I don't think King is the best when it comes to aliens and UFOs and I wouldn't say the Tommyknockers was one of my favourites but I think people are too harsh when it comes to criticizing this one.
I don't think King is the best when it comes to aliens and UFOs and I wouldn't say the Tommyknockers was one of my favourites but I think people are too harsh when it comes to criticizing this one.
I liked Tommyknockers. Alot actually.
Sloth Love Chunk
Then I think you have to prove them all wrong by stating the reasons why you liked it so much. I'd love to hear you defend it
Simple really, I was tweaking alot during that time, and the bizarre inventions really appealled to my err...meticulous nature at the time.
No really, I just thought that it was very imaginative, and it caught my attention right away with the mysterious "something buried in the forest". I thought it was completely different from anything I had ever read.
Sloth Love Chunk
I don't care a damn about aliens or UFOs, but The Tommyknockers is a great human story. There are characters - something which Bag of Bones of Lisey's Story both desperately lack - and their stories deeply touched me; the novel is truly polyphonic, and that is King's most forte forte, as far as I am concerned. A lot of things, situations, little dramas, side stories included there deeply impressed me, and when we were voting the best minor character, I nominated Everett Hillman (that whole story, with the two boys and grandfather, is, to my mind, one of the best King's achievements ever).
Ask not what bears can do for you, but what you can do for bears. (razz)
When one is in agreement with bears one is always correct. (mae)
bears are back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
...and all this time I thought myself alone.Originally Posted by BROWNINGS CHILDE
Sloth Love Chunk
I was actually talking about The Tommyknockers in work yesterday with one of the lad's i work with (i've managed to get him to read IT by going on about how good stephen king is.) and while I don't remember much about it I do remember actually enjoying it. I think it was as someone else mentioned a good character story and from what I remember I really enjoyed the ending!
The movie on the other hand......well it's got Traci Lords in it - I think that sum's it up enough!! (i say this but I still have it on DVD!!)
hmmm....i might watch the tommyknockers tonight lol.
Personally my least favourite king novel is either Eye's Of The Dragon or Pet Cemetery. I never actually managed to finish Pet Cemetery and i found Eye's Of The Dragon to be a bit blah - but saying that I'm still planning to give it another go at some point next year.
oh and Christine - now that was a book that I just plain didn't enjoy!!!
Jamesey
xxx
I couldn't agree more with you there. I was just trying to understand why people thought it was such a bad story that it was their least favourite.
Eyes of the Dragon was written for a child and I think you can feel it in the way it's written. It's not a children's tale but it's meant for a younger audience. I think Pet Cemetery is an incredible book: it has full-fledged characters and there's no waste of time in the entire story.
For what reasons couldn't you finish it?
Funny to see you mentioned three books I thoroughly enjoyed.
Pet Sematary is one of my top 5 SK novels.
Sloth Love Chunk
I really like The Tommyknockers! The fact that it was so interesting was a big surprise for me. I thought that a story about aliens just can't be interesting, but a friend of mine insisted that I must red it! And i was hooked up!
I can't pick a book by Stephen King that i don't like! Many people told me, that Firestarter is one of his best books, but for some reason it was hard to read it! Also the first half of Insomnia was very boring, but the second half absolutely compensated it!
[COLOR="Red"][B][SIZE="1"][FONT="Verdana"]To see some Bulgarian
Stephen King book covers, click here:
To me, Bag of Bones felt a little bit pointless. It didn't seem to go anywhere, and felt boring. But since it came out right after Wizard and Glass, I kind of think my poor opinion of it is tainted by the fact that I wanted more of the Dark Tower. From a Buick 8, which is my all time least favorite King book, suffers from the same problem. Honestly, most of King's novels from the time I discovered the Tower up till the last book had to kind of work a little harder to get my respect.
Oh I quite enjoyed Firestarter, but i agree with you about Insomnia - i found the first half a real struggle (so much so that I gave up it first time round) but when I finally forced myself to just read the damn thing I found the second half amazing!!!
it never ceases to amaze me how different everyone's tastes are
Jamesey
xxx
True. Because with bears and Insomnia, it was just the opposite way. Great first part, and rather boring second.Oh I quite enjoyed Firestarter, but i agree with you about Insomnia - i found the first half a real struggle (so much so that I gave up it first time round) but when I finally forced myself to just read the damn thing I found the second half amazing!!!
it never ceases to amaze me how different everyone's tastes are
Ask not what bears can do for you, but what you can do for bears. (razz)
When one is in agreement with bears one is always correct. (mae)
bears are back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
the world would be very boring if we were all the same.
and i LOVED firestarter
While I confess I'm far from being a promiscuous admirer of King's work, I can't understand some of the hostility shown The Tommyknockers. It is something of a quite methodical Sci-Fi noir piece -and I think this was King's purpose from the start- if you choose to take it as S-F (I just take it for what it is). If I had to choose the likelihood of our encountering aliens between E.T. and Tommyknockers, I would unhesitatingly choose the latter.....although it's more likely that someone advanced enough to get here would either ignore us, or exterminate us in some ludicrously trivial way. I envision it as something with a whole lot less purpose than Douglas Adams in HHGTTG- maybe the aliens land, look around, and leave- except one of them discards a kleenex full of alien snot, and oh, the humanity!
Too bloody true!!the world would be very boring if we were all the same.
and i LOVED firestarter
jamesey
xxx
FIRESTARTER is probably on my top 5 favorite King books list. Hated the movie.
THE TOMMYKNOCKERS was not that bad, not a real page turner, but I had no problems reading it, and enjoyed it. The same can be said for DREAMCATCHER.
I liked IT, and I also liked the ABC TV movie adaptation.
Loved both versions of THE STAND, far and away my favorite King novel, hated the movie version.
Loved THE GREEN MILE in both book and movie form.
Liked very much: CHRISTINE, and movie version.
Liked The LANGOLIERS, hated the TV movie.
Hated STORM OF THE CENTURY in both TV movie and screenplay form.
Liked THE RUNNING MAN novel very much, very dissapointed by the lame movie version.
And to beat a dead horse some more (take THAT dead horse!), didn't like LISEY'S STORY, THE COLORADO KID, THE GIRL WHO LOVED TOM GORDON, DTs 5, 6, and 7, BLACK HOUSE and BLAZE, to varying extents.
The all time winner in the book I hated the most contest is - LISEY'S STORY!
All the other King books and collections I liked A LOT! (Although I'm only on the 2nd story in JUST AFTER SUNSET right now, so time will tell on that one)
WOW!! I think that you've ust said almost the oposite of everything i like! lol!!
Can I just ask what you didn't like about DT 5,6,7? I haven't read 7 yet and don't remember much of 6 but loved it! and I think you're one of the only people I've heard say anything good about the Abc IT!
WOW!! I think that you've ust said almost the oposite of everything i like! lol!!
Can I just ask what you didn't like about DT 5,6,7? I haven't read 7 yet and don't remember much of 6 but loved it! and I think you're one of the only people I've heard say anything good about the Abc IT! I practically foam at the mouth when I watch it cause i hate it that much!!!
I quite enjoyed Linsey's story and adore blackhouse! I also enjoyed the adaptation of it as well! lol
Different strokes for different folks I suppose!
jamesey
xxx
I actually forgot why I disliked the last 3 DT books until I read some of the remarks in the other threads. They brought back memories of the language (carbella or carmella or whatever it was called) that irritated me greatly every time it was used. The dialect spoken was also painful for me to read (but I've always found novels or stories written in dialect hard to read). The constant repetition of key phrases and/or ideas also irked me. Once is OK, 5 times I can stomach, but King tends to overdo this in MANY of his works, Perhaps (with the eternal exception of THE STAND) this is why I like his shorter works much better, they get right to the point, and the characters don't have an interior monolog and retrospective with themselves after every action that occurs around them, leaving me thinking 'Enough already! Just get on with it!'. Also, I believe that most actions in our lives are random, and we don't have to do THIS first, then THAT second, then THAT third, or nothing will ever work out and the universe will come to an end. The last few DTs were structured somewhat like that, which also did not sit well with me. I hate to criticize, these are just the things that I personally didn't like. As you say, different strokes for different folks make the world a lot less dull. The final nail in the coffin for me was the ending of book 7, which I won't give away just in case you haven't finished it yet, which I found to be totally WRONG and a big cop out. I went through all this epic journeying for THIS?! What a letdown, I felt.
Hope this answers your question!
I had to check to make sure people weren't arguing before I got up the gumption to post here, hehe!
At any rate... Cujo, because it dragged, and the ending really made me feel like I'd wasted the effort reading it.
And The Tommyknockers. It jumped around far too much, and the second half of the book was kind of a disconnected, jumbled mess. Which was sad, because the first half of it was actually good! And I had a lot of affection for Gard.
Really, I think a book is especially disappointing when there are things you love about it, but it just doesn't pan out the way you want, or the execution just wasn't what it should have been. So as always, King has excellent ideas. They just don't always turn out on the page. Not to mention that this is all personal opinion anyway.
I can't get into Lisey's Story, I've started it twice and can't get through the first 50 pages.....
I did not like my Pretty Pony....or Bag Of Bones.
Tommy Knockers & Dreamcatcher were so-so..
Salems Lot, DT 1-7, The Green Mile & The Dead Zone our probly my favorites...
I can think of two that I didnt really like:
The Colorado Kid and From a Buick 8 (although I did listen to the latter on audio, and the reader had an annoying voice, that might have had something to do with my opinion of it, but I still thought it was majorly lacking in SK awesomeness.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
