All about Stephen King

Anybody else read Doctor Sleep yet? And what are your thoughts?

I've just finished it and to be honest it was pretty disappointing. It kind of felt like any of King's more forgettable tales but with unnecessary references to The Shinning shoehorned in. If the main character hadn't been Dan Torrance and instead was a totally new creation then the book could have easily been a very generic King novel irrelevant to any of his other work. It wasn't in keeping with the atmosphere or themes of The Shinning (aside from the "recovering alcoholic" trope which is almost ubiquitous across his books) and really the villains were just a very slight variation on the standard vampire. I've actually not minded some of Kings other relatively recent work but I feel like this one let me down.

I haven't read all of it yet. but from the people I've talked to online and off some really enjoyed it and others just hated it with a passion. the only thing they can agree on is that it's nowhere near as good as the original, but than to be fair you'd have to be a fucking idiot to expect to be better. '
that's my take on it anyways

wildhoney66 wrote:

I haven't read all of it yet. but from the people I've talked to online and off some really enjoyed it and others just hated it with a passion. the only thing they can agree on is that it's nowhere near as good as the original, but than to be fair you'd have to be a fucking idiot to expect to be better. '
that's my take on it anyways

I certainly didn't go in thinking it would be anywhere near as good as The Shinning, but I did hope it would at least be in keeping with that books terrifying atmosphere and that's really where it fell short for me.

While reading it I just kept getting this feeling that it was a shelved draft for a sub-par King vampire story that he'd blown the dust off and altered just enough for it to be a Shinning sequel. I'm not saying that's definitely the case, I could be totally wrong with that, but that's how it felt to me. Really if you changed the Dan Torrance character to any generic King protagonist with alcohol issues and special powers, the plot and essence of the novel wouldn't really be affected at all.

Just for context, some of my favourite works by King include It, Misery, Bag of Bones, The Shinning, Hearts in Atlantis, Thinner, Pet Sematary while his books that I consider below average would include Insomnia, Needful Things, The Dark Half.

oh I wasn' t talking about you don't worry about that. Needful things is a book I still haven't finished cause it is medicore. yet I love the film go figure. I also love the film and the book of The dark half. insommia I also love as well. that's one i'd love to see be made as a film if it had the right writers and the right people in short attached to it.

Insomnia and The Dark Half certainly weren't as bad as Needful Things, but they just weren't my cup of tea really. I actually quite like the movie of The Dark Half, but found the book dragged a bit. Also my friend who got into Stephen King is a big fan of Insomnia. I think King is just one of those writers who's done so much that it's unlikely every book is going to be a winner with every reader.

the same can be said about any author to be honest. one of my favorite authors is Ed Mcbain and his 87th Prienct series. sorry for my shitty spelling. and there's i think 55 or so books in that series i believe? anyways, i haven't read all of them yet. and i started reading those when i was 16 or 17 in (1995) and some of them are damn good and the good ones are normally when it opens with a body being found. the shitty ones for some reason are the ones that don't open like that.


my point is the guy ended up writing nearly 200 books SERIOUSLY he has. i haven't read no where near that amount. but i've read plenty of them that were fucking Terrible. the same can be said Stephen King.

any era of his career.

Definitely. I guess the more prolific a writer is the more likely some of their work is going to suck.

like i may have already said on here, you can say that about all authors pretty much. i don't think i've ever read any author in my life where no matter if they are a big name like King or not or smaller names like say Janet Evanovich i have so far have only read 3 of her books. and i like her as an author and i mention her cause she isn't as big as SK is. yes she does have a good name for herself but she's nowhere near as proflic as King is nor do i think she ever will be. anyways out of the 3 i've read so far the only one i thought was a meh book was the 1st one i read and that's One for the money.

another name that isn't as well known is Piers Anthony another favorite of mine. i've read more of his books i forget how many though. and yeah he has written over 150 books and has been around since (1967) when his 1st book came out. you don't see his books at least i don't in no drug stores or any Giant Eagle's or any place really

except maybe a book store and he's done plenty of shitty books. anyways i've been reading "IT" and i'm nearly done with it. no pun intended at all. he he anyways as for King himself there are books that i've read where the endings did hurt the books but than there are books of his that i just thought were utter shit to begin with. some may say it's everything after his accident and i disagree on that. Carrie like i said on here is a terrible book. but others seem to love it and that was before he became a house hold name. but to each their own i guess

i've since finished "IT" about a little over 2 hrs after my last post and now i'm reading 'From a Buick 8' i've never read this one before and i'm only 50 pages into it. has anyone else on here read it yet? liked it or hated it?

i have since finished "From a Buick 8' last week in fact. and for the past 8 days i've been reading' Dreamcatcher' which i am actually enjoying so far. i hope i keep enjoying it. i guess i am one of the rare ones who enjoys the film. oh well