One of my all time favourite novels. There might be a bit of interest with the new TV adaptation doing the rounds, although from reports I've read that series is pretty average but hopefully that won't put people off what is a classic book.
Was $15.71,now $6.36. Not sure how long this discount is valid for.
Man, that original series was garbage, although it had an absolutely stellar cast by the standards of TV in those days.
I was very excited to learn that a new series was being made around one or two years ago. The resulting product is quite atrocious though. The execution is very flawed and time jumps around too much. I don't care about any of the characters and there has been no suspense due to the flashbacks being all over the place.
totally agree, how are your supposed to be in suspense as to who lives and dies in those first few weeks after the pandemic when they literally started at boulder in the first episode.
FFS Larry is a white guy that sings like a black guy… not an actual black guy…. and ralph…… OMFG.
I agree with your comment that it makes the original TV series look good. I watched the original again last year. Yes it is very 90s and it is a telemovie but I quite liked it. It definitely has its charms.
Regarding character alterations — I don't care for nonsensical wokeness
When I pressed play on episode 1 of the new series, I thought I had mistakenly pressed play on episode 2 or 3.
Agree with the nonsensical wokeness, I can see the conversation
network: we need a black guy
writers: there is, he is the judge
network: oooh, then we need a black female judge.. and another black guy.
The series I am most annoyed at is the ruining of house of cards, I couldn't be bothered watching the last season after they wrote spacey out of it.
Time jumps forwards AND backwards are just such a bad idea when done multiple times per episode.
Clearly no one checked for continuity. Or just asked a random person to watch it and get feedback of "what the hell is going on".
just started to watch this sereis on amazon prime. appears to be a good one (so far)
its not … but as B great its OK
This is $3.99 on amazon kindle. I think you can use a laptop or a phone to read it
a classic example of a pulp writer who never really matured beyond a good novella …same can be said for the televised
a classic example of a pulp writer who never really matured beyond a good novella …same can be said for the televised
[the televised is] a classic example of a pulp writer who never really matured beyond a good novella?
Having never read the book I'm 3rd ep in on Amazon and it's not too bad
is this book better than the show?
I saw the early 90s mini series too and didn't like that one too much either. But people say good things about the book for some reason.
the book is great
i don't know man. King gets a number of his books hyped. Stand By Me is another one people think is a classic. I read the book and saw the film twice and I didn't like either of them.
was never a fan of stand by me,
I love the book. Top 10 for me. I really rate it, and Stephen King. Like many was super excited about the new series on Amazon. I thought the casting was strong but ended up disappointed. Want to have a more detailed rant/ but might create a new forum so just fans/non fans can have their say.
I have enjoyed many Stephen King books, but the tv series' seem to be generally disappointing. The exceptions being the original 1979 Salem's Lot, Haven, and the first episode of Nightmares and Dreamscapes (Battleground) which was awesome.
Most Stephen King adaptations have been disappointing (I think the most recent one I saw was the utterly woeful attempt at The Dark Tower - let's compress 7 novels into a single 90 minute movie, what could go wrong?). But there have been a few gems - Stand By Me, The Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, The Mist, Misery are the obvious ones that spring to mind. I didn't mind Doctor Sleep, either, although probably not as good as the other ones I just mentioned. TV-wise, I thought 11-22-63 was a decent effort. I've heard The Outsider was pretty good, although I haven't seen it myself.
But overall, I've been burned by enough dodgy adaptations of his work over the years that these days I approach them all as guilty until proven innocent - my assumption is they'll suck, and suck badly.
wait.. that Dark Tower film covered 7 books?
I agree that film adaptations of his books are for the most part, not good. The ones that are good are not mystery based.
I did like the Langoliers mini series. It needs a remake with better FX.
The Dark Tower books encompassed 7 main novels (plus there are a bunch of other novels / short stories that are linked to it without explicitly being "Dark Tower" books) that were written over the space of 30+ years. In fact the first novel was actually a series of linked short stories that was originally released as the first book (The Gunslinger), and later on got revised by King to hang together a little better as novel and link a little more cleanly with the later novels. The film kind of plucked a handful of characters / events from the books (mostly the 3rd book, with a little from the others), slapped them together with a bit of made up crap to fill in the gaps, then wrapped it up with a half-arsed ending.
Early on in production I was under the impression that they were making it to be the start of a series. There was talk of a combination of movies and a TV series (3 movies, with a season of the TV series in between each one), but that obviously was deemed too hard / expensive so they decide to make a bucket of lukewarm vomit instead.
When I checked the IMDB page prior to release and saw that Eddie and Detta/Odetta/Susannah don't even make an appearance, it was pretty clear then just how much of the books had been thrown over the side given that those two, along with Jake, are almost as big a part of the story as Roland himself. Although it would have been difficult to make the Detta/Odetta part of the story work due to the casting of Idris Elba in the lead role. Not that I've got anything against Idris Elba - I like him as an actor, and he actually did a decent job in the movie considering what he had to work with.
@AngusD: did the film end with the intent of sequels (or at least room for them), or was it fully concluded?
@AngusD: that movie put me off from reading the books.
Is it really slow if it took 7 books to cover a 90 min movie?
@lostn: No, just ignore the movie. They plucked a couple of scenes and lines of dialogue from one or two of the books, made up a bunch of their own crap to try and stick them together, and that was that. It can't even rightly be called an adaptation, there was so little of the source in it.
If you're a Stephen King fan then the Dark Tower books are essential, as so much of his other stuff is related to it. You find characters from other books showing up in The Dark Tower, and elements of The Dark Tower showing up in other books.
@lostn: I would say not really, no. There was so little of the book in there that there's really not much that you'd call a spoiler for the books.
The movie adaptations faired better, the tv series particularly disappoint. Still waiting for the promised movie adaptation of Talisman. Reports are that it may soon happen, fingers crossed.
The only thing I liked was the deeper delve into Harold (compared to the 1994 series). But was left disappointed with it anyway *won't explain for spoilers
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yup new series, is very very average, makes the original tv series look good. Fantastic book.