my beef with stephen king

No problem. As I said, it's a seven part series, so read all of them. I would suggest first finding the book "Everything's Eventual" (which is a collection of his short stories) to find the story "the Little Sister's of Eluria", which is a prequel to the first Dark Tower book, "the Gunslinger." It helps to sort of read it all in order, you know?

Another great book of his, with a great ending, is the Green Mile. Again, couldn't imagine a better ending, to an incredible story.

 

does anyone know how stephen king is doing. i know that he was hit by a car a few years ago and was hurt very badly. i saw him on an interview a year ago and he said he is always in alot of pain. i love his books though and feel that he touches childhood and abuse so sensitivily. (sp) i wonder if he lived any of the things that he writes about in his books? since i was an abuse counselor and dealt with so much childhood abuse myself i feel he must be very in touch with that subject.

angel (hippiwise)

 

He has written two non-fiction books Danse Macabre which tells a lot about his childhood. He states that he had no abuse in his childhood although he is often asked about that. The other book is On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, which is about his adult life as a writer and tells about his accident (he was ran down by a drunk driver while jogging) both of them are very good books and are worth reading in their own right.

 

Movies always suck. I do not think that the Stand was all black and white. Several characters were redeemed by following the dark man. And it showed how efficient and dangerous the concentration of power becomes. I also thought that Dreamcatcher, Tommykockers and From a Buick 8 were very good science fiction.

 

Stephen King is great. I think the stand is awesome as well because i always feel like im in the book. As for short stories i think they can be some of the best. Read The Ledge in Nightmares and Dreamscapes and The Man with Flowers in Nightshift- Great Stuff. As for endings i think Hearts in Atlantis was genius.

 

i loved the stand both book and the movie

 

Stephen King was narrating "Gunslinger" from the 'Dark Tower Trilogy', and I was trying to listen.


It's a funny thing about books, until there's a connection between us, my conscious mind rejects it, and then the book turns to torture.

This is the second time that, thanks to Stephen King, I've had to hack my way through a verbal-jungle that drags on and on.

That must be the mystic', that explains the mass appeal for those who can now make the claim: "I survived another Stephen King book".

 

Stephen King is a goddamn hack-writer .A jerk-blossum phony.


End of my review.

 

i'm a huge fan of stephen king. i've not read everything of his, and i will agree that some of his stories tend to drag, or maybe the ending tends to not tie everything up neatly, but i think thats just his style--the part about the endings, anyway. i'm kind of surprised that i haven't seen "it" mentioned yet. i LOVED that book. the movie was absolutely horrible, but the book was amazing. i think, with a lot of his stories, he tries to leave things a little bit open to let you decide for yourself. i agree w/ whoever said that "on writing" was great: it was. i also thought that "hearts in atlantis" was very good, and even though the movie was okay, it didn't even compare to the book.

i could go on, i guess, but this was a thread started because someone had a problem w/ stephen king. i'll stop singing his praises now. LOL. everyone is entitled to their own opinion. i, for one, can't stand dean koontz (sp?), even the two are often compared.

xoxo, chely
peace!!

 

I have only read a few king novels, but I think they are good for what they are. I don't read a lot of horror fiction so there is not much for me to compare it to. I really enjoyed The Regulators by Stephen King as Richard Bachman, the story had some really interesting twists.

 

I really enjoy Stephen King's writing. Although some, and I emphasize some, of his stories have bad endings, generally I like them. I adored the Stand and can't imagine why anyone would complain about it! My absolute favorite of his books are the Dark Tower series...they completely blew me away! I would definitely suggest reading them.

 

I really liked "IT" as well. In fact, it was the first book I read by King. I used to live in Maine and my Dad took us trick or treating at King's house one year when I was very young. My Dad was really into King and lent me "IT" when I was about 12 years old. (I was really fascinated by horror/fantasy back then). I remember that I couldn't even put the book down!

 

I haven't read that much King, but what I have read I've mostly liked. I like a whole lot of different books and wouldn't say he's my favourite author, but he seems to do what he does pretty well. I love Carrie! Might be because it's one of his shorter ones, the long ones do seem to lose their way before the end.

 

Stephen King has been replaced by a computer and a team of ghost writers.

The algorithm is something as follows:

Some kids in the 60s are living their lives hula hoops drive ins wow Fonzie isn't life great.

Woo. Scary $monster$ moves into suburbs BLAH BLAH.

Kids aren't believed by adults!

Oh, no! JFK was shot! More Good Morning Vietnam angst.

More cultural references to the 60s

Yay it all works out.


Now, ghostwriter, follow the formula. Mr. King has decided that this book will have a ghost as "$MONSTER$"

 

"Carrie" has changed my opinion of Stephen King.


"Carrie" was very well written, and telekenisis was not the usual hidden climax to a typical build-up, but was revealed and exposed in the first page.

Stephen showed a lot of courage and well placed confidence in his writing.

 

Stephen King is a hack writer I guess. In fact, I am not sure he would disagree with the term if you read his non-fiction stuff. He writes to make a living, to keep the pot boiling as it were. He is not Fyodor Dostoevsky or Franz Kafka nor does he so claim. He is a storyteller who IMHO tells a damn good story.

 

Well maybe I spoke too soon. I just finished Cell and that may have been the worst book I have ever read. It read as if he wrote it in two weeks tops and it was full of logic holes. He talks about cell phones, EMP's and brain structure and he gets every one of them wrong. He must not have done any research at all. With a little luck, this is going to be like his one bad book. I hope so.

 

I have to agree about the crappy ending thing, especially in books that would otherwise be great (I'm thinking of the Deadzone, Pet Sematery and the Secret Window, Secret Garden one- though that was fixed in the film. And Johnny Depp can do no wrong ).

 

I can't read him-- he flat-out can't write. Cliches, tortured metaphors, similes rode hard and put up wet. He'd be selling firewood if he depended on me to buy his books.