What Are You Reading Now? Pt 2. Showing 3,301-3,350 of 10,433

[Aditya]

Finished The Gunslinger by Stephen King and have to say I am shocked. For a series so hyped the book is unimaginably bad. The plot is non-existent, the character is a cypher and worst of all the writing pretentious (King himself had admitted in the foreword that he was so caught up in writing a so called epic that he felt the writing had to be literary). I had disliked King reads before but I had never been so disappointed with his writing.

The series is known to improve substantially from the next book so will try that. But I personally feel it is insulting to readers to write a full novel and call it as nothing but a setup for future books when you ask the full price for it. Rating - 1/5.

My Review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Kandice]

Aditya wrote: "Finished The Gunslinger by Stephen King and have to say I am shocked. For a series so hyped the book is unimaginably bad. The plot is non-..."

I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it. I do generally say it picks up in The Drawing of the Three but you may remain unimpressed. It doesn't seem this series is your cup of tea. Here's hoping you love it!

[Aditya]

Kandice wrote: "I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it. I do generally say it picks up in The Drawing of the Three but you may remain unimpressed. It doesn't seem this series is your cup of tea. Here's hoping you love it!"

I will give the second book a shot because I have read that the writing style changes substantially. Thanks for the feedback, but though I have been a vocal detractor of The Stand in these forums and I had hated other authors, I understand what other readers see in those books.

However this book completely left me stumped as in I failed to see what warranted all those glowing reviews. The book by itself is pretty weak and the more GR reviews I read, the more it seems the book gets a pass for what it brings to the whole series rather than any individual merits it might have.

[Kandice]

Here's my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Probably doesn't say much, but you can see I loved it.

[AnnyRoss]

I just started Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte and I have to say it's pretty good so far. I have to admit it's so far from King's style you might not enjoy it as much, but consider giving it a chance. It's about a world where children aren't that important, where if you don't have money you don't really exist.

Also, the contrast between smart poor children and rich dumb ones is quite good and it makes you think, even as an adult; next time a child will state something, you'll think twice before deciding they're wrong or foolish.

I can't wait to finish it so I can review it properly.

[Kandice]

I just finished Ender's Game for a book club and am beginning The Selection for another group.

[Scott]

Aditya wrote: "Finished The Gunslinger by Stephen King and have to say I am shocked. For a series so hyped the book is unimaginably bad. The plot is non-..."

I actually quit reading King's books for awhile after I read it. I was so disappointed. Push through to the next one. You won't be disappointed.

[Aditya]

Scott wrote: "I actually quit reading King's books for awhile after I read it. I was so disappointed. Push through to the next one. You won't be disappointed."

Good to know someone else share my sentiments and thanks for the feedback, I plan to give the series one more shot. I have given much more crappy series (such as Jack Reacher by Lee Childs) a second chance so I would surely get back to DT one more time.

[Rhian]

Wool (hugh howey) was absolutely amazing! whatever I read next is bound to be disappointing

[Susan]

I didn't really enjoy Gunslinger either. I thought it was a bit... boring. I hope the rest of the series is much better.

[Ron]

Rhian wrote: "Wool (hugh howey) was absolutely amazing! whatever I read next is bound to be disappointing"

That book blew me away.

[Rhian]

Ron I'm a bit devastated not to have the next book

[Ron]

I'm on a break before getting the 3rd one. You know when you just don't want a story to end?

[Natalie]

The Cell
I know it's an older Stephen King book, but I heard it was good and am finally getting around to reading it.
Nothing like a good apocolypse story!

[Rhian]

@Ron I totally get you, I've still not read the girl who kicked a hornets nest, I'm stretching it out

[E.]

Natalie, Cell is one I haven't read yet but truly looking forward to. It had such polarized reviews so I put it off. But so did Lisey's Story, and I really liked that one.
I'm in the middle of both "We Need To Talk About Kevin" and Bolton's "Little Black Lies". Both good, very different.

[Paul]

Susan wrote: "I didn't really enjoy Gunslinger either. I thought it was a bit... boring. I hope the rest of the series is much better."

Whether you like 'The Gunslinger' or not (which is obviously subjective) nobody could deny that it is tonally and stylistically COMPLETELY different to the rest of the Dark Tower series. Don't let not liking the first one stop you reading the rest of the series!

[Aditya]

Finished Blue Labyrinth . Shamelessly generic albeit a sufficiently entertaining thriller. The series lately had dropped all pretenses of Pendergast being a Holmesian detective and this is one more step closer to rebuilding the lead more in the mold of James Bond or a generic action hero. If intelligent story-telling is what you seek skip it, if you want to pass a lazy afternoon with a casual read that you would forget as soon as you are done with it, you can't go wrong with this one. Rating 3/5

Susan wrote: "I didn't really enjoy Gunslinger either. I thought it was a bit... boring. I hope the rest of the series is much better."

Completely agree.

[Erin]

[Erin]

[Rach]

I started Finders Keepers yesterday, I'm quite excited about this one.

[Kandice]

I just started The Martian. That opening line is right up there with that of The Gunslinger!

[Michael]

Personally, I don't think Gunslinger is a bad book. It has some very cool stark images and paints a world that is hard and cruel, but at the same time entrancing. The problem with Gunslinger is that - because it is by Stephen King - you are expecting more, and, at least for me, it wasn't enough. Expectations are a terrible thing sometimes.

[Kandice]

Michael wrote: "Personally, I don't think Gunslinger is a bad book. It has some very cool stark images and paints a world that is hard and cruel, but at the same time entrancing. The problem with Gunslinger is tha..."

Right? Often I know I am rating a book by an author I really like lower than I would if it was by some unknown because I just know they could do better.

[Aditya]

Michael wrote: "Personally, I don't think Gunslinger is a bad book. It has some very cool stark images and paints a world that is hard and cruel, but at the same time entrancing. The problem with Gunslinger is tha..."

It's great that you enjoyed it but for me it surely wasn't a victim of expectations, more like its unadulterated crap. BTW if you don't mind can you please explain what is good about it except as a stand-alone title & please don't tell em what it brings to the whole DT series. I am not being condescending, I genuinely want to know what a fan takes away from a book like this.

[Kandice]

I can tell you that I loved the subtle world building that King did in The Gunslinger. He plops us down in Roland's world and gives us little bits of info here and there to piece together where he is.

He shows us a world with a long history not unlike ours, but more parallel than linear. I love the idea of a world "moving on". A bit like "the heavyside lair" or Tolkien's idea for his worlds. It verges on high fantasy, but also has bits of reality, western, horror, almost everything.

We see Roland in a very unflattering light and yet begin to love him despite his sacrifice of a child. We don't understand his quest yet, but King gives us the smallest glimpse possible to lure us in.

Plus, the end of the novel when King talks about the vastness of reality, time and space is enough to make the entire novel worth reading in my opinion.

The man strings words together in a way that lead me on. Always.

[Aditya]

Kandice wrote: "I can tell you that I loved the subtle world building that King did in The Gunslinger. He plops us down in Roland's world and gives us little bits of info here and there to piece toget..."

This reply was much more detailed than your review, you might think about updating it. Well I guess I will look upon The Gunslinger on a more favorable light after I am done with a few more DT books. I thought Roland was an awful protagonist because he behaves like a hard-case throughout the book and has no redeeming features, a more fleshed out back story & I would not probably have as many problems accepting his actions. The end simply did not make any sense. After everything Roland goes through to get to his quarry, he seemed very content to play the part of a passive listener.

I just did not think the start of the series should have been so vague, had this book been somewhere in the middle of the series where we know what Roland wants, his history with man in black, it would not have been so bad. It could have been a very good pilot for a TV series which is judged not on the merits of an individual episode but on a whole season, a book however does not have the luxury (at least it does not for me) of providing no answers to the reader and yet expect to be called good for what it sets up.

[Kandice]

Aditya wrote: "Kandice wrote: "I can tell you that I loved the subtle world building that King did in The Gunslinger. He plops us down in Roland's world and gives us little bits of info here and ther..."

I re-wrote my review after my last re-read and it somehow got "lost in space". I figured I'd be reading it yet again and update at that point. I hate when things get lost on GR and it seems to be my luck that it happens when I've written a lot. O_o

[Michael]

Aditya, Kandice did much better than I could have done. I don't think it's fair to apply our standards of morality to Roland's world, so your "no redeeming features" is a bit harsh. Roland is hard-edged because he has to survive in a desperate world. I don't have a problem with that.

Oddly enough, I do have issues with King's world building. It does seem a bit arbitrary and is probably one of the problems he cares least about when he writes. His worlds are just exactly what are needed. They don't have to sustain themselves after the book is closed. You know that going in though.

[Kandice]

Michael, I think that is one of the things I love about King's world building! I was obsessed with Tolkien when I was younger, but his worlds and their "rules" are so well written and so detailed that there is nothing left for me to imagine when he has finished his tales.

King, on the other hand, tells us only what we need to know right now so we are free to write our own stories in our heads later because he leaves room for that.

There seems to be no "canon" where King is concerned!

[Marjo]

Kandice wrote: "I just finished Ender's Game for a book club and am beginning The Selection for another group."

I love Ender's game! One of my favourites.

[Aditya]

John wrote: "From what I know, book four is pretty much all just Roland's back story, so it is there somewhere in the books. Also from what I know, the first book was written quite a while before King had anyth..."

I was also told that it was one of the first scripts he wrote back during his college days but inexperience could only be factored in even this was among the first couple of books he published. He had published enough books before this one to know it needed a little more work, that's my take on it. And King may not have fleshed out how the series would end (he is generally not known to be a meticulous plotter but more as a writer who goes with the flow) but it is pretty obvious he meant the book to be first in a series.

[Michael]

Marjo wrote: "Kandice wrote: "I just finished Ender's Game for a book club and am beginning The Selection for another group."

I love Ender's game! One of my favourites."

I read it a long time ago, but the twist almost wrenched my head off. What a great book!

[Aditya]

Michael wrote: "Aditya, Kandice did much better than I could have done. I don't think it's fair to apply our standards of morality to Roland's world, so your "no redeeming features" is a bit harsh. Roland is hard-..."

Actually I am one of those readers who prefer his protagonists to be amoral rather than goody two-shoes. I don't have any problems with dark protagonists. (I recently read James Ellroy's White Jazz which became one of my favorite books where the protagonist was an incestuous, corrupt cop who killed witnesses for seedy mob bosses & those are just the things I can say without entering spoiler territory)

So I was not so much as criticizing Roland as a character based on any misguided sense of morality but I was being harsh on the awful writing.
(view spoiler)[He lets his companion die to reach the Man in Black and shows a complete lack of urgency to confront him is just an example of botched writing which makes the character appear very weak. (hide spoiler)]

[Kandice]

Aditya wrote: He lets his companion die to reach the Man in Black and shows a complete lack of urgency to confront him is just an example of botched writing which makes the character appear very weak.

(view spoiler)[But we know he has been on this quest for decades, if not centuries. There is no sense of urgency! Yes, allowing someone to die is a harsh step, but it's certainly not the worst thing he's had to do and it won't be once he's finished either, I'd venture to say. (hide spoiler)]

[Michael]

Aditya, after what he did in Tull, do you really think he cares whether little Jake lived or died?

(view spoiler)[Also it's been a while, but Jake let go, right? There are other worlds... (hide spoiler)]

[Aditya]

Thanks Michael & Kandice for your feedback, it is evident both of you really like the DT books, I will give the next one a try, if that one shows no improvement, I will be done with both the series & the genre for the near future.

[Aditya]

John wrote: "And Stephen King as well? You seem to have nothing but bad things to say about him, I don't know why you bother to read his stuff at all."

I have given the most number of 5/5 ratings to King, in fact I will put The Dead Zone & Misery easily among the top ten reads of my life. Misery especially is one of the best examples of how to build tension without resorting to cliches, a lot of people say The Silence of The Lamb is one of the most effective books at building a tangible aura of suspense but for me it has got nothing on Misery

But I would also be the first to admit King is easily a hit or miss author. On his day he is utterly compelling but on his bad days he is absolute crap which stems from the fact that his writing drives his plot and when the writing is patchy, the plot seldom holds up unlike many other prolific authors who don't have a writing style as distinct or unique as King but often has an interesting plot which compels the reader to read on.

I actually like King more for his personal tales add Pet Sematary or Firestarter to my list of favorite Kings rather than his bloated epics which most of his fans seem to enjoy. The reason being almost all his epics suffer from the same pacing problems, that's why it might seem I am a detractor of King because in these forums it's the epics that are most often discussed between members.

Anyway I know the group is called King fans but I see it more as a platform for discussion for his works, so if that's not the case I won't have any problems in keeping my opinions to myself unless they are overwhelmingly positive in King's favor.

[Michael]

Aditya wrote: "John wrote: "And Stephen King as well? You seem to have nothing but bad things to say about him, I don't know why you bother to read his stuff at all."

I have given the most number of 5/5 ratings ..."

Please don't keep your opinions to yourself. I like hearing your perspective.

[Kandice]

We are all welcome to our opinions and hearing others is often refreshing. Don't keep your negative thoughts to yourself, but expect push back. ;)

[Kenneth]

Just finished Book # 5 of the Stephen King Challenge - Night Shift. No doubt about it. Its the best collection of short story horror that I've ever read. Absolutely loved it! If you're interested, my review breaks down each story.
https://kenmckinley.wordpress.com

[Kandice]

Ken wrote: "Just finished Book # 5 of the Stephen King Challenge - Night Shift. No doubt about it. Its the best collection of short story horror that I've ever read. Absolutely loved it! If you're interested, ..."

Have you read 20th Century Ghosts by his son? If not, you should. ;)

[Kenneth]

Kandice wrote: "Ken wrote: "Just finished Book # 5 of the Stephen King Challenge - Night Shift. No doubt about it. Its the best collection of short story horror that I've ever read. Absolutely loved it! If you're ..."

I havent! But I have it downloaded and it's on my mountain of a TBR pile. I've read many of his other stories including Horns, Heart Shaped Box, and a few of his short stories. They were all good to great. He definitely inherited his old man's writing genes.

[Lisa]

just started reading Carrie think it will be much better than the movie even though it scared the hell out of me

[Gavin]

I'm reading Moby-Dick; or, The Whale

[Kenneth]

Ugh Gavin! You are a much better man than me. Moby Dick IS my white whale! I tried twice to read that and failed.

[Kandice]

Gavin wrote: "I'm reading Moby-Dick; or, The Whale"

I may be one of the only people still living that loved that book.

[Kenneth]

I'm usually pretty forgiving on the classics. I can appreciate them for what they are. But Melville killed me. Lol.

[Tom]

Lisa wrote: "just started reading Carrie think it will be much better than the movie even though it scared the hell out of me"

I don't know. This is one instance where the movie is better than the book. Piper Laurie cannot be unseen!

[Andrea]

I just finished Ack-Ack Macaque by Gareth Powell. Uchronia meets cyberpunk meets noir. Then you get a picture of this novel. Add a screaming talking smokingshooting monkey and you have it all!

Next I might start Cradle's Cat by Vonnegut but I'm not totally sure....