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demonic 
"Cinemaniac"
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 Posted - 11/15/2006 : 05:25:29
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Wow - this really is the King of Tangents.
Allow me to plug an accolade or two -
http://www.fwfr.com/search.asp?accid=1768
http://www.fwfr.com/search.asp?accid=1766
I'm coming to King quite late in the day - I dismissed him as a horror hack and only read "Different Seasons" for the "Shawshank" and "Stand by Me" stories and was blown away by how literary he was. Easily as good as anything by many non-genre fiction writers on the shelves. I read "Dance Macabre" (excellent non-fiction study of horror writing and films) and the previously mentioned "On Writing" and now I'm working through all the early novels.
Briefly back on topic - to RedPen, you should probably make a habit of checking the film page to see if the review you've just thought of exists already. I always always do that before submitting - because it happens a lot and will increasingly be so. It's a pain to see it already on the site, but that review will get a grudgingly respectful vote from me for getting there first and i'll rethink my strategy or adapt my review for another film. Rather that than lose votes won after the event right? - Whipper mentioned one of yours that he flagged up, I did another one within the last couple of days, so this might become your personal dilemma. Sorry about that. |
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demonic
"Cinemaniac"
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Posted - 11/15/2006 : 05:29:20
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Oh, MguyX, forgot to mention - your avatar picture this week is utterly horrible, like something out of a Stephen King. Gives me the heebie jeebies.
quote:
Originally posted by MguyX
[The fault, dear Brutus, lies not in our stars, but in ourselves ...
By the way, great quote... 
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ChocolateLady
"500 Chocolate Delights"
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Posted - 11/15/2006 : 07:02:25
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| Confession: I've never read any Stephen King novels. |
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Josh the cat
"ice wouldn't melt, you'd think ....."
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Posted - 11/15/2006 : 08:20:24
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quote:
Originally posted by ChocolateLady
Confession: I've never read any Stephen King novels.
I personally don't thinkl you are missing that much, I find his writing quite slow and laboured. I prefer James Herbert or Dean Koontz, in the same genre.
My fav books are the Hobbit and the LOTR series.
Love Harry Potter and have started to read Lemony Snicket but these are not as good as HP.
Just my personal opinions feel free to disagree.
Josh the cat |
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ChocolateLady
"500 Chocolate Delights"
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Posted - 11/15/2006 : 09:52:41
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quote:
Originally posted by Josh_the_cat
quote:
Originally posted by ChocolateLady
Confession: I've never read any Stephen King novels.
I personally don't thinkl you are missing that much, I find his writing quite slow and laboured. I prefer James Herbert or Dean Koontz, in the same genre.
My fav books are the Hobbit and the LOTR series.
Love Harry Potter and have started to read Lemony Snicket but these are not as good as HP.
Just my personal opinions feel free to disagree.
Josh the cat
Matter of taste, isn't it? I couldn't get into LOTR - not the books and not the movies. I enjoy HP but I find her later ones to be overly plot driven and the emphasis on the characters is practically nil. However, what Rowling did was get kids reading again, and despite the literary flaws, we must respect this and appreciate it for that.
But I've read the first three Lemmony Snicket books and find them adorable. These are kids novels and are meant for an age group that are between language levels. They encourage creative thinking in kids and don't sugar coat life, which I think is a very valuable thing.
But for regular reading, I'm more into literary fiction in the more general genres (and yes, I do read "chick-lit") as well as a touch of historical fiction (McCullough's "Masters of Rome" series). I will read some mystery/thriller/adventure stuff, but its gotta be special for me to get into it.
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Ali 
"Those aren't pillows."
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Posted - 11/15/2006 : 10:55:41
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I've only read Lightning by Koontz, and I remember enjoying it immensely. We also have Watchers(?) somewhere on the bookshelf; I might read it soon.
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randall 
"I like to watch."
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Posted - 11/15/2006 : 16:52:31
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quote:
Originally posted by Josh_the_cat
quote:
Originally posted by ChocolateLady
Confession: I've never read any Stephen King novels.
I personally don't thinkl you are missing that much, I find his writing quite slow and laboured. I prefer James Herbert or Dean Koontz, in the same genre.
Koontz is an entertaining writer, but alone among authors, he provokes an interesting reaction in me. I do indeed turn the pages, but I can't remember much about any of his books later. I know he did a spectacular airplane crash once to open up the novel, but that's all that sticks in my mind [can't even remember which novel it was]. I find his work strictly for killing time; it's eminently disposable.
Herbert's a little too nasty for me. |
Edited by - randall on 11/15/2006 16:53:21 |
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MM0rkeleb 
"Better than HBO."
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Posted - 11/15/2006 : 17:14:46
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quote:
Originally posted by Josh_the_cat
quote:
Originally posted by ChocolateLady
Confession: I've never read any Stephen King novels.
I personally don't thinkl you are missing that much, I find his writing quite slow and laboured. I prefer James Herbert or Dean Koontz, in the same genre.
My reaction to Koontz is kinda hot and cold. On the one hand, I find his writing slow and labored, he only writes about 4 or 5 different characters, and he has nothing to say beyond "There are good people who are always good and bad people who are always bad, and never the twain shall meet."
On the other hand, he is the best scenarist in the business (is scenarist the right word? I'm referring to his scenarios, not his scenes). Even when his writing is subpar, his plot ideas are incredible, and often there are a couple of scenes that would make terrific set pieces in a film adaptation (i.e., the car chase through the closed amusement park and Stephen Ackblom's "masterpiece" in Dark Rivers of the Heart, the time-stop and the killer's mirrored house in Dragon Tears, damn near every scene in The Taking).
His earlier stuff is generally leaner, and thus better.
By the way, given the tangents on both King and Koontz, this accolade is worth mentioning. |
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Sean
"Necrosphenisciform anthropophagist."
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Posted - 11/15/2006 : 22:29:02
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Herbert is very nasty, which is just what I want for a horror writer. 
I read one Dean Koontz book, Icebound, and next to Jeffrey Archer was the biggest pile of shite I've ever had the misfortune to waste my time on. He tried to write a techno-thriller while knowing nothing at all about the subject matter (satellites, Arctic ice, volcanoes etc). The whole book was even worse than the end of Dan Brown's Deception Point (which was quite good except for the last 50 pages).
This brings me to a pet hate of mine. Techno-thrillers that accidentally delve into fantasy/sci-fi/magic due to the ignorance or laziness of the writer to research their subject matter properly.  They should take a leaf from Tom Clancy who meticulously researches his subject matter before beginning a project.
<minor spoilers for various un-named books follow>
So, satellites that miraculously remain stationary over the north pole, volcanoes that suddenly erupt under the sea floor and send a bolt of lava that miraculously remains molten while it travels through 1000m of sea water and melts a hole under an iceberg, other volcanoes triggered by a bomb on the seafloor that cause sudden warming of the sea and a sudden whirlpool that sucks ships down to their doom etc etc are the kind of stuff I avoid like the plague. If writers want to write stuff like that they might as well set the novel in a parallel universe a long time ago and far far away where the laws of nature are different. Forget about pretending it's happening on earth.
Oh, another pet hate:- writers who make their characters suddenly do something totally out of character (or psychologically impossible) to suit a plot contrivance (J Archer is a major offender here, hence I only read one of his books, and will never read another). E.g., a 'normal' person who has a sudden unexpected psychotic episode and tries to throttle someone. Or a 'normal' person who throws their whole life down the drain to punish someone who they thought did something bad to them decades ago. Or a person with Dissociative Identity Disorder where one of their 'personalities' is a delusional psychotic... and a psychopath. Etc etc.
Rant over. Humph!  |
Edited by - Sean on 11/15/2006 22:52:33 |
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thefoxboy
"Four your eyes only."
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Posted - 11/15/2006 : 22:31:38
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I was just about to post that Koontz is Sean's favourite, he beat me to it.  |
Edited by - thefoxboy on 11/15/2006 22:32:24 |
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benj clews 
"...."
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Posted - 11/15/2006 : 22:44:51
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quote:
Originally posted by Se�n
So, satellites that miraculously remain stationary over the north pole...
Maybe I'm missing something, but I thought some satellites were capable of remaining stationary over one particular part of the Earth. Is this not what geo-stationary satellites are all about? |
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Sean
"Necrosphenisciform anthropophagist."
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Posted - 11/15/2006 : 22:50:41
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quote:
Originally posted by benj clews
quote:
Originally posted by Se�n
So, satellites that miraculously remain stationary over the north pole...
Maybe I'm missing something, but I thought some satellites were capable of remaining stationary over one particular part of the Earth. Is this not what geo-stationary satellites are all about?
Yes, over the equator. They are not 'stationary', but they are 35,500km over the equator so have an orbital periodicity of exactly 24 hours, so from the perspective of an earthly observer they are 'stationary'. Geo-stationary satellites can only exist over the equator at this exact altitude. But don't worry, Dean Koontz didn't know this either.
Edit: Here's a Wiki piece on it...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geostationary |
Edited by - Sean on 11/15/2006 23:02:29 |
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Sean
"Necrosphenisciform anthropophagist."
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Posted - 11/15/2006 : 23:04:19
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quote:
Originally posted by thefoxboy
I was just about to post that Koontz is Sean's favourite, he beat me to it.
I've got a special name for Dean Koontz, I'll let you work out what it is. |
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benj clews
"...."
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Posted - 11/15/2006 : 23:30:33
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quote:
Originally posted by Se�n
quote:
Originally posted by benj clews
quote:
Originally posted by Se�n
So, satellites that miraculously remain stationary over the north pole...
Maybe I'm missing something, but I thought some satellites were capable of remaining stationary over one particular part of the Earth. Is this not what geo-stationary satellites are all about?
Yes, over the equator. They are not 'stationary', but they are 35,500km over the equator so have an orbital periodicity of exactly 24 hours, so from the perspective of an earthly observer they are 'stationary'. Geo-stationary satellites can only exist over the equator at this exact altitude. But don't worry, Dean Koontz didn't know this either.
Edit: Here's a Wiki piece on it...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geostationary
Blimey! I live and learn! |
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Stalean
"Back...OMG"
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Posted - 11/16/2006 : 00:05:31
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quote:
Originally posted by Se�n
Herbert is very nasty, which is just what I want for a horror writer.
I read one Dean Koontz book, Icebound, and next to Jeffrey Archer was the biggest pile of shite I've ever had the misfortune to waste my time on. He tried to write a techno-thriller while knowing nothing at all about the subject matter (satellites, Arctic ice, volcanoes etc). The whole book was even worse than the end of Dan Brown's Deception Point (which was quite good except for the last 50 pages).
I knew you were going to write that last sentence before I even read it. 
quote:
Oh, another pet hate:- writers who make their characters suddenly do something totally out of character (or psychologically impossible) to suit a plot contrivance (J Archer is a major offender here, hence I only read one of his books, and will never read another). E.g., a 'normal' person who has a sudden unexpected psychotic episode and tries to throttle someone. Or a 'normal' person who throws their whole life down the drain to punish someone who they thought did something bad to them decades ago. Or a person with Dissociative Identity Disorder where one of their 'personalities' is a delusional psychotic... and a psychopath. Etc etc.
Not quite as strange as one might think Jealous Classmate.  |
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Okay, NOW I'm pissed!
