TwilightEL
Well-Known Member
I almost always like his short stories. Everything's Eventual has some of my favorite stories and they're great with suspense and psychology.
I typically don't like his novels. Pet Sematary was terrible. I didn't find it scary--the creatures are as slow and smelly as zombies, but as vulnerable to harm as humans are. The psychological element could've made up for that, but I just didn't get into the main characters' head.
I tried reading The Stand (unabridged version). I got maybe halfway through before I had to quit. I absolutely loved the discussion about the spread of the disease-there's this one especially good passage describing how one man driving is spreading the disease and it has a line something like "He tipped the pretty waitress a dollar bill crawling with death" that sent shivers down my spine. I also liked the survival discussions, how people deal with the post-apocalyptic world, and the description of the "second epidemic". But after that, when the characters were joining that old woman or the walking man, I didn't like the theology or the philosophy, I was only interested in a few characters and I just got bored with the story.
Despite this, I recently bought Firestarter because the premise sounded so intriguing. I'm not very far in, but I've really been digging it. Charlie and Andy running away at the beginning is so intense and real. Andy's flashbacks have been chilling and I'm really interested in his character. The thing is, I really want Charlie and Andy to escape the Shop and have happy, free lives, but it's completely obvious that that's never going to happen. I think that's the best element of suspense--when you really want and hope that the characters will escape, but you know they won't.
Oh, and another thing. Is it just me, or does Stephen King always try to incorporate sex into his stories, even when it won't fit? It's like he always has to have some risque comment, so he just throws in a character thinking about sex for no good reason. Sometimes it works, but a lot of the time it's really out of place and bizarre.
I typically don't like his novels. Pet Sematary was terrible. I didn't find it scary--the creatures are as slow and smelly as zombies, but as vulnerable to harm as humans are. The psychological element could've made up for that, but I just didn't get into the main characters' head.
I tried reading The Stand (unabridged version). I got maybe halfway through before I had to quit. I absolutely loved the discussion about the spread of the disease-there's this one especially good passage describing how one man driving is spreading the disease and it has a line something like "He tipped the pretty waitress a dollar bill crawling with death" that sent shivers down my spine. I also liked the survival discussions, how people deal with the post-apocalyptic world, and the description of the "second epidemic". But after that, when the characters were joining that old woman or the walking man, I didn't like the theology or the philosophy, I was only interested in a few characters and I just got bored with the story.
Despite this, I recently bought Firestarter because the premise sounded so intriguing. I'm not very far in, but I've really been digging it. Charlie and Andy running away at the beginning is so intense and real. Andy's flashbacks have been chilling and I'm really interested in his character. The thing is, I really want Charlie and Andy to escape the Shop and have happy, free lives, but it's completely obvious that that's never going to happen. I think that's the best element of suspense--when you really want and hope that the characters will escape, but you know they won't.
Oh, and another thing. Is it just me, or does Stephen King always try to incorporate sex into his stories, even when it won't fit? It's like he always has to have some risque comment, so he just throws in a character thinking about sex for no good reason. Sometimes it works, but a lot of the time it's really out of place and bizarre.
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