# S. King considering a "Shining" sequel? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 30, 2009, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-king-considering-a-shining-sequel/519409 "2009-11-30T01:01:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-king-considering-a-shining-sequel/519409/1 "2009-11-30T01:01:20Z")
[http://insidemovies.moviefone.com/2009/11/25/the-shining-sequel-stephen-king-news/?icid=main|main|dl8|link4|http%3A%2F%2Finsidemovies.moviefone.com%2F2009%2F11%2F25%2Fthe-shining-sequel-stephen-king-news%2F](http://insidemovies.moviefone.com/2009/11/25/the-shining-sequel-stephen-king-news/?icid=main%7Cmain%7Cdl8%7Clink4%7Chttp%3A%2F%2Finsidemovies.moviefone.com%2F2009%2F11%2F25%2Fthe-shining-sequel-stephen-king-news%2F) Good news? Bad? What do you think? ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-king-considering-a-shining-sequel/519409/2 "2009-11-30T01:08:11Z")
He’s run out of good ideas. A sequel would be fine for me. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Cleveland\_Steamer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@The\_Cleveland\_Steamer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Cleveland_Steamer)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-king-considering-a-shining-sequel/519409/3 "2009-11-30T01:42:38Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > He’s run out of good ideas. Isn’t _Under the Dome_ getting the best reviews of his career? ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-king-considering-a-shining-sequel/519409/4 "2009-11-30T02:23:58Z")
Has anyone else read **Black House**? His revisiting a child character as an adult is not something we should feel encouraged by. ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-king-considering-a-shining-sequel/519409/5 "2009-11-30T02:35:29Z")
This might not be true. > [@](#): > > From [Dreadcentral.com](http://Dreadcentral.com) on 11/25 I read: > > We reported yesterday on Stephen King’s supposed plans to write a sequel to The Shining, as relayed by Toronto 1st. Sadly some new first-hand info has come to light denouncing their report. > > Dread Central reader syd13 was in attendance at the reading, and this is how he says things really went down: > > "Not to burst anyone’s bubble, but the report is bullshit. I was at the Toronto Q&A, and the “Toronto 1st” article is spinning a story where there isn’t one. What happened was this: \*\*Cronenberg asked King if he enjoyed looking back over his works. King responded that he did sometimes enjoy looking over his older stuff, and sometimes wondered where the characters would be now. He then proceeded to lay out a few minutes about where he had pictured Danny Torrence being. > > From the way he spoke, I got the impression that these were ideas he had come up with a few years back. But this was definitely just King indulging in a little bit of “what if” for the receptive audience. \*\*It was a nice moment, but he certainly didn’t imply that he was planning on actually writing the book. The “Toronto 1st” page is definitely misrepresenting what happened. Pretty blatant rumor-mongering." > > And there you have it, folks. A pretty sad cap on what was some fairly big news. We’ll do a bit more digging to get official word either way, but color us officially deflated Right now there’s only one source saying he’s writing it. Seeing as this was at a big event, you figure more people would be announcing it. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-king-considering-a-shining-sequel/519409/6 "2009-11-30T03:25:35Z")
> [@The\_Cleveland\_Steamer](#): > > Isn’t _Under the Dome_ getting the best reviews of his career? If so, it’s because nobody wants to piss him off. I don’t think reviewers are being honest about King anymore, if they ever were. Used to be the thing to dismiss him as a hack. But he turned out some good stuff, some of which was made into even better movies, and then (I think) reviewers started taking him (and his fans) seriously. His short stories are published in _The New Yorker, Esquire, Atlantic Monthly_, and he got that special award that pissed some people off. He handled that with grace and some humility. And he has a regular column in _Entertainment Weekly_ where he says good things about other writers. So it’s easy to like him, especially if you agree with his politics. So anyway, reviewers are now in a position where they can’t dismiss him. They can’t like **everything** he does (that’d be toadying), but they have to like **some** of it (so they won’t be accused of elitism). It’s _Under the Dome_’s turn to be liked. Just watch – the next thing he does will actually be good and the critics won’t like it. 🙂 And seriously, _Twilight_ gets good reviews and has won a buttload of awards. How can anyone trust reviewers? ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2009, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-king-considering-a-shining-sequel/519409/7 "2009-11-30T03:32:04Z")
Well, it’s hard to review King books, because you can’t really give a separate review to various fractions of the book. For example, _Duma Key_ had a fantastic, say, first three fifths. The second two fifths has no business voting in any general election. _It_ you can grant an award for the first seven eighths. _The Dark Tower_ as a series, four out of seven, maybe three depending on who the voters are. ---
**Author:** ![Turek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turek/32/18782_2.png) [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2009, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-king-considering-a-shining-sequel/519409/8 "2009-12-01T17:31:35Z")
SK’s actually put up a poll on his official message board: [http://www.stephenking.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15754](http://www.stephenking.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15754) [QUOTE=Stephen King] Hey, you guys–I saw a lot of you Constant Readers while I was touring for Under the Dome, and I must say you’re looking good. Thanks for turning out in such numbers, and thanks for all the nice things you’ve said about Under the Dome. There’ll be another book next year. It’s a good one, I think, but that’s not why I’m writing. I mentioned two potential projects while I was on the road, one a new Mid-World book (not directly about Roland Deschain, but yes, he and his friend Cuthbert are in it, hunting a skin-man, which are what werewolves are called in that lost kingdom) and a sequel to The Shining called Doctor Sleep. Are you interested in reading either of these? If so, which one turns your dials more? Ms. Mod will be counting your votes (and of course it all means nothing if the muse doesn’t speak). Meanwhile, thanks again for 2009. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![Neidhart](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Neidhart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Neidhart)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2009, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-king-considering-a-shining-sequel/519409/9 "2009-12-01T17:49:01Z")
A sequel might be good – if King can resist the temptation to shovel a lot of Dark Tower-universe crap in there. Insomnia, Hearts in Atlantis and Black House (which I could only get maybe 100 pages into) were all promising-at-the-beginning novels ruined by that. I’ve avoided the Dark Tower series for a reason and I seriously dislike bits of it popping up everywhere. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2009, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-king-considering-a-shining-sequel/519409/10 "2009-12-01T19:11:57Z")
Oh no! Please don’t do this, Steve. Leave it alone. Why don’t you write a book about…a lamp! A scary lamp! ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2009, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-king-considering-a-shining-sequel/519409/11 "2009-12-01T19:23:50Z")
And that key Ben Franklin used to test lightning? It opened _the gates of Hell!_ ---
**Author:** ![Turek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turek/32/18782_2.png) [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)\ **Post date:** [December 1, 2009, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/s-king-considering-a-shining-sequel/519409/12 "2009-12-01T19:57:15Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > And that key Ben Franklin used to test lightning? It opened _the gates of Hell!_ … before the world _moved on_.