Favorite Stephen King?

hayesstw.spamless.RemoveThis@yahoo.com (Steve Hayes) wrote in message news:<3f974fab.120054350.RemoveThis@news.saix.net>...
> On 22 Oct 2003 09:56:42 -0700, robison_m.RemoveThis@crane.navy.mil (Zspider) wrote:
>
> >I've never read anything by Stephen King, but I've heard he's
> >good. Harold Bloom hates him, so he can't be bad. I'm not a
> >big horror fan but I like variety so I think I might try one
> >of his books. Looks like THE STAND is a favorite. I think
> >I'll try that.
> >
> >But aren't there two versions of THE STAND? Isn't there one
> >that's really long and another that is even longer? Which one
> >is best?
>
> I've only read the longer version.
>
> If you want something shorter, then...
>
> If you're not a big horror fan, try "Dolores Claiborne".
>
> If you want to try his horror without going through a long novel, try sone of
> his collections of short stories, like "Skeleton crew".
>
> For horror combined with sf, try "The jaunt".
>
> For pure horror, try "The mist".
>
> For medium-length horror, try "Pet sematary", or "Needful things".
>
> King's work is very uneven. He's written nothing really brilliant, but some is
> quite good, and some is bad. "The tommyknockers" is one of his worst. Some
> books have quite good parts, but nevertheless have lots of flaws. Some of them
> start well, but go downhill, like "Desperation", where he does well in setting
> a menacing scene, but then spoils it by making it all rather ludicrous, with
> exploding policemen.

King was best when not being King. I like Eyes of the Dragon (plus,
one can read that in just a few sittings, or less). Skeleton Crew has
some great stories (like The Jaunt), but I find the ones in Night
Shift more scary. The last newer King book I read was Dreamcatcher,
which seemed to be just a rehash of his old work, and before that
Misery, so maybe his later stuff was better.
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On 22 Oct 2003 09:56:42 -0700, robison_m DeleteThis @crane.navy.mil (Zspider)
wrote:

> I've never read anything by Stephen King, but I've heard he's
> good. Harold Bloom hates him, so he can't be bad. I'm not a
> big horror fan but I like variety so I think I might try one
> of his books. Looks like THE STAND is a favorite. I think
> I'll try that.
>
> But aren't there two versions of THE STAND? Isn't there one
> that's really long and another that is even longer? Which one
> is best?
>
> Thanks, Michael

I read the version of The Stand that was 1100+ pages, but I think the
6-hour mini-series (available on two-sided DVD) is better if anything.
Gary Sinise, Ruby Dee and the rest were capital (IMO).
--
Howard
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Howard Duck wrote:
I read the version of The Stand that was 1100+ pages, but I
think the 6-hour mini-series (available on two-sided DVD) is
better if anything. Gary Sinise, Ruby Dee and the rest were
capital (IMO).

************
Thanks, Howard and yunguns, for the recommendation. I put
both CDs on the top of my Netflix queue. I read so much that
it's a pleasure every so often to break away and watch a
movie. I'm looking forward to it.

Thanks again, Michael
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