Stephen King

[jesternl]

Darh House starts off reather slow, but the end makes up for it I think. Reading the Talsiman isn't strictly necessary, though it *is* a better book. My wife's reading it now and she's racing through it

[ctrlaltdel]

i tried to read something called the third eye of something or somebody's third eye or something with 3 and an eye anyway... i didn't even finish the piece of crap. it couldn't keep my attention, nothing really was happening, no horrific atmosphere at all, just plain nothing

[Hitchhiker]

Do you think all of King's "horror" novels have a clear theme? I'm beginning to think so. He's an entertaining storyteller, but some of his best thrillers go a lot deeper than the surface.

The Green Mile, obviously, is about death. Besides being set in Death Row and dealing rather intensely with murder and the controversy of capital punishment, it touches on issues like immortality and euthanasia.

Rose Madder is about the eternal conflict between the sexes, and what it truly means to be "male" or "female."

Firestarter, I think, is about power. Who's got it, who wants it, who fears it. Can it be regulated? Does it always corrupt the bearer?

The Dark Half is about identity -- specifically, an author's identity. How much of what you write becomes part of your personality?

Are there any others that stand out as far as the theme goes? Besides The Stand (good vs. evil) and Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption (hope).

[jesternl]

Eye of the Dragon has magic as an underlying theme...

[subversive]

I loved Firestarer! I am about a third of the way through The Shining. Did you guys think it was good?

[Digglu]

yeah the shining was pretty good....they left a lot of crap out in the original movie, part of why i didn't like it...so far my favorite king books have been dreamcatcher, the stand, the gunslinger series and four past midnight...right now i have the talisman and black house sitting on my shelf but i haven't had time to read them

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"You may make no sense, but at least you're enthusiastic about it"

[Digglu]

[tangent]
since we're talking about horror novels, has anyone read bentley little? if not, you should check him out...my personal favorites are The Ignored and The Store
[/tangent]

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"You may make no sense, but at least you're enthusiastic about it"

[The Ktulu]

Did anyone here read and see Dreamcatcher?
The movie left out quite a bit, e.g. Mr. Gray's obsession with BACON. But it was friggin' awesome. I know people always say movies ruin books by changing the ending, but with Dreamcatcher, I don't think people would be interested in seeing the book ending with the movie. I have to admit, seeing Duddits say, "I Duddits!" with his arms stretched out before turning into an alien is hilarious as well as AWESOME! The book, because it can go more in depth with the story and characters, is better, but the movie is not bad! Whoa yeah.

[KingPin]

I have to disagree with that.
The movie was Okay at best. The whole premise of the book was that Duddits was a special boy. Whereas the movie suggested that he was an alien! Come-on. They did leave a lot out of the movie. For example: The purpose of the red fungus, how even the soldiers were getting it. They forgot to mention the failed attempt at depositing the alien slug into the water tower in dairy, IT connection. The bacon obsession. The generals skills at tracking, not using a damn radio receiver in a gun! But my main beef was with the whole Duddits as an alien. That was crap! Although Donnie Wahlberg did a great job as Duddits

[Silversunset]

i LOVED eyes of the dragon...i didn't really think it was too much of a magic theme (there is magick IN it) but more like deception and conspiracy.
still loved it though.
(if you like the fantasy types, read weiss and hickman books. Dragonlance - lots of magick and stuff, or DeathGate Cycle - lots of world travel and dragons and giants and magick and elves and dwarves and priests that dress up as butterflies........)

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"If you take the Christian Bible and put it out in the wind and the rain, soon the paper on which the words are printed will disintegrate and the words will be gone. Our bible IS the wind and the rain."
42

[The Ktulu]

http://www.eeggs.com/items/3044.html

I found this quite interesting.

[Suspence]

To agree with what's already been said, Black House was excellent.

I just finished reading "Everything's Eventual", a collection of short stories, and found almost all of them to be a waste of good toilet time.

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I hate people who try to write interesting things in their signature

[The Ktulu]

I bought The Gunslinger yesterday. Gonna read the Dark Tower series now that I read the Harry Potter series.... The final three chapters of the Dark Tower are going to be coming out over the next two years.
Talk about reviving an old thread!
Did anyone else who read the book get slightly confused in the first chapter? I was wondering what all this stuff about The Interloper was about and the gunslinger being the Interlopter and then shooting up the whole town, yet it seems as though "Walter" is the bad guy...perhaps it's a secret for now....

[Digglu]

yeah the first book doesn't do much except for explain a few things about roland and what he's searching for...you'll end up with a somewhat clear sense of things by the end of the book

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"You may not make sense, but at least you're enthusiastic about it"

[The Ktulu]

I thought so...just checking.... Thanks.