Finally finished it yesterday. Can't remember the last time reading SK was such a chore.
Finally finished it yesterday. Can't remember the last time reading SK was such a chore.
A hound will die for you, but never lie to you. And he'll look you straight in the face.
My Collection
Interview with Owen: https://storgy.com/2017/12/03/interview-owen-king/
Author of The Road to the Dark Tower, Stephen King: A Complete Exploration of His Work, Life, and Influences and The Dark Tower Companion. Co-editor with Stephen King of the anthology Flight or Fright.
"A real limited edition, far from being an expensive autograph stapled to a novel, is a treasure. And like all treasures do, it transforms the responsible owner into a caretaker, and being a caretaker of something as fragile and easily destroyed as ideas and images is not a bad thing but a good one...and so is the re-evaluation of what books are and what they do that necessarily follows." - Stephen King
I know the feeling. I felt the need as well. I opted to check out Mr. King's other son's latest book.
Bev Vincent: With the audiobook version of SB, there's a conversation with Stephen and Owen at the end where, pretty much, the same information is revealed though is is just Stephen and Owen talking.
Not understanding the dislike for this book. I thought it was fantastic.
SPOILER ALERTS IN THIS COMMENT. I found this by googling “Sleeping Beauties Stephen King disappointing”. Because I own everything he’s ever written, and love his stuff – even the co-authored novels, but this one was really disappointing. I agree with the comments here – too many characters, no real redeeming qualities to any of them (or anyone to root for) very biased, finding the worst in both sexes (I’m female – and while I love some of his writing addressing violence against women – Rose Madder, etc – I found this one pretty heavy-handed). But my biggest problem with it was (SPOILER ALERT) the huge holes in the plot: for example – WHY did time go faster in Our Place? Did the women age in relation (Warden Janice's hair grew FAST - would that mean shorter lifespans?) But the biggest one unaddressed was – what REAL choice did the women have? With their cocooned bodies on the other side, they would still live in fear, and at the whim, of the very men they were choosing to leave behind. Was there any doubt that if they did not return, they left themselves utterly vulnerable? If the men grew angry or despondent that they lived in a women-less world, what would stop them from burning all the cocoons, effectively wiping out the New World? Why would the men left behind care enough to safeguard all those bodies so that the women lived on, in another world? Especially if they were as self-centred, callous, mean, etc as they were all painted to be? Absolutely made zero sense at all.
SPOILER ALERTS IN THIS COMMENT. I found this by googling “Sleeping Beauties Stephen King disappointing”. Because I own everything he’s ever written, and love his stuff – even the co-authored novels, but this one was really disappointing. I agree with comments of disappointment here – too many characters, no real redeeming qualities to any of them (or anyone to root for) very biased, finding the worst in both sexes (I’m female – and while I love some of his writing regarding violence against women – Rose Madder is a fantastic example – I found this one pretty heavy-handed). But my biggest problem with it was (SPOILER ALERT) the huge holes in the plot: WHY did time go faster in Our Place? Did the women age in relation? Warden Janice's hair grew extremely fast, was aging accelerated? But the biggest one unaddressed was – what REAL choice did the women have? With their cocooned bodies on the other side, they would still live in fear, and at the whim, of the very men they were choosing to leave behind. Was there any doubt that if they did not return, they left themselves utterly vulnerable? If the men grew angry or despondent that they lived in a women-less world, what would stop them from burning all the cocoons, effectively wiping out the New World? Why would the men left behind care enough to safeguard all those bodies so that the women lived on, in another world? Made absolutely zero sense at all. I feel like if this had been a debut novel by a new author, it wouldn't have made it past the rejection desk. I'm finding myself re-reading the classic King novels lately, and that only reinforces my disappointment in this book.
I agree. When I saw them in NY, Owen indicated this started out as some type of TV project and then evolved into a novel. That raises a lot of red flags. It's a conceptual mess and very disappointing. I'm sure SK did this in part to advance the profile of OK as a writer. Oddly enough I really enjoyed "Double Feature" but this one is a real stinker. One of the few King novels that I wouldn't bother to read twice.
How does Owen's other stuff fare to those who read it?
On a related note I really wish King would write a full novel with Joe Hill as opposed to just the occasional short story. I actually asked Hill this at a signing but his response was (as I remember, this was back when NOS4A2 was out I think) that it probably wouldn't happen as their allotted free writing time together would only allow something short.
A hound will die for you, but never lie to you. And he'll look you straight in the face.
My Collection
Finished SB yesterday and really enjoyed it, reminding me of some of the best King “multiple characters in peril” stories, particularly Under The Dome.
For me, it was a return to his big story-telling and writing style that was missing from the Hodges trilogy.
Finally finished Sleeping Beauties today after three long months. It seemed like it would never end. I don't know if I've ever dreaded reading a King story, so this may be a first. Way too long, too many characters (and none I really cared about), and the most interesting part of the whole book, Evie, was just there. Glad I'm finally finished, but can't help but feel irritated at the wasted potential here. Somewhere in Sleeping Beauties is a good book.
A NEW GAME BEGINS
I really enjoyed Double Feature quite a bit. I read pretty much just sci-fi and horror and I found it to be a really fun departure from my normal readings. I thought it was a very funny and fun book.
Every time I laughed during Sleeping Beauties I assumed it was Owen's writing.
I just finished the audiobook this morning. Wow, what a borefest. I really struggled getting through it. There was a huge cast of characters, but I really felt no strong connection to any of them. There also seemed to be a lot of stuff that went nowhere.Spoiler:Seems like they could have greatly condensed this book down and made it a lot tighter and shorter. There was also all this buildup, but the end was pretty abrupt and nothing spectacular. I also had the question of why was it just the women of Dooling that get to make this choice. Seemed kinda odd that it wasn't all of the female population.
I felt the same way. Shame as it was a great story idea. Looks like the strange, abrupt, or fizzled ending is genetic. I was just waiting for the large strange spider or slave lord ants to pop up. Although I guess this wasn’t just a bad ending, it really was rough and splotchy throughout. I felt confused many times.
I feel as though, if a book is bad, ok it happens. But, when a super long tome-esq book is bad, that’s just mean.
For me it didn’t feel like a Stephen King book much at all. Even in some of his less liked works where the story isn’t that great or favored, I usually still enjoy the writing and characters. This time around I didn’t feel that way.
"Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes they win." - SK
WTB:
- S/L 'Storm Front' Jim Butcher (Subterranean Press)
- S/L 'Fool Moon' Jim Butcher (Subterranean Press)
Yeah, I don't think the ending was bad per say, but just very boring. That's kind of how I felt through the whole thing. It was very forgettable. I was actually really excited when I first heard the premise, so it was a bit of a let down. I think the idea was good, but not the way it was executed. Maybe if they trimmed it down it could be a much better story.
Yes, I felt that same way.
"Monsters are real, and ghosts are real too. They live inside us, and sometimes they win." - SK
WTB:
- S/L 'Storm Front' Jim Butcher (Subterranean Press)
- S/L 'Fool Moon' Jim Butcher (Subterranean Press)
Only just started SB. Question! On page 20 the word oncept is used, I've never come across this word, is it a typo? Also whats up with the censorship on a certain name on this thread?
I started this a while back, but finished it early this morning. I didn’t dislike it. The premise was interesting, and I enjoyed it well enough while reading it, but I didn’t feel strongly inclined to stick with it, and spent weeks with it to one side, while I read other stuff.
Granted, I’ve been very busy working long hours, but that wouldn’t stop me in the past. I usually find it difficult to put down a King book. Granted, this wasn’t just a Stephen King book, but I’m not gonna blame Owen as I don’t know if it’s his influence (and I haven’t read any of his own work, that I can remember, to judge him fairly) or just the result of the two of them writing together.
And as I said, I didn’t dislike it. It did feel a bit of a chore to get through, though. I purposely binged it the last three nights, not because I found it so riveting (although it does get more interesting near the end) but because I wanted to get it over with ASAP so I could move on to something else.
But, I did like it. Honest. Just not all that much. I liked the Evey character a lot, though.
Finally managed a slog through this book and finished it two days ago. What a waste of my time. The story was so bloated and so much could be taken out.
Interesting premise, horrible execution, and even worse ending. I agree with all the previous comments: bad dialogue, too many unnecessary characters, and no payoff for slogging through a mess of a book.