Stephen King - The Bazaar of Bad Dreams (short stories)

[SpursforSix]

I've gotten through 4 of the stories. They are pretty dull and all derivative of some other King story. Except they don't even seem to be written very well. I guess I was hoping for something new here and there.

[lefty]

King had maybe 2 good books tbh


He is overrated as fuck

[JoeTait75]

King was great back in his day but he lost his fastball quite a while ago.

[SpursforSix]

King was great back in his day but he lost his fastball quite a while ago.

There's no doubt. I still try him out from time to time. I guess I keep hoping I'll find a gem. The JFK time travel book was OK. I heard Mr. Mercedes was decent. The first book I read was Cujo and I was hooked for a while. Christine, Pet Semetary, The Stand, Different Seasons, The Bachman Books...loved all those. Eye of the Dragon. The short stories.

[SpursforSix]

King had maybe 2 good books tbh


He is overrated as fuck

Lol @ 2 books.

That's one more than the revered Harper Lee.

[Capt Bringdown]

I enjoyed 11/22/63 quite a bit. Completely underwhelmed by the sequel to The Shining.
I am looking forward to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXUx__qQGew

Fave book of his is The Stand. Just great pulpy goodness.

[Chinook]

He's pretty much ruined his son's career in my opinion. Joe Hill was a pretty good young author, but now he seems obsessed with being Richard Bachman 2.0.

[SpursforSix]

He's pretty much ruined his son's career in my opinion. Joe Hill was a pretty good young author, but now he seems obsessed with being Richard Bachman 2.0.

wow. I did not even know he had a son that wrote. Although now that I look, I recognize some of the titles.

Any recommendations?

[leemajors]

I like Joe Hill's stuff, and I didn't mind the Dark Tower references in NOS482.

[lil'mo]

Lol fiction novels

[JoeTait75]

I enjoyed 11/22/63 quite a bit. Completely underwhelmed by the sequel to The Shining.
I am looking forward to this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXUx__qQGew

Fave book of his is The Stand. Just great pulpy goodness.

That guy playing Oswald... dead ringer. :wow

[Chinook]

wow. I did not even know he had a son that wrote. Although now that I look, I recognize some of the titles.

Any recommendations?

I like Best New Horror, which is a short-story collection of his. He and his father also wrote In the Tall Grass together, which is in my mind when he started to fall apart.

[Chinook]

I like Joe Hill's stuff, and I didn't mind the Dark Tower references in NOS482.

I'm struggling to get through that book. I've tried twice already, but I just don't find it compelling. Gonna try it on Audible.

[leemajors]

Locke and Key was also a cool comic, I would recommend it. Hill wrote it.

[leemajors]

I'm struggling to get through that book. I've tried twice already, but I just don't find it compelling. Gonna try it on Audible.

It kinda felt like a rehash of Black House by King/Straub as far as the villain went, but they may have been twinners or something.

[leemajors]

I think I said it in another thread, but I also enjoyed Mr. Mercedes and Finders Keepers

[z0sa]

Im gonna pick it up soon. The Stand and IT are my faves.

[SpursforSix]

Im gonna pick it up soon. The Stand and IT are my faves.

I've read a couple more and they were better than the first few.

[Avante]

Love Poe and Lovecraft, have most their stuff. But, never warmed up to King.

Ambrose Bierce
Lord Dunsany
Arthur Machen
Hugh Walpole....one of the fathers of the Gothic novel.
Monk Williams...another father of the Gothic novel.

Must reads.

Clark Ashton Smith
Robert W.Chambers
Guy De Maupassant

others in the same vein that deliver the goods.

One of the greats books....H.P. Lovecrafts Book of Horror. All those mentioned above have stories in the book. And. Lovecraft himself has an amazing intro to the "Supernatural in Literature", an amazing read. And before the 21 stories in the bok H.P.L has a short reason as to why he chose that story.

[SpursforSix]

Love Poe and Lovecraft, have most their stuff. But, never warmed up to King.

Ambrose Bierce
Lord Dunsany
Arthur Machen
Hugh Walpole....one of the fathers of the Gothic novel.
Monk Williams...another father of the Gothic novel.

Must reads.

Clark Ashton Smith
Robert W.Chambers
Guy De Maupassant

others in the same vein that deliver the goods.

One of the greats books....H.P. Lovecrafts Book of Horror. All those mentioned above have stories in the book. And. Lovecraft himself has an amazing intro to the "Supernatural in Literature", an amazing read. And before the 21 stories in the bok H.P.L has a short reason as to why he chose that story.

I haven't read any of those except the obvious Poe stories.

[SpursforSix]

Love Poe and Lovecraft, have most their stuff. But, never warmed up to King.

Ambrose Bierce
Lord Dunsany
Arthur Machen
Hugh Walpole....one of the fathers of the Gothic novel.
Monk Williams...another father of the Gothic novel.

Must reads.

Clark Ashton Smith
Robert W.Chambers
Guy De Maupassant

others in the same vein that deliver the goods.

One of the greats books....H.P. Lovecrafts Book of Horror. All those mentioned above have stories in the book. And. Lovecraft himself has an amazing intro to the "Supernatural in Literature", an amazing read. And before the 21 stories in the bok H.P.L has a short reason as to why he chose that story.

What are some of HPL best stories? I may try to listen to some on Audible but they don't have Book of Horrors. They have The Dark Worlds of HPL but it's 4 different volumes. What's a few good starter stories!

[Chinook]

I really liked King's first few short-story collections. I think after he did Nightmares and Dreamscapes, he hasn't been as good. I will get BoBD on Audible, though, as soon as it goes on sale.

[Avante]

What are some of HPL best stories? I may try to listen to some on Audible but they don't have Book of Horrors. They have The Dark Worlds of HPL but it's 4 different volumes. What's a few good starter stories!

You start HPL with....

The Color Out Of Space

next...The Call of Cthulhu

One of my prized possessions is a first edition...The Lurking Fear. And I highly recommend this book, we find both the above mentioned stories there.

Everything has a best, top of the line, when it comes to the supernatural/horror it gets no better than HPL.

Robert E. Howard had Conan, ERB had Tarzan, Sax Rohmer had Fu Manchu, Sir Conan Doyle had Sherlock Holmes, Tolkien had his Lord of the Rings saga and HPL had his The Cthulhu Mythos

How good is this?

The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all it's contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we voyage far.

The opening to...The Call of Cthulhu

I'll be damn ya finally made some impact. I was about to start a Max Brand western, but think I'll read The Lurking Fear again, you planted the seed. Now if it would only storm.

[Chinook]

Can't stand Lovecraft's works, or at least the few I've tried. The Cthulhu mythos is pretty cool, though. Since this is a topic on King, his contribution, Crouch End, was awesome, in my opinion. Also loved Peter Clines' 14 and Fold as contributions to that genre.

[leemajors]

I really liked King's first few short-story collections. I think after he did Nightmares and Dreamscapes, he hasn't been as good. I will get BoBD on Audible, though, as soon as it goes on sale.

I liked Just After Sunset. I hadnt read anything of his since Dark Tower was finished until i picked that up in 2010 or so. I agree about Crouch End, it was great.

[Avante]

Can't stand Lovecraft's works, or at least the few I've tried. The Cthulhu mythos is pretty cool, though. Since this is a topic on King, his contribution, Crouch End, was awesome, in my opinion. Also loved Peter Clines' 14 and Fold as contributions to that genre.

If anyone is into the horror/supernatural story how could they not be into HPL?

He was a huge influense on King.
By Margaret L. Carter

19 December 2005
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0425104338.01.MZZZZZZZ.jpg (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0425104338/ref=nosim/strangehorizons)
It may be said that two writers, H. P. Lovecraft and Stephen King, have, each in his own way, single-handedly changed the direction of American horror fiction in the twentieth century. It is not surprising that King's study of horror in fiction and film, Danse Macabre (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0425104338/ref=nosim/strangehorizons), acknowledges Lovecraft's importance not only to the development of the modern dark fantasy but to King's personal growth as a writer. Danse Macabre remarks of Lovecraft that "it is his shadow . . . and his eyes . . . which overlie almost all of the important horror fiction that has come since" (102). On a personal level, King testifies that "Lovecraft . . . opened the way for me, as he had done for others before me" (ibid.). He calls his discovery, at about age twelve, of a collection of Lovecraft's stories "my first encounter with serious fantasy-horror fiction" (ibid.). He praises Lovecraft for tales of "outside evil" that "make us feel the size of the universe we hang suspended in, and suggest shadowy forces that could destroy us all if they so much as grunted in their sleep" (72).

[Chinook]

His writing style is just boring as hell, and most of his stuff (that I have experienced) has been a let down.

[SpursforSix]

His writing style is just boring as hell, and most of his stuff (that I have experienced) has been a let down.

are you talking about King or Lovecraft?

[Chinook]

are you talking about King or Lovecraft?

Lovecraft

[Avante]

His writing style is just boring as hell, and most of his stuff (that I have experienced) has been a let down.

Ok, I'm not disrespecting the thread, yep, good one~~~ Not trying to go off in another direction, love the topic.

Just an example.

You will think....."are you kidding me, that ...SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" But, this is the very best example of what them early Mississippi Delta blues was all about. And this guy is the KING.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KhUVzBzqqV4&list=PLXzBBII6WtgTwEwMKVrfEvHg cIqfGxvpH

The first line....."I'm on a high hill mama, Natchez just below".


When you listen to Charley Patton you are going somewhere unique, and when ya read HPL, yep....unique. HPL born in 1890, Patton in 1891.

[SpursforSix]

If anyone is into the horror/supernatural story how could they not be into HPL?



I may give it a shot. It won't make me start yearning for little boys will it?

[leemajors]

have you read Books of Blood by Clive Barker?

[SpursforSix]

have you read Books of Blood by Clive Barker?

I haven't. I haven't read a lot of Clive Barker. In fact the only books I read were Great and Secret Show and Everville. I liked them both. Not sure why I didn't pursue anything else.

[Chinook]

I may give it a shot. It won't make me start yearning for little boys will it?

Nope, because the dude never describes the worst parts.

[Avante]

I may give it a shot. It won't make me start yearning for little boys will it?

Why this need to pull that immature shit? Here I am a guy who can teach dumb fucks like so much and look how ya act, why? Why not take this opportunity and learn some things?

Dude, stop acting like an idiot, ok little man?

There are so many better authors out there than Stephen King, ok?

[SpursforSix]

Why this need to pull that immature shit? Here I am a guy who can teach dumb fucks like so much and look how ya act, why? Why not take this opportunity and learn some things?

Dude, stop acting like an idiot, ok little man?

There are so many better authors out there than Stephen King, ok?

you know what this thread ISN'T about? blues videos and authors not better than King. BTW, if you read my first post, you should be able to infer that I did not think Kink was that great right now.

[Avante]

you know what this thread ISN'T about? blues videos and authors not better than King. BTW, if you read my first post, you should be able to infer that I did not think Kink was that great right now.

Stupid, since when did ...YOU...start worrying about what a thread was actually about, well? And I made it real clear what that video was about pertaining to HPL, who must be mentioned when talking about King.

Dude, you'd be a fool to pass uo on a chance to widden your horizons, I'm the guy who can do that for ya. Yet you're just too damn stupid to get it.

You want a great read little guy, here it is....


Dracula
Bram Stoker
1897
The Dracula tale is possibly most-embedded horror story in American culture, and if Let the Right One In, True Blood and the Twilight series are any indication, the classic vampire tale is still alive and well in the pop culture realm. Stoker didn’t invent the vampire in fiction—that was John Polidori in 1819, with The Vampyre. But Stoker’s Dracula molded the vampire story into the tales we know today, which blend gore, horror and romance in a neat, red velvet-covered package. Stoker’s Dracula as a critical success, but it’d be decades—and Stoker’s own death—before it’d prowl its way into culture as we recognize it today. Tyler Kane

[Frank Dux]

Love me some Lovecraft! His classical style of writing can be a chore to get through at times, but if you're up to the task, it's totally worth it. I can't think of a better association for his stories than the word "macabre." The twists that are often at the end of his stories are great payoffs as well. I recommend:

Rats in the Walls
The Dunwich Horror
The Outsider
The Picture in the House

And of course, Call of Cthulhu is awesome as well, it's just one of his longer tales. These stories are good if you want to give his stuff a try.

[Avante]

Love me some Lovecraft! His classical style of writing can be a chore to get through at times, but if you're up to the task, it's totally worth it. I can't think of a better association for his stories than the word "macabre." The twists that are often at the end of his stories are great payoffs as well. I recommend:

Rats in the Walls
The Dunwich Horror
The Outsider
The Picture in the House

And of course, Call of Cthulhu is awesome as well, it's just one of his longer tales. These stories are good if you want to give his stuff a try.

There is no better.....you are up all alone, it's storming outside and it's just you a lone lamp and a chair n a darken room........read than HPL.

[Avante]

H.P.Lovecraft



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jQtkGJMtH0