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Maturin said:
Finished 1Q84 and found it absolutely fantastic, though flawed.
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On balance I liked 1Q84, but it is bloated. At one point there was over a hundred pages in which: Absolutely. Nothing. Happened. Unless you count making meals, eating meals, and reading Proust. And the only thing more boring than reading Proust is reading about someone reading Proust. Kafka on the Shore was much better.
 
Finished The Dead Zone by Stephen King yesterday. Not one of his best (though still good) - I feel like he handled the theme much better in his more recent 11/22/63 which had far more emotional impact on me personally. It may be due to a mediocre translation, it is hard to say. I prefer reading him in English, but this time I have bought a couple of Swedish translation trade paperbacks real cheap on sale (basically for free). I may not be doing myself a favour going backwards in his bibliography, but anyway I've found his work in the 2000's to be the best, no matter how many fans books like The Stand may have.
 
I wouldn't say it is his best. His recent work is vastly different from his early days nearly 40 years ago now. His classics, "Christine," "Cujo," "Carrie," etc, are different from "The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon," or his baseball book about the Red Soxs. He either repeats himself (which he did in his early days anyway) or it isn't his classic brand of horror anymore. I feel that with the completion of the Dark Tower, his horror universe is complete in a way. I prefer his older work, but it doesn't mean his recent stuff sucks, just... different.
 
I have read around 20 books by King, and have The Dark Tower-series as my overall favourite work of his. Vastly prefer the more recent books, which are a lot more about the characters and less about B-movie inspired plots.
 
Just because his books end up being B-movies doesn't mean they are b-movie inspired. How can such good books become such attrocious cinematic abominations? "IT" included... good god. What I like about his early works is take something mundane (a St. Bernard, a car, a girl living with a religious nut for a mother... etc.) and make it terrifying. But to each his own. I've stayed away of post-car accident King. Any recommendations as to where to start?
 
Onhell said:
Just because his books end up being B-movies doesn't mean they are b-movie inspired. How can such good books become such attrocious cinematic abominations? "IT" included... good god. What I like about his early works is take something mundane (a St. Bernard, a car, a girl living with a religious nut for a mother... etc.) and make it terrifying. But to each his own. I've stayed away of post-car accident King. Any recommendations as to where to start?
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Of course not. I believe he said he said that he was influenced by many movies, including B-movies, in On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, but I might misremember since it's been a while.

Duma Key is excellent, and has one of my favourite King-characters ever (not the lead). Lisey's Story is King being a bit more serious about the death of an author, and it has a female lead that is a bit different than his standard. Under The Dome was reviewed well, but it didn't make an impression on me. (It is basically a serious version of the Simpsons movie.) 11/22/63 is about time traveling and could be described as historical fiction, but it is in fact the love-story that gets the center stage. Duma Key would be my personal recommendation, with the note that 11/22/63 probably is 'the' work of his of these recent years, even making The New York Times top-fiction-of-the-year-list.

His work has focused heavily on loss since his accident, quite naturally really. I am currently reading the new Dark Tower-novel, "4,5" or The Wind Through The Keyhole. Will return with comments soon.
 
I love 11/22/63, it's one of my favorite books ever.
Under The Dome was very entertaining, though not so emotionally rich as 11/22/63. (Btw. there's a TV show in the works, which will probably be vastly different. Premieres in June I think).
Cell is OK, just not as good as above mentioned two. It's too short (I love long books), and the ending sucks.
 
Great! some Stephen King discussion :edmetal:

I would like to share this link with you: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/series/rereading-stephen-king

James Smythe from The Guardian is re-reading EVERY Stephen King book starting with Carrie...He'll review a book every week. Has been interesting to follow to say the least and has inspired me to go out and invest in some of those early King novels myself. Perhaps finally get my dream fulfilled of a complete Stephen King library :D
 
I didn't think The Gunslinger (The first book in Stephen King's Dark Tower series) was only his 13th book.

I thought the series was done way later in his career, but now it seems he took years in between these books. Mind you, I am not into King, don't know his books, but I remember my brother being very much into Dark Tower, raving about it in the previous decade. And now I see that in 2003 and 2004 King did pay a lot of attention -in a row- to these series.
 
Oh no worries. I think I've seen more King film adaptations than I've read books..But I am committed to changing that. Ordered three novels on Amazon to get started!
 
Different Seasons, A collection of four short stories, The Shining and Salem's Lot...Always LOVED both movies, never read the books. Shame on me.
 
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