treeduck Posted December 18, 2008 Author Share Posted December 18, 2008 http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/9020/drawingqd9.jpg So that's that, a very good read and a very good entry in the Dark Tower series. Much more impressive than volume one which seemed to have been written by someone else, someone not very interesting to read. One thing about Stephen King that's cool, no matter how dark the story, no matter how gruesome it might be, no matter how morbid, he always has a funny bit or two. In this one the parts where Roland entered the minds of Eddie Dean and Jack Mort and the subsequent events that ensued really cracked me up. Especially the dealings with Fat Johnny Holden in the gun shop, good stuff! This one might not be quite AMAZINGLY good as I thought back in the day, but it's still very, very good, my expectations were so low for it that I may have given it a more glowing review in my head than I ought to have, back in 1989. Stands up impressively though, I may have to add The Wastelands to my King fest, another trip to the attic will be necessary though ugh... I wonder what Stephen King book I'll be reading next??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deadwing2112 Posted December 18, 2008 Share Posted December 18, 2008 (edited) QUOTE (treeduck @ Dec 18 2008, 02:32 PM) http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/9020/drawingqd9.jpg That's the first printing? I'm really digging the cover for some reason. I just finished the first part of Salem's Lot today, really enjoying it. Edited December 18, 2008 by deadwing2112 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted December 18, 2008 Author Share Posted December 18, 2008 QUOTE (deadwing2112 @ Dec 18 2008, 05:18 PM) QUOTE (treeduck @ Dec 18 2008, 02:32 PM) http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/9020/drawingqd9.jpg That's the first printing? I'm really digging the cover for some reason. I just finished the first part of Salem's Lot today, really enjoying it. Well yes, that is the UK version published by Sphere books in 1989, it is a really nice edition. The Wastelands was published in the same format in 1991, I'll definitely dig that out now too. By the time Wizard and Glass came out though Sphere books were out of the picture and the format was different. Here's how it changed: http://www.stephenking.nl/images/boeken/skewizard_glass.jpg It's still a pretty good look but I do prefer the Sphere books look. Glad you're enjoying Salem's Lot! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted December 20, 2008 Author Share Posted December 20, 2008 And the next SK book I'll be reading is the second of King's four-novellas-in-one-volume extravaganzas. The first one 1982's Different Seasons is the most famous of the two, having spawned three hit Hollywood films. At the time of release it was notable for being the first King work that was "mainstream" or non-supernatural (no one yet knew about Richard Bachman). Four Past Midnight though is firmly in the horror/sc-fi/supernatural suspense genre. This also spawned a couple of films but none as big or as critically acclaimed as Stand by Me, Shawshank and Apt Pupil. Anyway for now let's forget about Different Seasons, we'll get to that a wee bit later... Here's how my 1990 hardback copy of Four Past Midnight looks... http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/7074/fourpast1ex1.jpg The four short novels/long short stories in this book are called: The Langoliers, Secret Window, Secret Garden, The Library Policeman and the Sun Dog (which sounds just like our cute little pal Sun Dog of TRF fame... only much, much scarier!!) I get the feeling this one wasn't so well received. Could be underrated even but I remember thinking it was excellent at the time. That was back in 1990 though. So far in my KING fest, as far as books I've revisited are concerned, I've found Cujo wasn't as good as I remembered, Pet Semetary was quite a lot better but most have been as good or as bad as I originally thought. What will I think this time though? Let's find out... Oh yeah one more thing, I'll probably check in after I finish each story. That's the good thing about reading short stories or novellas in a big volume, when you finish each one it gives you a natural break, so you can make a cup of tea, feed the dog, defrost the fridge, empty the washing machine, sing the blues or report back here to the TRF Stephen King fanatics (if you're out there!) about your latest exscursion into KINGSVILLE, happy in knowledge that the last bit you read was an ending of sorts and there's no poor characters left dangling over a very frightening drop... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mini Posted December 22, 2008 Share Posted December 22, 2008 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted December 22, 2008 Author Share Posted December 22, 2008 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mini Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted December 23, 2008 Author Share Posted December 23, 2008 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prince Sphinc-Tor Posted December 23, 2008 Share Posted December 23, 2008 QUOTE (deadwing2112 @ Dec 18 2008, 05:18 PM) QUOTE (treeduck @ Dec 18 2008, 02:32 PM) http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/9020/drawingqd9.jpg That's the first printing? I'm really digging the cover for some reason. I just finished the first part of Salem's Lot today, really enjoying it. I love Salem's Lot...just finished reading it a few weeks ago....for my second time this year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted December 24, 2008 Author Share Posted December 24, 2008 http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/3447/fourpast2ex0.jpg ...Meanwhile I've finished The Langoliers, which is pretty good. It's a little like The Mist - a group of strangers thrust into an apocalyptic situation one of whom is an obnoxious neurotic who turns out to be dangerous to the others - but not as good. It hasn't quite got the spooky atmosphere or the chilling fear factor of the Mist. I haven't seen the film versions of either of these, I doubt they'd match the story versions anyway. When I first read this book I pronounced this first story's title the LAN-GOAL-EARS, but of course it's actually the LANG-O-LEERS. Hah. Just call me stupid, well the 1990 version of me anyway. Hmmmm I wonder if that version of me got eaten by the Langoliers? Yeah...we know the past versions of places get "eaten" but what about the past versions of people? Hmm thinking about it, the whole idea is interesting but a bit full of holes. Another reason why this one is just pretty good. It certainly kept my interest though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ladirushfan80 Posted December 24, 2008 Share Posted December 24, 2008 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted December 24, 2008 Author Share Posted December 24, 2008 QUOTE (ladirushfan80 @ Dec 24 2008, 06:01 AM) Hello Amy!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
udanax Posted December 24, 2008 Share Posted December 24, 2008 QUOTE (treeduck @ Dec 18 2008, 02:32 PM) http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/9020/drawingqd9.jpg So that's that, a very good read and a very good entry in the Dark Tower series. Much more impressive than volume one which seemed to have been written by someone else, someone not very interesting to read. One thing about Stephen King that's cool, no matter how dark the story, no matter how gruesome it might be, no matter how morbid, he always has a funny bit or two. In this one the parts where Roland entered the minds of Eddie Dean and Jack Mort and the subsequent events that ensued really cracked me up. Especially the dealings with Fat Johnny Holden in the gun shop, good stuff! This one might not be quite AMAZINGLY good as I thought back in the day, but it's still very, very good, my expectations were so low for it that I may have given it a more glowing review in my head than I ought to have, back in 1989. Stands up impressively though, I may have to add The Wastelands to my King fest, another trip to the attic will be necessary though ugh... I wonder what Stephen King book I'll be reading next??? errrr....maybe the wastelands, but i would read the stand beforehand... no i lied.... read the wastelands, the stand...and then wizard and glass. i am still trying to finish dark tower 7 the dark tower... it's an amazing series and has been a very fun read for me... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted December 24, 2008 Author Share Posted December 24, 2008 QUOTE (udanax @ Dec 24 2008, 03:08 PM) QUOTE (treeduck @ Dec 18 2008, 02:32 PM) http://img132.imageshack.us/img132/9020/drawingqd9.jpg So that's that, a very good read and a very good entry in the Dark Tower series. Much more impressive than volume one which seemed to have been written by someone else, someone not very interesting to read. One thing about Stephen King that's cool, no matter how dark the story, no matter how gruesome it might be, no matter how morbid, he always has a funny bit or two. In this one the parts where Roland entered the minds of Eddie Dean and Jack Mort and the subsequent events that ensued really cracked me up. Especially the dealings with Fat Johnny Holden in the gun shop, good stuff! This one might not be quite AMAZINGLY good as I thought back in the day, but it's still very, very good, my expectations were so low for it that I may have given it a more glowing review in my head than I ought to have, back in 1989. Stands up impressively though, I may have to add The Wastelands to my King fest, another trip to the attic will be necessary though ugh... I wonder what Stephen King book I'll be reading next??? errrr....maybe the wastelands, but i would read the stand beforehand... no i lied.... read the wastelands, the stand...and then wizard and glass. i am still trying to finish dark tower 7 the dark tower... it's an amazing series and has been a very fun read for me... Well I started off the thread with Wizard and Glass. I'm all over the place with these Dark Tower books I'll be re-reading 1 and 3 fairly soon, I scoured the attic for my cool old copies and they're looking good! I especially like The Waste Lands, I don't remember it looking this good (I first read that in 1992, I think it was). I'll post a pic of it later in the thread... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted December 26, 2008 Author Share Posted December 26, 2008 http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/3447/fourpast2ex0.jpg Secret Window, Secret Garden was really good. A sort of runty second cousin of Misery and The Dark Half (King actually mentions these in his introduction). I'd totally forgotten this story for some reason, all except the opening line, which was familiar. It was intense and gripping so I steamed right through it. I'd heard about the recent Johnny Depp film version of this so right after I finished this tale I looked up the trailer on youtube and jeez I'm a Depp fan but he's all wrong for this part. And the guy playing Shooter, the Cohen brothers guy, is totally wrong too. From the clips I saw they just seemed to be just reading the lines very flatly, sounding nothing like the characters to me. I bet the whole thing is a coach crash... An old veteran actor came to mind as John Shooter for me, I saw this guy as this character in my mind's eye in fact the whole way through the story. He's dead now, his name is John Anderson, he always seemed to play stubborn, taciturn, irrascible, crotchety farmer types but with a dignified Abe Lincoln air. Here he is, he'd have been perfect as Shooter http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2c/STSurvivors.jpg I didn't visualise any actors as Mort Rainey btw or any other character... I've got a theory now about why a lot of King stories turn into garbage when adapted for film: 80% of the time when you take Stephen King out of the King story equation (as you inevitably have to) and replace him with sets, actors, directors and dialogue, you get the skin and the bones of the story but somehow none of the flesh of it. Of course there have been good King adaptions, Stand By Me, The Shining, Misery, etc but way too many train wrecks. It's like his stories need their ultimate guide, the man himself, to lead the way or they fade and die... Anyway the Library Policeman is next... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted December 29, 2008 Author Share Posted December 29, 2008 http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/3447/fourpast2ex0.jpg The Library Policeman is another very good tale and another one I didn't remember at all. It seemed like an all-new story. A scary one. It reminded me of a scaled down version of another scary King tale, one that also concerned silver-eyed shape shifters and 30 year old buried horrors. Not anywhere near as good as that one, but then that was an enormous and complicated story that had many layers. I always brought my library books back on time just in case you're interested. And just in case someone else is watching too... One thing that made me smirk was King name-dropping himself at one point in the story. Normally that would be shameless and egotisical, but by 1990 King was so HUGE that it was totally legitimate especially in the context he did it. King's always been a name dropper though, which I find fun, it gives you a small insight into his interests and also reminds us that he's not just some guy up in Maine sitting in the corner typing 24/7, he does actually do other stuff too. He did drop his name in one of his other books, Thinner, but that was when he was still in disguise as Richard Bachman, so it could have been him deflecting, it didn't work though... Anyway the last tale is coming up, the last tale in this volume and the penultimate Castle Rock story, THE SUNDOG... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted January 1, 2009 Author Share Posted January 1, 2009 http://img242.imageshack.us/img242/3447/fourpast2ex0.jpg I love reading about sneaky, old coots like Reginald Marion "Pop" Merrill, what I mean to say is, I love King's crusty and curmudgeonly cunning old characters. I love the seemingly innocent little towns they live in and i love going there and exploring the place and looking in on the weirdly interesting people they know, and the things they get up to and the situations they find themselves in and what they do and how they act. And I know you enjoy all this too, or you wouldn't be here reading this right now... The Sun Dog was another very good story and Four Past Midnight is a very enjoyable collection, all good stories. Out of the 14 books I've featured so far in the KING FEST, this is definitely in the top 5. It's not King's absolute best work but it's got to be up there somewhere and you could do a lot worse than read this one if you haven't already, or if like me you haven't read it for 18 years... What now though, what King book next?? Well after attic raids and a trip to the shops I now have 37 books left to go!! So 51 in all will feature in this thread... Hmmm I'm going to have to think about this... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted January 2, 2009 Author Share Posted January 2, 2009 Now I want to go back to the one that started it all off for King, the one that launched his career and set him off on the way to being an insanely massive name that quickly saturated itself in the culture not only of America but the western world. It can only be CARRIE. Back when he wrote this he was working as a dogsbody in a laundry, I wonder if they chewed him out all the time...? "KING if you don't stop lollygagging about you'll be going in with the next load and I won't spare the detergent!!" No wonder he gave Carrie such a hard time in the book!! Here's what my 1986 Carrie paperback looks like: http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/8540/carriejn5.jpg This book looks very small and thin after that huge hardback copy of Four Past Midnight. It is only a short, sharp shock of a novel. A two day read at the very most. I was never that big a fan of this one, but back in 1987 I was probably comparing it with his better, later, more complex work. This time I'm just going to take it for what it is. Luckily I haven't seen the film for ages too so the story is only a vague shadow in my mind. The film was on TV last night, I avoided it for obvious reasons. I did spot William Katt for a split second, I forgot he was in it. The back of this paperback features a few stills from the film, mostly Sissy Spacek looking distraught. It also informs the reader that John Travolta was in the film, I totally forgot about that. too... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arleen2112 Posted January 4, 2009 Share Posted January 4, 2009 2 User(s) are reading this topic (0 Guests and 0 Anonymous Users): Arleen2112, treeduck Here's a good one to read ducky http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg174/Arleen66/skelton1.jpg A quick little read (short stories) from 1985 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted January 4, 2009 Author Share Posted January 4, 2009 http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/8540/carriejn5.jpg Well I don't understand how I ever thought this book wasn't good back in the day. This time around I found it to be a very well put together psy-fi horror novel. It was an exciting, always interesting, pacey entertaining read. I felt real trepidation as the narrative built towards those fateful moments at the prom. And I felt very sorry for Carrie even when she was in the process of destroying the whole town. I liked how King gave us many perspectives with the use of newspaper articles, letters and excerpts from "the shadow explodes," "my name is Susan Snell" and so on, interspersed in the narrative, this kept it interesting. The epistolary way of writing has been used by James Ellroy in novels like Killer on the Road/Silent Terror and of course Bram Stoker with Dracula. For a King novel it is very spare with nothing wasted, and none of the waffle from his later work, which serves the story well. I got the impression that King wanted to get his message across as quickly as possible here with nothing cluttering up the route. Of course I'm not getting too carried away, it's a pretty good King novel, a little better than Cujo I think, still far from SK's best, but a hell of a lot better than I remembered. Right away if you're a King veteran you notice that Steve's narrative voice hadn't fully developed when he wrote this, he was still realising his talent. It's still very effective though and not as raw as I expected it to be, pretty sophisticated when you think that King was just 24 or 25 when he wrote it. Later on I think Christine was an attempt by King to have another shot at the teenage outcast story (albeit swapping an insane mother/psychic powers for possession by a haunted car) and I think he bettered Carrie with that. You can see the similarities though just by looking at some of the main characters in each story. Vulnerable outcast loser: Carrie White (Carrie) Arnie Cunningham (Christine) Sympathetic Jock: Tommy Ross (Carrie) Dennis Guilder (Christine) Insane or evil character and catalyst: Momma White (Carrie) Roland D Lebay (christine) 50's throwback bad boy: Billy Nolan (Carrie) Buddy Repperton (Christine) Christine however was fuller and richer in terms of both character development, sense of place, subplots, and plot development, plus King's voice, so important to the telling of his best stories, by then was easily recognisable. King actually mentioned Christine in his introduction to Four Past Midnight as a novel that didn't quite work in retrospect, but I think he was being harsh, Christine isn't his best work either but it is a very good novel as I mentioned in this threadback when I read it. Anyway back to Carrie, yes I can definitely say I enjoyed the book and I'm glad I went back and got it as an afterthought, when I was up in the attic after digging it out from the dusty box it was in. This is one for people who don't like King's longer work, or some of his latter work where he seems to waffle on to no great purpose (From A Buick 8 for example), but he doesn't go off on any tangents in this book, it's all meat and no fat. But wait a minute now that it's over and Carrie has plunged down that long dark tunnel, what the hell am I gonna read next?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted January 5, 2009 Author Share Posted January 5, 2009 QUOTE (Arleen2112 @ Jan 4 2009, 01:44 PM) 2 User(s) are reading this topic (0 Guests and 0 Anonymous Users): Arleen2112, treeduck Here's a good one to read ducky http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg174/Arleen66/skelton1.jpg A quick little read (short stories) from 1985 Hey I missed this post earlier... Hello Arleen... Yes I have my old paperback of Skeleton Crew over here >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> So that's coming up very soon...I'm looking forward to that one... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Turn Me On Dead Man Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 I started "Thinner" today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted January 5, 2009 Author Share Posted January 5, 2009 QUOTE (Turn Me On Dead Man @ Jan 5 2009, 03:45 PM) I started "Thinner" today. Cool...that one will feature in this thread down the line. I had to pick up a new copy. my old NEL copy is long gone... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
udanax Posted January 6, 2009 Share Posted January 6, 2009 (edited) I have the Marvel comic book The Gunslinger Born...which is a graphic novel retelling of Wizard and Glass...The artwork is amazing.... Im really glad I bought it http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/thumb/a/a3/Dark_tower_the_gunslinger_born1.jpg/300px-Dark_tower_the_gunslinger_born1.jpgt. Edited January 6, 2009 by udanax Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
treeduck Posted January 6, 2009 Author Share Posted January 6, 2009 QUOTE (udanax @ Jan 6 2009, 02:21 AM) I have the Marvel comic book The Gunslinger Born...which is a graphic novel retelling of Wizard and Glass...The artwork is amazing.... Im really glad I bought it http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/marveldatabase/images/thumb/a/a3/Dark_tower_the_gunslinger_born1.jpg/300px-Dark_tower_the_gunslinger_born1.jpgt. I bet that's good, The Wizard and Glass is the best of the first 4 Dark Tower books. I've not yet read the final three volumes, they'll feature here though eventually... It's very apt that you posted about the Dark Tower series Udie, because I'll be returning to it for my next KING book... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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