What Are You Reading? Part Deux

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FlakeNoir

Original Kiwi© SKMB®
Moderator
Apr 11, 2006
44,082
175,641
New Zealand
A couple days ago I broke my reading drought (of at least a year :oops: ) with Stephen's Elevation. I read it in a day and loved the bejeebers out of it. God I love his voice, I really, really do... it felt like coming home. Thanks Stephen!

I'm just about to start on Flight or Fright, looking forward to reading some more of our very own Bev Vincent's work. :love:
 

Wayoftheredpanda

Flaming Wonder Telepath
May 15, 2018
4,907
22,094
20
Finally finished SoS,
wasn’t such a big fan of it, maybe I would’ve enjoyed it more if I didn’t take so long in between reading it. I’m the type of person who goes through phases where they read a lot, and then long periods of tinned where they don’t feel motivated to read at all. Overall I think it’s biggest weak point was how it separated the characters, especially how you didn’t even get to see what Jake and Callahan were doing till way later, and only for one chapter. The characters are all great, but they worked better when they were together.

The fact that it took you completely out of Roland’s world kind of killed some of it, which is funny, as I enjoyed the segments in Wolved that accounted Callahan’s Journey, or Jakes adventure towards the doorway in Wastelands. I would say that those were better because they were smaller segments. I’m not even a big fan of fantasy novels, but Inworld/Midworld/Endworld/etc. had charm to it, it was a unique experience and engaging to read.

I also hated Mia, I get you weren’t nessecarily supposed to like her. But unlike Percy from The Green Mile, I felt that my annoyance towards her character didn’t help the story at all. Her interactions with Susannah were both irritating, and the whole way their interactions were written required a lot of effort to keep track of. Susannah is such a great character, but her chemistry with Mia was irritating beyond belief. I wish she was also paired up with another “physical” character to make it more engaging.

Stephen King’s own cameo was interesting, but it felt so over-the-top. The whole reveal that ‘Salem’s Lot existed as a novel within the universe at the end of Wolves was so well built up, but it just ended up being a bit of a “meh”.

I did really enjoy the “coda” segment at the end, it was like a fictionalized but also true diary of SK’s career up until his cough cough “death”.

I also enjoyed John Cullum and his interactions with Eddie and Roland, he was a great character. And I also thought the chapter where Eddie and Roland along with Deepneau convince Tower to sell the lot, that was interesting.

I feel bad for trash talking this one so much, but it just wasn’t as engaging or exciting compared to how great of a series it’s been and how much I’ve enjoyed the other ones, it’s just that this one didn’t have the same charm.
I sure hope the final one manages to make a comeback and give this epic series the finale it deserves.

But that will have to wait, as I’m gonna take a break and break open my first novel by King’s buddy Peter Straub, Floating Dragon, which I hope to do an in-depth review on.

In case I didn’t make it obvious enough, SoS beats WTK for my least favorite Dark Tower book. Maybe some other time I’ll reread it and it’ll “click” with me. But that is another time.

I sadly have to give this one a 4/10.
 

FlakeNoir

Original Kiwi© SKMB®
Moderator
Apr 11, 2006
44,082
175,641
New Zealand
Finally finished SoS,
wasn’t such a big fan of it, maybe I would’ve enjoyed it more if I didn’t take so long in between reading it. I’m the type of person who goes through phases where they read a lot, and then long periods of tinned where they don’t feel motivated to read at all. Overall I think it’s biggest weak point was how it separated the characters, especially how you didn’t even get to see what Jake and Callahan were doing till way later, and only for one chapter. The characters are all great, but they worked better when they were together.

The fact that it took you completely out of Roland’s world kind of killed some of it, which is funny, as I enjoyed the segments in Wolved that accounted Callahan’s Journey, or Jakes adventure towards the doorway in Wastelands. I would say that those were better because they were smaller segments. I’m not even a big fan of fantasy novels, but Inworld/Midworld/Endworld/etc. had charm to it, it was a unique experience and engaging to read.

I also hated Mia, I get you weren’t nessecarily supposed to like her. But unlike Percy from The Green Mile, I felt that my annoyance towards her character didn’t help the story at all. Her interactions with Susannah were both irritating, and the whole way their interactions were written required a lot of effort to keep track of. Susannah is such a great character, but her chemistry with Mia was irritating beyond belief. I wish she was also paired up with another “physical” character to make it more engaging.

Stephen King’s own cameo was interesting, but it felt so over-the-top. The whole reveal that ‘Salem’s Lot existed as a novel within the universe at the end of Wolves was so well built up, but it just ended up being a bit of a “meh”.

I did really enjoy the “coda” segment at the end, it was like a fictionalized but also true diary of SK’s career up until his cough cough “death”.

I also enjoyed John Cullum and his interactions with Eddie and Roland, he was a great character. And I also thought the chapter where Eddie and Roland along with Deepneau convince Tower to sell the lot, that was interesting.

I feel bad for trash talking this one so much, but it just wasn’t as engaging or exciting compared to how great of a series it’s been and how much I’ve enjoyed the other ones, it’s just that this one didn’t have the same charm.
I sure hope the final one manages to make a comeback and give this epic series the finale it deserves.

But that will have to wait, as I’m gonna take a break and break open my first novel by King’s buddy Peter Straub, Floating Dragon, which I hope to do an in-depth review on.

In case I didn’t make it obvious enough, SoS beats WTK for my least favorite Dark Tower book. Maybe some other time I’ll reread it and it’ll “click” with me. But that is another time.

I sadly have to give this one a 4/10.
I felt similarly about SoS, it was just one out of the series that felt a bit like hard work compared with the others.
 

fljoe0

Cantre Member
Apr 5, 2008
15,859
71,642
62
120 miles S of the Pancake/Waffle line
Finished Bird box and thought it was a riveting read. The story is a little like The Road (except with commas). If you saw the netflix movie and liked it, you should still read the book. I liked the movie but the book is better and there are enough differences between the two versions to justify reading it.


Now, I'm reading The Intruders by Michael Marshall. I'm 100 pages in and it's a little slow but not in a bad way.
 

Wayoftheredpanda

Flaming Wonder Telepath
May 15, 2018
4,907
22,094
20
Just finished the first chapter of Floating Dragon, it’s interesting.
Tabby reminds me a lot of Danny Torrance. I can’t say much for the book so far, but it’s use of constant perspective switching is interesting, especially when it switches to the second person for a tad bit.
 

kingricefan

All-being, keeper of Space, Time & Dimension.
Jul 11, 2006
30,011
127,446
Spokane, WA
Finally finished SoS,
wasn’t such a big fan of it, maybe I would’ve enjoyed it more if I didn’t take so long in between reading it. I’m the type of person who goes through phases where they read a lot, and then long periods of tinned where they don’t feel motivated to read at all. Overall I think it’s biggest weak point was how it separated the characters, especially how you didn’t even get to see what Jake and Callahan were doing till way later, and only for one chapter. The characters are all great, but they worked better when they were together.

The fact that it took you completely out of Roland’s world kind of killed some of it, which is funny, as I enjoyed the segments in Wolved that accounted Callahan’s Journey, or Jakes adventure towards the doorway in Wastelands. I would say that those were better because they were smaller segments. I’m not even a big fan of fantasy novels, but Inworld/Midworld/Endworld/etc. had charm to it, it was a unique experience and engaging to read.

I also hated Mia, I get you weren’t nessecarily supposed to like her. But unlike Percy from The Green Mile, I felt that my annoyance towards her character didn’t help the story at all. Her interactions with Susannah were both irritating, and the whole way their interactions were written required a lot of effort to keep track of. Susannah is such a great character, but her chemistry with Mia was irritating beyond belief. I wish she was also paired up with another “physical” character to make it more engaging.

Stephen King’s own cameo was interesting, but it felt so over-the-top. The whole reveal that ‘Salem’s Lot existed as a novel within the universe at the end of Wolves was so well built up, but it just ended up being a bit of a “meh”.

I did really enjoy the “coda” segment at the end, it was like a fictionalized but also true diary of SK’s career up until his cough cough “death”.

I also enjoyed John Cullum and his interactions with Eddie and Roland, he was a great character. And I also thought the chapter where Eddie and Roland along with Deepneau convince Tower to sell the lot, that was interesting.

I feel bad for trash talking this one so much, but it just wasn’t as engaging or exciting compared to how great of a series it’s been and how much I’ve enjoyed the other ones, it’s just that this one didn’t have the same charm.
I sure hope the final one manages to make a comeback and give this epic series the finale it deserves.

But that will have to wait, as I’m gonna take a break and break open my first novel by King’s buddy Peter Straub, Floating Dragon, which I hope to do an in-depth review on.

In case I didn’t make it obvious enough, SoS beats WTK for my least favorite Dark Tower book. Maybe some other time I’ll reread it and it’ll “click” with me. But that is another time.

I sadly have to give this one a 4/10.
I felt similarly about SoS, it was just one out of the series that felt a bit like hard work compared with the others.
I think SoS suffers from a stepping out of the 'chase' syndrome, meaning that by now most readers of the books just want to get the Tower with Roland and SoS takes a side step from that quest. I like the book but I felt like it took us out of the chase.
 

Doc Creed

Well-Known Member
Nov 18, 2015
17,221
82,822
47
United States
I think SoS suffers from a stepping out of the 'chase' syndrome, meaning that by now most readers of the books just want to get the Tower with Roland and SoS takes a side step from that quest. I like the book but I felt like it took us out of the chase.
Excellent observation- spot on.
:clap:
 

The Nameless

M-O-O-N - That spells Nameless
Jul 10, 2011
2,080
8,261
42
The Darkside of the Moon (England really)
From how I remember song of Susannah I felt Stephen was trying to tie up some loose ends, and I agree with kingricefan. I still preferred it to Wastelands though, I didn't dislike it but it wasn't exactly what you were used to after how good wizard and glass, and wolves of the calla were.

I got elevation for Christmas and read it pretty quick. I enjoyed it, it had a nice pace to it and was nice to read something lighter hearted from Stephen.
 

Spideyman

Uber Member
Jul 10, 2006
46,336
195,472
79
Just north of Duma Key
I think SoS suffers from a stepping out of the 'chase' syndrome, meaning that by now most readers of the books just want to get the Tower with Roland and SoS takes a side step from that quest. I like the book but I felt like it took us out of the chase.
add on thoughts -- for all the time I have read and re read thus journey, it never crossed my mind that was the exact reason SoS felt different. You have educated Spidey!!
 

Tery

Say hello to my fishy buddy
Moderator
Apr 12, 2006
15,304
44,712
Bremerton, Washington, United States
Just finished Moloka'i: A Novel by Alan Brennert. Absolutely loved it! It's a historical novel about the "leper colony" at Kalaupapa from the late 19th into the 20th century. Brilliant!

Now reading The World of Lore: Dreadful Places Aaron Mahnke. About places in America with a history of sad stuff. The chapter on New Orleans was especially interesting. Richmond, VA too.
 

Wayoftheredpanda

Flaming Wonder Telepath
May 15, 2018
4,907
22,094
20
I think SoS suffers from a stepping out of the 'chase' syndrome, meaning that by now most readers of the books just want to get the Tower with Roland and SoS takes a side step from that quest. I like the book but I felt like it took us out of the chase.
I can see that point, though I’d argue W&G and Wolves do the same thing, though maybe not to that full degree. I feel like SoS suffers from “info-dumping”, by which I mean it tried to introduce too many new concepts at once, while at the same time trying to manage 3 separate character plots due to everyone being split up.