Scots Taffer on 8/5/2007 at 04:29
I've said it before and I'll say it a thousand times again, King is an ideasmith and he has an ear for natural dialogue and lazily-easy characterisation, but he can't write novels worth shit.
His true art is in the short story, but even then, of all of his works translated to the big screen they are almost always improved upon by restraining some of his impulsive excesses. The sole exception being The Shawshank Redemption, which is pretty much a 1:1 adaptation and is one of the best movies ever made.
TheAlbaniac on 8/5/2007 at 09:13
Agreed! The Shawshank Redemption is my favorite movie.
AR Master on 9/5/2007 at 03:26
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Renzatic on 9/5/2007 at 04:58
The psychic space zombies were interesting at first. When they were congregating in the stadiums and acting very offish, it was pretty cool. Then it started getting dumb.
Ultimately Cell suffers the same fate as most of King's books. It's great up til near the end, when you start getting the impression he's tired of writing and just wants to end everything. The only book of his I've read recently that managed to avoid the usual King ending was Lisey's Story. It was a little outlandish in places, but it was great all the way through.
SirFreddieM on 9/5/2007 at 05:26
I have all of King's books translated into danish. I have to say that I really enjoy his early work as in The Dark Half, The Stand and It.
I've started on The Cell last month and have only read some 60 pages or so but will pick it up any time soon.
Sombras on 9/5/2007 at 20:49
I bought Cell on a whim--and almost immediately regretted it. It's just so damn frustrating his stuff. Compelling characters, casual and intuitive dialogue, spooky environment...mixed with shit storytelling, implausible jumps in reason, and a very tired need to pile on over-the-top dread when the understated creepy would do. The [SPOILER]father's love for his son [/SPOILER]was well done and kept me reading, and[SPOILER] the end scene was tender[/SPOILER], but FUCK the rest was just so goddamn uneven.
Too many holes, unexplained plot elements, gratuitious imagery...
Save your money and skip this book. If you want zombie stories, get any of the compilations that come out in the last decade. You'll be much better off.
HybridVision on 9/5/2007 at 23:42
Quote Posted by Shoshin
The Dark Tower series, for one. Which started out pretty good, but didn't end that well.
I am so, so glad you said that. That's
exactly what I found. The first three books were great, the next couple so-so, and by the end I thought S.K. had lost the plot completely. The last book I cringed all the way through. I thought it was dire :(
Didn't he say that he literally did lose the manuscript (or his notes) at least once during the writing? It shows.
craigsimas on 16/5/2007 at 00:24
... I am not much of a reader. I do however have an hour drive to work (one way) and have discovered the joy of books on CD. I loved Cell. I also liked Bag Of Bones, and Liseys Story too.
pdenton on 17/5/2007 at 06:24
Who read Cell on the CD? I loved the book so much I might pick it up if its done well.
craigsimas on 25/5/2007 at 21:37
I listened to it on cd, and it was very well done. Bag of bones was good too.
