Stephen King
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I mentioned this in the "What are you Reading Thread"
The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.
The desert was the apotheosis of all deserts, huge, standing to the sky for what looked like eternity in all directions. It was white and blinding and waterless and without feature save for the faint, cloudy haze of the mountains which sketched themselves on the horizon and the devil-grass which brought sweet dreams, nightmares, death. An occasional tombstone sign pointed the way, for once the drifted track that cut its way through the thick crust of alkali had been a highway. Coaches and buckas had followed it. The world had moved on since then. The world had emptied.Well............................ I finally did it. 8 books, 4300 pages, I finally finished "The Dark Tower" series by Steven King.
The Dark Tower series tells the story of Roland Deschain, Mid-World’s last gunslinger, who is traveling southeast across Mid-World’s post-apocalyptic landscape, searching for the powerful but elusive magical edifice known as The Dark Tower. Located in the fey region of End-World, amid a sea of singing red roses, the Dark Tower is the nexus point of the time-space continuum. It is the heart of all worlds, but it is also under threat. Someone, or something, is using the evil technology of the Great Old Ones to destroy it.
Inspired in equal parts by Robert Browning’s poem, “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came,” J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, and Sergio Leone’s spaghetti Western classics, The Dark Tower series is an epic of Arthurian proportions.Quite interesting, and from what I have heard, not a typical Steven King story. Overall, I quite enjoyed it.
Somewhat uneven, but I think that is expected in such a big series that was written over a 30 year period (~1975 - 2005)
The Gunslinger
The Drawing of the Three
The Waste Lands
Wizard and Glass
The Wind Through the Keyhole
Wolves of the Calla
Song of Susannah
The Dark Tower -
@George-K Read The Green Mile.
I also loved the whole Dark Tower saga.
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@Horace said in Stephen King:
I only read great literature which edifies one's very soul.
Do the pages always fall open in the same highly edifying place?
I was only joking
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Try 11/22/63
Yes it has king sci fi elements (time travel) but it’s a fascinating launch into the events around the assassination of JFK.
fun blast from the past as he recreates that time period incredibly well.
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@Horace said in Stephen King:
I only read great literature which edifies one's very soul.
Do the pages always fall open in the same highly edifying place?
@Doctor-Phibes said in Stephen King:
Do the pages always fall open in the same highly edifying place?
The ones that are not stuck together, I assume.
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Try 11/22/63
Yes it has king sci fi elements (time travel) but it’s a fascinating launch into the events around the assassination of JFK.
fun blast from the past as he recreates that time period incredibly well.
@bachophile said in Stephen King:
Try 11/22/63
Yes it has king sci fi elements (time travel) but it’s a fascinating launch into the events around the assassination of JFK.
fun blast from the past as he recreates that time period incredibly well.
Agree. I thought this was a really good book too.
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Green Mile. I think it will hit the right chord with you.
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You all know he writes mysteries, too, right?
The Colorado Kid's pretty fun. Not at all weird, just a whodunnit.
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He does. Great book, but like so many of his, it falls prey to his weakness at great endings for great stories.
@Mik said in Stephen King:
He does. Great book, but like so many of his, it falls prey to his weakness at great endings for great stories.
He gets that kind of criticism a lot, but I don't think it's true.
Or maybe more precisely, saying he's bad at endings may be interpreted to imply he plans them out, which isn't true.
If you write organically, and let your subconscious in the driver's seat for your plotting, you open yourself up to write the stuff of legacy. But you also open yourself up to write a stinker.
On the other hand, if you plot, it's a lot safer, but it'll never really be as good, either.
King's not a plotter, and he doesn't even believe in the practice. So, that's kind of the risk you take with his stories. When you're halfway through and you wonder how it'll wrap up, you can content yourself with the fact that at that point in writing the story, King had no idea, either.
I like the risk, personally, but absolutely, some endings have just sucked. Under the Dome really ticked me off.
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But the fun of King is it is akin to listening to a world class bullshit storyteller around a campfire. You’re pulled into the story as he makes it up. With planned out authors like say Harlen Coben it’s more like listening to a well planned sales spiel where you kind of sense where it’s going to end up and you’re just figuring out how he’s going to get there.
"The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like the condemned man who is proud of his large cell." Simone Weil
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What I always loved about King was the people he creates. The story's are fun, but the way he gets inside the heads of the people is just wonderful.
I'm going to have to read some again once I finish the Dune saga.
I was only joking
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But the fun of King is it is akin to listening to a world class bullshit storyteller around a campfire. You’re pulled into the story as he makes it up. With planned out authors like say Harlen Coben it’s more like listening to a well planned sales spiel where you kind of sense where it’s going to end up and you’re just figuring out how he’s going to get there.
@Mik said in Stephen King:
But the fun of King is it is akin to listening to a world class bullshit storyteller around a campfire. You’re pulled into the story as he makes it up. With planned out authors like say Harlen Coben it’s more like listening to a well planned sales spiel where you kind of sense where it’s going to end up and you’re just figuring out how he’s going to get there.
Yeah, that's a great way of putting it.
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What I always loved about King was the people he creates. The story's are fun, but the way he gets inside the heads of the people is just wonderful.
I'm going to have to read some again once I finish the Dune saga.
@Doctor-Phibes said in Stephen King:
What I always loved about King was the people he creates. The story's are fun, but the way he gets inside the heads of the people is just wonderful.
I'm going to have to read some again once I finish the Dune saga.
One thing he knows is the adolescent and preteen mind. So adept at taking you there.
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The thing I like about king is I just know I’m going to enjoy the writing no matter what the plot. I felt the same way about Le Carre. When I have long plane trips coming up I always keep a new king ready for download for the trip. For example, I have a trip to Atlanta in March for a conference and I’m waiting for the trip to download his latest, Holly.
