The Crimson King... does he mean himself?
Some of you will get the topic, others won't. For this reason, there is no reason to change it 
Anyway, I just finished Susanna's Song. Its the 6th book to Steven King's abyssmally (I dont feel like spellchecking thank you very much) long story that started with "The Gunslinger" back in 1984.
This book is waaaaaayyyyy fuxored up. Well beyond what I thought even King would do.
I read "The Gunslinger" back in my junior year in highschool and I loved it. I then picked up "The Drawing of the Three" and thought it was fantastic. I waited years for the next one and I wasn't dissappointed. The "Waste Lands" was just such an original and gripping story that I was appalled and pleased at the same time because of the way it ended (Cliff hanger for those who remember).
I then waited and waited for the next one. It didn't come so I decided to expand my Stephen King library and see if his other works held any of the same kind of magic.
IT was incredible. I actually read this years before I read "The Dark Tower" and I thought the journey was fantastic but the end was crap.
The Talisman was excellent... I really liked it. But again, the journey was excellent and the ending... eh.
Eyes of the Dragon. This was the shizat. I really enjoyed this and I imagined the main character being inside Roland's world.. perhaps even being his father. No crappy ending here.. this was good
Tommyknockers. Took a long time for me to read. Was ok but again, bad ending.
Salems Lot. Pet Cemetary. Cujo. Read them all, thought the best of the bunch was the "Lot" but I'm starting to come to a realization about King's writing. Now I've read many other stories and I am NOT a writer myself (sucked at English class) but I'm starting to see that there is something extremely demented and disturbing in Kings subject matter...
The Dark Half. Good book, entertaining but...
The Stand. What a fantastic book. I would rate this as good as the Talisman in every way. Including the end. King just can't seem to finish a story. Why do many of the characters remind me of something??
The Shining. Very good book. Something about this story just hits something inside. Can't explain it. Not sure if I ever would want to... but I thought this was his best (not including the Dark Tower series.. not done!)
Then comes "Wizard and Glass". Finally the gripping finale to the cliff hanger that was give us by the "Waste Lands". Hmmm... interesting. Kinda cool I guess... kinda anti-climatic (spelling?? haha) but I can attribute that to the many years I dreamed of this story continuing. The rest of the book was good. Kinda sad and depressing but gripping. At least we got to really know the main character a bit better. And his (meaning Rolands) development was masterful.
But once again here goes King... "Wizard and Glass" starts to give a bit of a hint to Kings typical writing style. A great story, very well developed characters and BAM! An ending that makes you go "wha happen'd?"
I then got disenchanted with King's writing and didnt pick another one of his stories up for quite awhile. I did read some of his compilation novels and thought some of the stories in there were excellent. I loved "The Mist"... great story but it could use an ending (maybe w/out an ending is better... King would mess it up). The Langolears was fun... better than the made for TV movie I thought... very original to me.
But I didnt want to read any of his newer stuff. I was pissed at the end of "Wizard and Glass" and was already programmed by his writing to expect a decent story with a crappy ending. Rose Madder.. never read it. Storm of the Century?? Come on King, finish the damn Dark Tower!!!
Warning... I'm tired and there are spoilers ahead. If anyone doesn't want to receive hints about the following (I'll try not to post any) don't continue
Then this past year the wait was finally over... and here comes "Wolves of the Calla". In preparation of this story I reread (for the 4th time) the previous 4 books to prep me. I still love the first 3. Damn those are just soooo good. W&G.. eh, its a means to an end. Good background on Roland but why the "Wizard of Oz"??
I just finished this book about a week ago (rereading the first 4 and being sidetracked by other things made me take this long to finish it). It was... ok.
There is something disturbing about the way King feels a need to just... I don't know, Fuk up an ending. The story is just ok. The ending is just ok. But remember, this book is heading towards the end of a much bigger story and already there are cracks in the foundation, runny paint on the canvas. The only way I can put how I felt about this book is "King is wiggin out! He's off AA and plunged head first into his old coke habits." Then I think... "Maybe him being in AA and clean is the reason for this stuff??". Pere from Salems Lot??? I t - j u s t - c a n t - b e!!!!
So here comes "Susanna's Song". Well, I'm not going to spoil this for those of you who want to read it. I just finished it about 2 minutes before I started writing this so... I do need to say one thing and if anyone wants to discuss it, I would love to.
A small example of the subject matter in this book (btw, it is hinted at in "Wolves of the Calla"):
Lets pretend that the "Never Ending Story" was true... except from the WRITERS perspective... not the reader.
Thats all I'm going to say.
PAR
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For all who live in such times, it is not for them to decide. All we get to decide is what to do with the time given to us
From the books I''ve read, he always does the ""Screw up the ending as bad as you possibly can"" thing. Like with with Needful Things... Great reading, WTF ending.
The man wears a bucket of KFC on his head. I wouldn't expect anything less. - Pred
I thought The Green Mile had a good ending. I also think his short stories all end well. I mean, The Boogeyman? Sweet ending! It seems with the novels, however, he gets on a roll and then has to wrap up to meet a deadline. I''ve been burned enough (The Stand, Tommyknockers, Needful) to just steer clear of them altogether.
Psychotic Foreign Teenage Chicks are so hot. - Legion
I find it ironic anytime a healthy vaccinated person bitches about science...on the internet. - MaverickDago
I liked the ending ot Wizard and Glass.
PSN ID: Stric9
Those of you who know what I''m talking about know what I''m talking about. Those of you who don''t? This is only going to be really, really boring for you.
I''ve read everything Steve has written. Everything that I could reasonably find. Leave it at that.
His ending have always been a little hinky though. The end of Thinner comes to mind. If you''ve read it, you''ll understand.
I mean, evil pie!?
But anyway, what I''ve loved about the GS series is how so much of what else he''s written ties into it. The Stand, IT, Insomnia. Insomnia was a frigging 1000 page book that was all about saving some kid who''s supposed to do some thing in GS world. Still don''t know what it is.
Hearts in Atlantis? Brattigan is a breaker for the Crimson King! The Talisman takes Jack into the GS world. We didn''t know that when it was first written, but it was shown when Black House came out.
So there''s all this stuff, all these level of story that are really about GS and I just dig the hell out of it.
I thought Wolves of the Calla was a very strong book. I''ve already read it twice. When Callahan finds... what he finds? That blew my mind when I first read it.
Song of Suzie. I didn''t really like it. For one thing, it was flimsy as hell. There wasn''t much too it. I read it in like 3 hours or something. Probably exaggerating. But it was over WAY too fast.
I found it the weakest of the series so far. I still have high hopes for volume 7 though, because SoS came around a little at the end.
Especially at the very end.
The twist at the very, very end. Like the last paragraph of actual book.
That took the direction Steve seemed to be going and total frag it up and scramble it.
Now I don''t know what the hell he''s doing.
Which is good.
Beware the walking dude.
"Is that your blood?"
"Some of it, yeah."
This may be slightly off topic, but is anyone keeping up with the Kingdom Hospital mini-series. I most of the first couple of episodes, but just lost track. Is it any good?
[Dark Tower tie in]
...oh and, boy that ardvark looks a lot like a huge billy-bumbler.