Any Stephen King fans?

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Blitzwing
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Any Stephen King fans?

Post by Blitzwing »

Hey... so I'm currently going through a bit of a Stephen King phase right now. I read 'It' and 'The Stand', and absolutely loved them. I'm currently reading 'The Regulators' right now, but am not enjoying it as much as the other two. I think the thing I liked about 'It' and the 'The Stand' were that they were large in scope, and had multiple main characters. 'The Regulators' is a little too compact for my taste.

So my question for you all is if you are a Stephen King fan, which novel is your favorite? And which would you recommend considering I'm a big fan of his larger in scope novels?
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Dead Man Wade
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Post by Dead Man Wade »

Desperation is better than The Regulators. Go read that.
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Ice Shard
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Post by Ice Shard »

IT is really good,although butters says i'm practically the clown in there...
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Ackula
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Post by Ackula »

I do not tend to like King at all. To me he is just an over-hyped Lovecraft wannabe.

Ok..some of his stuff is decent..but he is still an HP Lovecraft wannabe...
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DrSpengler
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Post by DrSpengler »

.
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Dead Man Wade
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Post by Dead Man Wade »

Originally posted by DrSpengler
His short stories are gold, though. I'm especially fond of Night Shift and Skeleton Crew, with his story "The Boogeyman" being my favorite piece of King fiction.


Nightmares and Dreamscapes also has some incredibly good stories in it.
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Zisteau
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Post by Zisteau »

I've read The Running Man, which is really good, although a little depressing.

The Dark Tower series of books is one of the best things I've ever read. The first one, The Gunslinger, is a bit of a chore to get through, but the other ones are fantastic.
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inflatable dalek
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Early King for the win. His quality control starts to go down as the page counts go up...
REVIISITATION: THE HOLE TRUTH
STARSCREAM GOES TO PIECES IN MY LOOK AT INFILTRATION #6!
PLUS: BUY THE BOOKS!
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Grandmaster Shockwaeve
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Post by Grandmaster Shockwaeve »

The "Everything's Eventual" collection of short stories is quite good, now reissued heavily emphasizing that it contains "1408."

If multiple main characters and lack of compactness is what you like, then for God's sake read The Dark Tower series. I don't think scope gets much bigger than that. And I would have to disagree with Zisteau about the first volume, I thought it was great, in a stripped-down Man With No Name kind of way.
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Sir Auros
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Post by Sir Auros »

The only book of his I've read is The Shining. I just haven't tried the other stuff because I'm usually always reading something else.
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Ackula
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Post by Ackula »

I have to say that Survivor Type is one of his few good stories. I'm just not much of a fan. Some of his earlier stuff like the Shining is good of course, but I just can't read King without thinking to myself...man this guy is trying too hard to be Lovecraft.

His style may have changed in recent times, I'll admit that I haven't read anything of his recently. I'll also admit that my ex-wife was a huge fan of King, so by default I hated his stuff after I found that out from her...so that may have made me a bit biased.
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Blitzwing
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Post by Blitzwing »

The Dark Tower series was recommended to me by a co-worker, but every time I go to Chapters to pick it up the first volume is out of stock. I'll have to try it out eventually.

Someone also recommended Salem's Lot to me... has anybody read that?
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Post by Zeeks »

I was always fond of "Salem's Lot". I believe that was my first ever exposure to King, both in the original 3 hour TV movie from 1979 and in book form.
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Originally posted by Sir Auros
The only book of his I've read is The Shining. I just haven't tried the other stuff because I'm usually always reading something else.


That's my favourite. Does he still bitch about the Kubrik film changing the ending a 1981 film could never have done convincingly?
REVIISITATION: THE HOLE TRUTH
STARSCREAM GOES TO PIECES IN MY LOOK AT INFILTRATION #6!
PLUS: BUY THE BOOKS!
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Dead Man Wade
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Post by Dead Man Wade »

Originally posted by Ackula
man this guy is trying too hard to be Lovecraft


Okay, you've said this twice now, and I'm just curious. What exactly are you basing this on?
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Zisteau
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Post by Zisteau »

Originally posted by Ackula
I have to say that Survivor Type is one of his few good stories. I'm just not much of a fan. Some of his earlier stuff like the Shining is good of course, but I just can't read King without thinking to myself...man this guy is trying too hard to be Lovecraft.



Have you ever even read Lovecraft? His style, the mood he sets, the way he describes things, the plots, nothing at all like Lovecraft. Not even remotely.
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inflatable dalek
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Post by inflatable dalek »

Did anyone else see the story about King shopping in a Australian bookshop and spontaniously signing a few copies of stuff for people only to get hauled up by security for vandalism? Classic.
REVIISITATION: THE HOLE TRUTH
STARSCREAM GOES TO PIECES IN MY LOOK AT INFILTRATION #6!
PLUS: BUY THE BOOKS!
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StoneCold Skywarp
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Post by StoneCold Skywarp »

I've always liked TommyKnockers and The Dark Half personally.
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Post by Cliffjumper »

Only semi-related, but: -

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Z11B9L2awVA

That's a genuinely clever piece of work.
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StoneCold Skywarp
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Post by StoneCold Skywarp »

That is actually quite clever.

Bit like this (totally unrelated to topic) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiKBoLXg5Cw

NSFW!!
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