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treeduck
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Yeah dogs are next...

 

Haunted dogs?

 

well crazy dogs anyway...like this one...

 

 

 

http://img95.imageshack.us/img95/7089/stephenkingcujomx8.jpg

 

 

 

 

Yep that's exactly how my 1987 futura paperback copy of Cujo looks, although mine's in better nick (again)...

 

This one is similar in set-up to Gerald's Game. Yes Gerald's Game. But Cujo is far better than GG and has better devices in the set-up that work much better.

The set-up is a lone woman, trapped by something and the story is about her struggle to survive. In Gerald's Game it's a woman trapped on a bed in her summer house by a pair of handcuffs, in Cujo it's a woman trapped in a car by a huge rabid dog. Which is more interesting to you? The back story and castle Rock subplot angle beats the Gerald's Game back story too.

 

Like Christine I read this in 1987 the first time and I remember it being on a similar level to that book, very good but a couple of levels down from his very best work. Unlike Christine though this one is a shorter, sharper shock of a book, so minimal waffle... There's not even any chapters or headers in it, it just drops on you like piano from the sky...

 

Notice how the front cover there makes cujo more like a werewolf than a st bernard, no wonder people think King's a horror writer, when we all know he's a mainstream literary boy as he claims...

 

eyesre4.gif smash.gif

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I'm not so impressed with Cujo so far, it's not as good as I remember. Mainly in terms of overall quality. I've found myself getting easily distracted for one thing. It's disappointing to say the least. That is to say it's not very good but not bad either. The level of disappointment though depends on the expectations you have I suppose. I'll have to see how the second half goes. I'm not sure what the problem ifs exactly. The subplots are mundane by King standards and there's maybe too many things falling into place too easily to finally set up the woman and her kid trapped with the dog outside by the half way point.

 

One thing is true though, at the time the book was published, in 1981, it was easily King's weakest novel to that point . I'd have been seriously disappointed if i'd followed King's career from the beginning and then that year picked up a copy of Cujo... yes.gif

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Ok Cujo is done and yes I did enjoy the last 100 pages a lot but still overall it's just a "pretty good" book, not one of King's career monuments, they're still to come. One part had me laughing out loud i mean really laughing. It's the bit where Sheriff Bannmerman is reporting the fact that his house has been trashed to Vic Trenton who's away on business, in fact that whole Steve kemp affair made me chuckle all the way through. One question got me about this, why do a lot of King's bad guys get a hard-on while they're trashing houses or cars or people?

 

There's a more important question than that though, who's hairer and scarier me or Cujo? You decide. It's too difficult a question for me...

 

http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/6168/puzzledfe9.jpg

 

 

Ok seriously now one thing I noticed right at the end is the date. The first draft Cujo was written in 1977, Firestarter was also written that year. So that means that SK already had The Stand and The Dead Zone more or less completed by the time The Shining and Nightshift hit the shelves. One thing about King he doesn't let the grass grow under him...

 

Next...

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QUOTE (treeduck @ Dec 13 2006, 11:43 PM)
Ok Cujo is done and yes I did enjoy the last 100 pages a lot but still overall it's just a "pretty good" book, not one of King's career monuments, they're still to come. One part had me laughing out loud i mean really laughing. It's the bit where Sheriff Bannmerman is reporting the fact that his house has been trashed to Vic Trenton who's away on business, in fact that whole Steve kemp affair made me chuckle all the way through. One question got me about this, why do a lot of King's bad guys get a hard-on while they're trashing houses or cars or people?

There's a more important question than that though, who's hairer and scarier me or Cujo? You decide. It's too difficult a question for me...

http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/6168/puzzledfe9.jpg


Ok seriously now one thing I noticed right at the end is the date. The first draft Cujo was written in 1977, Firestarter was also written that year. So that means that SK already had The Stand and The Dead Zone more or less completed by the time The Shining and Nightshift hit the shelves. One thing about King he doesn't let the grass grow under him...

Next...

nice pic Treeduck...

 

 

 

you mentioned firestarter...iread that book YEARS ago....

i forgot all about that one!!

i liked it, but then again, it was years ago....

teenager maybe?

 

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QUOTE (ladirushfan80 @ Dec 14 2006, 06:41 AM)
QUOTE (treeduck @ Dec 13 2006, 11:43 PM)
Ok Cujo is done and yes I did enjoy the last 100 pages a lot but still overall it's just a "pretty good" book, not one of King's career monuments, they're still to come. One part had me laughing out loud i mean really laughing. It's the bit where Sheriff Bannmerman is reporting the fact that his house has been trashed to Vic Trenton who's away on business, in fact that whole Steve kemp affair made me chuckle all the way through. One question got me about this, why do a lot of King's bad guys get a hard-on while they're trashing houses or cars or people?

There's a more important question than that though, who's hairer and scarier me or Cujo? You decide. It's too difficult a question for me...

http://img154.imageshack.us/img154/6168/puzzledfe9.jpg


Ok seriously now one thing I noticed right at the end is the date. The first draft Cujo was written in 1977, Firestarter was also written that year. So that means that SK already had The Stand and The Dead Zone more or less completed by the time The Shining and Nightshift hit the shelves. One thing about King he doesn't let the grass grow under him...

Next...

nice pic Treeduck...

 

 

 

you mentioned firestarter...iread that book YEARS ago....

i forgot all about that one!!

i liked it, but then again, it was years ago....

teenager maybe?

Thanks Ladi... wink.gif

 

Firestarter yeah I read it back when I read all SK's stuff in 1987/88. I gave away a lot of the paperbacks I had and that included Firestarter. Mine had a pic of a very young Drew Barrymore, it must have been a film tie in copy here it is...

 

http://www.stephenkingshop.com/images/books/king/covers/firestarter/fire-ukf.gif

 

At the time I thought it was very good about the same as these last two I've read here Cujo and Christine. Christine turned out to be just as good as years ago but Cujo wasn't quite so it's hard to say how I'd like it now after 20 years. It's not on my King fest list as yet, but maybe I'll see if I can pick up a cheap copy...

 

Meanwhile there's a new TV version of firestarter where they've tried to sex it up a bit with an older version Charlie Mcgee...

 

 

http://www.stephen-king.tk/images/firestarter2rekindledM1.jpghttp://www.stephen-king.tk/images/firestarter2rekindledM2.jpg

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So far Pet Sematary is just ok, certainly not great though. I like the whole idea of the Pet Sematary it's definitely got a high spooky quotient and there's some good chapters, like the one where they first go to the Micmac burial ground with the dead cat, that's got fantastic atmosphere but generally not a lot is happening though on the whole just this medic keeps getting freaked out over a whole lot of nothing. I remember being disappointed last time, I read this one right after The Shining and there was just no comparison at all. Damn and there's a boring bit to come yet...

 

ohmy.gif

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http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/483/stephenkingpetsemataryvw8.jpg

 

Yes sometimes dead is better...

 

I had a feeling I might enjoy this book more this time and I did. It's still too much of a plodding slow-burner to be one of King's best or near-best but it's quite good overall, with several effectively spooky scenes and the last hundred pages are top notch, great eerie ending too, no Hollywood endings in this book... I'd say it just edged Cujo, both of these are about a 7 on a 10 scale...

 

Of the characters Jud Crandal was an interesting fella, he seemed to be merely a nice kind old man at first ,but as the story unfolds you begin to realise he's more, but still only a pawn in the game. It seems to me though that part of this book at least is about the thing in the woods getting it's revenge on Jud for "f***ing with it" in 1943...

 

 

 

 

 

::: SLIGHT SPOILER WARNING :::

 

in case you're thinking of reading this...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One thing I realised while reading this and Cujo and Christine, something about King's characters, the thing that always seems to spell their doom; they always hide things from their loved ones, important things, or little things that become important later on. They never open up and tell them what's wrong and this inaction always seems to bring about their demise or some other kind of ruination. In this one Louis never told Rachel about Pascow (or Paxcow as Ellie calls him) and he never told her about the place beyond the Pet Sematary or what happened to Church. Later Jud refused to tell her what was going on, over the phone even when she pleaded with him to do so. No he wanted to tell her face to face and she acquiesced and I was shaking my head and of course he never got the chance... So Rachel never knew why everything went so horrbly wrong...

 

 

 

Anyway overall Pet Sematary, quite good read...

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Ok the next book is the most unpopular of King's novels according to him, based on both sales and fan feedback...

 

This is how my copy of this one looks although mine is more of mustard colour...

 

http://img184.imageshack.us/img184/2506/rosedr3.jpg

 

 

Yes Rose Madder. I wasn't going to bother with this one but I had a conversation with Madra in chat the other week and he mentioned it and then I found my own copy and I thought well ok then I'll give it another go.

 

So it's King's most unpopular one (he even says to himself when he's finishing off a new manuscript: "I hope this one doesn't turn out like Rose madder..." but hey it's not his most unpopular one with me. It's a long way from being my favourite, but it's still pretty good. From what I remember it starts off a bit shaky but gets in high gear by halfway...

 

We'll see though, I might find that I've joined the anti-Rose Madder bandagon by the end of it, you never know...

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what about Salem's Lot ?

what did you think of that one???

 

 

that's another one i haven't read in a very very long time...but it was one of my favorites....

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QUOTE (ladirushfan80 @ Dec 20 2006, 06:55 AM)
what about Salem's Lot ?
what did you think of that one???


that's another one i haven't read in a very very long time...but it was one of my favorites....

Well it just so happens that Salem's Lot is my absolute favourite King novel and I'll be reading that along with the bulk of the King fest in the second half because I'm taking a little haitus after the next one which is going to be The Talisman...

 

Anyway yeah Salem's Lot is probably the perfect King novel, I've read it a few times but not since about 1993, first time was in 1987, so I'm looking forward to that one in a big way, I'll probably end up saving it till last...

 

wink.gif

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Just a few little things so far...

 

As I said before I dunno why this one is particularly unpopular among King fans, it's a pretty fast-paced and interesting read with no waffle. Certainly more readable than Bag of Bones and waaaayy better, I mean waaaaaaaaaaaaaay better, than my personal choice for the SK bad basement book, Insomnia.

 

Rose Madder also has a good villain in the form of dirty, wife-beating, killer cop, Norman Daniels.

 

A few little connections to other King books: Cynthia Smith from both Desperation and The Regulators is in this one too, the skinny girl with the two-toned green and orange hair for those that know. I remember her mentioning Norman Daniels in Desperation briefly at one point but I forgot completely that she was actually in Rose Madder itself. Also the head lady at the woman's shelter as well as Rosie read Paul Sheldon books, namely Misery's Lover and Misery's Journey. I wonder if Paul's books are any different after the accident? I don't even know if King books are yet after his...

 

While I'm talking about connections Ladirushfan80 (longwinded name grrr) mentioned (hello there btw if you're reading bekloppt.gif ) Salem's Lot and near the end of Pet Sematary when Rachel is rushing home to Ludlow she notices one of the turn-offs, Cumberland and Jerusalem's Lot, she thought it was weird name for a town and drove on...

 

I like these little connections between King's books, it's sort of fun...

 

One more thing...something that's bugging me about Rose Madder...In this one King refuses to name the places the book's supposed to be set in, come on it's obviously Chicago where she's moved to just admit it!!! He usually rams the geography down our throats with his route 23 and US 5 and what have you, he must have had a bad flashback to geography class when he was writing this one...

 

One more thing sir/ma'am (like Columbo)... I notice King doesn't use the phrase "two lane blacktop" much any more, that used to be one of his staples and "good deal" those must have been old well known sayings in Maine back in the 70s or something... Do people still say "Ayuh" in Maine though?

 

 

confused13.gif

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http://img184.imageshack.us/img184/2506/rosedr3.jpg

 

 

Rose Madder is in some part maybe the silliest novel King's ever written, but it's never boring (except for one section that I'll get to in a moment) and has one great character that drives the story along nicely, Norman Daniels. He had me laughing as soon as his part of the narrative (always in italics) is introduced near the beginning. Either inwardly or outwardly he insults anyone he comes across anything he comes across. He's blackly funny right the way through as he slowly spirals into total eye-popping insanity and his curses and threats pulse right through his narrative sections at regular beats, things like: I'm gonna kill you motherfuckerr and oh boy if God let's me I'm gonna kill you twice! but that's just one of his many sayings...

 

The book works well as a psychological thriller but it does get very, very shaky in the supernatural parts, in fact those parts spoil the book for me. That whole woman-in-the-painting world that changes and comes magically to life seemed ill-conceived and confused. It began interestingly enough with the picture seeming to change every so often, very like the one in King's short story, "The Road Virus Heads North" but after that when Rosie actually enters the picture into a fantasy version of Ancient Greece, King loses the plot somewhat.

 

The one really boring bit (in fact it was the whole of part VI: "The Temple of the Bull") is the waking dream fantasy section where Rosie first enters into her painting and goes on a sort of night time quest. This is basically King going off on a rambling tangent that is totally at odds it seems to me with the story up to that point. Its pretty confusing, reads like a bit of a mess and it dragged and dragged for around 55 pages, thank God she woke up!! The story proper continued again right after but it returns again over the last 70 pages unfortunately... If I'd have been him I'd have kicked the supernatural part into touch and kept this purely psychological, then it would have been very good. So it's just those 120 pages or so out of 466 that spoil it.

 

Norman Daniels and his insane cop ramblings and Rosie's desperate bid to survive and escape him (in the real world) are definitely the best part and the heart of the novel and prevent the greek mythology pap from dragging it down too far. It's a decent read much better than the more popular Bag of Bones and The Green Mile (which I read in parts around the same time in the mid 90s) and it's worth reading just for Norman if nothing else, him and his rubber bull mask, his crotch-grabbing dad speaking in his head and his lurid desire to talk to Rosie...right up close.

 

Daniels' demise is disappointing though and the Rosie aftermath and epilogue pretty much is a load of old tosh, but like i said the bulk of this book is pretty good, silly with a few bad patches and that annoying ending but mostly pretty good. And certainly very far from the worst thing King's written. King has bitched about Rose madder not getting it's props and he's bitched about the fact that it hasn't been made into a feature film yet. I'm sure they'll do it eventually but in my opinion, because of the greek mythology/living picture parts there's a very good chance that they'll make an absolute shitheap out of this one so maybe that's the reason it hasn't been made yet...

Edited by treeduck
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And now I'm going back to the 80s again to reaquaint myself with King's first collaboration with Peter Straub, The Talisman...

 

http://img179.imageshack.us/img179/3832/stephenkingpeterstraubtmb3.jpg

 

Here's how my long gone 1987 edition looks and below is what my new one looks like...very visual in this thread aren't I?

 

http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/5999/stephenkingpeterstraubtlc9.jpg

 

This book is fab read but i don't remember much about the story itself, hey it's been a while... I do remember one thing, it really stayed with me for some reason, a well known saying but in this book was the first time i heard it and the saying is: you can never be too rich or too slim. Is it true? How do I know, neither of those issues concern ducks...

 

wink.gif

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QUOTE (Rush! @ Dec 25 2006, 02:03 PM)
Damn Duck, you're fast. I'm still on Carrie, laugh.gif That's only because I've had so much schoolwork and I keep forgetting to pick it up and continue reading.

Fast? I thought I was going slow... laugh.gif

 

All these King books bar Cujo and The Regulators have been 500-800 page slabs and so is The Talisman so I have to read them in spurts. I've still got 20 odd books to go in this King fest but after the Talisman I'm gonna take a break from SK, start an all-new thread and return to this one in a few months.

 

trink38.gif

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Ok I'm only up to page 170 and it's good so far, reminds me a little of the Wizard and Glass but up to now, not quite as good, which is what I thought. I seem to remember this book taking a while to get going but once the character Wolf is introduced it goes up a couple of levels.

 

Going back to The Wizard and Glass, Morgan's head henchman Osmond reminds me of a crazier version of Eldred Jonas...

 

 

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QUOTE (deadwing2112 @ Dec 30 2006, 01:07 PM)
Wow tree, how much do you read a day?

Not as much as I used to when I read all these the first time, back then at least 100 pages a day. Maybe my brain's shrunk or something? I speed up when I get to the home straight of a book though sometimes even the back straight...

 

cool10.gif

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QUOTE (treeduck @ Dec 30 2006, 01:46 PM)
QUOTE (deadwing2112 @ Dec 30 2006, 01:07 PM)
Wow tree, how much do you read a day?

Not as much as I used to when I read all these the first time, back then at least 100 pages a day. Maybe my brain's shrunk or something? I speed up when I get to the home straight of a book though sometimes even the back straight...

 

cool10.gif

Finished Traveling Music. new_thumbsupsmileyanim.gif A couple of weeks ago.

 

 

Just thought I would let you know. I knew you were wondering.

Edited by deadwing2112
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QUOTE (deadwing2112 @ Dec 31 2006, 09:33 PM)
QUOTE (treeduck @ Dec 30 2006, 01:46 PM)
QUOTE (deadwing2112 @ Dec 30 2006, 01:07 PM)
Wow tree, how much do you read a day?

Not as much as I used to when I read all these the first time, back then at least 100 pages a day. Maybe my brain's shrunk or something? I speed up when I get to the home straight of a book though sometimes even the back straight...

 

cool10.gif

Finished Traveling Music. new_thumbsupsmileyanim.gif A couple of weeks ago.

 

 

Just thought I would let you know. I knew you were wondering.

About time mate biggrin.gif

 

What you gonna read next?

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QUOTE (treeduck @ Dec 31 2006, 09:54 PM)
QUOTE (deadwing2112 @ Dec 31 2006, 09:33 PM)
QUOTE (treeduck @ Dec 30 2006, 01:46 PM)
QUOTE (deadwing2112 @ Dec 30 2006, 01:07 PM)
Wow tree, how much do you read a day?

Not as much as I used to when I read all these the first time, back then at least 100 pages a day. Maybe my brain's shrunk or something? I speed up when I get to the home straight of a book though sometimes even the back straight...

 

cool10.gif

Finished Traveling Music. new_thumbsupsmileyanim.gif A couple of weeks ago.

 

 

Just thought I would let you know. I knew you were wondering.

About time mate biggrin.gif

 

What you gonna read next?

About 75 pages into The Drawing of The Three. trink36.gif

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QUOTE (deadwing2112 @ Dec 31 2006, 10:33 PM)
QUOTE (treeduck @ Dec 31 2006, 09:54 PM)
QUOTE (deadwing2112 @ Dec 31 2006, 09:33 PM)
QUOTE (treeduck @ Dec 30 2006, 01:46 PM)
QUOTE (deadwing2112 @ Dec 30 2006, 01:07 PM)
Wow tree, how much do you read a day?

Not as much as I used to when I read all these the first time, back then at least 100 pages a day. Maybe my brain's shrunk or something? I speed up when I get to the home straight of a book though sometimes even the back straight...

 

cool10.gif

Finished Traveling Music. new_thumbsupsmileyanim.gif A couple of weeks ago.

 

 

Just thought I would let you know. I knew you were wondering.

About time mate biggrin.gif

 

What you gonna read next?

About 75 pages into The Drawing of The Three. trink36.gif

Oh that's good, not quite as good as the Wizard and Glass but really good...

 

That one will feature in this thread when I return to it in a few months time...

 

The Talisman meanwhile is hotting up, the story really does hit top gear when Wolf comes into things. You'd like the Talisman mate it's in a similar vein to the Dark Tower series and The Territories are very like Mid-World, sort of medieval and magical, a place of werewolves and living trees...

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http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/5999/stephenkingpeterstraubtlc9.jpg

 

After reading 11 Stephen King books in a row, it was easy to spot the difference in the writing of The Talisman compared to King's solo works, the difference being the presence of Peter Straub. Obviously I hear you cry, as he co-wrote the novel, true but I never really noticed this the first time I read it back in the 80s, as it was my first Straub experience. In the interim decades however I've read quite a few Straub books and I did actually recognise his hallmarks in the story here. He has a subtler style than King, he's kind of slow to build his own stories and yet at the same time he sometimes dumps shocks on you all of a sudden and you then need to feverishly recap and reabsorb. Not here though, with King at his side he's at his most immediate and crystalline in his clarity.

 

I used to wonder how two guys like this actually could write a book together, but I then read somewhere recently how they did the follow up book to this one Black House (which will feature in this fest later this year). One of them, say SK would write 50 pages and then paste it into an email and send it to Straub, who would read it and then do the next 50 pages and then email that to King and so on until the last 50 pages were written. I've no idea how they arranged rewrites and other drafts but I imagine it would be the same process and I imagine back in the early 80s it was the same process with The Talisman, only without the emails...

 

As for the Talisman as an entertaining read, well it was excellent, almost as good as The Wizard and Glass and it was easy to compare it to this novel as they're similar fantastical style tales. In fact The talisman, the actual object that is, is a kind glass ball as well, but in fact it's closer, in terms of what it actually is, to the Dark Tower itself. Both are the "axis of all possible worlds" they may even be the very same thing. The Talisman is The Dark Tower the Dark Tower is The Talisman... Only messers Straub and King really know though, maybe I'll find out more when I read the final three volumes of The Dark Tower and Black House...

 

My favourite part of this book was the section concerning the character Wolf which culminated with the events in the Sunlight Home, this section was exceptional and it had my heart pumping and I had to actually get up a few times and pace about to cool off!! While it never reached these dizzy heights again it was still great right to eventual conclusion.

 

The villains were very good, Sunlight Gardener/Osmond, Morgan Sloat/Morgan of Orris, Elroy and Smokey Updike all suitably bad. One thing about Morgan Sloat, that I probably wouldn't have noticed if I'd not read Rose Madder just before it, was the bad habit he had of squeezing his fists till his fingernails dug into the flesh of his palms until they ran with blood just like Norman Daniels in Rose Madder, which suggests a King device rather than a Straub one...

 

My favourite character of all had to be Wolf the friendly werewolf, friendly that was, until the time of the change... What a great character I was genuinely upset after the story moved in a direction that no longer included him...

 

Of the 12 books that have come so far in this King Fest, this is the second best of the lot. Second only to The Wizard and Glass, so if you haven't read this one yet you should do so ASAP.

 

As for the King fest itself this is where I'm gonna take a little break. Don't worry though it's not the end I'm only exactly one third of the way through it so far, yes that's right I've still got 24 books to go. Still to come are my personal top 5, my favourite short story collection, the last three volumes of the Dark Tower, King's latest novels, some more Bachman works and lots of other stuff...

 

Meanwhile I'm going to be occupying myself with another book thread that I'll start in a minute, this King thread will reappear probably after the North American leg of Rush tour is over, yeah it could take that long to find my way back here or it might be sooner, who can tell...

 

That's it though for the King fest for now...

 

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QUOTE (treeduck @ Jan 5 2007, 01:33 AM)
http://img187.imageshack.us/img187/5999/stephenkingpeterstraubtlc9.jpg

After reading 11 Stephen King books in a row, it was easy to spot the difference in the writing of The Talisman compared to King's solo works, the difference being the presence of Peter Straub. Obviously I hear you cry, as he co-wrote the novel, true but I never really noticed this the first time I read it back in the 80s, as it was my first Straub experience. In the interim decades however I've read quite a few Straub books and I did actually recognise his hallmarks in the story here. He has a subtler style than King, he's kind of slow to build his own stories and yet at the same time he sometimes dumps shocks on you all of a sudden and you then need to feverishly recap and reabsorb. Not here though, with King at his side he's at his most immediate and crystalline in his clarity.

I used to wonder how two guys like this actually could write a book together, but I then read somewhere recently how they did the follow up book to this one Black House (which will feature in this fest later this year). One of them, say SK would write 50 pages and then paste it into an email and send it to Straub, who would read it and then do the next 50 pages and then email that to King and so on until the last 50 pages were written. I've no idea how they arranged rewrites and other drafts but I imagine it would be the same process and I imagine back in the early 80s it was the same process with The Talisman, only without the emails...

As for the Talisman as an entertaining read, well it was excellent, almost as good as The Wizard and Glass and it was easy to compare it to this novel as they're similar fantastical style tales. In fact The talisman, the actual object that is, is a kind glass ball as well, but in fact it's closer, in terms of what it actually is, to the Dark Tower itself. Both are the "axis of all possible worlds" they may even be the very same thing. The Talisman is The Dark Tower the Dark Tower is The Talisman... Only messers Straub and King really know though, maybe I'll find out more when I read the final three volumes of The Dark Tower and Black House...

My favourite part of this book was the section concerning the character Wolf which culminated with the events in the Sunlight Home, this section was exceptional and it had my heart pumping and I had to actually get up a few times and pace about to cool off!! While it never reached these dizzy heights again it was still great right to eventual conclusion.

The villains were very good, Sunlight Gardener/Osmond, Morgan Sloat/Morgan of Orris, Elroy and Smokey Updike all suitably bad. One thing about Morgan Sloat, that I probably wouldn't have noticed if I'd not read Rose Madder just before it, was the bad habit he had of squeezing his fists till his fingernails dug into the flesh of his palms until they ran with blood just like Norman Daniels in Rose Madder, which suggests a King device rather than a Straub one...

My favourite character of all had to be Wolf the friendly werewolf, friendly that was, until the time of the change... What a great character I was genuinely upset after the story moved in a direction that no longer included him...

Of the 12 books that have come so far in this King Fest, this is the second best of the lot. Second only to The Wizard and Glass, so if you haven't read this one yet you should do so ASAP.

As for the King fest itself this is where I'm gonna take a little break. Don't worry though it's not the end I'm only exactly one third of the way through it so far, yes that's right I've still got 24 books to go. Still to come are my personal top 5, my favourite short story collection, the last three volumes of the Dark Tower, King's latest novels, some more Bachman works and lots of other stuff...

Meanwhile I'm going to be occupying myself with another book thread that I'll start in a minute, this King thread will reappear probably after the North American leg of Rush tour is over, yeah it could take that long to find my way back here or it might be sooner, who can tell...

That's it though for the King fest for now...

 

I read the Talisman and then Black House about a year ago, I'd definately say that there's a connection between those 2 books and the Dark Tower series, though it's not completely clear. Black House was a little hard to get into at first but I thought it was excellent. Have you read it yet Ducky?

 

I've just started reading Song Of Susannah, it's looking quite interesting up to now. I found the previous book in the series Wolves Of The Calla a little dissapointing at times compared to The Drawing Of The Three and Wizard And Glass which I loved.

 

I guess your thread came back sooner than you thought laugh.gif

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