Stephen King's next...

[keg in kc]

This seems odd. Which for King is saying something.

11/22/63

On November 22, 1963, three shots rang out in Dallas,
President Kennedy died, and the world changed.

If you had the chance to change history, would you?
Would the consequences be worth it?

Jake Epping is a thirty-five-year-old high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine, who makes extra money teaching adults in the GED program. He receives an essay from one of the students—a gruesome, harrowing first person story about the night 50 years ago when Harry Dunning’s father came home and killed his mother, his sister, and his brother with a hammer. Harry escaped with a smashed leg, as evidenced by his crooked walk.

Not much later, Jake’s friend Al, who runs the local diner, divulges a secret: his storeroom is a portal to 1958. He enlists Jake on an insane—and insanely possible—mission to try to prevent the Kennedy assassination. So begins Jake’s new life as George Amberson and his new world of Elvis and JFK, of big American cars and sock hops, of a troubled loner named Lee Harvey Oswald and a beautiful high school librarian named Sadie Dunhill, who becomes the love of Jake’s life—a life that transgresses all the normal rules of time.

[The Franchise]

Insomnia, Dreamcatcher, The Regulators, Desperation and The Dark Half are all awesome books.

[chiefs1111]

Originally Posted by Pestilence

Insomnia, Dreamcatcher, The Regulators, Desperation and The Dark Half are all awesome books.

Love all of those. Insomnia is one of my all time favs by King.

[Gonzo]

God, I honestly didn't care for Insomnia. I couldn't get through the whole book. I gave up on it after getting 3/4 of the way through.

I really enjoyed The Talisman and Black House. Very good reads there.

[frankotank]

the only thing that would rival The Stand at #1....IMO....is the Dark Tower books.

those are just simply bad ASS.

[keg in kc]

I thought Dreamcatcher was awful. My favorites include The Shining and Salem's Lot, as well as the Dark Tower/Gunslinger series. And the stand, of course. And the book this thread is about. One I don't see mentioned often that I really liked was Duma Key. Still need to read Mr. Mercedes.

[Frosty]

Originally Posted by keg in kc

I thought Dreamcatcher was awful. My favorites include The Shining and Salem's Lot, as well as the Dark Tower/Gunslinger series. And the stand, of course. And the book this thread is about. One I don't see mentioned often that I really liked was Duma Key. Still need to read Mr. Mercedes.

It's hard to beat the early SK stuff - The Stand, Salem's Lot, The Shining, The Dead Zone were all great while stuff like Carrie, Firestarter, Christine and The Talisman were near great. I kind of feel like IT was the last prime King book, with the exception of 11/22/63.

Almost everything after IT felt like a throwaway and some of it was pretty bad (I'm stuck halfway through Wizard and Glass, so can't comment on the Dark Tower books). I couldn't finish Under the Dome and only made it about halfway through Doctor Sleep. I'm hoping King has at least one more 11/22/63 quality book in him but there is sure a lot of drek to go through in the mean time.

[Lex Luthor]

Originally Posted by Frosty

It's hard to beat the early SK stuff - The Stand, Salem's Lot, The Shining, The Dead Zone were all great while stuff like Carrie, Firestarter, Christine and The Talisman were near great. I kind of feel like IT was the last prime King book, with the exception of 11/22/63.

Almost everything after IT felt like a throwaway and some of it was pretty bad (I'm stuck halfway through Wizard and Glass, so can't comment on the Dark Tower books). I couldn't finish Under the Dome and only made it about halfway through Doctor Sleep. I'm hoping King has at least one more 11/22/63 quality book in him but there is sure a lot of drek to go through in the mean time.

The King book that is truly a throwaway is Gerald's Game. I literally read the first 80 pages or so and then I threw it in the trash can.

Practically the entire book took place in the bedroom where Gerald and his wife were engaging in some BDSM activity, mostly against her will. She got pissed off at him and kicked him in the balls. He died and was just laying there on the floor for the rest of the book, while she was stuck, handcuffed to the bed. I decided I'd had just about enough when he introduced the character of the starving dog who wandered into the bedroom and started eating the guy. King went into vivid detail talking about the dog biting down on Gerald's eyebrow, pulling on the skin until it started to tear off, and then eating it. Then he started on an ear, then a nose, and so on. At that point I started skimming through the rest of the book, and the rest of the entire ****ing book was more of the same. Except, of course, when the wife decided this would be a good time to suddenly remember in vivid detail about her father ****ing her when she was a little girl.

I think that is the only book I ever just stopped reading and tossed into the trash can. It's a shame, because King is one of my favorite authors. But that is one of the worst books I've ever attempted to read.

[Lex Luthor]

The Stand may be my favorite book by ANY author. I thought it was brilliant.

I also think 11/22/63 had by far the best ending of any Stephen King book, ever. Perfect ending.

And, the book "It" had the WORST ending of any book, ever. ****ing ridiculous ending.

[Frosty]

Originally Posted by Lex Luthor

The King book that is truly a throwaway is Gerald's Game. I literally read the first 80 pages or so and then I threw it in the trash can.

I have never read that one (and don't plan to, especially now).

[Frosty]

Originally Posted by Lex Luthor

I also think 11/22/63 had by far the best ending of any Stephen King book, ever. Perfect ending.

Supposedly, King originally had a different ending and changed it to the final one because of a suggestion from his son. His son should help him more often.

[keg in kc]

I actually really liked under the dome...until about the final hundred pages. It just went to complete shit at that point.

[mikeyis4dcats.]

King sucks at endings.

My top 3 would probably be IT, 11/23/63, and Tommyknockers.

The Dark Tower series sucks IMHO.

[frankotank]

Originally Posted by Lex Luthor

The Stand may be my favorite book by ANY author. I thought it was brilliant.

I also think 11/22/63 had by far the best ending of any Stephen King book, ever. Perfect ending.

And, the book "It" had the WORST ending of any book, ever. ****ing ridiculous ending.

the end of The Dome! just......WHAAAAAAT!
I could barely make to the end anyways....did not like it.....but I "endeavored to persevere"....and then got kicked in the balls. what a gyp.

[Frosty]

I re-read IT a year or two ago and the ending wasn't nearly as bad as I remembered from the first time I read it. Some of it is a it "out there" but I could see what King was going for.

Spoiler!

For one thing, the "gang bang" that everyone gripes about isn't the ending, not even for the 1958 part.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Frosty

Supposedly, King originally had a different ending and changed it to the final one because of a suggestion from his son. His son should help him more often.

I think that's been discussed around here before but yeah, King seems to just get bored and start randomly killing people are sending them off with aliens or something.

His books seem interminably long to set up and then he wraps them all up in a chapter. Even The Stand, a truly excellent book, had a shitty ending, IMO. Most of his books have.