The Literature Thread

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Gemini73

PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Gemini73 » Sun Sep 24, 2017 2:30 pm

Just finished James Herbert's "The Rats" A fabulous horror. Read it along with The Lair many years ago, however I never got around to reading the third and final book "Domain". I recently bought all three at The Works for a fiver.

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Lotus » Tue Sep 26, 2017 3:13 pm

I'm about 3/4 of the way through 'Chasing the Dead' by Tim Weaver (of Future Publishing fame). It's the first novel I've read in aaages, and I'm very much enjoying it.

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Poser » Wed Oct 04, 2017 8:58 am

OK, so I finally finished the extended Dark Tower reading list. It has taken me an age (over two years :slol: ). I won't keep offering excuses for my reading speed, but I will point out that the tiredness that came with new fatherhood did force an eight-month break on my reading habit.

I'm mainly glad I have finished because I've been desperate to Google stuff about it, but have been petrified of spoilers.

There's no question in my mind that the series tails off towards the end: the Stephen King as a character stuff is strawberry floating mental, and I found the stuff with the book store guy/contractual negotiations over the ownership of the land with the rose on to be tedious in the extreme. I'm prepared to overlook that as, as a series, it was largely very good.

I know the internet loves an order, so I'd go (titles from memory so may be imprecise):

Wizard and Glass > Gunslinger > Breath of the Wind > Wastelands > Wolves of the Calla > Drawing of the Three > Dark Tower > Song of Susannah

Other brief questions/observations:


Do we think Roland deals with the same people/ka-tet every time he repeats his cycle, or does he draw other gunslingers on the next route through?
I can't believe the demise that was given to Walter/Flagg. After all we'd been through, I felt we were due a showdown.
I would definitely read more 'prequel' books. Roland being a kickass gunslinger is clearly where this series peaks, IMO.


I have more thoughts, will try to post later.

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Squinty » Wed Oct 04, 2017 10:54 am

What did you think of the hilarious disclaimer at the end of the last book? I was in disbelief reading that.

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Poser » Wed Oct 04, 2017 11:44 am

Squinty wrote:What did you think of the hilarious disclaimer at the end of the last book? I was in disbelief reading that.


Ha, yes. Didn't buy a word of it, TBH.

It was all far too meta for me. I'd loved to see an abridged version that wipes out the entire Tet corporation*/Stephen King subplots, if such a thing could be cleanly done.
* The Tet Corp stuff admittedly wasn't as bad as the King stuff, and the payoff (Roland visiting the building and meeting Susannah's uncle or godfather or whatever) was ok, but not worth what we went through to get there.

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Moggy » Wed Oct 04, 2017 1:19 pm

Poser wrote:
Squinty wrote:What did you think of the hilarious disclaimer at the end of the last book? I was in disbelief reading that.


Ha, yes. Didn't buy a word of it, TBH.

It was all far too meta for me. I'd loved to see an abridged version that wipes out the entire Tet corporation*/Stephen King subplots, if such a thing could be cleanly done.
* The Tet Corp stuff admittedly wasn't as bad as the King stuff, and the payoff (Roland visiting the building and meeting Susannah's uncle or godfather or whatever) was ok, but not worth what we went through to get there.


It's been a while since I read it, but was the disclaimer the bit where King said not to read on as you probably will not like the ending?

I actually liked the ending. There was nothing that King could come up with to satisfy everyone. After the greatness of the first four books of the series and the links throughout his entire body of work, King was right to say that nobody was going to be satisfied.

And Roland being sent back to begin the journey again (this time with the horn?) seemed a good way to end it. Although it obviously leaves you crying out for another few books to see what is different about Roland this time, will he meet the Ka-Tet again, etc.

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Poser » Wed Oct 04, 2017 1:24 pm

Moggy wrote:
Poser wrote:
Squinty wrote:What did you think of the hilarious disclaimer at the end of the last book? I was in disbelief reading that.


Ha, yes. Didn't buy a word of it, TBH.

It was all far too meta for me. I'd loved to see an abridged version that wipes out the entire Tet corporation*/Stephen King subplots, if such a thing could be cleanly done.
* The Tet Corp stuff admittedly wasn't as bad as the King stuff, and the payoff (Roland visiting the building and meeting Susannah's uncle or godfather or whatever) was ok, but not worth what we went through to get there.


It's been a while since I read it, but was the disclaimer the bit where King said not to read on as you probably will not like the ending?

I actually liked the ending. There was nothing that King could come up with to satisfy everyone. After the greatness of the first four books of the series and the links throughout his entire body of work, King was right to say that nobody was going to be satisfied.

And Roland being sent back to begin the journey again (this time with the horn?) seemed a good way to end it. Although it obviously leaves you crying out for another few books to see what is different about Roland this time, will he meet the Ka-Tet again, etc.


Ah, yes, that's the disclaimer, I was thinking of the author's note in which he offers his excuses for some of the plot decisions.

I agree, I liked the ending - ka is, after all, a wheel - but the way he presented it was weirdly apologetic. Very strange.

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Squinty » Wed Oct 04, 2017 3:21 pm

I've never seen a book do that, don't read on, you might think it sucks. It was hilarious to me, seeing as I've read other King stuff and his endings kinda suck at times (The Stand being a main example of this).

Overall, I liked the idea of the ending. The last two books are rightly the worst of them all though. The sixth book is total dogshit.

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Poser » Wed Oct 04, 2017 3:25 pm

Squinty wrote:I've never seen a book do that, don't read on, you might think it sucks. It was hilarious to me, seeing as I've read other King stuff and his endings kinda suck at times (The Stand being a main example of this).

Overall, I liked the idea of the ending. The last two books are rightly the worst of them all though. The sixth book is total dogshit.


It really is awful. I would probably skip it if I were to re-read the series (and I already feel compelled to.)

In Song of Susannah I just found the whole theme of 'time slipping' was becoming real because entire chapters were taking forever to get through.

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Memento Mori
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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Memento Mori » Wed Oct 04, 2017 3:26 pm

Yeah I do like the ending but King writing the last three DT books back to back probably wasn't the best idea.

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Moggy » Wed Oct 04, 2017 3:27 pm

Squinty wrote:I've never seen a book do that, don't read on, you might think it sucks. It was hilarious to me, seeing as I've read other King stuff and his endings kinda suck at times (The Stand being a main example of this).

Overall, I liked the idea of the ending. The last two books are rightly the worst of them all though. The sixth book is total dogshit.


I haven't read any of the prequels/sequels to the main series, but I didn't think any of them were dogshit. There was a massive drop in quality after Wizard and Glass, but I think that's true of most of King's work following his accident.

I would love to read the entire Dark Tower series in an alternate universe where he never got hit by that damn car.

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Poser » Wed Oct 04, 2017 3:31 pm

Moggy wrote:
Squinty wrote:I've never seen a book do that, don't read on, you might think it sucks. It was hilarious to me, seeing as I've read other King stuff and his endings kinda suck at times (The Stand being a main example of this).

Overall, I liked the idea of the ending. The last two books are rightly the worst of them all though. The sixth book is total dogshit.


I haven't read any of the prequels/sequels to the main series, but I didn't think any of them were dogshit. There was a massive drop in quality after Wizard and Glass, but I think that's true of most of King's work following his accident.

I would love to read the entire Dark Tower series in an alternate universe where he never got hit by that damn car.


:lol:

Nice. Honestly, has any artist ever felt the need to ram so much of his own 'process' into his work? It was painful at times.

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Memento Mori
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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Memento Mori » Wed Oct 04, 2017 3:32 pm

11.22.63 was after his accident and is one of his best books.

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Poser » Wed Oct 04, 2017 3:33 pm

Memento Mori wrote:11.22.63 was after his accident and is one of his best books.


I think Moggy just meant from the point of view of him making the accident such an integral plot point, as opposed to a general comment on quality.

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Moggy » Wed Oct 04, 2017 3:42 pm

Poser wrote:
Memento Mori wrote:11.22.63 was after his accident and is one of his best books.


I think Moggy just meant from the point of view of him making the accident such an integral plot point, as opposed to a general comment on quality.


I actually meant both, his pre accident work is much better than his post accident work.

11.22.63 was an exception to that, although I really disliked the ending to that book.

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Poser » Wed Oct 04, 2017 3:45 pm

Moggy wrote:
Poser wrote:
Memento Mori wrote:11.22.63 was after his accident and is one of his best books.


I think Moggy just meant from the point of view of him making the accident such an integral plot point, as opposed to a general comment on quality.


I actually meant both, his pre accident work is much better than his post accident work.

11.22.63 was an exception to that, although I really disliked the ending to that book.


Given that his endings are an acknowledged weakness of SK's, I'd go so far as to say the DT ending is one of his best.

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Moggy » Wed Oct 04, 2017 3:51 pm

Poser wrote:
Moggy wrote:
Poser wrote:
Memento Mori wrote:11.22.63 was after his accident and is one of his best books.


I think Moggy just meant from the point of view of him making the accident such an integral plot point, as opposed to a general comment on quality.


I actually meant both, his pre accident work is much better than his post accident work.

11.22.63 was an exception to that, although I really disliked the ending to that book.


Given that his endings are an acknowledged weakness of SK's, I'd go so far as to say the DT ending is one of his best.


11.22.63 and Dark Tower spoilers:

That’s true, but he only avoided a bad end to DT by looping it back to the start of the awesome four books. ;)

11.22.63 would have probably been my favourite book of his, but the ending absolutely ruined it for me. The idea of earthquakes and the world ripping itself apart was just gooseberry fool. And it would have been easy to have come up with a good ending, all you have to do is show that Kennedy living made the world far worse than it was with him dying , even the strawberry floating TV show managed to do that.

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Rex Kramer » Sun Oct 08, 2017 8:41 pm

I've started a new read through of the Lord of the Rings. I think Concerning Hobbits (chapter 1 of the prologue) might be my favourite bit of prose ever. It's just so beautifully descriptive.

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Poser » Mon Oct 09, 2017 7:57 am

Turns out I wasn't ready to leave the Dark Tower behind, so I have downloaded the graphic novels.

I've never read anything of this kind before. Seems ok so far...

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PostRe: The Literature Thread
by Squinty » Mon Oct 09, 2017 8:33 am

Poser wrote:Turns out I wasn't ready to leave the Dark Tower behind, so I have downloaded the graphic novels.

I've never read anything of this kind before. Seems ok so far...


I have the first one. It's not bad.


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