leemond2008 Posted November 7, 2012 Share Posted November 7, 2012 I thought IT was fantastic right up until the ''ritual of chud'' that was fooking stupid The universe was created by a vomiting turtle and all that shite. Salems lot and the shining have gotta be my 2 fave King books at the moment, lets see how the stand, stands up against them. Only 100 pages in at the moment started it yesterday Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted November 7, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted November 7, 2012 The Green Mile is my favourite King book. Read it before I'd seen the film and thought it was brilliant. I also liked Firestarter and The Tommy Knockers. More recently I also thought Cell was really good and was perfect to be made into a film (although no doubt it would be ruined for reasons I won't go into as they'd be spoilers) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leemond2008 Posted November 7, 2012 Share Posted November 7, 2012 Cell??? aint that the one where a mobile phone turns people into midless zombie's or something like that? I remember reading about it and it sounded absolute gash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted November 7, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted November 7, 2012 I agree, it does sound gash. But it's surprisingly good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wainy316 Posted November 7, 2012 Share Posted November 7, 2012 Currently into Philip K. Dick's 'Man in the High Castle'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted November 7, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted November 7, 2012 Currently into Dick's . Tee hee Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hogso Posted November 7, 2012 Share Posted November 7, 2012 Cell is a curious one. I read it as a holiday book about 3 years ago, which started me off on my current King binge - I've read various Novels, Novellas, and short story compendiums of his ever since. Not near having read all of them yet though, I'm a pretty slow reader. On Cell, I've heard people say that it's one of the only books they've ever read that gets worse with every page, the whole way through. I think that is a little unfair, but it's not a sentiment without some truth - the start is fantastic. I mean, staggeringly good. You have the majority of the worlds population become flesh hungry 'zombies' in a split second whilst our main character is waiting in line for an ice cream, and all hells breaks loose. It's wonderfully visceral. From then on though...hm. I actually quite liked the way the zombies changed throughout, although it was kind of absurd (but hey, they not just zombies, they're Stephen King zombies, so what do you expect?) and mostly liked the survivors. But there are ambiguous endings, and then there is Cell...definitely one of King's stinkers in terms of the ending. Agree with Stevo though, it would make a decent film. Eli Roth was supposed to be involved with trying to get the project off the ground at one point I believe, but I havent heard anything about it for a couple of years. Zombies are in vogue now though, so can imagine someone giving it a go. The one where Roland sleeps through the entire book is when he gets bit by the moster crab thing and loses his trigger finger (or something like that) then he burns up something terrible and basicly slips in and out of consiousness for the whole book and doesn't do a fat lot at all (thinking about it that may be the second book) Ah yes, right you are. That is the second book, The Drawing of the Three. The Lobstrosities attack him on like page 2 of that book, and he has some fingers of his right hand eaten, and is then really ill. There's a section where Roland is too ill to do anything, so Eddie has to push Detta/Odetta in the wheelchair across the beach for aaaaaaages looking for the thrid door. Maybe that's what you're thinking of. The parts before and after that (the drawing of Eddie and Susannah from their respecitve whens) are actually really good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarewsEyebrowDesigner Posted November 7, 2012 Share Posted November 7, 2012 Is Team of Rivals worth reading? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted November 7, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted November 7, 2012 Is Team of Rivals worth reading? The Lincoln thing? Dunno, I was thinking about that one myself. A few years ago I read Gore Vidal's fictionalised Lincoln book, assuming it would be entertaining as well as informative. Big mistake: terrible, tedious, stodgy. Avoid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted November 7, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted November 7, 2012 The way I saw the book (Cell) was it stared well, dragged abit up to about halfway, and then picked up again. Regarding the film, I had hear Roth was onvolved but that he dropped out. And I also heard King had written a screenplay for it but had changed the ending, so maybe it'll be better than th ebook's ending. The reason I said why it would be spoiled being made into a film, is that it's very violent in parts. But it needs to be. Like the beginning, as Hogso mentioned, is mental. All hell breaks loose, and part of what makes it so panicky and scary is the extreme violence of it all. and the bit where the little girl is killed again is so shocking because of how it happens. Hit by a concrete block thrown from a speeding car. What makes it so shocking is that it's so brutal. You can do that sort of thing right. And if and when they make "Cell" into a film, I think they'd need to include some of that to give it the same edge that the book has. But I can see it all being taken out to give it a lower certificate when it's made. Roth being involved MIGHT have been a good thing, given his use of violence in stuff like Hostel. But I would guess he'd have taken it too far the other way and put in gore just for the sake of it. Which would be worse than not having it at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leemond2008 Posted November 7, 2012 Share Posted November 7, 2012 I'll give cell a go then based on what I've read on here I'm a massive zombie geek so it'll be worth reading even if it is shite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hogso Posted November 7, 2012 Share Posted November 7, 2012 part of what makes it so panicky and scary is the extreme violence of it all. and the bit where the little girl is killed again is so shocking because of how it happens. Hit by a concrete block thrown from a speeding car. What makes it so shocking is that it's so brutal. You can do that sort of thing right. And if and when they make "Cell" into a film, I think they'd need to include some of that to give it the same edge that the book has. Oh gosh yes The death of that character was so effective, because she had been written as a pretty defenceless little thing, and was of course playing on the readers emotions all the way through. I'm sure most found her to be their favourite character, and to have her offed in such a way was just horrific. King did use one of his most favoured devices of 'humanity being more evil than any monster/scenario he could make up' in that case, which is exactly why it would have to be included in the way it happens in the book, if a film were made. And as we're on the topic, I'd love to see the movie adaptation of The Long Walk appear sometime soon. Darabont still has the rights to it as far as I know, and with the likes of Hunger Games being at the flicks it might be considered a bit more seriously. Same again though, it'd have to include all the guts and wank (literally, the bit were the one lad just has a wank walking along, ha) to give it that punch it deserves. If it did get made though, I'm not sure how well it'd do...there's basically very little action, and the story would be pretty hard to sell as the reason they're doing the Walk is left purposefully ambiguous, for the most part. I guess to non-fans of the Novella it'd seem like a rubbish version of Hunger Games/Running Man crossed with Speed...which sounds terrible Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFC_Hitz Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 Currently working my way through this, quite brilliant book. Will tell you all about it when I get through it a bit more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted November 8, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted November 8, 2012 I got about three quarters of the way through Red Plenty before I gave up. Spufford's an engaging writer, and he made a good stab at it, but I'm afraid even he couldn't manage to make a book about central planning in Soviet economics gripping. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AVFC_Hitz Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 But...Mike. Well I like it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted November 8, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted November 8, 2012 I was OK with it for a while, but one of the later chapters just started dragging on... and on... and on... and I lost patience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarewsEyebrowDesigner Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 Picked up The Crow Road by Iain Banks, The Sea by John Banville and Maus, the graphic novel which is apparently rather good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chindie Posted November 8, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted November 8, 2012 The Crow Road is in my top 10 ever I think, a brilliant, simple book. Read at it at the right age in fairness, 20, and the right 'place' in life - no idea what to do with myself, being on the verge (or succeeding) in **** everything up, and single. But it is a great read and a permanent favourite I think. Must be a favourite of Banks himself too because he keeps copying it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
saturdaygig Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 Currently into Philip K. Dick's 'Man in the High Castle'. Its a classic. For those who don't know its one of the original 'if the germans had won the war' stories. A cute twist is that within it someone is writing a book about what would have happened if the allies had won the war, and is widely derided as ridiculous. NB, this is incidental to the main storyline, not a spoiler. I first read this because it was referred to by David Mitchell in 'No 9 Dream'. In fact I went on to read Miss Lonelyhearts by Nathaneal West, which was mention in Man in the High Castle, and then Brothers Karamazov that was mentioned in Miss Lonelyhearts. After that the trail went too historic for my taste...I had hoped the journey would be longer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PompeyVillan Posted November 8, 2012 Share Posted November 8, 2012 Just finished Stuart, a life backwards by Alexander Masters. Profound. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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