Stephen King Fans

sam_hain

Hello people,

I was just wondering if there were many Stephen King fans and more notably The Dark Tower series fans, that grace this forum from time to time?

OY

I am an avid SK fan, have read most of his stuff over the years.

Am excited and apprehensive about the DT finale. I hope it doesn't suck.
If you are looking for the real fans here they are:

http://stephen-king.net/forums/forum.asp?id=21

Although be warned...the folks here can get a little carried away with their know-it-all ramblings! :eek:

Dr. Loon

Love Stephen King, and The Dark Tower Series. I too hope he doesn't bugger it up. Alot of his newer stuff ain't so good, but hopefully he'll leave us with a good finish.

Töpher

Have faith my pretties

OY

I do not doubt his talent just that there is a lot to wrap up in one book. Hopefully it will be close to the 1000 page mark!

So i got a commonly asked question:

Who do you think will survive?

Brerrabbit

Hmm funny you should mention that; but I picked up a Stephen King Book the other day for the first time in years.
I went to the library to pick up a copy of the chronicles of narnia (I remember a teacher reading one of them as a nipper and the scene read in "The big read" on BBC was very touching), but I was too cowardly to go into the childrens section to get it and walked out with a copy of "IT" instead :rolleyes:

anyway Ive only read a few other SK books (the Stand, the tommyknockers, Salems lot, pet cemetary and needful things: all of which which I enjoyed immensely ... except maybe pet cemetary which was a bit silly) but when I read the first in his dark tower series I thought it was terrible! a bit of a mess. Many people seem to enjoy the series, tell me does it get any better as it goes on? Is it worth investigating again?
[Ramble]
By the by "It" is fantastic; he really captures how kids think and what the world looks like when you're eleven years old. I remember I wasn't allowed to watch the TV version when it first came out (that and "V") when I was a nipper but I watched it at a friends and it scared me stupid; I listened to my parents a lot more after that

[/Ramble]

gogo

Brerrabbit wrote:

but when I read the first in his dark tower series I thought it was terrible! a bit of a mess. Many people seem to enjoy the series, tell me does it get any better as it goes on? Is it worth investigating again?
[/Ramble]

I have always been a hugh King fan, i have everthing by him, including audio books and his e-books, but i have never read the DT series, I read the gunslinger and thought it was a load of crap, rambling rubbish, but i am assured that it gets better and better, and that the gunslinger does make sense when you read the rest of the series.
But when i start reading a series of books i generally have to start the series all over if any time has elasped between reading (an annoying habit of mine).
And the thought of reading the gunslinger again is putting me off starting the DT series. So I think i might just break my rule and start on the second book this time around.
Either way, dozens of people have told me how good the series is, so its worth reading.
I have the Stephen king encyolopedia and the stephen king universe which suggest that the DT finale is going to be spectacular.

sam_hain

The Dark Tower books are brilliant. As for do they get better? Hell yes!!!. Book four is with out a doubt the best book I have ever read. With one of the best scenes in a book ever. Wont spoil it for you guys but yes keep reading them. Nearly all of S.K's works revolve somehow around the Dark Tower. Enjoy them and as for that other S.K. website I was a member of it but alot of people started to post crap so I left
Also read The Tailsman and then Black House. Black House is very Dark Tower related but it would be better to read the first book of the double.
And I read somewhere that the final Dark Tower book will be 726 pages approx.

OY

As for do they get better? Hell yes!!!. Book four is with out a doubt the best book I have ever read.

I totally agree. The gunslinger is pretty vague and confusing at times but as the story evolves and you learn more about Roland in particular it gets a whole lot better. And book four is mind blowingly good. Loved it.

Go go go and read them!

And it is funny because i have read almost all of Stephen Kings works over the years with the exception of one....yes Brerrabbit it is IT! And because of your words i might pick it up.

gogo

You have to read 'IT', it really is a great book, It was the first king book that i ever read and it was what got me hooked. I highly recommend it.

Brerrabbit

"I read the gunslinger and thought it was a load of crap, rambling rubbish, but i am assured that it gets better and better, and that the gunslinger does make sense when you read the rest of the series.
But when i start reading a series of books i generally have to start the series all over if any time has elasped between reading (an annoying habit of mine).
And the thought of reading the gunslinger again is putting me off starting the DT series. So I think i might just break my rule and start on the second book this time around.
"

I'm exactly the same when it comes to trying to read a series of books (I've tried to get all the way through the wheel of time series maybe 3 times but always lost interest by the seventh book) and the gunslinger, to me, was just as you describe it above, rambling and nonsensical.

I'll take you guys' advice and give the series another shot though, if as you say the story starts to get clearer later on..

never nev; I'd definitely give "IT" a read, as well as capturing the atmosphere of childhood etc. King also does a great job of scaring the everliving crap out of you. after reading it till about 3 am the other night, I was unwilling to turn my back on a dark room and kept glancing out the window to make sure there was nothing creeping in. totally freaked me out (I kept thinking about that episode of "Friends where Joey keeps putting his book in the freezer because it scares him)

gogo

I kept thinking about that episode of "Friends where Joey keeps putting his book in the freezer because it scares him

The funny thing about that is that is, the original book that rachael found in Joeys freezer was a copy of 'the Shining' by none other than Mr King (then she ends up reading it and joey reads Little Women.

Down in a hole

The Dark Tower started off so well and I'm dying to read the final installment but his ego seems to be increasing with each book.He's actually written himself in to Song Of Susannah.Granted it is somewhat explained but still it'd be like Bram Stoker having himself appear in Dracula or Orwell making a cameo in 1984.That said I'm dying to read the final book and am hopin Roland will kill a lot more people.
I have remembered the face of my father

Töpher

I read 'IT' when I was 8 or 9, loved it to bits, got me hooked on SK! However, I don't see much mention of Desperation, which I think holds my SK top spot! Loved it!

Dr. Loon

Down in a hole wrote:

The Dark Tower started off so well and I'm dying to read the final installment but his ego seems to be increasing with each book.He's actually written himself in to Song Of Susannah.Granted it is somewhat explained but still it'd be like Bram Stoker having himself appear in Dracula or Orwell making a cameo in 1984.That said I'm dying to read the final book and am hopin Roland will kill a lot more people.
I have remembered the face of my father

I think it's quite interesting how he has written other books of his into the Dark Tower, and there are mentions of the Tower, breakers, Roland etc. in numerous other books of his. It's quite ingenius really. Writing himself into it.... Never seen that done before. After all, "there are other worlds than these". He's spanning all the worlds into The Gunslingers. I'm looking forward to the finale.

gogo

Desperation is a class book, it confused a lot of people because of the similarity/names/characters from 'The Regulators', which is how King revealed to the world the he was using Richard Bachman as a pseudoname.
One of my favourite stories by king is 'The Long Walk' which he wrote as bachman, I just love it.
There are loads of great books not mentioned, 'The Body'(stand by me), 'Shawshank Redemption', 'Carrie'.
I could go on and on, he has written 35 fiction books alone, some of them are books containing three or four novelettes. There really is so many good ones to choose from.

sam_hain

I read a few of Stephen King's books when I was younger but kinda stopped reading books then for a while. There recently I asked my friend (who I consider to the be the biggist Stephen King fan I know) to tell me what his favorite ones were and he informed me of the dark tower books. After trudging through the re-written version of The Gunslinger, I was hooked and have been reading nothing but Stephen King books since then (about a year now). But my life is going to feel a little empty when the last Dark Tower book comes out Is that sad :P

gogo

sam_hain wrote:

re-written version of The Gunslinger, I was hooked and have been reading nothing but Stephen King books since then (about a year now). But my life is going to feel a little empty when the last Dark Tower book comes out Is that sad :P

The re-written version ????

My friends think my obsession with King is sad, but I enjoy reading and collecting his books. What other author has released a book, and sold it on the basis that you send him a dollar every time you download a chapter,(put up your hand if you sent the money) he lost a fortune on 'The Plant' and it didn't seem to bother him.

He has released books on audio that you can't get on hardcopy, also he has screen plays, more e-books, and he was the person who brought chap-books back into fashion with the release of the green mile.
It really makes reading enjoyable, i would have never of thought of listening to an audio book before Kings 'Blood and Smoke'. King is a hugh reader himself and it shows as he is always expermenting with different ways of bringing a story to a reader, and who knows how many 'non-readers' he has hooked in by these methods.
Also the way he ties in all his books together, most of his books have some sort to connection, and not just to the DT series either, Gearlds Game has references to Rose Madder, infact the list is endless - there have been so many books written about nothing else but the connections/references in his books.

....so no your not sad.

Saying all that, my father (and many other people) would be amazed and a little digusted to read about King in anything to do with Literature, I have no idea why.

sam_hain

gogo wrote:

The re-written version ????

Yes the versions that he released recently are slightly different to the ones that were originally released. The only things that I can remember at the moment is in the recent version of The Gunslinger he goes more into the number 19 then before, (i only know this because my friend read the originals and was confused when I mentioned a few things about it that he could remember).

gogo wrote:

Saying all that, my father (and many other people) would be amazed and a little digusted to read about King in anything to do with Literature, I have no idea why.

Can't really understand this because last time I checked Stephen King was Literature

Shad0r

I'm on the Dark Tower 4 at the moment and aside from a brief break after The Gunslinger, its been fascinating reading. Havent tired of it a bit yet; the books seem to just get better and better.

Long days and pleasant nights.

gogo

My father has King right up there with Maeve Binchy, he hates both of them, altho he read Shawshank redemption (so he could discuss why he hates him) and loved the bit about becoming institutionalised(sp?). I should probably point out one of the first "real books" he read was the complete works of dickens, he was thirteen. I got presented with the books around the same age, i have yet to finish them.

sam_hain

I had the complete works of Dickens too but never read them. Let me know if I'm missing out on much.

And Sai Shad0r, Long days and pleasant nights to you too

article6

gogo wrote:

The funny thing about that is that is, the original book that rachael found in Joeys freezer was a copy of 'the Shining' by none other than Mr King (then she ends up reading it and joey reads Little Women.

And then, in one of his later books (The Tommyknockers, I think), somebody thinks about Jack Nicholson's character in the film... "The Shining". Funny guy.

gogo

Sorry to drag this tread back up, but I finally read the gunslinger again last week, I read it in a few hours, and I don't know what problem i had with it the first time round, its a bit kooky, but a good read. I am now just finishing the Drawing of the three, and have the waste lands lined up and waiting to go.
I can't believe I put off reading this, what an idiot. they are great, i can't read them fast enough.
Now I can get excitied about the release of the last installemnet, if i keep going the way i'm going I shouldn't have to wait to long to read it.

Snake Plisken

Read a load of Stephen King Novels when I was a kid started with Salems Lot after seeing the TV Mini-series of it by Tobe Hooper (It scared the sh*te out of me!) and was hooked for the next few years, but then stopped reading books for years until this summer I was on vacation in spain where I had no Internet or TV to watch and I read 3 Stephen King books back to back they where Desperation, Everythings Eventual and From a Buick 8. They were very enjoyable Desperation was excellent but one of the short stories in the Everythings Eventual collection which was called the Little Sisters of Eluria, in his prolog to it King says that this is like a prolog for the the Gunslinger. I have to say that it was an excellent read and when I got back home I went out and bought the first 4 books in the collection. I haven't read them yet and maybe I won't read them until I'm on Holiday again next year but am looking forward to getting stuck into the Dark Tower Universe

Snake

John

I just finished the last Dark Tower book a day or two. My god it was worth the wait. I thought the ending wasn't suiting as I read it but an hour after I finished I couldn't believe how well it worked.

The Gunslinger still is my favourite of the series though (when you've read the other books and re-read it, it becomes even more wonderful). I think I've read the first four books 5 or 6 times at this stage.

OY

John2 wrote:

I just finished the last Dark Tower book a day or two. My god it was worth the wait. I thought the ending wasn't suiting as I read it but an hour after I finished I couldn't believe how well it worked.

I am about 200 pages from the end and i have to say that it is getting ridiculous. I am dreaming about this damn book. I can't stop thinking about it. It is driving me crazy...but i would not have it any other way!

Can't wait to see how it ends.

OY

And now i have seen how it ends.
It was well worth the wait.
I recommend starting the series to anyone. It is impressive!

Dr. Loon

I just bought the final Dark Tower book, but haven't started reading as I'm only just almost finished re-reading the Dead Zone. I'm one of those people who can't read more than one book at a time. It's killing me though!!!

Shad0r

Gah! have been waiting to get home to read the DT 5 and onwards....

C'mon passport office, remember the faces of your fathers!! Hurry up with my fvnking passport.....

Also, The Dead Zone is a book I'm going to have to pick up sometime soon. Only ever watched the show....

elbee

I loved Misery and Rose Madder (well, RM got a bit weird halfway through, but most of it was bloody good!). And I adored Different Seasons, the collection with Shawshank Redemption and Apt Pupil.

Incidentally, his "memoir of the craft", 'On Writing' is very good. If you like King, I would recommend giving it a look. He is refreshingly unpretentious about writing.