The Stephen King Master Thread

[LeftHandedGuitarist]

I think I watched the film too soon after reading the book. It was so fresh in my mind that all I could do was compare and criticise. I'll be letting some more time pass with future book readings/film watchings.

Christopher Walken was great in the lead role, though!

[Head bugs]

The Dead Zone is an excellent read, and the movie is great too. The book’s ending is very touching. Edit: Dissatisfied with the tv series finale, though. No justice at all.

[LeftHandedGuitarist]

Firestarter
I absolutely loved this. It just goes full throttle from the start and it doesn't waste a single page. King can often pad out his stories unnecessarily, but here everything felt essential to the narrative.

He also manages to give us some of his best characters so far, not only with the two leads Charlie and Andy but also with the people hunting them. The descriptions are all very vivid here and it was super easy to imagine the story as a film playing in my mind (in fact, I looked at the 1984 movie trailer after finishing and the imagery is pretty much dead on exact to what I had in my head).

Less of a horror novel than it is a thrill ride, but both Andy and Charlie's abilities can be quite disturbiing. The image of chickens bursting into flame is probably more amusing than it should be, but it's quickly offset by what starts happening to the people. The flashback scene in which Andy rescues Charlie and "disables" the kidnappers was particularly horrifying.

It also leads up to a satisfying ending which can't always be said. Absolutely one of Stephen King's best books.

[LeftHandedGuitarist]

Roadwork (1981)
There are some clear parallels to Breaking Bad in this story. Barton Dawes is a man who has been pushed to the edge by the world, and finally feels like he has nothing to lose. So he's not going to follow the rules anymore.

That's more or less where the similarities end, however, because Barton's struggle is much more with his own demons rather than the feeling that he's finally woken up. He isolates himself and gets stuck in his own head. Despite that, it's surprising that I felt like I understood him so little. His decisions rarely made much sense to me. Rarely is he stuck on whether or not to go ahead with his plans, but it's more that he's just given up to the point where he's not going to even try to do anything to get in their way.

I found this an easy read but not a memorable one. I kept wanting to know where things were going to go next and the story did manage to continually surprise me, but I'm not sure how much it satisfied me. The ending is fairly predictable from the early pages and is maybe the least interesting part - it was the journey there that was the most compelling.

The writing is messy, but flows very well. It's opens with a scene in a gun shop that was effective enough to make me feel uncomfortable. It's VERY identifiable as Stephen King with the sections of rambling stream-of-conscious, stylised paragraphs that ignore punctuation and the odd typing-in-American-slang quirk that he so often does. There are a couple of really awkwardly written sex scenes that were fairly off-putting.

Often when I'm reading I'll assign an actor to play a character in my head, but for this book someone just randomly popped in there and stuck. Somehow, for me Barton Dawes was 1970s George Lucas. I have no idea why, but it's certainly an image that's going to help me recall my time reading this book in the future!

[atomik kinder]

Two new Stephen King books this year. One just announced today.

Later, coming on March 2nd

Billy Summers coming August 3rd. I hate when they announce books so far out.

Stephenking.com

[ceeece]

Originally Posted by atomik kinder

Two new Stephen King books this year. One just announced today.

Later, coming on March 2nd

Billy Summers coming August 3rd. I hate when they announce books so far out.

Stephenking.com

I think Billy Summers was announced Fri. Jan 29. At least that's when I saw it. Yeah, it stinks to wait but it's always exciting to build up anticipation. At least we will have LATER to keep us busy!

[LeftHandedGuitarist]

The Running Man (1982)
What a thrill ride. This story of a man being hunted for the entertainment of the masses is told in almost real-time and never lets up. I found myself caught up by this after the first few pages, and from there it was difficult to stop and take breaks.

If you're familiar with the classic '80s Arnold Schwarzenegger film adaption of the same name, that is quite different from what Stephen King originally wrote here. This is a harder and more serious story with a premise that goes in quite a different direction. Here, there's very much the feeling of a man who has nothing to lose and is determined to make things better for his people and his family after seeing the hate that has filled the world. There's no Gladiators style game show here, just the filthy streets and uncaring people of the world who are trying to stay alive.

This is a warning tale of the haves and have-nots. King really seems to like painting a dim view of the world we live in, at least in his earlier output. Nobody is kind here, nobody cares about anyone else. Police officers refer to citizens as "maggots". The air is being polluted on purpose and only the rich have access to filters to help them breathe. It's quite a depressing read, but always compelling if you can stomach it.

The main character, Ben Richards, is hard to get a handle on. His personality is quite forceful but I also find it difficult to describe him. It probably didn't help that I had the image and voice of Schwarzenegger in my head the whole way through (which lead to some unexpected chuckles), because the character here certainly doesn't resemble him. The characters are probably the weakest aspect of this book, because they all feel so irredeemable and flatly hostile. Ultimately nobody is very memorable.

A page-turner if there ever was one, but incredibly bleak.

[dallywhitty]

Better late than never.

[dallywhitty]

Stephen King’s UK publisher Hodder & Stoughton are delighted to reveal an ambitious reissue plan for Stephen King’s entire backlist. Starting in May 2021, groups of titles will be re-launched in 2-3 batches per year, with a total of over 70 books being revamped between spring 2021 and autumn 2024, culminating with the 50th anniversary of Carrie.

The books will be grouped into different categories including Chilling Classics, Epic Thrillers and Reading Group Suspense, helping readers to navigate their way through the extraordinary range and depth of his body of work, and discover which type of novel will most appeal to them. Each group will be unified by striking new author brand lettering, and distinguished by a distinct colour palette and title lettering.

We will be revealing the first group of six titles – and their covers – later this week. Stay tuned!

[Head bugs]

I forgot Dreamcatcher is a King book. Really need to read that one day.

[LeftHandedGuitarist]

The Shining (1977)

Read this one out of order, I was saving it! A wonderfully creepy mystery thriller that moves with purpose and is hard to put down. If you're only familiar with the Stanley Kubrick film version then you may be surprised by the book, which takes things in a different direction thematically and is much more focused on the character relationships. Wendy is far stronger and Danny is more resourceful. And Jack is a good (if flawed) man who becomes corrupted against his will. It's actually a heart-breaking read to see this family destroyed by an evil outside force, a force which exists only to feed on the worst parts of susceptible people. Jack's final words to Danny (as himself) carry far more weight than anything we saw put on screen.

The writing is good, if maybe not spectacular; King was still honing his craft here. He uses flowery adverbs like there's no tomorrow, and I think I'll always struggle to imagine some of his dialogue coming out of people's mouths. But it delivers the story like a freight train and is extremely effective. The imagery is vivid, and it's the ability to get inside the character's heads where its real magic lies. Right until the end I wanted Jack to break free because his true self was still in there.

Horror is entirely subjective, of course, and everybody is scared by different things. This book scared me, or at least unnerved me enough a few times to not feel comfortable going to sleep after reading. Most people seem to refer to the scene in room 217, but for me it was the hedge animals that only move when you're not looking at them that got to me. And the Overlook Hotel itself is a real presence that creates feeling of claustrophobia, almost of panic for being trapped inside with something incredibly dangerous.

[Head bugs]

The ending of Later is odd. Was there a point to that info about the father?

[ceeece]

Originally Posted by Head bugs

The ending of Later is odd. Was there a point to that info about the father?

Poorly executed for sure. There should have been an entire side narrative about how Jamie was always searching for his father for this bizarre pay off at the end.

[Head bugs]

Originally Posted by ceeece

Poorly executed for sure. There should have been an entire side narrative about how Jamie was always searching for his father for this bizarre pay off at the end.

Liz mentioned something earlier about it to Jamie while she was being an ass, like maybe she knew, but even that was pointless. It was an okay story, but that was just gross lol.

[LeftHandedGuitarist]

Cujo (1981)
Another book done! This is a gripping read, and the fact that it's a shorter length than King's novels traditionally are helps a lot. The story, the first set fully in the fictional town of Castle Rock, juggles a number of characters and for the most part keeps them somewhat separate, and yet they all fit together very well. And at the centre of it all is a heart rending story of a dog who can't resist the disease that's taking him over.

As I began this, I felt that the writing was a bit trashier than usual. This could be due to King being at the height of his various drug and alcohol addictions at the time, but there was a throwaway soap opera element to the story that I wasn't sure about. It's extremely impressive that this ends up being one of the novel's strengths because I became very wrapped up in the characters and their problems. I couldn't believe how invested I was in whether Vic and Roger's breakfast cereal ad campaign would work out or not.

The entire second half of the novel becomes tightly focused on two characters trapped and fighting for their lives. It's a powerful read with a resolution that has a lot of impact. There's a truthfulness and simplicity to Cujo which works incredibly well to its benefit. Cujo himself isn't a bad dog or an evil presence, he's a victim too, and we can sympathise with the majority of points of view given here (well, maybe not Steve and Joe).

There is a darker, slightly supernatural element to the story which comes from an unexpected place and is left to tease us without a proper resolution. What is in Tad's closet? There are numerous explanations that can be given to this, but the mystery is extremely enticing. There are also some welcome call backs to the events of The Dead Zone and it's nice to see King establishing direct links between his books.

[Dr. Seymour Love]

Originally Posted by LeftHandedGuitarist

Cujo (1981)
Another book done! This is a gripping read, and the fact that it's a shorter length than King's novels traditionally are helps a lot. The story, the first set fully in the fictional town of Castle Rock, juggles a number of characters and for the most part keeps them somewhat separate, and yet they all fit together very well. And at the centre of it all is a heart rending story of a dog who can't resist the disease that's taking him over.

As I began this, I felt that the writing was a bit trashier than usual. This could be due to King being at the height of his various drug and alcohol addictions at the time, but there was a throwaway soap opera element to the story that I wasn't sure about. It's extremely impressive that this ends up being one of the novel's strengths because I became very wrapped up in the characters and their problems. I couldn't believe how invested I was in whether Vic and Roger's breakfast cereal ad campaign would work out or not.

The entire second half of the novel becomes tightly focused on two characters trapped and fighting for their lives. It's a powerful read with a resolution that has a lot of impact. There's a truthfulness and simplicity to Cujo which works incredibly well to its benefit. Cujo himself isn't a bad dog or an evil presence, he's a victim too, and we can sympathise with the majority of points of view given here (well, maybe not Steve and Joe).

There is a darker, slightly supernatural element to the story which comes from an unexpected place and is left to tease us without a proper resolution. What is in Tad's closet? There are numerous explanations that can be given to this, but the mystery is extremely enticing. There are also some welcome call backs to the events of The Dead Zone and it's nice to see King establishing direct links between his books.

This was the first King novel I ever read. I was around 11 or 12, in the early 80s, and my brothers girlfriend gave it to me to read, and I started it, and got to a scary part and put it down. About a week later, curiousity got the better of me and I picked it up and started it again. I was off to the races and I've been reading him ever since.

[JMS1223]

Originally Posted by Head bugs

The ending of Later is odd. Was there a point to that info about the father?

I didn’t really like the ending either. The book as a whole I thought was just okay. But it was fun to read nevertheless.

Excited about Billy Summers. It’s supposed to be over 500 pages so maybe it will be pretty decent like the Institute was.

[LeftHandedGuitarist]

Different Seasons (1982)
A gorgeous collection of novellas that marked a change of direction and style for King. Less horror, more an examination of how humans can face their situations. The association with the four different seasons adds a strong theme to each story which allows these to all be very different but fit together so well.

Shawshank: It's interesting to finally read this after knowing the story for so many years. The film took this and dived a bit deeper, but the original story has all the important elements there. I found it lacked a little bit in characters, though, as these were all like second hand reports of what somebody was like with Red telling the story. An easy and enjoyable read but surprisingly not as memorable as I had expected - the film turned this into something better.

Apt Pupil: Pretty disturbing stuff. It's impressive that King's writing made me hate an American teenage boy more than an actual Nazi war criminal. This is paced a little on the slow side but it's enticing the whole way through and the characters leap off the page. I had to take a little break when I got to the part with the cat, very nasty. It's probably a bit too long and was definitely the story that I had to push myself to finish - not because of not enjoying it, but due to the bad taste it kept leaving in my mouth. A very powerful ending that the film adaptation totally failed.

The Body: My favourite story here. Of course I am very familiar with the Stand By Me film and I was pleased that story is completely intact here. The four kids in this tale are so full of personality, so memorable, and their mini-quest is a real page turner. While I think that the film added just enough extra detail to be the better telling, I was particularly happy to have a longer ending here that dealt with the repercussions of what they all did.

The Breathing Method: I read this in one sitting. I had no idea where this was going but there was a real sense of dread that built up through it. By the time it got to the shock ending I had found myself very wrapped up in the mystery of what the club was all about... so the culmination of the pregnancy was like a punch to the stomach. Ultimately I feel like this is story with the least to say and the one that leans most into typical King horror, but it sure will stick with me.

[LeftHandedGuitarist]

Christine (1983)
What is on the surface level a book about a killer car, supernaturally possessed by an evil spirit, actually turns out to be about something much more interesting. The titular car, Christine, is the obvious selling point of the book but it seems to me that this story is a tragedy. It's about the corruption of a teenage boy as Christine's influence turns him into a different person, and about how this change causes him to push away his parents and friends as he becomes consumed by hate. And he's helpless to stop it.

Christine is wonderfully written and kept my attention the whole way through, but I do have to criticise its length. It's far too long for what it is. The writing style makes an odd transition from first-person to third-person and then back to first-person for each of the different sections, and it's a little jarring. But the story pulled me in very easily. The characters are generally good with Arnie and his family feeling fully realised and I mostly felt sorry for him. Dennis is more problematic, because even though it's him telling the story he himself feels like an empty character without much definition. Side character like school bully Buddy and the garage owner Darnell had a lot more personality.

And there's also another way to look at this book entirely; maybe this is all about how we change as we transition from childhood to adolescence, and how horrible the change can be for a parent. Arnie Cunningham's mother and father are horrified to see their little boy becoming a man and are constantly overcome by memories of the times they had when he was a child.

I think this book on some level is about growing up, but told from the perspective of the people being hurt and left behind in the process. There just also happens to be a murderous self-aware car going round killing people too.

[Monterey Jack]

Re-reading Lisey's Story...man, is this thing tedious. No wonder I barely remember anything from the first time I read it.