The Works of Stephen King

[forever1267]

I always liked the fact that I'm "related" to one of King's characters. My last name is the same as the head vampire in Salem's Lot. That, btw, was one of the early books that I read, and was WARNED not to read after dark. Did I listen? Of course not. Which is why I, who was about 13 at the time, was totally freaked out by the woods scene with the two brothers in that book.

I discovered Stephen King after my grandfather was murdered, and he helped me understand the mystery of death a little bit better. I've been a fan ever since. He definitely has changed since he improved his "life choices" a.k.a cocaine and alcohol, and maybe not for the better creatively, but for the better artistically. I was one who thought the ending to The Dark Tower was perfect. I liked Insomnia and The Tommyknockers the second time I read them, and should probably try that with Rose Madder. The Shining is, in my opinion, the greatest horror novel of the 20th century, and I really wish they could make a true movie version of it.

For some reason, Nightmares and Dreamscapes was the anthology I couldn't get through. There were some good stories, and there were some bad ones. On the TV show, I have to agree with all of the above. "Battleground" worked, especially with the lack of dialogue and the uncut show. "Crouch End" I don't remember as a story, but started off well, and then just go worse and worse. Lucky for Eion Bailey's hotness, I stayed through it. And I'll be back Wednesday night.


I'm so glad his retirement didn't actually mean retirement.

[iceblink]

I've discovered that more than one King book has improved for me the second time around--Insomnia, Gerald's Game, and just a few days ago I gave Tom Gordon another shot and found it a lot more readable this time. I'm putting Rose Madder into the reread pile to see how it holds up, because it bored me a bit the first time. Same for Dreamcatcher although I'm not sure I can take all the poo again.

[india7]

scarlet said:

Battleground was really well done. I loved the little nod to "Trilogy of Terror" with the crazed Tiki Doll in the souvenir collection.

I caught that! It was so quick, but I went, "Hey, that was Lil' Zuni!"

Gotta agree with the opinions here - loved Battleground (the little Commando assassin was creepy!), and hated Crouch End. And that's pretty consistent for me, because I felt the same way about both stories - loved the former, hated the latter.

Let's see how they do this Wednesday!

[sugarhigh]

I just picked up Cell, I am a few chapters in and I don't know what to think of it.

[Deleted]

I'm about halfway (page-wise) through N&D right now, and I'm just not impressed. Nothing has jumped out at me, although I know I've read "They Have One Helluva Band" before. But the other stories are not familiar to me.

I guess I've been one for his short stories. Novellas, yes, but the short stories? Not so much. Guess this one is no different.

[Deleted]

Someone at TWoP posted all the stories they adapted for N&D, and not all are from N&D! That would explain why I didn't know "Battleground," because I haven't read Night Shift.

From Nightmares & Dreamscapes:
Crouch End
Umney's Last Case
You Know They Got a Hell of a Band
The Fifth Quarter
The End of the Whole Mess

From Everything's Eventual:
The Road Virus Heads North
Autopsy Room Four

From Night Shift:
Battleground

Eeeeeek, they're doing "The Road Virus Heads North!" That story freaked me out. I still remember distinct parts of it, because it implanted itself in my brain.

saracasticheese, I know a lot of fans loved "You Know They've Got a Hell of a Band," but that's one I could not get into, despite me being a rock n' roll freak. It was kind of cool that he took the other way in making the notion of the concert and all the dead rock stars being hellish instead of cool, but I just thought it was boring.

[petals]

I didn't really like You Know They Got a Hell of a Band, either. But The Road Virus Heads North creeped me out--I had thought Stephen King couldn't scare me anymore. And then I read that story. Thanks for that sleepless night, SK!

[underjoyed]

I'd thought, for some reason, that they were doing "Dolan's Cadillac" as well. If not, too bad. It's not a supernatural tale at all, but it's incredibly creepy and effective. One of my favourites of his. I think some of his best writing has been non-supernatural short stories. "The Last Rung on the Ladder" is quite poignant and "The Woman in the Room", about a man dealing with his terminally ill mother, is just stunning. It's at the very end of the Night Shift collection, and I'd somehow just missed it in the past. Then I picked up the book again, and read that particular short story a few months after my mother died of cancer. It had me in tears for the first time since she'd died, and put me firmly on Team He's Written Alot of Crap, Sure, But He's Done Some Damn Brilliant Work, Too. He just perfectly captures what's like to watch someone you love die a slow death - unsurprising, since I think he based the story on his experience with his mother dying.

I agree that "The Shining" is a great horror novel. IIRC correctly, he later wrote (or noted in an interview) the irony of the fact that he wrote a whole novel about a writer who was losing his mind and abilities to alcohol while in deep denial about his alcoholism, without even acknowledging the fact that he was himself, at the time, an alcoholic writer in denial. He didn't want to face up to what he was doing to himself, but some part of him was well aware, and that's where the character of Jack Torrance came from. I think he also said somewhere that he doesn't even remember writing "Cujo", because he was so messed up at the time.

[scarlet]

"The Last Rung on the Ladder" is one of my favorite short stories ever. I remember reading it the first time, when I was a teenager, just waiting for some creepy, supernatural twist. When the end came I was like, "Oh, wow...OH!" Really well-written.

[girlnamedcarl]

Aw, man!! I missed the first week's installment -- but that sounds like a good week to miss. I kinda liked "Crouch End" as a story; I dug its depiction of the slow, almost unnoticeable slide into a hell dimension. "Battleground," meanwhile, didn't do much for me. But it sounds like their TV presentation made "Battleground" better and "Crouch End" worse. (Forlani. Oof.)

Now I know to set the TiFaux for tomorrow night -- and I'll probably pick up N&D from the library or bookstore soon.