Stephen King Fucking Sucks

King has been internationally recognised as a very poor writer for a long time. Unfortunately this doesn't seem to stop him selling lots of books. You tend to find that most people who actually read Stephen King (as opposed to just leaving the book on a shelf unread) are all under 16. Stephen King seems to be a phase some people go through whilst divining their taste in books and figuring out what they actually like to read. Nobody actually enjoys his books, they just kind of get through them and delude themselves it was good. Eventually their tastes mature and they realise 99% of Stephen King is total drivel. On the other hand, a surprisingly large proportion of this drivel translates very well onto film - with the unusual result that most films based on Stephen King's ideas are better than their book counterparts.

  On 2/18/2010 at 11:20 AM, BCM said:

King has been internationally recognised as a very poor writer for a long time. Unfortunately this doesn't seem to stop him selling lots of books. You tend to find that most people who actually read Stephen King (as opposed to just leaving the book on a shelf unread) are all under 16. Stephen King seems to be a phase some people go through whilst divining their taste in books and figuring out what they actually like to read. Nobody actually enjoys his books, they just kind of get through them and delude themselves it was good. Eventually their tastes mature and they realise 99% of Stephen King is total drivel. On the other hand, a surprisingly large proportion of this drivel translates very well onto film - with the unusual result that most films based on Stephen King's ideas are better than their book counterparts.

However bad his books might be, the film versions are even worse. The only exception I can think of being Kubrick's 'The Shining'.

Of his books I have read The Shining and Dreamcatcher. Both not bad books, the latter much better than the film version, engaging and entertaining, but it does stop there. I still have a bunch of his books lying around, but I know what you mean, they will probably never get read hehe

"It" is pretty awesome.

I liked "The Stand", "Salem's Lot", "The Dead Zone", The Dark Tower" and "Cycle of the Werewolf" too (basically all of the books I've read by him).

I like a lot of the movie adaptations. The Shining (obviously), The Running Man, Silver Bullet, It, Carrie, The Dead Zone, Stand By Me, Pet Sematary, Misery, The Dark Half and The Mist were all good movies.

the dark tower was a shockingly poor book. the build up of the world in the first three books was ok, everything else was cheesy, annoying, boring as hell, and unsatisfying.

I still think that King is best when he does "non pure-horror" stuff. The Stand. The Long Walk. Under the Dome. The Dark Tower. Different Seasons.

bad authors sell millions all the time...look at dan brown.

I maintain King was good up until "It." Then he lost the plot. A lot of his earlier novels and short stories are quite good.

  On 2/18/2010 at 5:04 PM, azatoth said:

bad authors sell millions all the time...look at dan brown.

i read one of his earlier books before all the da vinci code nonsense. i actually went to a book signing thing and chatted with the guy. then i got home, read the book, and found out he was a shit writer. years later, da vinci code happens and i'm all

seriously though

i love the bachman boooks

I've got a couple of his books kicking around that yes, I read from about age 11-12 to 15. I'm a bit surprised that 3 and a bit pages in to this thread and no-one has mentioned Rose Madder? That is one of his books that isn't really strictly horror although I guess some would say its about the horrors of domestic violence. I think in some ways its kind of like a Carrie 2. It is potentially the biggest book I've ever read however on rereading the plot summary on wikipedia I don't remember the events of the last two paragraphs so I'm not sure if I did finish it or if I was just thoroughly confused by the end of it.

Bit of love for the Night Shift collection of short stories too

The Running Man is also a pretty entertaining read I thought. The movie is fun for its eightys-ness but leaves out and differs too much from the book.

let me go on the record as saying Stephen King is actually very good.

meh

  On 2/18/2010 at 8:40 PM, troon said:

let me go on the record as saying Stephen King is actually very good.

yeah

Also, the DT series is the most epic series ever.

I just bought Duma Key

I was a big fan (yeah pre 16 I spose). Just this year I got into him again - listened to Duma Key on audio book, got 90% of the way through then didn't care. Haven't heard the end.

I thought Under the Dome was pretty great though, but probably a bit long winded.

I just finished Cell and it was good at first but by halfway or so nothing was happening and by the end I was like IS THAT ALL THAT HAPPENS WHY'S THE BOOK SO LONG? was expecting an intelligent take on zombies with decent characters (like the walking dead comics) but it was turdalicious.

So yeah he is pretty hit and miss.

Also watched Stand By Me the other night, still a pretty good flick, liked it as a kid. Shawshank Redemption and Running Man are the other good un's. All very loosely based on shorts stories too. Oh I spose there is Carrie and Christine too back in the day they were good.

My fav is DESPERATION that book was badass. The Stand was great too apart from the very end.

Maximum Overdrive

after watching this it makes a lot of sense now why Stephen King gave up filmmaking

Anybody who's produced that much material is bound to have an enormous breadth of crap under their belt. I was pretty into him when I was younger. I still think that a lot of Different Seasons, Salem's Lot, It and many of his Bachman books are quite good. I think a good, more faithful cinematic adaptation of The Running Man could be fucking brilliant.

That said, Insomnia was the worst book I'd ever read for about five years of my life until I read one of the Left Behind books for a school project.