100 Fantasy Books

Post by **Maria** » Fri Oct 21, 2011 4:31 pm

The first Stephen King novel I read (well, listened to) was "Under the Dome" which wasn't bad at all. Thinking we'd found a new author to take up our commuting time, I looked up his other books and thought "The Dark Tower" series sounded interesting, so we then listened to "The Gunslinger".

It was miserable. We stuck with it to the end, because the series is quite popular and surely it had to get better! But no.

It was a relief when we finally got to the end of the book. A few months later we decided to have a go at the sequel- and I didn't get through the first hour. Yuck. Just yuck. I know King is known for horror, but I really couldn't make myself continue that one.

I know a lot of people are fanatical in their admiration of "The Dark Tower", but the first book turned me off of King's work for good, I think.

I don't like stories that are like a bad dream, and that's what that one reminded me of.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Fri Oct 21, 2011 4:45 pm

I already liked King (Salem's Lot and The Shining are truly scary books), and I tried the first Dark Tower. Not for me. Not that it was nightmarish; I just couldn't care what happened.

Post by **vison** » Fri Oct 21, 2011 5:21 pm

We're there, standing behind you. Red pencils at the ready. Lexicons burning holes in our pocketses. Thesauri champing at the bit. The bits. Their bits. Technical volumes hot with the desire to open, open, open, and spill their exotic . . . um . . . terms!

In short: fear not.

Post by **Primula Baggins** » Fri Oct 21, 2011 6:04 pm

I shall not fear. Except if I look behind me.

Post by **vison** » Fri Oct 21, 2011 7:48 pm

Post by **Maria** » Fri Oct 21, 2011 7:48 pm

I didn't mean it was night-marish -it certainly wasn't scary. But disturbing things kept happening in seemingly random and unconnected fashion. Like a dream. There wasn't really a thread pulling it all together--- except maybe the tedium of slogging through sand.

I get enough stupid, random crap like that in my own dreams. I don't need to be dragged through someone else's.

Post by **Frelga** » Fri Oct 21, 2011 10:31 pm

Primula Baggins wrote:I already liked King (Salem's Lot and The Shining are truly scary books), and I tried the first Dark Tower. Not for me. Not that it was nightmarish; I just couldn't care what happened.

I have that problem with an increasing number of books. Even Hobbs' Farseer trilogy, while beautifully written, left me with the "so what" feeling. Possibly it's me and not the books.

Good luck, Prim! You can do it!