Kevin's Watch

Cord wrote:

Loremaster wrote:I don't like his references to the Cthulhu mythos.

Whats that ???

Cthulhu Mythos is the term coined by the writer August Derleth to describe the shared elements, characters, settings, and themes in the works of H. P. Lovecraft and associated horror fiction writers. Together, they form the Mythos that authors writing in the Lovecraftian milieu have used—and continue to use—to craft their stories.[1] Although this legendarium is sometimes called the Lovecraft Mythos—most notably by the Lovecraft scholar S. T. Joshi[2]—it has long since moved beyond Lovecraft's original conception.

Examples Lore?

Yeah DW...I think he's just not a great endings writer. That said, I still prefer his endings to, say, Koontz. But they are sometimes, especially later with those really dragged on ones, a bit...well... weak. Anticlimatic almost.

--A

High Lord Tolkien wrote: The Stand was the best example of that for me.

The Stand is the only SK book I've ever read. Unfortunately, all I could find was the newer author's cut version, which was about 500 pages too long (dude, that's why you pay editors to edit your manuscripts!). I totally agree that the ending was silly. I loved the beginning, and the middle, but some of his characters are just so lame. Right now, I'm watching the miniseries (it was on sci-fi sunday, and I tivo'd it), and it's bringing back a lot of memories of that book (I read it ~5 years ago), most of them bad. Mainly, most of the characters are horribly one-dimensional. In this story, at least, all of the characters fit into some sort of simplistic archetype: I'm a simpleton! I'm a bad dude! I'm a daddy's girl! I'm a dork who couldn't get laid at the Mustang Ranch with a fistful of benjamins! I'm a vain, 10 cent flash-in-the-pan pop star! Seriously, the characterizations were just bad in that book, and it makes me not want to read any more King ever again, even though everyone says that The Dark Tower series is excellent. I really found The Walkin' Dude to be an embarrasing bad guy, and Trashcan Man was just plain stupid. I guess I'm not into supernatural stories, and that's largely what ruined the book for me. I thought that all of the dreams of Mama Abby were ridiculous, and the simplistic good v. evil storyline was just kind of childish. Again, I loved the beginning of the book; it's a classic disaster story along the lines of Footfall or Lucifer's Hammer. And like most disaster stories, everything in the aftermath of the disaster is a bit of a let-down. But I found the last half of The Stand to be a massive let-down, and I really felt that the characterizations were flat-out horrible.

I guess I'll read the DT series at some point, but I really hope that the characters in those books are more than cartoons.

The mini-series is terrible man. 5 years later, you're not remembering al the places it goes wrong.

*shrug*

I like the Stand. Especially the long version. Just not the ending so much.

What I really hate (I don't know if I mentioned this here already actually), is Kings foreshadowing. He tells you what's going to happen next. Sometimes subtly, sometimes blatantly. But he always does it.

DT is great, but I dunno if you'll like it if you disliked the Stand. 50-50.

--A

Mabye it's just the generation I grew up it but gratuitous sex scenes aren't all that gratuitouis to me.

I see plenty worse in rapper videos.

As for the weak endings, there is really very little that I personally don't like when I read. Endings have never held an important position with me, it's all about the plot as a whole. Although there have been a few books where the ending killed the plot as a whole.

For me it's the world / universe. If that's engaging enough, I don't worry about anything else. (One reason I can still read the WoT books. )

--A

I gave on WoT LONG ago.

But I agree, the world comes in second for me. Thats why I have no problem reading the Sword of Truth series. It's sort of a bad job connecting them all together, but I love 'em.

NO! No Terry Goodkind...please...

--A

I probably shouldn't mention John Norman then, either.

Only tried very few of them that I remember. They don't bother me as much, because of the time they were written. I like ERB's Mars books for example.

--A

Balon wrote: As for the weak endings, there is really very little that I personally don't like when I read. Endings have never held an important position with me, it's all about the plot as a whole. Although there have been a few books where the ending killed the plot as a whole.

Well, when I'm talking the ending of the Stand, I'm talking about the last 400 pages or so, not the last 5.

Farm Ur-Ted wrote:

Balon wrote: As for the weak endings, there is really very little that I personally don't like when I read. Endings have never held an important position with me, it's all about the plot as a whole. Although there have been a few books where the ending killed the plot as a whole.

Well, when I'm talking the ending of the Stand, I'm talking about the last 400 pages or so, not the last 5.

To be honest, I've always thought King was pretty tame.

I like his short stories, as his sense of humour and clever ideas more often come to the fore in those. As for his novels, though (with the possible exception of Pet Semetary), I think he's an unengaging writer.

His greatest sin as a writer, in my opinion, is never having written anything close to a memorable sentence. An entertaining pulp writer, but not a great one, by a long shot.

King wrote:The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed.

--A

King also wrote:Get busy living, or get busy dying.

and...

Oh yes, we all float - and when you're down here with us, you'll float too!

and

Sometimes being a bitch is all a woman has to hold on to

and

M-O-O-N, that spells Tom". Laws, yes.

"The terror, which would not end for another twenty-eight years -- if it ever did end -- began, so far as I know or can tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain."

Cail wrote:"The terror, which would not end for another twenty-eight years -- if it ever did end -- began, so far as I know or can tell, with a boat made from a sheet of newspaper floating down a gutter swollen with rain."

*shivers*

If the sign of a good line is the desire to read past it, then King's written a ton of them.

Cail wrote:If the sign of a good line is the desire to read past it, then King's written a ton of them.

I don't deny that. I just don't believe he's ever written a great line. Let me put it this way - he's a damn good story-teller, a very accomplished hack, but not a great writer nor an artist.

Montressor wrote:

Cail wrote:If the sign of a good line is the desire to read past it, then King's written a ton of them.

I don't deny that. I just don't believe he's ever written a great line. Let me put it this way - he's a damn good story-teller, a very accomplished hack, but not a great writer nor an artist.

sez you. no "art" to telling a story well. nnnnnnoooooo. none at all.

Montressor wrote:

Cail wrote:If the sign of a good line is the desire to read past it, then King's written a ton of them.

I don't deny that. I just don't believe he's ever written a great line. Let me put it this way - he's a damn good story-teller, a very accomplished hack, but not a great writer nor an artist.

Well, to each his own, but I would urge you to read "The Stand", preferably the unabridged version, as well as Hearts in Atlantis.

In the Stand, King's exploration of the human condition courtesy of the dynamic character Larry Underwood, is something to behold artistically. Look for Larry's:

1) Discovery and description of "The Sweet Treat"
2) His decision to stay with Lucy over the temptation of nadine
3) His last grand moments

King slams a literary home run with The Stand, though I'd classify it as an "inside the park" homer, as he doesn't quite hit the "Cather in the Rye" level of literary genius, but damn...it's CLOSE. I'll say this, he kicks Clancy's ass from here to Jack Ryan's hometown.