Amph Dear Constant Reader...The Stephen King Discussion

Yeah, you're right on target, Roland, it seems like the Tower does still have a little bit a hold of King. This other world of Scott's, the Boo'ya Moon was very much the multiple Dark Tower worlds and the territories in The Talisman[/i]. Another solid novel by King.

 

I started Lisey's Story yesterday. On page 14 atm; the first chapter is spectacular.

 

" The Talisman " is easily Kings most overlooked work. Its as masterful as anything he's worked on and Ive noticed a revsionistic buzz on it in the literary blogispheres. I remember the early critiques' of it, on the heels of " The Stand ", of being too thick and King was becoming an egotistical writer, which he is and thats not a bad thing in his case because he does it without being pretentious.

 

I'm halfway through Four Past Midnight.

The Langoliers, I found absolutely brilliant and mind blowing. Secret Window, Secret Garden is great as well, but I actually liked the film better (the ending was better and I didn't like King actually making Shooter real at the end of the novella).

Looking forward to the last two.

 

I just picked up another copy of Desperation. I was about halfway through the last one when I left it sitting somewhere out of sight!

 

Desperation is great. and the Collie Entragian Survival Society is one of the funniest names I've ever heard.

 

Finished Four Past Midnight; I must say the Langoliers was rocking cool and The Library Policeman had me literally trembling by about the half point of Dirty Dave's mindblowing story.

Secret Window, Secret Garden was a better movie than a story; I particularly didn't like how, in the book, Shooter was real, and not just Rainey's insanity.

also, what's with Langoliers, Secret Window and Library Policeman all having happy endings?! Is this really Stephen King?!

The Sun Dog had a great premise, but very quickly morphed into a story I've heard before; nothing spectacular here.

On the whole, I enjoyed the book a lot though, as always with King.

 

Lisey's Story was really, really good. There are images there (The shrouded ones sitting on stone benches staring into the pool for eternity) that will remain with me for a long time. I'm enjoying the hell out of King's retirement so far.

Next upis Marvel Comics: The Gunslinger Born. There's a free preview book out next week and the mini series kicks off in February. Looks great.

 

I just finished The Running Man today. It was very, very good.

 

I was a serious King fan a couple years ago. I read a lot of his books in one long summer - Misery, Dorothy C, Needful Things, Eyes of the Dragon, Gunslinger, Carrie, Christine, Firestarter, It, Tommyknockers, one short story collection, the one about the evil twin writer (George Sand?), the one about the writer widower who met a woman and her daughter... a LOT!

His story-telling style is unbelievably unique.

 

The first issue of King's Dark Tower- The gunslinger born comes out from Marvel today. The artwork looks fantastic, and from what I saw in Marvel Spotlight, they're taking the storyline in an original direction that still stays true to the source. I can't wait to pick this up today.

 

I did notice that on his official site about the comic books, but I've already read it, and never been a big comic reader anyway.

Coincidentally, I finished reading SONG OF SUSANNAH today, and really enjoyed it. While THE WASTE LANDS is still me favorite, DT6 comes in a close 2nd place. The book is well-paced and compulsively readable. I've been reading these books with an average of about two and a half years in between, taking almost as much of my sweet time reading them as King did in writing them, but now I don't think I'll be waiting as long to finish it all off. I expect to read the final volume this summer, or even sooner, depending on how my TBR list shakes loose.

 

I just grabbed the comic today. Other than a few brief summaries of the novels this will be my first forray into the Dark Tower.

 

I'm actually reading the Gunslinger now for the first time. It's a pure coincidence with the comic and everything.

My question is this: Should I pick up the comic or is it just covering the book?

 

Actually there's a bit of a difference between the Gunslinger novels and the new comic series. While the Gunslinger book begins with Roland fully into his quest and chasing the man in black, the comics are taking all the details of Roland's youth from all the books (this series is mostly from Wizard & Glass and some of Gunslinger) and telling his tale in chronological order.

The comics start with Roland and his encounter with Marten that leads to his early trial of manhood, and then moves on to when Roland's father sent him to Hambry to be out of Marten's grasp.

 

Interesting. I may read them after I read the whole series, though.

 

There are new reports from SciFi Wire about a possible adaptation ivolving Mission Impossible 3 director J.J. Abrams talking with King about THE DARK TOWER.

 

Wow. That could be great. It would be interesting to see how well the Lost team could do when actually having a REAL storyline underneath all the supernatural pretext and mystery.

 

Very good, I think.

I really, really hope it's a miniseries, and not a film series. These books would make the LOTR films seem short by comparison.

And really, there's nothing in them beyond the reach of television (I'm thinking in terms of F/X), so there's no reason they couldn't be adapted for TV.

 

From SciFi Wire:




King Confirms Dark Tower News

Stephen King, the prolific best-selling horror author, confirmed to New York Comic Con fans that Lost co-creators J.J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof will adapt his epic multi-volume book series The Dark Tower for the screen. "I said no to everybody until recently, because I didn't think much of the chances of it being a good movie," King said in a panel discussion launching Marvel Comics' new Dark Tower comic books at the New York City Comic Con on Feb. 24. "I mean, this is my life's work, since the time I was 22 years old. It's very important to me. Usually, with the other [books], I don't give much of a s--t. My attitude is, 'Go make a movie, and if it's good, that's terrific, and if it's bad, then it will go to the video stores and back shelves of Blockbuster, and I still get royalties on the book.'"

King also revealed that he even turned down an offer from his longtime collaborator, writer/director Frank Darabont, who previously adapted The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile and is at work on other King adaptations. "Frank did come to me, and I know Frank from before either one of us had a pot to piss in," King said. "Frank said, 'Gee, I'd like to do Dark Tower.' I said, 'Frank, give me a break! You've got The Mist, The Monkey. You've got the prison stories. ... Stop putting so much on your plate!'"

King, who is an avowed fan of Lost, only agreed to relinquish the film rights to The Dark Tower when Abrams (Mission: Impossible III) and Lindelof approached him. "I know J.J. Abrams' work and Damon Lindelof, who is his collaborator on Lost," King said. "Damon is just a total comic-book freak, and he loves the Dark Tower books. I trust those guys, and they have a lot on the ball. When they said they wanted to talk about doing this, I said, 'You know what? Why don't you buy the option on this and see what you can come up with.' They asked, 'How much do you want for an option?' I said, '$19.' [It's a key amount that comes up frequently in the books.] And that's what they paid me, and that's where it is." Marvel and King's Dark Tower: The Gunslinger Born number one is available in stores now. ?Tara DiLullo Bennett

 

Book 2 of Marvel's Dark Tower series was released today. The images of the Crimson King in his deathly kingdom are worth the cover price alone.

 

Very cool!! Are they going to make one movie or more, or don't they kow at this point?

 

I'm not sure how they are going to do this. The original rumor mentioned something about a mini-series for either HBO or Cinemax or Showtime. But the new article has nothing about that.

I think it would be the best way to go, because the films are all lopsided and carry different weight between them. Doing a major motion picture for each book just won't do. A mini-series, not unlike what George Lucas is planning for his animated SW cartoon, of a finite number of episodes, would be perfect.

 

He is so evil that when he speaks BABIES DIE.

 

Proof that the writer is doing a fantastic job translating King's worlds. Even when he's not writing something directly from the books, it still sounds like it should be in there.