The Dark TowerFollow

I personally am not a fan of King's work. Some of it is incredible... the Stand, and Firestarter for 2 examples. However, a lot of it is just pathetic. His writing really degraded when he became almost like a writing factory.. pumping out a new book on almost a monthly basis. Plus, I have very little respect for the man to begin with after the whole "Misery" ordeal. I like to consider reading a book like having a conversation with the author. I can't have a conversation with a person I don't respect without feeling nauseated.

I think Family Guy explained it best...
"Oooooh! A Lamp monster!!!"

"You're not even trying anymore."


I might give the Gunslinger series a shot, though. I try to keep an open mind as much as I can about literature, and it sounds interesting.

Edited, Fri Jan 7 02:34:44 2005 by scubamage

I'd have to agree with you, Scubamage... though, for me, it was Gerald's Game that started to alienate me. One exception, however, would be From a Buick 8, it grabbed me like his older work used to.

I dunno... all personal preference I guess.

I couldn't disagree more. I felt the last few books were rushed. It was as if when he got hit by that van and almost died, he was in a big hurry to get it over with. I fully enjoyed the first 4 books, and I've seen a lot of folks say what Rognars said. I actually really enjoyed Wizard and Glass, and I had hoped that there would be more backstory in the last couple novels.

As for his other novels, there were great, good, and not so good. No one can be great all the time. Yeah, Gerald's Game was horrible. I'm suprised someone mentioned Misery as a dissappointment, I liked that one. Some of his more recent stuff has been a bit dry.

In the end, the Gunslinger series was really good. I was a bit bummed by the end, not because of the way he chose to end it, but just because of the rushed feel to it. Had he taken his time, it might have come out better. But, I guess an ending is better than an unfinished series. That would have really sucked.

I used to be a huge King fan. I've read part of the Dark Tower series. The Gunslinger is, to me, an incredible work of art. True, it shows King's flourishing, novice writing at times, and the style jumps around a lot, but the story is powerful. The second, Drawing of the Three, is okay, and Wastelands I didn't really care for much at all. But Wizard and Glass, the last one I've read, is amazing. The flashback story engrosses me like little else has, and pisses me off when it goes back to "present" time. I still have yet to read the latest books of the series, but I am glad he did get around to finishing.

Gerald's Game was pretty good. It's left an image burned into my mind that will never go away - that of getting out of the handcuffs. The last King book I could not get through was Insomnia - after so long, it was just some old people who couldn't sleep and saw evil gnomes. That was when I finally decided that good ol' Steve had gone senile. I don't think I've read any (stand-alone) stories after that.

This reminds me, I got "Eyes of the Dragon" when I was like 10 and into Tolkien, but that book creeped me out and I never got past a few chapters. I should pick that up again sometime.

I too have been reading the Dark Tower series for some time.
I'd say that, while the overall series is a fantasy telling, King is first and foremost a horror writer (wether it be quality or pulp horror) and that has bled through into the 'Tower series fairly often.

That in and of itself has given the series a unique flavor all it's own.

From the sometimes pulp-fiction-esque characters, to King's inevitable use of vulgar language and sexual references, to the sometimes Lovecraftian tones, it was just an enjoyable read.
One HELL of a long wait if you started reading when the Gunslinger was first mass-published as well (fortunately I didn't come across it until the early 90's).
One thing I liked was that he wasn't just trying to pull his own novels into the stories, but referencing a lot of recent things in skewed fashions the further he got along.

But the most important thing to keep in mind is that this is in fact a Fantasy story, so even if you don't like King's usual fare, this series might be worth the read for you.

And those of you who have read it and like it might want to try Terry Brook's "The Word and the Void" trilogy, starting with "Running with the Demon" if you haven't allready.
The style is similar, and it too is a modern "fantasy" story.

Ehh, I've babbled too much, I'll shut up now.

When I reread GG, I had to skim over that part. WAAAAY to graphic and detailed, heh.

I read a lot, and I mean a lot! I can read an entire book in a day, maybe less and I read everything from horror to historical fiction to biographies. I loved reading so much that when I would run out of books when I was little I would read the phonebook. The first SK book I ever read was IT when I was five and to this day I am horribly scared of clowns.

When I was thirteen or so (I'm 25 now) we moved to a new house (we moved like every few minutes, I have a bizzare family) and the last person to live there let me have a big box of books, including the first few books of the gunslinger series. When I finished reading them I was so upset that he hadn't finished the series and probably never would. There are only two kinds of books SK writes, the really good ones and the really bad ones. While some of the bad ones were interspersed with the good ones over the years, most of his worst books were just in the past few years. For reasons I'd rather not go into I can't stomache books with rape/torture scenes especially if they are very graphic and drawn out and I found King to be relying on these types of scenes more and more in recent years for, I assume, shock value.

If you are tired of King and need something new I suggest trying Robert Jordan or Jean M. Auel. Jordan writes the Wheel Of Time series which is sort of fantasy/science fiction/alternative history. Auel writes fictional history/adventure. I don't read romance novels, they're soft core **** wrapped up in a pink chiffon package of delusions, but I suppose you could call Auel's Earth Children series romance as well. I also like Koontz (horror), Robin Mckinley (alternative fairytales), Neil Gaiman (graphic novels) and Orson Scott Card (science fiction). Good luck and blessings, Prana

Oh my god! Really? I thought Insomnia was his worst work ever. It was just so incredibly tedious and meanders along with either nothing at all happening, or something that is utterly inexplicable (and not even interesting) happening. Blech! It was awful.

Insomnia was the book that really turned me off to King, and I really haven't read anything of his since.

Might need to dip into some mind-candy book pretty soon. Last one I read was "Tuesdays With Morrie" and it was regoddamndiculously depressing.

I've gotten a copy of the latest Richard Russo novel, "Empire Falls" that I should start reading soon. This is from the same guy who wrote "Nobody's Fool", which became a Paul Newman movie. "Empire Falls" is also being filmed, again with Paul (in a supporting role).

Honestly a lot of people read Insomnia and just don't get it. They see the 'old people' story and get bored. The simple fact is that you should not read Insomnia unless you've read almost all of his previous works. If you have, then this book is a pure gem. I was going 'wow' every few pages as another story was linked in.

Insomnia is the book that linked all of SK's previous works in with the Dark Tower series. Without a thorough understanding of the previous works, these references are lost - and don't make much sense I've heard.

I thought it was one of his best ever - and I've read everything King has written at least 3 or 4 times, with the exceptions of Dark Tower 7 and Danse Macabre (the endless baseball stories practically bored me to tears).