Desperation
The Regulators
I am a Desperation man personally. Although, the more I think about them the harder time I have remembering them. Like so many others in here, I may have to do a re read.
The kindness of close friends is like a warm blanket
No worries RF - picked it up second hand for 50p at the weekend
And now I can compare, I have to say that Regulators is my favourite of the two. I appreciate Desperation more now that I've read Regulators, but I loved the Audrey/Seth stuff (reminded me a little of Lisey's Story - which I also love) and preferred the angle and setting of this story. I liked the incarnations of the characters better in this one too.
I'm going to say Desperation. It had more heart.
And I'm partial to Tak.
A true firewasp ninja would never wear such a ridiculous sweater.
There's logic in nonsense.
Give me all the bacon and eggs you have.
Desperation all day. Collie was so much better in this book.
I agree with that wholeheartedly.
A true firewasp ninja would never wear such a ridiculous sweater.
There's logic in nonsense.
Give me all the bacon and eggs you have.
I dunno, I read desperation a couple of times before even knowing about its twin book so was pretty excited about the Regulators. Probably because of the originality and difference in the regulators id have to say that thats probably marginally in front of Desperation. The way Tak was done was a little more left of centre and insidious, instead of being this big ol baddie down a dark scary hole which is a little cliche.
"You can lead a whore to culture but you can't make her think." - Duma Key
zoneseek@thedarktower.com
The funny thing is the start of Desperation just grabbed me and scared the crap out of me. I think it's because one always has a fear of the police. You drive past one on the road, you hit the breaks even if your going the speed limit, etcetera. So the bad cop idea just fed my fears. I remember reading about the first 4 chapters the first night, and the next day was "this is great" this is what I always wanted a bad cop, who you thought you could trust but was crazy. I'm pretty sure I was telling people at work how great the start of this book was that first day.
After that, I thought it was classic King in the sense of It or Pet Sematary or any of another number of his novels. It was just classic King: good storytelling, good character development, and a encounter with the supernatural as the bad guy, he creates his own mythology with Tak, and on and on.
I liked Regulators because I thought he took some risks with this novel, he didn't stick to his regular form of storytelling. But that was the attraction. it's only one one street, and one day, there is not a lot of variety with the novel, but he makes it work. My big beef, though, was no character development. It took me about half way through the book before I really who knew who was who.
Anyway, my vote goes to Desperation. I thought it was classic King!
I read Regulators first then Desperation...and I liked Regulators more. I'm just a Bachman fan, what can I say??
My favorite bands can kick your favorite bands' asses.
The horizon is right and motionless like the EKG of a dying woman.
I love the way you put that, its an excellent point. Its 50% of the reason it was so scary, to me, the other 50% being what happened to Pie...as I said in another thread, since I had kids stuff like that just freaks me out (kinda weird when you're a King fan, I know ) the way things happened in Regulators was as tense, but not so intense if you see what I mean.
when one of my students read Desperation, she was very deeply impressed. She said it was a bad book. I asked what she meant; she couldn't really explain, but the point was she liked the book (the way it was written, the plot, the characters, the imagery, the main idea, everything), - and instead of explaining what bad might mean, she just kept repeating, "It's bad, it's dark, all other King books are good, and that one is bad, it feels different, it even tastes different, it is bad!" Desperation is on my Top 5 list (as I discovered, much to my own surprize, answering in that other thread), but I think I understand, empathically if not rationally, what my student meant.
P.S. When that same student read The Regulators, she just shrugged her shoulders... so did I.
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I understand completely. In general all of SK's "baddies" are part of a bigger picture (Crimson King for example) and theres always some element of the white opposing them - but Tak seemed to be this random, chaotic evil that had no counterpart and no point other than to cause misery. Even Flagg isn't so chaotic in that respect.
I did appreciate the book in the sense that it had a great plot, characters etc - its just I couldn't enjoy it.
Thats a shame - I guess its "tamer" in the face of Desperation, but I enjoyed the angle of it a whole lot more.P.S. When that same student read The Regulators, she just shrugged her shoulders... so did I.
I liked both books although I think I liked Desperation better. I had to read The Regulators a couple times before I could really apprciate it. I believe I read Desperation first.
Exactly. Evil underlying the whole order of things in the universe. As if the fabric itself of creation were made of evil, - with only a few people fighting their desperate fight against it, but these people seem to be suspended, having no solid foundation under their feet, with only the boy flimsily connecting them with the Good, personified as God, who, in His turn, is somewhere far beyond, as if He indeed has forsaken His creation and abandoned it. (it's not called Desperation for nothin', of course)
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!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Absolutely Desperation - its longer, more thought provoking.
The Regulators is great in-you-face kind of stuff though!
DT Spoiler - Enter at your own risk!
Spoiler:
I'm in a dying breed...6 votes for Regulators...
My favorite bands can kick your favorite bands' asses.
The horizon is right and motionless like the EKG of a dying woman.
Yeah me too.
"You can lead a whore to culture but you can't make her think." - Duma Key
zoneseek@thedarktower.com
yeah but look how cool the people who voted for the regulators are
W00t W00t!!
My favorite bands can kick your favorite bands' asses.
The horizon is right and motionless like the EKG of a dying woman.
For me, it's a close "race". I picked Desperation, mainly because I liked the story better, but Regulators was a VERY close second.
John
I like both of them alot, but as a deciding factor I usually prefer religion and horror to not inter-mingle as much as they did in Desperation.