Stephen King's "Cell"

Halifirien

Halifirien

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Halifirien
I picked up the new Stephen King novel the other day. I'm a long-time fan (all the way back to reading Firestarter in fifth grade) of his stuff, but I've had to admit lately the man was losing a lot of steam.

Dreamcatcher was horrible (to be fair, the man wrote it longhand while hopped up on pain meds after his van accident). The final three volumes of The Dark Tower didn't thrill me as much as I'd hoped, although I was glad to have it resolved. From a Buick 8 was decent and I enjoyed it well enough, but I saw the flaws.

Cell is surprising me. It feels more like old-school King, a lean and mean thriller with most of the ballast thrown over the side. I'm more than two-thirds of the way through it so far.

It's worth checking out.
 
Thanks for the heads up Hal, I'll have to check it out. I agree King had seemed to be slacking lately. I thought Dreamcatcher was okay, but From a Buick 8 kinda bored me. It was interesting, but just not what I had expected.

One book I really liked that a lot of others didn't seem to like was (I believe) called Desperation, some of the visuals in the book were really creepy.

Then of course what I consider some of his best writing (with Peter Straub) were the books The Talisman and Black House. If you haven't read those I definitely recommend them.
 
I've read all of his novels except The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon. I tried that one a few times and couldn't make it.

I agree Desperation was good. I made the mistake of reading The Regulators first, so trying to go straight into Desperation confused me and I put it down for a long time. When I finally picked it up again, it was good. I'm looking forward to the movie later this year.
 
Mishaela said:
Steven King's still alive? :shok:
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The good die young. Stephen King and Dean Koontz keep going and going and going...

King was good in the 70s and up to the The Stand. His post-Stand work is spotty, to say the least.

At least Koontz got to be the butt of one of my favorite Family Guy jokes.
 
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I'm also a Dean R. Koontz and Stephen King fan. I used to love reading Stephen King's books more than Dean Koontz. I agree his work has gone more downhill after The Stand, so I've preferred Koontz work over his lately. I'll make sure to check out The Cell now that Hal says it's pretty decent.

I remember when I read The Stand. Man I loved that book. I read it twice even. Then when they came out with the mini-series I was so afraid they would ruin it. I feel to this day (I still watch it when it comes on cable movie channels), they did a damn good job on it.
 
I liked his first book after The Stand, The Dead Zone, but a lot of the work that followed doesn't compare to the novels and short stories that came before them.
 
Dark tower 07, what a cop out :(
 
The post-apocalypse feel of The Stand is present in Cell. It's also his homage to George Romero's zombie stories as well as another Romero movie called The Crazies. Parts of it also remind me of John Wyndham's The Midwich Cuckoos and Day of the Triffids.

There's some creepy shit going on in this one, basically. It's been awhile since I've been able to say that about a King novel.
 
Halifirien said:
There's some creepy shit going on in this one, basically. It's been awhile since I've been able to say that about a King novel.
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OMG Hal, perfect words there. That's the King I remember and love. When you can't figure out what's goin' on, and you have to turn the light on to go to the bathroom cuz it just gets to you a tad^^.
 
I picked up "Cell" last Tuesday but I have not read it as of yet.
 
Halifirien said:
The post-apocalypse feel of The Stand is present in Cell. It's also his homage to George Romero's zombie stories as well as another Romero movie called The Crazies. Parts of it also remind me of John Wyndham's The Midwich Cuckoos and Day of the Triffids.

There's some creepy shit going on in this one, basically. It's been awhile since I've been able to say that about a King novel.
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I'd just like to point out that George A. Romero is doing a remake to The Crazies! Though he's writing, not directing. =P

Anyhow, back on topic I havent read a good book in a while, so I'll probably check this out, I use to be a big King fan.
 
hal i was right there with ya on the Regulators and Desperation. I sometimes wish i had just read one and not both because i got confusing as hell. And im definitely going to go out and buy "Cell" now. Ive been pretty dissappointed by Kings books lately. "From a Buick 8" just didn't have the old king feel like you get from reading "It" and "The Shining"
 
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