Book Talk discussion
This topic is about
Stephen King
The Best & Worst of Stephen King
The COMPLETE & UNCUT VERSION rates 0 stars. That right. A fucking big fat donut hole. 1. It's sloppily edited. King tried to update the book to the 1990's, but he left in little details of the 1980's.
2. The ending cheapens the sacrifice made by Glenn, Ralph, Larry, and Stu.
3. Only the scene with Frannie and her dad before she buries him has any impact. The rest was superfluous back then and it still is. It bogs down an already weighty story. And I could have lived happily without ever having met The Kid.
4. And in Wizard and Glass, Roland's ka-tet visits Topeka in 1986, not 1996, so...I guess they're two different worlds/books, though nobody recognizes this fact.
I could go on and on, but it gets boring. The Shining made me a fan, the 1978 The Stand made me a believer, and the 1990 Complete and Uncut The Stand turned me into a Sporadic Reader (as opposed to Constant) of King until 2010.
The intent, I'm sure, was to give the whole work an "epic feel" to it, but in doing so it made it sloppy, unfocused and even boring in stretches. It's too bad the original is OOP, because a new generation of King readers will never know how great this book once was.
Jon Recluse wrote: "I own both versions, but I've never compared them.Once was enough for me.
And the expanded version is the original, unedited version.
Say that to yourself slowly....unedited King.
I think I pee..."
The unedited version is why books need impartial editors reading at them before publication. And the book is more how King wants it to be rememberedas oppsed to how it was originally (Though the chapter on The Kid reeks of the bizarre sexuality that was popular in the late 70's-mid 80's) If you think Stephen King predicted AIDS in 1978, I have a 1st print Great Book of Elden Tales to sell you...cheaply!
Squire wrote: "Jon Recluse wrote: "I own both versions, but I've never compared them.Once was enough for me.
And the expanded version is the original, unedited version.
Say that to yourself slowly....unedited ..."
Richard Matheson predicted AIDS in I am Legend.
With the Acronym AIDS? I don't think so. Read that one. Liked it alot.
Of course not. I said he predicted it, not named it.
That was edited in. King was coked out of his mind at the time.
King edited it himself. He needed AN IMPARTIAL EDITOR to look at his work. Drugs are no excuse.
So......hmmmm.....I am Legend is better than The Stand: C&Un? I'd agree with that.
Yes, it is.And the disease in The Stand was SIDS, not AIDS.
Captain Trips! Baby, can you dig your man?
Charlene wrote: "Really? I much prefer the expanded Stand to the original. The very beginning explains so much more than the original, I thought it was better even if it was just for that one reason. :)"So do I. It's the version that King would have originally published had he not been asked to edit it so much. I love the uncut version.
I like it to.Makes a nice ottoman....
But neither one of you can actually lift a copy.....
Oh pshaw! The story is so good, it's worth the workout. :)
I might look buff to some huge animal with poor eyesight, but to a human?Not so much.
Favorite Kings would include:The Shining
'Salem's Lot
Misery
The Green Mile
The short story and novella collections
and Hearts in Atlantis. Yeah, that one is disjointed but I think only because the first piece, "Low Men in Yellow Coats," never really seemed a proper fit with the rest of it.
Also Danse Macabre and On Writing
And Cujo moves like a freakin' bullet
Least likely to go back to:
Insomnia
Dreamcatcher
The Tommyknockers
You know, I think Cujo is underrated. I like your lists. I would never go back to The Tommyknockers either.
The Best (in no particular order):The Eyes of the Dragon
On Writing
Insomnia
'Salem's Lot
The Shining
The Mist
The Bachman Books
The Dark Half
Night Shift
The Drawing of the Three (The Dark Tower, #2)
The Worst (in no particular order):
Everything's Eventual: 14 Dark Tales
Desperation
Nightmares And Dreamscapes
The Tommyknockers
Wizard and Glass (The Dark Tower, #4)
The Stand (Uncut & Expanded Version)
Pet Sematary
Blaze
The Colorado Kid
The Waste Lands (The Dark Tower, #3)
I didn't include all I've read by King, just ten from the top and ten from the bottom.
I'll have to give Cujo a try. Also, it looks like I'm in the minority as far as Insomnia is concerned.
An addendum. A couple of posts back I said I was least likely to go back to Insomnia, Dreamcatcher and The Tommyknockers. And that's true. But as uneven as I sometimes find King, I've never regretted paying cover price for one of his books. Even the ones I doubt I'll revisit always had something to them that made them worth the read -- particular characters or scenes that maybe weren't central but were so nicely done that I was glad I'd read them. (Some of William Goldman's later novels strike me the same way; Brothers, for instance, is nowhere near as good as Marathon Man but there are at least three chapters in that book that are alone worth the bucks I paid for it in hardcover.) So whenever there's a new King coming out, I'm there.
I want my money back for Gerald's Game.I could use that $4.
Pristine hardcover.$4 or best offer. ;)
Mine's been touched by me.Very rare edition.
The Tommyknockers rates so low for me because it was so great up into the final quarter or so of the book. Then it was just suddenly so, so horrible.
Be careful Jon-you may start a bidding war
Gregor wrote: "The Tommyknockers rates so low for me because it was so great up into the final quarter or so of the book. Then it was just suddenly so, so horrible."My problem with The Tommyknockers was that King called his characters by their last names through the first half of the book, giving the whole thing a coldness that he couldn't thaw out when "Gard" finally became "Jim" and "Anderson" finally became "Bobbi." Peter was the only character King showed any sympathy for, and that was the dog!
Cathy wrote: "Be careful Jon-you may start a bidding war":)
Gerald's Game was far from my favorite King, that's for sure. But I do think it was quite daring for him to try it. A novel that is almost completely free of dialogue and full of long blocks of text-that's tough.
Gerald's Game is essentially "isolation horror" but to an even more acute degree than, say, a "trapped in a blizzard" story. Which reminds me, I need to reread it sometime soon.
Not hate.Mild disgust, coupled with creeping boredom.
*BIG HUG*I knew I could depend on you, Charlene! ;)
I read it when it first came out when I was still in h.s. I wonder how it would read now?
I couldn't say.I've never had a problem with that sort of thing.
My tastes matured to current levels before high school, so what I liked then, I still like.
I just saw that Gregor put Pet Sematary on his worst list. I'm shocked. P.S. is one of the few books to give me actual chills.
A lot of people had problems with Pet Sematary. Too short, too gory......King chucking Gage under the truck being an easy grab for reader empathy....
I thought Pet Semetary was the darkest book King ever wrote.
@Glen - If I'd read Pet Semetary before having kids, I'd likely have a different opinion of it.
Charlene wrote: "I thought Pet Semetary was the darkest book King ever wrote."I agree, but that's what I've heard people say.
Once was enough for me.
And the expanded version is the original, unedited version.
Say that to yourself slowly....unedited King.
I think I peed myself. ;)