The Zone

by **caruso_stalker217** on Sat Jun 06, 2015 4:52 pm

Apparently, the kid's actual name is Jerome, not Ben. I guess I don't remember the fucking book either.

by **TheBaxter** on Sat Jun 06, 2015 6:05 pm

what about mr. mercedes? (i can't remember the guy's real name, the bad guy from the first book, the one who they set up to return in the sequel. does he show up in the new book?)

if whatsizname and his ebonics-spewing friend whosamaface aren't in the sequel, and neither is mr. mercedes, then is it even a sequel at all?

by **caruso_stalker217** on Sat Jun 06, 2015 8:02 pm

Hodges has just showed up, as has Holly who is the socially-stunted cousin of the lady Hodges was sweet on in the first book.

by **caruso_stalker217** on Tue Jun 09, 2015 3:34 pm

Finished this last night. Not destined to be a King classic or anything, but I admired it's simplicity. It didn't really get chugging along until the last hundred pages or so and the climax wasn't earth-shattering but I enjoyed the journey.

Since this is the second book in a planned trilogy, the final scene hints at the direction that book will go and I'm guessing it will heavily feature the (spoilers?) killer from the first book.

And also some supernatural shit from the looks of it. Not sure how I feel about that, especially since it would be territory covered by King many times already and I don't recall anything like that in Mr. Mercedes.

In closing, a nice brisk read with some likable if not overly-developed characters. I can think of many worse ways to spend one's time.

by **caruso_stalker217** on Tue Jun 09, 2015 3:37 pm

TheBaxter wrote:what about mr. mercedes? (i can't remember the guy's real name, the bad guy from the first book, the one who they set up to return in the sequel. does he show up in the new book?)

He appears in two scenes that would seem to be a set-up for the next book.

by **caruso_stalker217** on Tue Jun 09, 2015 3:46 pm

Apparently, the third book will be called The Suicide Prince.

by **TheBaxter** on Mon Sep 28, 2015 2:15 pm

ok so i read Finders Keepers

i'm really looking forward to the day Stephen King returns to writing horror novels. this little segue into crime fiction hasn't been entirely successful in my opinion. the books aren't terrible, they're just not particularly good or necessary. i would say this only slightly less forgettable than Mr. Mercedes, but that's only because there's less to remember. there are too many better crime fiction writers out there, for King to waste his time on such trifles. his next book in November is a short story collection, Bazaar of Bad Dreams. that sounds more promising to me.

caruso_stalker217 wrote:I just finished Mr. Mercedes and ended up liking it a lot (no bad kid dialogue/fist bumps).

he saved the fist bump for the 2nd book i guess.

by **caruso_stalker217** on Mon Sep 28, 2015 3:27 pm

TheBaxter wrote:
caruso_stalker217 wrote:I just finished Mr. Mercedes and ended up liking it a lot (no bad kid dialogue/fist bumps).

he saved the fist bump for the 2nd book i guess.

Don't want to shoot your wad too early.

by **Ribbons** on Tue Sep 29, 2015 2:48 pm

Personally, I've been waiting for Stephen King to move into his "chick lit" phase

by **TheBaxter** on Tue Sep 29, 2015 3:01 pm

Ribbons wrote:Personally, I've been waiting for Stephen King to move into his "chick lit" phase

that would be bringing it full circle right back where he started.
Carrie 2: Electric BOO!-galoo

by **Peven** on Tue Sep 29, 2015 3:35 pm

Ribbons wrote:Personally, I've been waiting for Stephen King to move into his "chick lit" phase

a coming of age story about 4 twelve-year old girls who go on an overnight hike to be first in line to a 50% off sale at a high end shoe store

by **caruso_stalker217** on Tue Sep 29, 2015 3:38 pm

Ribbons wrote:Personally, I've been waiting for Stephen King to move into his "chick lit" phase

Well, he did have his feminist phase back in the nineties.

Which was a huge success I recall.

by **caruso_stalker217** on Tue Oct 06, 2015 1:43 pm

Cover reveal for the final soon-to-be-forgotten-by-Baxter book in the Hodges trilogy.

by **TheBaxter** on Tue Oct 06, 2015 3:17 pm

caruso_stalker217 wrote:Cover reveal for the final soon-to-be-forgotten-by-Baxter book in the Hodges trilogy.

i might decide to break with tradition this time, and forget this book BEFORE i read it.
hmmm.... June 2016 release. that's plenty of time to work up some amnesia.

by **TheBaxter** on Tue Nov 17, 2015 3:09 pm

BAZAAR OF BAD DREAMS

like any short story collection (or, increasingly these days, any King book) this is a mixed bag. there's some really good stuff here, and some really bad stuff, and a lot of in between stuff. i guess a lot of these stories have already been published elsewhere, but the only one i think i had previously read was Blockade Billy, which is one of the ones i liked. this book continues recent trends of King's work such as 1) less horror/supernatural-based in favor of attempting different genres, and 2) generally less sharp writing than his earlier, better work. i'm really a King horror fan, while i appreciate some of his forays into other genres like Shawshank and the Dark Tower series (and less so with other, like a couple recent detective novels that have already been talked about too much in here), it's the horror stuff that made me a fan and comprised my favorite work of his. sadly here, the "horror" stories in this collection, particularly the supernatural or monster-based ones, are some of the weakest. they feel a bit half-assed, like King is going through the motions, giving people what he thinks they want, but his heart is really in the other, non-horror material. some of that is bad too, but it has more energy.

it's hard to review a book like this overall, so i'll just give some quickie reviews of the stories themselves:

1) Mile 81 - typical King monster horror with more of his trademark bad kid dialogue. not a good start.
2) Premium Harmony - King's first stab at "serious" writing. pointless.
3) Batman and Robin Have an Altercation - i liked it
4) The Dune - good story, good suspense, good buildup, predictable ending
5) Bad Little Kid - despite the title, this one actually DOESN'T have much bad little kid dialogue.
6) A Death - pretty good dark western
7) The Bone Church - a poem(!); King has intros to each story and for this one he talks a bit about why he doesn't publish much poetry. after reading this one, i don't blame him
8) Morality - this one's pretty good, feels like a shorter version of something that would have fit nicely in Full Dark No Stars
9) Afterlife - terrible. it's like a bad comical version of the entire DT series ("Ka is a wheel") wrapped up in one lame story, even down to the Horn of Eld (in thematic terms, the Horn of Eld doesn't actually show up). probably the worst piece of the collection.
10) Ur - this story simultaneously contains some of the best and worst of King-isms in a single story. it starts off bad... i mean REALLY bad. apparently King was commissioned to write this story in the early days of Kindle and had to include the Kindle as a central plot point (though he claims he initially turned the deal down, because he's an ARTIST with INTEGRITY yadda-yadda-yadda). and the first several pages of this story really feel like a giant Kindle ad. you know how King loves to name-drop his technology (tech-drop?) and this story gave him the perfect excuse and he makes the most of it. though i guess by the end of the story, you could kind of argue this is an ANTI-Kindle ad (and from other King books as well as other stories in here, King seems to be much more of an Apple guy). the middle section gets really good, and then the end brings in some full-on King mythology from some famous series of books he's written, which makes good fan service but kind of serves to defuse the tension of the ending a bit. i can imagine a much darker direction this story could have gone in. still a good story overall once you get past the shameless Kindle shilling in the introductory pages. kinda like 11/22/63 meets the Dark something-or-other.
11) Herman Wouk Is Still Alive - another King stab at "serious" writing that doesn't really work for me
12) Under the Weather - OK but nothing special. it feels like there's a twist coming, but it never does.
13) Blockade Billy - the one story i had previously read. liked it then, still like it now
14) Mister Yummy - meh
15) Tommy - poem #2. worse than the first. maybe if i was around in the 60s like King, it would have some impact.
16) Little Green God of Agony - monster story #2. going through the motions.
17) That Bus Is Another World - interesting vignette, maybe one of the more "serious" (sorry, i always have to put "serious" in quotations when discussing King) stories that works the best
18) Obits - this one had so much potential. it's got a bit of King's tech-fetish, but not to the point of annoyance. in the intro, King talks about how he was inspired by some movie he saw on TV that was really scary for the first 60 minutes but then pussied out at the end. ironically, King does the exact same thing with this story. the end is so underwhelming, it reminded me quite a bit of the series finale of Dexter
19) Drunken FIreworks - King does comedy. he's the King of Comedy! it's not bad.
20) Summer Thunder - saving the best for last. one of the best stories in the book.

by **Bloo** on Wed Nov 18, 2015 1:17 am

I'm working my way through it, but I couldn't agree with you more about Mile 81. It was like a parody of 1950s kids in 2015.

by **TheBaxter** on Wed Jun 15, 2016 12:44 pm

against my better judgment, i am starting King's new book End of Watch.
the first book in this trilogy, Mr Mercedes, was ok.
the second book, FInders Keepers, was terrible.
this book supposedly has a supernatural component, and i always prefer King's less reality-based stories, so i'm hoping it will be an improvement over the previous two entries. probably wishful thinking, but so be it.

on another note, i tried to start Joe Hill's the Fireman, but i just wasn't in the mood. he's taking after his dad, writing a post-apocalyptic 700+ page novel (will there be an 1100+ page "uncut" version in the future?). i thought Horns was great, but his last book did nothing for me and this one just didn't grab me. maybe i'll try again over the winter when i've got more time for reading.

by **so sorry** on Wed Jun 15, 2016 2:12 pm

TheBaxter wrote:on another note, i tried to start Joe Hill's the Fireman, but i just wasn't in the mood. he's taking after his dad, writing a post-apocalyptic 700+ page novel (will there be an 1100+ page "uncut" version in the future?). i thought Horns was great, but his last book did nothing for me and this one just didn't grab me. maybe i'll try again over the winter when i've got more time for reading.

M-o-o-n, that spells Apocalypse.

by **caruso_stalker217** on Wed Jun 15, 2016 11:46 pm

I read a preview of THE FIREMAN a few months back. It was the first 170 pages I believe. I liked it well enough. Haven't bought it yet though.

Just started END OF WATCH, so we'll see how that goes. I'm not crazy about this series, so this is more the Stephen King completist side of me.

by **TheButcher** on Fri Jun 24, 2016 5:51 am

George RR Martin To Stephen King:
‘How The Fuck Do You Write So Fast??’

by **Ribbons** on Fri Jun 24, 2016 9:58 am

IPAMPILASH!

by **TheBaxter** on Tue Jun 28, 2016 10:24 am

caruso_stalker217 wrote:Just started END OF WATCH, so we'll see how that goes. I'm not crazy about this series, so this is more the Stephen King completist side of me.

i just finished END OF WATCH, or as i prefer to think of it, END OF CRAPPY STEPHEN KING DETECTIVE SERIES. mr. mercedes was ok. the 2nd book sucked hard and i can't even remember it's name and i don't want to. this 3rd book is somewhere between the two. probably closer to mr. mercedes than crappy 2nd book, so that's encouraging. plenty of King technobabble referring to repeaters and DoS attacks and various other computer shit as he continues to try to convince people he's not an old geezer (and continues to fail). but the tech stuff is laid on so heavy, that it almost becomes like a star trek episode where you just stop caring whether it makes any sense or not. i guess the best thing i can say about this book is that it's an easy and relatively quick read. it's not particularly good but it's at least not boring. oh wait, that's the 2nd best thing i can say about this book. the actual best thing i can say about this book is that this series is now OVER. hopefully now King will return to writing stuff that's more in his wheelhouse.

by **caruso_stalker217** on Fri Jul 01, 2016 2:44 pm

Next up is a book he's writing with his son Owen set in a West Virginia women's prison.

by **TheBaxter** on Wed Jul 06, 2016 11:51 am

excerpts from Skeleton Crew audiobook

i don't usually do audiobooks, but i might need to listen to this one. paul giamatti, michael c. hall? c'mon now!

by **TheBaxter** on Fri Oct 21, 2016 3:50 pm

Stephen King's newest story could be his scariest yet

seriously though... can we just FF to Nov 9, so i can change my av and try to forget this past year ever happened?

by **caruso_stalker217** on Fri Oct 21, 2016 8:43 pm

This election is the Dead Zone sequel no one wanted.

This is the Doctor Sleep of elections.

by **TheBaxter** on Sat Oct 22, 2016 6:12 pm

caruso_stalker217 wrote:This election is the Dead Zone sequel no one wanted.

This is the Doctor Sleep of elections.

who knew the Christopher Walken role would be taken over by Billy Bush?

by **caruso_stalker217** on Sat Apr 01, 2017 3:40 pm

Cover and excerpt of upcoming Stephen King/Owen King collaboration Sleeping Beauties.

http://ew.com/books/2017/03/29/stephen-king-owen-king-sleeping-beauties-cover-excerpt/

by **caruso_stalker217** on Thu Feb 08, 2018 4:37 pm

on 'Doctor Sleep' caruso_stalker217 wrote:no way this thing gets adapted as a feature film

Mike Flanagan To Helm Stephen King’s ‘The Shining’ Sequel ‘Doctor Sleep’

To give credit where credit is due, Flanagan did succeed in adapting one of King's least adaptable (and least liked) novels into a pretty solid film. I think he's biting off far more than he can chew here though.

by **TheBaxter** on Thu Feb 08, 2018 5:14 pm

i had to go back and read my 'review' of this book (and the subsequent film adaptation discussion) to remember how i felt about it. apparently i enjoyed it more than i remembered, and felt like it could make a good film as long as it didn't end up in the hands of mick garris. mike flanagan is not mick garris, so i guess i should be happy about this.

rereading this little bit amused me though:

TheBaxter wrote:
caruso_stalker217 wrote:But, yeah, no way this thing gets adapted as a feature film. First off, no one wants to follow Kubrick's film.

that's probably the biggest reason. that, and also, how long has it been since there's been a successful feature film adaptation of a King book? 1408? The Mist? and those weren't exactly blockbusters.

funny how one little massive hit at the box office can change things, huh?

and if they can get that jack nicholson cameo that alone would make the film worth it.

by **caruso_stalker217** on Thu Feb 08, 2018 5:22 pm

Jack can't be that busy these days.

by **TheBaxter** on Thu Feb 08, 2018 5:26 pm

if i had to venture a guess, i'd say he's busy trying to count the number of #MeToo accusations he might be facing.

by **Fievel** on Mon Jun 11, 2018 5:38 pm

The Outsider Coming To TV!

As mediocre as the book was, I think it could work well as a limited series as long as skilled writers adapt it. If they make Terry's innocence ambiguous to the viewer until the end, I think it could work.

And unlike Under the Dome, adapt the damn book and end it in one season!!

by **TheBaxter** on Mon Jun 11, 2018 8:32 pm

Fievel wrote:The Outsider Coming To TV!

As mediocre as the book was, I think it could work well as a limited series as long as skilled writers adapt it. If they make Terry's innocence ambiguous to the viewer until the end, I think it could work.

And unlike Under the Dome, adapt the damn book and end it in one season!!

of course it is.

Price wrote The Night Of for HBO, which was really good, and kind of had a similar type of story, where you're not really sure of the main character's guilt or innocence. hopefully they can build off the premise, which was the best part of the book, and take it in a more interesting direction... not necessariy discarding the supernatural aspects but delaying them and playing more with the did-he-or-didn't-he question.

haven't watched the Mr. Mercedes show, which is on some weird network i don't get. sounds like the same team involved on this one. anyone know if it was any good?

by **TheBaxter** on Mon Jun 11, 2018 8:39 pm

and now i see there's a Pet Sematary remake on the way

Pet Sematary is one of my favorite King books, and while i enjoyed the original film, it was kind of awful in some ways too (like the acting, especially the super-annoying daughter) and there's definitely room for improvement.
as long as they DON'T. FUCK. WITH. THE. ENDING. this is one of King's darkest novels, and it has to end the way it ends or it means nothing.
looks like Lithgow will be taking over the role of Judd... Herman Munster was pretty amazing in that role, that's a tough act to follow, but Lithgow is solid. none of the other actors' work will be hard to improve on, except maybe Church.

by **TheBaxter** on Wed Jun 13, 2018 11:24 pm

Danny Torrance is a Jedi

by **so sorry** on Thu Jun 14, 2018 10:00 am

TheBaxter wrote:Danny Torrance is a Jedi

IBONEK NAW-IBO

by **TheBaxter** on Thu Jun 14, 2018 4:31 pm

so sorry wrote:
TheBaxter wrote:Danny Torrance is a Jedi

IBONEK NAW-IBO

RAJ-RAJ! RAJ-RAJ!

by **so sorry** on Thu Jun 14, 2018 4:41 pm

TheBaxter wrote:
so sorry wrote:
TheBaxter wrote:Danny Torrance is a Jedi

IBONEK NAW-IBO

RAJ-RAJ! RAJ-RAJ!

Dammit, that's much better...

by **TheBaxter** on Wed Sep 26, 2018 10:53 pm

oh god. stephen king has a new book coming out. and it sounds terrible...

Although Scott Carey doesn’t look any different, he’s been steadily losing weight. There are a couple of other odd things, too. He weighs the same in his clothes and out of them, no matter how heavy they are. Scott doesn’t want to be poked and prodded. He mostly just wants someone else to know, and he trusts Doctor Bob Ellis.

In the small town of Castle Rock, the setting of many of King’s most iconic stories, Scott is engaged in a low grade—but escalating—battle with the lesbians next door whose dog regularly drops his business on Scott’s lawn. One of the women is friendly; the other, cold as ice. Both are trying to launch a new restaurant, but the people of Castle Rock want no part of a Dumbledore married couple, and the place is in trouble. When Scott finally understands the prejudices they face–including his own—he tries to help. Unlikely alliances, the annual foot race, and the mystery of Scott’s affliction bring out the best in people who have indulged the worst in themselves and others.

i'm sure there will be plenty of Trump references and "we're all the same/people are really good and decent underneath it all" gooeyness and shit. and iphones, of course.

i never thought i'd say this, but maybe King should just stick to the supernatural crime genre crap he's been peddling lately and skip the hippie-dippie political commentary.

by **caruso_stalker217** on Thu Sep 27, 2018 4:09 am

Yeah, I read that synopsis a couple months back and definitely had a what the fuck moment.

This part in particular:

"Scott is engaged in a low grade—but escalating—battle with the lesbians next door"

But also:

"the annual foot race"

Good news, though. It's only a novella.

Even then, it will be too long.

by **TheBaxter** on Thu Sep 27, 2018 11:08 am

i've gone to my fair share of restaurants in my life. i have no fucking idea if any of them were owned by a pair of lesbians.

by **Al Shut** on Thu Sep 27, 2018 11:40 am

You would if you had lived in Castle Rock.

by **TheBaxter** on Fri Nov 02, 2018 10:17 am

so i read this shitty new Stephen King novella despite my better judgment and that horrible blurb, and sure enough...

it's actually pretty good.

i won't say that advertising blurb/synopsis was inaccurate, it isn't, at least not entirely... there is a "footrace", there is a low-grade--though not exactly escalating--dispute with the lesbian neighbors, and their restaurant is being shunned by homophobic elements of the town. and yeah, king is definitely trying to make a statement. but it's not as in-your-face, hit-you-over-the-head obvious as that description makes it out to be. it's actually fairly subtle on the political commentary.

this story reminds me of exactly why i enjoy king's writing in the short story/novella format. it forces him to be brief, so all the bloat that normally comes with a stephen king novel is absent. that really helps here, because this is a pretty lightweight effort. it would, and probably should, have been part of one of his collections, but i guess he wanted to make his point and do it before the next election, though really i don't think this story is all that relevant to the political stuff going on as it may sound. i read another review that described it as "capra-esque" and i'd say that's accurate. it's definitely sentimental and sappy, but not too sappy. this is definitely not Pet Sematary-style King.

overall, it's a pleasant story and worth the few hours of reading it takes up. thankfully, the Trump references are minimal (and pretty much amount to a couple of throwaway lines that don't even say much about him), the techie references are even more minimal (just a couple WebMD references) which is even more amazing considering the main character here is a website designer, and it doesn't overstay its welcome. it's certainly not without its faults. there are still some cringe-worthy lines of dialogue (but no kid characters, so not as bad as it could have been). the characters are one-dimensional (especially the "lesbeans" who are little more than stereotypes), and once you put together the mysterious "lighter but not thinner" condition of the main character, the upcoming "footrace", and the status of one of the "lesbeans" as a former marathon champion, it's not hard to see where this is going. but there's a bit more to it than just that. the homophobic characters are pretty much just caricatures, and when some of them finally start to come around, you realize how much this story is really just a liberal fantasy. deep-seated homophobia doesn't really go away that easily.

anyway, one more thing. about that "footrace*".... King seems to have the odd idea that most people who participate in "footraces" are unable to finish them and only end up falling over or gasping on the sidelines before the finish line. even the fastest runners at the front of the pack. even in a relatively short (12K) race. i've run a few "footraces" in my lifetime, and sure there are gonna be a few DNFs, but i don't ever recall seeing people steadily dropping like flies, especially in something as short as a 10K or 12K. i mean, if someone is spent, they're just gonna slow down to a walk, they're not gonna keel over and lay gasping on the side of the road (i guess people slowing down to a walk isn't dramatic enough though). so that part of the book kind of annoyed me.

next up is the latest shitty Anne Rice Lestat novel. i'm about halfway through that, and i suspect my words will be less kind when i'm ready to talk about that one.

* King never actually uses the term "footrace" in this book, thankfully. but a gold star to the blurb writer who came up with that one.

by **caruso_stalker217** on Fri Nov 02, 2018 12:29 pm

TheBaxter wrote:i mean, if someone is spent, they're just gonna slow down to a walk, they're not gonna keel over and lay gasping on the side of the road (i guess people slowing down to a walk isn't dramatic enough though). so that part of the book kind of annoyed me.

So you're saying it's a much less suspenseful version of The Long Walk?

I almost bought this the other day, but held off. After reading your review I figure I'll wait until it shows up at my local library before giving it a shot.

by **TheBaxter** on Fri Nov 02, 2018 12:57 pm

caruso_stalker217 wrote:I almost bought this the other day, but held off. After reading your review I figure I'll wait until it shows up at my local library before giving it a shot.

it's not worth buying. i got it out from the library.

caruso_stalker217 wrote:So you're saying it's a much less suspenseful version of The Long Walk?