Everyone including Stephen King says Tommyknockers is his worst book but I like it so far. If this is considered his worst, how good is his best?And the miniseries is still pretty solid, and has that early 90s made-for-tv movie charm that I find comfy.
It's a fun book to read and I liked it a lot, but it's very meandering and doesn't really have much of a point. I didn't think the TV adaptation was very good but mostly because Jimmy Smits was not at all how I was picturing Gard
>>223448542Maybe at one time, but it's pretty decent, compared to anything he did after '06, or so. Under the Dome is the absolute worst fucking piece of trash he's ever written.
>>223448542He says he doesn't remember writing it cause of all the drugs. IIRC he thinks the core of the book is good, but his execution is bad.>>223448662Under The Dome is fine, just written strangely. It doesn't flow very well.
>>223448627>doesn't really have much of a pointWhat do you mean? That the ending doesn't really have a satisfactory resolution? I think its just a good creepy story about alien ghosts with a strong central theme about addiction, which makes sense because King said he was coming off coke at the time and it's pretty obvious Gard was meant to be his self insert.I do agree it could have been trimmed down but he took care to spend time building up the world and characters which I liked a lot. Also what do you picture Gard looking like? I saw the movie first so I still couldn't help but think of Jimmy Smits as him while reading it lol.
>>223448901>What do you mean?I'm not really sure what it's actually meant to be about. Yeah, there's all that stuff about addiction in there, but it doesn't really seem to be the main thing. I dunno. It doesn't feel like he had a good idea of exactly why he was writing it, other than it was fun and he was writing a bunch of cool shit. I think it's very coherent and everything fits together great. There's insane shit in that book like the clock tower firing off like a rocket that are just really awesome things to read, but they don't really add up to anything. Most of the town dies by the end and Gard flies off in the spaceship and dies too. And I pictured Gard like an aging hippie, older, with gray hair.
>>223448542The Dark Tower
>>223448542The best is The Mist, too bad Stephen King is a retard.
>>223448542I remember really liking that book too but I read it like 20 years ago so I barely remember it
>>223448542Pet Sematary, Revival, and Carrie are all 4/5 books, and are his best. Rage is also good.
>>223448542He has no worst book, he's a professional, so all his books are equally mid. The ones people recommend as his best happen to be the long ones, which stand out because they literally take up more space.
>>223451417The Stand is America's greatest contribution to the global canon of fiction and I'll hear nothing to the contrary>BUT MUH BOOK OF THE NEW SUNDoesn't actually take place in America, doesn't count.
>>223448542I would. God I wanna fuck a girl while she wears monster makeup so bad.
The Dark Half is his best book.Don't listen to fags like this: >>223451417Don't listen to Dark Tower peopleI
I will never understand how the people who shit on Tommyknockers will then turn around and say that 'It' is a better novel. Hell, Cujo is a better novel than 'It.'
>>223451494It is fucking stupid it's only popular because hylics have a fear of clowns.
>>223451457Not OP, will check out. Never heard of it.
>>22345149495% of It fanboys never even read the book. Same goes for The Shining. They saw the miniseries/movie when they were 10 and thought it was the scariest shit ever. Most of them have likely never read a book in their life.
>>223449606Thee hast not forgotten the face of thy father.
>>223451457>The Dark Half is his best bookActually, I agree. I remember that standing out it's just been too long to remember why. Probably because the plot had some good suspense, which a lot them don't. Cujo is definitely the worst one out of about 16 I've read.
The Tommyknockers is hilarious because these alien fucks had been lying in wait for millions of years and their plans fell apart because Gard was such a degenerate with a sky high tolerance for dope that derailed their plan to kill him with an overdose.
>>223448901The middle where it's just a bunch of vignettes about all the weird shit going on around town was my favorite part. I always thought it was kind of weird that the Becka Paulson story was a stand alone story years before that he just reworked slightly to fit the book. The 90s Outer Limits had an adaptation of the original version with Catherine O'Hara as Becka.
>>223448542I mostly liked it. Too much bloat.I'm not a great fan of King tho
>>223448542It's hard to give King recs because I've noticed that people who've read a lot of King tend to have very different opinions on what his best work is. My own tier list:LOVEDThe StandRoadworkThe Running Man11/22/63LIKEDSalem's LotThe Dead ZoneMiseryBag of BonesDuma KeyOKThe Long WalkFirestarterCujoThinnerItThe TommyknockersInsomniaThe Green MileMr. MercedesFinders KeepersEnd of WatchBilly SummersDISLIKEDCarrieRageNeedful ThingsThe Girl Who Loved Tom GordonDreamcatcherFrom a Buick 8The InstituteLaterHATEDChristineThe Dark HalfRose MadderDesperationCellElevation
>>223452482Awesome to find a king fan that has tried a myriad of books, duma key was alright. It took me awhile to finish Duma key since I only read it when I went out on errands. Buick 8 is more enjoyable if you have the framework of the darktower and the talisman.
>>223451494cujo was boring as hell and completely lost me with the side story about the guy getting cucked or whatever the fuck was going on with that
>>223451746i thought it was because he had a metal plate in his headhim being a junkie probably helped though
>>223452538For post-accident King I thought Duma Key was great. >>223452563Cujo is definitely one of his most padded novels. There's a great short story or novella in there, but its buried in a side plots about defective cereal dye making it look like kids are shitting blood and a postman's uncontrollable farting problems. It's a cocaine novel.
>>223448542I loved the book. King is at his best when he's just spamming pages in a drug induced stupor. Fuck it, the book should have been even longer.
>>223449007The main point is nuclear war = badThe tommyknockers are basically a stand in for humanity and all it's monkey brained flaws having access to technology that can end the world.
>>223452563>>223452640It was my second adult book at 13 so I was relishing all the risqué and grotesque asides of every character. Andy using his psychic force to as a pusher was a thrilling and rainbird was evil as all hell. The poverty of cujo and his animal logic were the first time I had seen anyone do that. It showcased the power of literature.
>>223452775You're mixing up Firestarter and Cujo.
>>223448542Cujo is his worst book
>>223451457>The Dark Half is his best book.That's funny, it was my first King book.
>>223452775Pov not poverty.I was talking about both.
>>223452873Have you read the sequel, sun dog?>>223452909Still on the to be read.
>>223451494IT is my fav King book, the Patrick Hockstetter chapter is the only childhood read that gave me the chills.The other King stuff is OK to excellent but IT is the only one I remember fondly.Dreamcatcher was a fucking waste of time though, what a waste of the hours of summer vacation I spent on that dogshit.
>>223448542Its my favorite kings book beside salems lot
>>223448542>>223448542Traci's best film
>>223451433I know they did a tv miniseries back in the 90s but im surprised no streaming service attempted a MODERN version.probably could get the entire book in a few seasons and allow for characters to say the f word and have nudity (male)
>>223454590They did another version a few years back
>>223454714not that anon is it good
>>223452482Didn't read The Dark Tower?
>>223448542I remember my siblings renting that when I was like 4 or something. I still have a vivid memory of a man with a shovel digging down into some kind of crystal spaceship buried under a grassy field bathed in green. Am I remembering it right? Freaked me out for fucking years man
>>223454773That’s what happens in it yes. Perhaps it’s worth rewatching for you. It’s on YouTube.
>>223454734Of course it's not
hey faggots, this is /tv/, not /lit/talk about movies
>>223455356Well, there are butt aliens
>>223455333oh........also nice trips
>>223448627>it's very meanderingThat’s King’s MO. 2/3 of Cujo is a soap opera about a struggling marketing guy and his cheating wife, and a cereal food coloring that makes it look like children are vomiting blood, and then the last stretch of the book suddenly remembers that it’s supposed to be about a rabid dog. All of his stories would be about half the length that they are if he would just get to the fucking point.That’s why I think The Gunslinger is his best book, because wandering is the whole point.
>>223455356This movie had the most eclectic mix of actors ever. My name is Earl Guy, Timmy Oliphant, Winters from BoB, Sizemore, Morgan, the lesser Wahlberg. It wasn’t very good, but i do remember one thing I found creepy: the way the aliens tried to give the impression they were peaceful and non threatening by telepathically signaling and changing their appearance.
>>223454773>>223455302I remember it on tv but I didnt watch it. Unclear if it was a promo or i was just scared.
>>223454734>>223454714It was very effects heavy and the cinematography was modernized so it was a visual delight. Heather Graham is a hottie but way younger than the character in the book by 20 years. The trashcan man was fucking bonkers, dont think they got the kid with a hot rod. Harold was perfectly a creep trying to get a girl and others to like him despite being arrogant.
>>223455356The transformation when mr. Gray puts on the beanie is fanfuckingtastic!
>>223455465He started out working for magazines that paid by the word so that is understandable. Loved Gilead and midworld and deeply hope someone that isnt concerned with box office numbers produces it.
>>223455356This was a good movie. If you had to pick an example of what we lost going into the 2020s what with investors choosing app development over mid budget movies, this would be one of the best examples. We'll never see something like it again.
>>223452482What's so bad about Desperation?
>>223455806I thought it was really good and I liked The Regulators too, it was really interesting what he did there
>>223455806>>223455827Loved the mirror world concept and the same characters being different was neat. The bizarro world of desperation could be done now, I picture it like the twilight episode with the kid and the horrifying, monster rabbit.
>>223455989It was really cool how the single shotgun shell was the thing that ended TAK in both books, just in very different ways
Thread made me download a few King novels, it's been years since I read one. I can't do it, he's too tedious. Salem's Lot sounds interesting but it has a 25-page prologue before they get to the town. He uses self-inserts too often, his dialogue is inane, his observations of life are bizarre. Fucking weirdo.
>>223456122Just read The Running Man
>>223456013Dont recall, it been 19 years since I read it, the talisman and blackhouse. I saw the movie awhile back of desperation and ron permanently was decent as the sheriff hulking out and losing his mind.
>>223451433>Not steinbeck, faulkner, twain, etc. I mean come on
you guys didn't like Doctor Sleeps Erwachen?
>>223448627The book was retroactively tainted for me when I read one of his porn magazine shorts that also contained the scene with the woman who gets the gun out of the closet and shoots her husband. It led me down the rabbit hole of king recycling entire scenes verbatim.
>>223456157>Desperation>Johnny climbs into the TAK hole in the mine and explodes the shotgun shell with a hammer to seal off the hole>The Regulators>Seth telepathically forces Cammie to shoot him with a shotgun to expel TAK from his mind>>223456227I don't think he ever hid that fact though, and if you read them both they're different versions, he just incorporated it into Tommyknockers. And it works there
>>223456197I didn't say he was the greatest American author, I said The Stand is Ameria's greatest contribution to global fictional literature, and it is. Seven Samurai is Japan's greatest contribution to 20th century film (personally I think it's okay at best), but that doesn't mean Kenji Mizoguchi isn't relevant.
>>223456144That was the most recent one I read, the beginning was interesting, I thought King didn't show a lot of imagination when the game begins. I wanted all action and he went the route of having the guy shelter with blacks who reveal the dystopian conspiracy for him.
>>223456122I can only stomach King's books in audio form while I'm doing something else.
>>223451433Idk man Moby Dick is a masterpiece, I think that’s our great epic. >>223456122Like the other anon said audiobooks make it more digestible
>>223456300I remember the mind but not the other one. I do recall its an autistic child that tak has possessed.
>>223456227The cujo sequel, sundog has an exact scene with a magazine in the drawing of the 3. Brownie pounts to anyone who remembers it.
>>223448691His execution is bad in everything he's ever written.
>>223457184Moby Dick isn't about America is the thing. You wouldn't call Ang Lee's The Hulk a great Japanese film.
