• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

Stephen King

Ouroboros

DP Veteran
Joined
Aug 9, 2018
Messages
19,169
Reaction score
2,387
Gender
Male
Political Leaning
Centrist
My basic feeling on King is that he's never been better than he was in his classic 1970s worK. I've only occasionally enjoyed one of his later works, such as DOCTOR SLEEP.

Good or bad, though, he certainly changed the world of bestseller fiction, though it looks like current bestseller horror is somewhat anemic.
 
My basic feeling on King is that he's never been better than he was in his classic 1970s worK. I've only occasionally enjoyed one of his later works, such as DOCTOR SLEEP.

Good or bad, though, he certainly changed the world of bestseller fiction, though it looks like current bestseller horror is somewhat anemic.

His horror books are 'meh'. I think his best work was general fiction - Shawshank, Apt Pupil, The Body.
 
My basic feeling on King is that he's never been better than he was in his classic 1970s worK. I've only occasionally enjoyed one of his later works, such as DOCTOR SLEEP.

Good or bad, though, he certainly changed the world of bestseller fiction, though it looks like current bestseller horror is somewhat anemic.

I liked Mr. Mercedes and the sequel. The TV adaptation was also good,
 
I loved It, The Stand and the Shining but I am not sure I liked the ending of any of them. They were great reads and great stories whose endings were... meh
 
My basic feeling on King is that he's never been better than he was in his classic 1970s worK. I've only occasionally enjoyed one of his later works, such as DOCTOR SLEEP.

Good or bad, though, he certainly changed the world of bestseller fiction, though it looks like current bestseller horror is somewhat anemic.

Agreed/ His first few books were his best!!!!
 
i'm going to disagree. he has written a ton of amazing novels in pretty much every period. check out Sleeping Beauties. my wife and i are still inside joking about that one.

THE AVON LADY DONE KILLED TRU!!!!

highly recommended.
 
My basic feeling on King is that he's never been better than he was in his classic 1970s worK. I've only occasionally enjoyed one of his later works, such as DOCTOR SLEEP.

Good or bad, though, he certainly changed the world of bestseller fiction, though it looks like current bestseller horror is somewhat anemic.

My favourite books are:

Insomnia
Rose Madder
IT
the Stand
the Dead Zone

To name just a few. Another good one was Needful things, the movie however was horrendous.
 
My favourite books are:

Insomnia
Rose Madder
IT
the Stand
the Dead Zone

To name just a few. Another good one was Needful things, the movie however was horrendous.

i'm currently re-reading the Dark Tower series with my wife, who is reading it for the first time. however, arguably, every story that he's written can be placed somewhere in the Dark Tower universe / multiverse. it's kind of mind blowing.
 
I loved It, The Stand and the Shining but I am not sure I liked the ending of any of them. They were great reads and great stories whose endings were... meh

I have never read a book twice but I read The Stand 2 times. Loved that book.
 
i'm currently re-reading the Dark Tower series with my wife, who is reading it for the first time. however, arguably, every story that he's written can be placed somewhere in the Dark Tower universe / multiverse. it's kind of mind blowing.

Both of my sons read the Dark Tower series, but I never did. They told me I missed a really great series. Maybe I will.
 
I have never read a book twice but I read The Stand 2 times. Loved that book.

The only really good book King has written in the last 20 years is 11/22/63. It is a great book!!!!. And he came up with that idea decade ago.
 
The only really good book King has written in the last 20 years is 11/22/63. It is a great book!!!!. And he came up with that idea decade ago.

I forgot that? It was awesome
 
Both of my sons read the Dark Tower series, but I never did. They told me I missed a really great series. Maybe I will.

it's worth it.
 
also, read Ur if you haven't yet. it's another novella that gives you more clues about Stephen King's body of work.
 
I find it astonishing that King made it. He's a hack that ripped off a lot of his work directly from Twighlight zone. Christine is a great example of this. I have read many of his books and after a point I just said no more. He starts off with a good premise, then its almost as if he gets drunk and/or disinterested in the back half and has a 6th grader finish the story. He should be flogged for his ending of IT in my opinion. You can skip the character build, he will just kill them off anyway after a few hundred pages of mind numbing descriptive character plots that never tie back to the actual story.
The sheriff in Misery was the same as scatman in the Shining...tons of chatacter build only to get killed walking through a door.
 
My basic feeling on King is that he's never been better than he was in his classic 1970s worK. I've only occasionally enjoyed one of his later works, such as DOCTOR SLEEP.

Good or bad, though, he certainly changed the world of bestseller fiction, though it looks like current bestseller horror is somewhat anemic.

Hes definately good. You can kinda sense when hes taking stuff from the entertainment around hiim and turning into his own but at least he has admitted as such so I guess it doesnt offend me.

Mr. Mercedes was pretty good even though it was evil as ****.


The shining 2 (i forgot the real name, about the murder at the carnival and the young kid from Shining all grown up) was ok. (actually i think im mixing 2 books up)

Doctor Sleep was ok and kinda seemed like a SciFi MKUltra government thriller.

Dark Tower was amazing attempt at an Epic book and pretty darn good.

All his short stories are pretty decent.

His movies were always 3 ways better than mediocre but you blamed your own imagination because the books were so good.
 
Last edited:
i'm currently re-reading the Dark Tower series with my wife, who is reading it for the first time. however, arguably, every story that he's written can be placed somewhere in the Dark Tower universe / multiverse. it's kind of mind blowing.

The Dark Tower, itself, the essence is how writers keep using their mind to sell to the masses and chaining thought creatures to everyones perhap'inchance whim

and how YOU reading the book itself is putting Ronald through the Torture all over again.

Pretty ****in' clever.
 
The Dark Tower, itself, the essence is how writers keep using their mind to sell to the masses and chaining thought creatures to everyones perhap'inchance whim

and how YOU reading the book itself is putting Ronald through the Torture all over again.

Pretty ****in' clever.

Pretty damn boring. King has become a parody caricature of himself. The pulp fiction genius has aged and run out of fresh ideas long ago. He really wants to buy more luxury condo apartments in Manhattan for his collection. Selling the same books with variations on the same stories with variations of the same characters, hack writing at the best, supplies the cash for his condo habit. At least it isn't cocaine, but reading him makes me think I've taken a valium, and I take a nap. Meh, I take naps often anyway.
 
Carrie - good, OK movie
Salem's lot - good
the Shining - great book, great movie, so so remake (not really sure how you will top "Here's Johnny" by Jack Nicholson)
the Stand - fantastic, also great movie
the Dead Zone - very good, also great movie
firestarter - OK, movie not that good
Cujo - good book, OK movie
Christine - good book, entertaining movie
IT - fantastic, good movie, entertaining remake
Misery - very good book, good movie
the Tommyknockers - not very special book that I can remember, movie not good
Needful Things - very good book, not so good movie
Gerald's game - nothing to write home about
Dolores Claiborne - good book, good movie (not going to be bad with Kathy Bates)
Insomnia - fantastic
Rose Madder - fantastic book, MAKE A MOVIE ABOUT THIS!!! MOVIE VIVA ZE BOOL
Green mile - very good book, very good movie
Desperation - not that memorable

And at that moment I stopped reading that much, blame the internet, blame Harry Potter LOL, blame Netflix and downloading US tv shows, message boards and forums. But I might start reading a bit more again. Who knows.
 
"meh"

a polite word for awful

How Hollywood kept making his books into idiot movies I'll never understand.

Well that is not the fault of King, his books were good to great before the movie studios butchered the books into terrible movies.
 
I love almost all his old stuff AND his new stuff. I like his horror, fantasy, sci-fi and straight fiction pretty much equally. He is a good writer, but he is a GREAT story teller. No other author on the planet has given me as many hours of reading pleasure throughout my life than King. And that isn't even taking into account that Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption and Stand By Me are in my top 10-15 movies of all time with Shawshank holding the number #1 slot.

I have said it before, Stephen King and Patrick Stewart are NOT allowed to die as long as I am alive.
 
Pretty damn boring. King has become a parody caricature of himself. The pulp fiction genius has aged and run out of fresh ideas long ago. He really wants to buy more luxury condo apartments in Manhattan for his collection. Selling the same books with variations on the same stories with variations of the same characters, hack writing at the best, supplies the cash for his condo habit. At least it isn't cocaine, but reading him makes me think I've taken a valium, and I take a nap. Meh, I take naps often anyway.

lol f u stephen
 
His horror books are 'meh'. I think his best work was general fiction - Shawshank, Apt Pupil, The Body.

Shawshank seems to be the only work adapted to film that (nearly) everyone seems to like.

I mean, I'm sure someone somewhere must dislike it, but I haven't seen same.
 
Back
Top Bottom