Post: #1

Has anyone read these? You can usually find them together in one big book at Half Price Books for a few dollars. I've read all four 6 or 7 times over the years and still love them. I'm not a huge fan of his later work, but these are really fucking good. I wanna say the series isn't being made anymore because one of the stories inspired the Columbine high school shooters. Or maybe its just Rage that isn't being released with the other three.

Rage - a high school student takes his class hostage and kills a few teachers. Good thriller as you get to watch him slowly go insane while students tell their apersonal stories.

The Long Walk - futuristic story about a walk that young men go on for prize money if you're the last one walking. They get killed if they stop to many times.

The Running Man - Arnold Schwarzenager made the movie from this.

Roadwork - a mans business and house threatened by a new freeway being built. He self destructs and takes things into his own hands.

Post: #2

I read them a while back. Good stuff from what I remember. All of his work up through the late 90's was pretty good. After The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon most of his work stopped being scary and started being... weird. From A Buick 8 was pretty good, and I won't lie - the first half of Cell was quite possibly the best apocalyptic literature I have ever touched, the second half was a total let down. Haven't read any of his stuff to come out since Under The Dome, though.

Post: #3

The Long Walk is perhaps my favorite SK work of all time. The pace of the story is absolutely relentless. There are no stops, no rest periods, or any established finish line. The walk does not pause for any reason, including bad weather, darkness, or sleep. The walk ends only when one participant remains alive. I also love the ending. It was actually his first novel.

Post: #4

I think Stephen King did his best work as Bachman.

Truly brilliant stuff.

(03-30-2014 08:10 PM)Osiris Wrote:  I read them a while back. Good stuff from what I remember. All of his work up through the late 90's was pretty good. After The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon most of his work stopped being scary and started being... weird. From A Buick 8 was pretty good, and I won't lie - the first half of Cell was quite possibly the best apocalyptic literature I have ever touched, the second half was a total let down. Haven't read any of his stuff to come out since Under The Dome, though.

A lot of his work seems to suffer from this problem exactly now.

Even Under the Dome, which sounded ludicrous at first, was pretty gripping for the first half.

Post: #5

(04-02-2014 07:10 PM)Beyond Borders Wrote:  A lot of his work seems to suffer from this problem exactly now.

Even Under the Dome, which sounded ludicrous at first, was pretty gripping for the first half.

Yeah, that was my experience with it. Awesome premise, fantastic opening, then it just kind of needed to end.

A buddy of mine is reading Dr. Sleep right now, he says it's really good, but he's only 1/5 of the way through it, so we'll see if the same thing happens.

Post: #6

The Bachman books, like most of Kings works, are great. The focus on the realistic without any supernatural elements does increase some the tension in parts of the stories. Rage likely is the best one but also the most unfilmable due to the subject matter, ending and subvertive theme.

Post: #7

(04-02-2014 07:10 PM)Beyond Borders Wrote:  I think Stephen King did his best work as Bachman.

Truly brilliant stuff.

(03-30-2014 08:10 PM)Osiris Wrote:  I read them a while back. Good stuff from what I remember. All of his work up through the late 90's was pretty good. After The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon most of his work stopped being scary and started being... weird. From A Buick 8 was pretty good, and I won't lie - the first half of Cell was quite possibly the best apocalyptic literature I have ever touched, the second half was a total let down. Haven't read any of his stuff to come out since Under The Dome, though.

A lot of his work seems to suffer from this problem exactly now.

Even Under the Dome, which sounded ludicrous at first, was pretty gripping for the first half.

I hate this about Stephen King. The guy is so goddamn good at setting up disturbing and scary situations, building up suspense and mystery and horror...and then in the last act, throws it all away for some B movie bullshit.

SPOILERS

Take It for example. Incredibly unsettling book, written in a mature voice with mature themes, dealing with a creature which can gaze into your mind and present itself as your worst fears. Very frightening premise, especially since the main characters are children when they first encounter the monster. You wonder just how they all are going to stop it...and then the big climax is that they fight a giant spider monster.

Bag Of Bones. Again, scary book, very mature themes dealing with depression and ghosts. What's the end? A big climatic ghost fight between the main character's dead wife and a racism victim while the main character tries to dig up the evil ghost's remains to pour lye over it, like it's the end of an episode of Supernatural. Oh, and this all happens in a spooky thunderstorm summoned by magic.

END OF SPOILERS

For many of King's books, it's almost as if he wrote the last halves back when he was 19, just after he finished marathoning bad horror movies. Then he waited until he was older, more mature with better writing skills to write the first halves.

Post: #8

(04-04-2014 05:56 PM)Billy Chubbs Wrote:  For many of King's books, it's almost as if he wrote the last halves back when he was 19, just after he finished marathoning bad horror movies. Then he waited until he was older, more mature with better writing skills to write the first halves.

Ha. Then you would really hate the end of the Dark Tower series.

Post: #9

(03-30-2014 07:25 PM)Screwston Wrote:  Rage - a high school student takes his class hostage and kills a few teachers. Good thriller as you get to watch him slowly go insane while students tell their apersonal stories.

Haven't read it, but I think he pulled Rage from publication after Columbine, so there's an interesting historical connection there.

Post: #10

(04-04-2014 06:27 PM)Tail Gunner Wrote:  Ha. Then you would really hate the end of the Dark Tower series.

It was pretty much a big meh for me. I wasn't as angry as some people seemed to have been over it. I also didn't wait 22 years for it to end; the series started before I was born and I only started reading it back in 2002 or 2003, so it's not like I had a big lifetime investment into it. Also, in King's defence, that ending wasn't an ass pull. He'd been planning it since the first book.





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