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06-King.txt
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06-King.txt
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1996-08-01
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227 lines
$DF0
The Almost Complete works of.....
|1-Stephen King
JOKre/Wildfire
I'm a BIG Stephen King fan, but like many people I am willing to admit
that he does write the occasional dud. So I decided to write the
definitive guide to Stephen Kings books. But I havn't got them all so
this is actually the not-so-definitive guide.
So here, in the order they appear on my bookshelf are all my Stephen
King books:-
$FAB
The Dead Zone
This one is very hard to get hold of nowdays as it is not one of his
better-known novels. The story revolves around a man named Johnny
Smith who is involved in a car crash and wakes up from a coma almost 5
years later to find out he has psychic powers. He soon discovers that
this "gift" is not all it is cracked up to be.....
The Dead Zone is one damn good read. It is not as long as some of Kings
other novels, but everything which you need to know is there. Does get a
bit tedious while John is in his coma, but everything gallops once he
awakens.
UK Price (Paperback): £1.90 (this was 1980)
Publisher: Futura Publications LTD
ISBN: 0 7088 1874 9
Rating: 8/10
$BAF
Insomnia
Unfortunatly, not one of Kings better novels. Ralph Roberts starts to
suffer from Insomnia after his wife dies, and then from stranger
visions. Then, whilst awake one night, he sees small, bald docters
leave a house after a death scene. Soon, he is seeing the bald docters
everywhere.....
This novel begins well, but towards the middle of the book it simply
loses all depth. It was a struggle trying to finish it.
UK Price (Paperback): £5.99
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN: 0-450-60848-4
Rating 4/10
$FAB
The Stand
A plague devastates civilisation, leaving few survivors. Soon, the
survivors start to have dreams, dreams of the coming of "The Dark Man"
Again, one of Kings lesser novels. Not quite as bad as Insomnia, but
still not up to his usually high standard. I think that the problem here
is with the characters. For a world with so little people, there are an
awful lot, and as such King fails to examine each one enough, leaving
the reader with little more than a name.
UK Price (Paperback): £4.99
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN: 0 450 04552-8
Rating: 5/10
$BAF
IT
This is more like it! A 1116 page epic, IT reads more like a
documentery than a story. 7 kids grow up in Derry, Maine. A town
beneath which lies an untold of evil. an evil which surfaces every 25
years. It kills, and then rests again. The inhabitants know, but they
choose to forget. But not the children. It is the children who face
IT. Who drive IT away on summer thinking IT dead. But 27 years later,
it comes back. The children, now grown-up, must return to Derry to
fulfill their promise. This time, they will kill IT.
IT is un-put-downable. The novel is not simply a story. It contains
newspaper cuttings, extracts from the diary of Mike Hanlon - one of the
grown-up kids, flashbacks going back to the begining of time when IT
first appeared, and the story of the kids and the grown-ups.
IT is not only Stephen Kings best novel to date, but is also the best
book I have ever read (and I've got through a few). Buy it now. (Oh, and
if you've seen the film ignore it; it does the book no justice).
UK Price (Paperback): £6.99
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN: 0-450-41143-5
Rating: 10/10 - buy it quick!
$FAB
The Bachman Books
A collection of four of Richard Bachmans (Kings pseudonym for a while)
books:- Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork and The Running Man. The two best
stories of the four are Rage and The Running Man.
Rage tells the story of a high-school teenager who goes crazy and
holds his class hostage. It very well written and is extremely
believable.
The Running Man is all about a man who, in order to get money for his
family, takes part in the TV game show The Running Man. For this show,
he has to run. He can go anywhere in America, and his family will get
100 dollers for evert hour that he manages to prevent being killed buy
paid hunters or by members of the public (who are commisioned if they
kill).
The Bachman Books is well worth a read, and as each of the stories can
be finished in one go, there is no need to read them all at once.
UK Price (Paperback): £4.95
Publiher: Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN: 0-450-39249-X (a wierd one there for ISBN-spotters)
Rating: 8/10
$BAF
Geralds Game
A short one this. Jessie Burlingame is left stranded naked in a
woodland hut, handcuffed to her bedposts when she accidently kills her
husband during a kinky bed session. And er... thats it. The entire book
concentrate on her looking back on her life.
Suprisenly, for such a crap plot, the book is rather good. There is a
genuinly scary moment when, at night in the dark, she realises that
there is somebody else in the room with her, but she cannot move because
of the hand-cuffs. Great stuff.
UK Price: £5.99
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN: 0-450-58623-5
Rating: 8/10
$FAB
Misery
Another goodun this. Paul Sheldon is involved in a car crash. He
awakens in the home of Annie Wilks, his "number one fan". Oh yes, she is
crazy too. Unable to move, he is forced to write a book for her. To
bring back a character which he has just killed. Because if is does
not, she will make him scream, and scream, and scream.....
This is great. Pure, uncontained violence. If you thought the film
was gory wait 'til you read this! Lets just say she goes one step
further than just crushing his legs with a mallet......
UK Price: £4.99
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN: 0-450-41739-5
Rating: 9/10
$BAF
Nightmares & Dreamscapes
This is a collection of short stories. Most of them are very good,
although a few are mediocre, but they are all readable. I wont go into
each story in detail, but will list each and give a rating.
Dolons Cadillac - 8/10
The End of the Whole Mess - 10/10
Suffer the Little Children - 9/10
The Night Flier - 7/10
Popsy - 7/10
It Grows on You - 5/10
Chattery Teeth - 7/10
Dedication - 6/10
The Moving Finger - 10/10
Sneakers - 10/10
You Know They Got a Hell of a Band - 6/10
Home Delivery - 6/10
Rainy Season - 8/10
My Pretty Pony THE ONLY ONE I HAVE NEVER READ
Sorry, Right Number - 9/10
The 10 O'Clock People - 10/10 (WOW!)
Crouch End - 6/10
The House on Maple Street - 9/10
The Fith Quarter - 6/10
The Docters Case - 7/10
Umney's Last Case - 8/10
Head Down - 6/10
Brooklyn August - 7/10
King also devotes a chapter to notes, explaining how the stories came
about and why they were included.
UK Price (Paperback): £5.99
Publisher: Yup, Hodder & Stoughton again
ISBN: 0-450-61009-8
Rating: 9/10
$FAB
Needful Things
The town of Castle Rock, Maine, has seen many horrors before. But now,
in the last Castle Rock story, the entire town becomes part of the tale.
In the high-street, a new shop has opened. The sign says Needful Things,
and it seems correct. A person going in there will find the one item he
has wished for all his life. And speaking to the owner, Leland Guant, he
will find that there is no cash price. The price is much more costly,
love, hope, even the human soul.
Not a bad one this. It is long, but not tedious, and it is nice to
finally bury Castle Rock, the host of many of Kings books.
UK Price (Special Edition Hardback): £19.99
Publisher: BCA
ISBN: CN3396 (Another one for the spotters)
Rating: 8/10
$BAF
Rose Madder
Kings latest, Rose Madder is different to his other works. It tells the
tale of Rosie Danials, who after 14 years of marriage to a husband who
beats her, decides one moring to leave him. Alone in the city, she meets
new people and starts a new life. She even finds a painting; Rose
Madder, which catches her eye.
This is a really good book. There is a suprising contrast between drama
and fantasy; one minute she is in a womans refuge, the next walking into
a gothic painting. It really does make you think.
UK Price (Hardback): £16.99 RRP (I got it for £7.99 in a WHSmith sale)
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
ISBN: 0-340-64013-8
Rating: 9/10
$DF0
|1-Part 2 to Follow Next Month.....