you could have a great book.)
He should never, ever, try to do science fiction. He’s got a bright ten-year-old’s understanding of science.
This is what I can’t figure out about King - he is at one and the same time a truly great storyteller, and a truly crappy one - he’s equally capable of writing spellbindingly good stuff and disgraceful crap. He’s the most oddly inconsistent writer in this respect I know.
See, I didn’t get that at all. Sure, Scott was brilliant, but he was deeply flawed by the tendency to mental illness he carried genetically. If it had not been for Lisey, he’d have been dead long before he’d had a chance to create anything, either by drinking or by his own hand. She tied him to this world. Although she wasn’t as educated as Scott, I felt he knew she was just as smart as he was and as psychically talented if not as practiced. I agree with you on the issue of her being threatened by the crazy man, though. I was like, you have millions and millions of dollars, why don’t you hire a battalion of bodyguards, nutcase. I can see her not trusting the local country cops, but sheesh. I guess that was rather the point, though, that she was more than half insane at that point herself.
Of course, I read the book from the very beginning thinking that I’d have had Scott’s ass in therapy and on meds from the moment we said ‘I do’, but that’s just me. I don’t have time for all that hallucinogenic shit in real life. 