Thoughts on Stephen King?

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Stephen King honestly is talented in horror, but he's not Edgar Allan Poe. His critique of "The Twilight Saga" was honestly justified and not that bad, as he had more than 30 years writing and Meyer, frankly was a beginner and ran on inspiration/Linkin Park lyrics based off of a dream sequence. The "Amazing Book" whale/Fangirl's reaction was comedy gold for ranting around 13 minutes on that.
Oh, and I heard that he pokes fun at Dean Koontz in some novels. Honestly I don't see why one should poke fun at the other as they're both prolific as hell, both blend different genres....can't they set aside their differences and collaborate?!
 
Miel67 said:
Stephen King honestly is talented in horror, but he's not Edgar Allan Poe. His critique of "The Twilight Saga" was honestly justified and not that bad, as he had more than 30 years writing and Meyer, frankly was a beginner and ran on inspiration/Linkin Park lyrics based off of a dream sequence. The "Amazing Book" whale/Fangirl's reaction was comedy gold for ranting around 13 minutes on that.
Oh, and I heard that he pokes fun at Dean Koontz in some novels. Honestly I don't see why one should poke fun at the other as they're both prolific as hell, both blend different genres....can't they set aside their differences and collaborate?!
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To be fair, I don't mind Koontz, his Odd Thomas & Moonlight Bay books are some of my favourites but he's always been considered a poor man's Stephen King and I can see why, to an extent; his early stuff is really poor in places. That said, I'd definitely read a King/Koontz collaboration, King's collab with Peter Straub (The Talisman) was a fun read.
 
Troon Draugur said:
To be fair, I don't mind Koontz, his Odd Thomas & Moonlight Bay books are some of my favourites but he's always been considered a poor man's Stephen King and I can see why, to an extent; his early stuff is really poor in places. That said, I'd definitely read a King/Koontz collaboration, King's collab with Peter Straub (The Talisman) was a fun read.
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Dean Koontz "Odd Thomas", "The Bad Place" are my personal favorites. I read King's "Cell" and was gifted a whole collection of Dean Koontz/Clive Cussler paperbacks, all with varying lengths of thriller quality.
Hey, both Authors love dogs and they write dog characters in their stories. They could use that as a springboard of sorts?
 
Miel67 said:
Dean Koontz "Odd Thomas", "The Bad Place" are my personal favorites. I read King's "Cell" and was gifted a whole collection of Dean Koontz/Clive Cussler paperbacks, all with varying lengths of thriller quality.
Hey, both Authors love dogs and they write dog characters in their stories. They could use that as a springboard of sorts?
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I think "The Bad Place" was the first Koontz I read, IIRC. Odd Thomas is great but that ending is a real kick in the nuts. :(
Now, I'm gonna have to go torrent a load of Koontz books and re-read those... :/
 
Monster Energy Drink said:
Echoing others when I say I prefer his shorter work. The Jaunt is wonderful.

I had no intention of reading Revival until someone spoiled the ending for me. It SOUNDED like perfect cosmic horror, but like most of his stuff it was an over-long bloated mess. Fun to read, sure. Because he can weave a yarn real well. If you want to read about a bunch of "aw shucks" good ole folk living their lives then you're in for a treat... but when I know there's a nugget of horrific horror at the end of the book the LAST thing I want to read is three pages of how the narrator learned how to whack off when he was 14.
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Last night I was enjoying myself as I read King's classic short stories like Children of the Corn and 1408. Straight forward and simple is better in my opinion.

Stardust said:
Despite it's simplicity, I found The Long Walk interesting. For a book about kids walking the east coast of the USA, it kept my attention easier than some of King's other books:

You walk, get up to 3 warnings for stopping or going under a minimum pace, and get shot on third warning, until only one is left.

He wrote it under his Richard Bachman alias.
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The Long Walk does sound interesting. It has a very demented Twilight Zone feel to it where there's no happy ending. The Running Man is the other Bachman title that sounds promising too.
 
I feel like he's an example of horror stories never having a good ending or well written conflict. A lot of horror goes the route of It, where the ending is just a weird science fiction/action movie ending.
 
Tootsie Bear said:
Last night I was enjoying myself as I read King's classic short stories like Children of the Corn and 1408. Straight forward and simple is better in my opinion.


The Long Walk does sound interesting. It has a very demented Twilight Zone feel to it where there's no happy ending. The Running Man is the other Bachman title that sounds promising too.
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Check out Roadwork sometime. I read it as a young teen and found it boring, but went back to it many years later and now think it's one of the bleakest things he's ever written. It really needs more love.
 
Autumnal Equinox said:
Check out Roadwork sometime. I read it as a young teen and found it boring, but went back to it many years later and now think it's one of the bleakest things he's ever written. It really needs more love.
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I looked at the plot description and it sounds really interesting. I always thought King was at his best when he's describing human tragedy, like in Misery, The Long Walk, and much of Pet Sematary. I'll have to check it out sometime.
 
IPman said:
Looks like another Walking Dead spin-off to me. Also didn't they already make another version of this a few years ago? Anyway I wont be watching this woke garbage.
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ABC did a miniseries of The Stand in 1994, so quite a while ago. Maybe you’re thinking of Under the Dome?

It looks incredibly bland. It’s been a while since I read the book, but isn’t the joke about Larry Underwood is that he’s a white guy with a soulful “black” voice?
 
OttoWest said:
ABC did a miniseries of The Stand in 1994, so quite a while ago. Maybe you’re thinking of Under the Dome?

It looks incredibly bland. It’s been a while since I read the book, but isn’t the joke about Larry Underwood is that he’s a white guy with a soulful “black” voice?
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Yup, his mom even references it: ". . . But your singing makes you sound like a nigger".
 
IPman said:
Looks like another Walking Dead spin-off to me. Also didn't they already make another version of this a few years ago? Anyway I wont be watching this woke garbage.
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Not sure if it'll be woke based on that trailer alone. I definitely get some Walking Dead vibes from it but I'll give it a shot since The Stand is my favorite Stephen King novel.

OttoWest said:
ABC did a miniseries of The Stand in 1994, so quite a while ago. Maybe you’re thinking of Under the Dome?

It looks incredibly bland. It’s been a while since I read the book, but isn’t the joke about Larry Underwood is that he’s a white guy with a soulful “black” voice?
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Unpopular opinion, but Larry Underwood is one of the few characters I'm cool with being blackwashed for a 2020 remake (just so long as they don't go overboard with the woke shit)

In the novel, Larry Underwood was like a pop star/rock singer who just had a major Top 40 hit and he was implied to be new on the scene. That worked well in the 70's when the book was written, but if The Stand were to happen today, there'd be a good chance that Larry Underwood would be a rapper or an R&B pop star if he's on the mainstream Top 40.
 
The Stand remake doesn't look quite as bad as I feared, but it also doesn't look quite as good as it could be.

In addition to making Larry Underwood black (which is fine I guess) haven't they also made Trashcan Man a woman? That seems like a way more questionable choice to me, I wonder if The Kid will still anally rape her with the barrel of his pistol (Ya believe that happy crappy? Don't tell me, I'll tell you!)

But for real, The Kid is one of the greatest "WTF?" moments in Stephen King history (which says a lot) and I hope they keep the premise of a guy living like a 1950s greaser in the year 2020 for that added absurdity.
 
Dom Cruise said:
The Stand remake doesn't look quite as bad as I feared, but it also doesn't look quite as good as it could be.

In addition to making Larry Underwood black (which is fine I guess) haven't they also made Trashcan Man a woman? That seems like a way more questionable choice to me, I wonder if The Kid will still anally rape her with the barrel of his pistol (Ya believe that happy crappy? Don't tell me, I'll tell you!)

But for real, The Kid is one of the greatest "WTF?" moments in Stephen King history (which says a lot) and I hope they keep the premise of a guy living like a 1950s greaser in the year 2020 for that added absurdity.
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Yeah, making Trashcan a woman is a definite red flag.

With Larry Underwood being black, it could work for the 2020 setting and Larry is described as having a voice that sounds like a black singer. But Trash as a woman just seems really off.

The Kid should be in the miniseries, but I think he'll probably get axed. Even then, I think it was cool that he still rocked the 50's stone greaser mindset in the fully uncut version from the early 90's and was cut from the 1978 original edition. A lot of the more obscure and dated references were removed or changed (Bubble Up became 7 Up) and a few more recent ones were added like Larry seeing A Nightmare on Elm Street in the movie theater early on in the book.

As for the casting, I'm not sure how Skarsgard will handle Randall Flagg but it could be interesting. Same for Whoopi Goldberg as Mother Abigail, although I would've gone with CCH Pounder instead.
 
Tootsie Bear said:
Last night I was enjoying myself as I read King's classic short stories like Children of the Corn and 1408. Straight forward and simple is better in my opinion.
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King is at his best in the short form. His novels are maybe 60/40 hit or miss in overall quality, but his short stories have a much higher ratio of quality.

PaleTay said:
I feel like he's an example of horror stories never having a good ending or well written conflict. A lot of horror goes the route of It, where the ending is just a weird science fiction/action movie ending.
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This is partly why his short stories are usually better, because he doesn't have the time to bog himself down with drawn out endings or back and forth conflicts. In his novels, the best ones are about human dread and misery, where the conflict is more abstract and the ending more open. From a Buick 8 is a great example of this, where his strength in building atmosphere and characterization can be emphasized.
 
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