Stephen King?

I was a number one fan (in Kingspeak) for over two decades. His newer work--like since he finished the Dark Tower series--have been self-serving crap and trunk novels imo.

I'm having a rough time reading his latest short story collection and I love all of the ones preceding it.

So, what the hell is up with this guy? Surely he has to know he's reached the end of his arc. He can't possibly be running out of dough...



Or have I just changed as a reader?

Opinions?

I think I'd have to agree with you. His old writing is outstanding (I read "The Stand" at least once a year)...I even liked the stuff he wrote under pen-names. But, the only book I've read in his more recent years that I liked was "Lisey's Story". I enjoyed that one well.

I think that perhaps he may have just passed his prime...though I'm not certain how anyone else would feel about that observation.

You read The Stand once a year! My God, that book is over eighteen-hundred pages, last I checked. Half of it could be stripped without losing any of the story.

As for King, I have yet to read a writer who writes as much pointless crap as Stephen King does. His earlier works are okay, but the man is literally "diarrhoea of the word processor". Page after page after page after page of crap.

The only recent novel of his that I could stand to read was Cell. The rest are just full of page-filler material that bores me silly.

Sorry!

Aliens took over his body and they've been using him to fund their takeover of the world.

This is all nice to hear, btw. After he publicly insulted one of my favorite authors--who admits she's an amateur.

King has some really good stuff. The Cell was pretty good, but lately he has become so long winded. Have any of you read Desperation? That was the most descriptive book in the whole wide world.
IMO, in his more recent books, he goes on and on and on and on with describing stuff. After awhile, I am like 'I get it. I understand.'
If I happen to get a King book, I skim through all that stuff, and get to his story. I think I skim half of his book.

Have any of you read Desperation?

I've read everything of his I can get my hands on until recently. Desperation is a pretty good story. I can't remember the name of the book right before Duma Key, and I'm too lazy to Google it right now, but I haven't read it.

"You read The Stand once a year! My God, that book is over eighteen-hundred pages, last I checked. Half of it could be stripped without losing any of the story."

I cringed when I read that. The Stand and Needful Things are my two favorites, and I love every bit of his long winded-ness. :)

Also, Desperation is a very, very good story. As well as the Talisman. Actually, I've loved every King novel save The Cell and Lisey's Song.

So, in summary, yeah I agree with our lovely admin... he's amazing, but the new crap is sub-king. Not sub-par mind you, but just not what I'd expect from a King novel.

I don't read The Stand once a year, but I've read it many times. Probably five or six. I don't have time to read as much as I would like anymore.

He's probably falling under the trap of believing he doesn't have to try anymore. Think about it--when you make as much money as he does from people buying his books, he wouldn't realize that his sales are based on the fact that his name is on the book, not that the writing in particular is good.

Personally, when I was at a bookstore two or three years ago, I saw a large amount of shelf space dedicated to his name, so I picked up some random books. All 6 of the ones I picked up I couldn't get past the first three paragraphs and asked myself, "How did this guy get published?" This explains why, when people tell me to study Stephen King, I get lazy.

Can't read King. Kack!

I read The Stand: Could have been a third as long.

I read Tommyknockers: Corny.

It did inspire the following lolcat which I made:

Love it, Wrey!

Is that a site for altering photos? I see that icanhascheezeburger under a lot of photos, but I've never visited the site.

Garmar wrote:Love it, Wrey!

Is that a site for altering photos? I see that icanhascheezeburger under a lot of photos, but I've never visited the site.

Why yes it is! That is where I made all the Biff & Buff, Cylon lovers, pics.

Wreybies wrote:

Garmar wrote:Love it, Wrey!

Is that a site for altering photos? I see that icanhascheezeburger under a lot of photos, but I've never visited the site.

Why yes it is! That is where I made all the Biff & Buff, Cylon lovers, pics.

Well, I'm gonna have to visit that site!

Wreybies wrote:Can't read King. Kack!

I read The Stand: Could have been a third as long.

I read Tommyknockers: Corny.

It did inspire the following lolcat which I made:

Hmm... that cat looks like mine...

That's very good though! I'll keep the link for this site as well...

For starters I've got to say King was a close friend of my HS English teacher, Everett McCutcheon. I graduated a couple of years before King started teaching at Hampden Academy. I have heard King speak a few times, and used to follow his work closely.

I think his drop in readability came from trying for 'legitimacy' in the academic community. I know a number of prof types at UMO derided his writing as pulp, insignificant, or unworthy pandering to the market. I believe King still respects these jerks, who require their students to read what they consider 'serious literature'. I think he is writing to meet the academic standards of beautiful prose, full descriptions and all the other stuff people who live in the 1800's (in their literary sense at least) believe is the only 'true' literature.

I hope so. I would hate to think he has lost his originality and ability to portray sleepy Down Maine without putting people to sleep.

I think Salem’s Lot, The Stand, and The Dead Zone were his best. The ones before were clearly a learning process for him. The ones after had less convincing characters until they got to the point where I didn’t care whether they lived or dies in agony. To me Salem’s lot had the best plot and organization of all. His excellent later works were less tight. I never felt like I was “out of the plot and sight seeing” reading The Lot. I felt that way more and more in his later books and stopped bothering with them years ago. I think Clown was the last one I read.

CS