I thought it was a joke at first, but it's confirmed on his official website. Stephen King is writing a seque to The Shining, and "the plot includes a traveling group of vampires called The Tribe." (taken from the website.) Full quote: Dr. Sleep In The Works September 26th, 2011 10:03:40 am It's now official--Stephen is working on Dr. Sleep, the sequel to The Shining. This weekend Steve read an excerpt from this at his appearance at George Mason University. They have given us permission to post their taping of the event here on Steve's site which we will do as soon as we receive the file. Dr. Sleep's plot includes a traveling group of vampires called The Tribe which is part of the passage he read from. (http://www.stephenking.com/news.html) What do you think? I can't possibly be the only one who thinks this is a terrible idea? What's next? Return of Pennywise? Sometimes they come back again... and again... and again...? Childen of the corndog?
Hey maybe Stephen King is going to turn into George Lucas and dick around with all of his good early material until he ruins it!
Stephen King is a perfect example of what happens when a writer becomes an industry. He just keeps churning out books that get published regardless of their quality because people will buy them. Now he's so bereft of ideas he has to cannablise his best works, and sadly he'll probably make millions...I watched a movie the other day based on his book Dreamcatcher. It was seriously the worst movie I have ever seen and I have no doubt the book was just as bad. It saddens me to think how many quality manuscripts are being rejected because publishers stick with their cash cows and refuse to take risks on new writers. It's only set to get worse as the industry becomes increasingly monopolized by a few big players who churn out the same commercial, formulaic dross... Sorry for the rant but any mention of Stephen King is enough to get me going.
On the whole I wonder if the cash cows might help the situation. If you have a few key authors that you can bank on for millions of dollars every time they release a book, it seems like you would have more money to spend on publishing other material. If you have the will to do so, of course. The book Dreamcatcher was better than the movie, which isn't saying much. The only place King managed to succeed in the novel was in establishing a sense of comraderie and realness of the interactions of the characters, particularly in flashbacks to their time as children. That's one thing he's always been good at. On the whole, though, it was not a great book and I'm not sure I even finished it. I think I made it about 2/3 of the way through. I havne't liked anything I've tried by King since his early days. Let's just hope that he doesn't take to actually re-writing any of his early material like Mr. Lucas
I also thought the realness and camraderie between the men worked in the film ... It actually started off quite well and I found the relationships convincing and the idea they could read each others mind intriguing... I had me right up to the point where the aliens came into and then it was all downhill... At first it reminded me a little of Stand By Me which was by far one of King's best works best works but I think those days are over for him.
Yeah oddly enough the book was the same way. He had the starting potential for a really neat story about the characters and their relationships, and then lost it with the advent of the aliens. Too bad.
See but King and Lucas have a difference: Lucas made Lucas Arts he had wanted this all along. (Pro tip: to be famous put your name in your company. ) King just accepted it. Granted the only Stephen King I read is the Stand which is his earlier work.
Stephen King gets up every morning and writes. That's good. But he doesn't seem to care if the idea he's writing about is any good or not. He won't examine his own work as he's working on it and say "Wait a minute. This is utter crap." He just writes it, regardless of how lousy it may be, because he knows his millions of fans will buy it. Argh.
I'm a huge fan of the older King books like Carrie, Pet Semetary, It, Cujo and, of course, The Shining. And while I like some of his later works (Cell was brilliant, for instance), it's been a long time since I geniunly looked forward to his next book. But for me, Dr. Sleep is the first one that crosses the line. Everyone writes bad books sometimes, and King have been in the business a long time. It's only natural he ran out of ideas eventually. But revisiting one of his oldest works and making a sequel? And about vampires? WTF? The Shining was arguably about ghosts, but I saw it more as a man who was pushed over the edge and fell deeper and deeper into insanity. That's why I loved it in the first place. The ghost-stuff was fun, but not exactly why I read the book.
What a shame, I'll just have to pretend this book doesn't exist. He'll have Salem's Lot invaded by pixies or something next
King's decline over the past decade is well documented, but I honestly don't see the problem with taking the least interesting character in The Shining and making something of him. It might even be fun seeing how Danny evolves as a character, something King has always been good at. When you get down to it, you can quote Dante, or Virgil, or Homer; and be as Joycean as you like, but King is fun. He's a writer to unwind to. A lot like Lovecraft, or Rowling, or other people like this: take him too seriously and you miss the point. But saying that, as someone to read you can do a hell of a lot worse.
Excuse me? I don't even PRETEND to be a King fanboy, but quite a lot of his work is quite good. And he has most definitely not declined over the past decade. Duma Key, for example, was published in 2008, and it was absolutely spectacular. Everything's Eventual was published in 2002 and has 1408, Everything's Eventual, and All That You Love Will Be Carried Away which were all great. As was said above, Cell was published in the last decade. So was the revised edition of The Gunslinger, and volumes 5 through 7 of The Dark Tower, 5 and 7 of which were brilliant. I also started on Under the Dome, but didn't end up finishing it because I couldn't focus on e-books at the time. Granted, his use of language is mediocre on average, but his storytelling ability is quite high above par. As for the "writing whatever he wants and not caring because his fans will buy it anyway"; that's bullshit. There's no way any publicist would ever let anything like that get out, so where's your evidence of that? No. King writes stories because as he says in On Writing, (paraphrased) "some stories are just screaming to be written." Hell, even if some of his work now is going downhill, who cares? First, nobody is forcing you to read it. Second, with the amount that he's written, and the nice ratio of that which has been good, it'd be stupid to expect all of his work to be great this far along. Third, with the struggles he had in his early years, and after being hit by a van, I think he's just a little bit entitled to share some stories, even if they are crap. ---------- Post added at 11:27 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:27 PM ---------- Excuse me? I don't even PRETEND to be a King fanboy, but quite a lot of his work is quite good. And he has most definitely not declined over the past decade. Duma Key, for example, was published in 2008, and it was absolutely spectacular. Everything's Eventual was published in 2002 and has 1408, Everything's Eventual, and All That You Love Will Be Carried Away which were all great. As was said above, Cell was published in the last decade. So was the revised edition of The Gunslinger, and volumes 5 through 7 of The Dark Tower, 5 and 7 of which were brilliant. I also started on Under the Dome, but didn't end up finishing it because I couldn't focus on e-books at the time. Granted, his use of language is mediocre on average, but his storytelling ability is quite high above par. As for the "writing whatever he wants and not caring because his fans will buy it anyway"; that's bullshit. There's no way any publicist would ever let anything like that get out, so where's your evidence of that? No. King writes stories because as he says in On Writing, (paraphrased) "some stories are just screaming to be written." Hell, even if some of his work now is going downhill, who cares? First, nobody is forcing you to read it. Second, with the amount that he's written, and the nice ratio of that which has been good, it'd be stupid to expect all of his work to be great this far along. Third, with the struggles he had in his early years, and after being hit by a van, I think he's just a little bit entitled to share some stories, even if they are crap.
You are excused. I'm sorry I have the sheer bad taste to have a differing opinion. I like King's earlier stuff over the newer, I just find them a lot more interesting and entertaining. And I didn't say King was bad. I was actually defending him. You have pointed out more flaws than I have, and I find that odd. But Cell and Everything's Eventual sucked tubes of turd in my humble opinion.
As for the "writing whatever he wants and not caring because his fans will buy it anyway"; that's bullshit. There's no way any publicist would ever let anything like that get out, so where's your evidence of that? Dreamcatcher. Enough said.
I have to admit to being a King fan, and any author that has been as prolific as him for so long, will turn out the odd poor book,,,(dreamcatcher, from a buick 8 are two that spring to mind) but it seems trendy now to say his only good work is his eatly work,,,but I feel that is a bit short sited..i feel that recent work such as "under the dome, Cell and Duma key are all excellent reads.. I will look forward to his new work and will decide if its any good when I have read it and not make up my mind before hand
